Western Front
Battle of Belleau Wood: No significant developments, but the battle continues.
German air-raid on Paris.
French regain Coeuvres (Villers-Cotterets).
Major General Sir Hugh Trenchard is appointed General Officer Commanding the Independent Force of the Royal Air Force.
German Kaiser Wilhelm II, Crown Prince Wilhelm, and Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg at the German GHQ at Spa, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Kaiser’s accession to the throne: © IWM (Q 23739):
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British soldiers going on leave onboard a dazzle-camouflaged transport leaving Boulogne for England: © IWM (Q 10329):
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Southern Front
Second Battle of the Piave begins: Great Austro-Hungarian offensive from Lagarina Valley to sea.
Asiago sector: Austro-Hungarians (codename
Radetsky) pre-empted on by Italian barrage for 4 hours before Austrian guns open at 0300 hours (shell shortage and no phosgene gas given by Germans). Infantry attack at 0700 hours. Austrian Eleventh Army penetrates British (3 frontline battalions surprised) and French lines but stopped by early afternoon, repulsed by counter-attack leaving 1,500 PoWs and 7 guns.
In Mt Grappa sector Austrian XXVI Corps captures 5 features and I Corps takes part of Mt Solaroli salient, maximum penetration 3300 yards, but Italian Fourth Army counter-attacks make progress. An agitated Emperor Charles (in imperial train at Merano) rings Field Marshal Boroevic at noon ‘
The Army of Tyrol is defeated, the troops have lost all that they had gained and have been driven back to the line of departure’; Piave sector: (Codename
Albrecht), Austro-Hungarian Isonzo Army crosses Lower Piave under smokeshell and fog cover on a 20-mile front gaining 3 small bridgeheads and laying one bridge; Sixth Army crosses onto Montello Ridge, securing bridgehead, takes 4,000 PoWs and up to 2 miles but unable to link with Isonzo Army and its bridges and boats hit by RAF planes. More troops cross during night. Austro-Hungarians cross the middle Piave in Nervesa and Fagare-Musile regions.
Top Italian ace Francesco Baracca scores his last 2 victories (last a two-seater among 25 escorts). 653 Allied aircraft (including 33 Sopwith Camels who break one pontoon bridge) attack and help remove Austrian Piave bridgeheads (until June 22).
Italian troops defending the Piave River:
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Asiatic and Egyptian Theaters
Arabia: Hejaz Railway: RAF bomb El Kutrani station, 30 miles east of Dead Sea South end.
Political, etc
Austria-Hungary: Large riots break out in Vienna, Budapest, Prague, and other Austro-Hungarian cities due to food shortages and growing antiwar sentiments.
France: Clemenceau forms
Committee for Defense of Paris at Bombon (Foch attends); location of Allied GHQ since June 5.