<– Part 138 – March 11, 1917 | Part 139 – March 18, 1917 | Part 140 – March 25, 1917 –>
US President Woodrow Wilson issued an executive order arming US merchantmen on March 12, following Congress failing to approve his proposed bill. In Serbia, an uprising in Toplica against the occupying Bulgarians has been met with violence, as thousands of Serbs have been killed by Bulgarian and Austro-Hungarian forces.
German withdrawal at Ancre
German forces withdraw from the Ancre salient March 13, having lost 5,300 soldiers (many of them as prisoners) to the British, who lost only 2,200 themselves. British forces have launched an offensive towards Samarrah, in Mesopotamia; although Baghdad has been taken by the British, a 10,000-strong Ottoman force evacuating the city to the north of the city is marching towards a 15,000-strong force evacuating Persia from the Russian offensive there. To prevent the two armies from linking up, the British hope to take the strategic Samarrah railroad.
On March 17, Aristide Briand resigned as French prime minister, following disgreements between Allied war planners over a plan developed by Briand’s appointed Commander-in-Chief of French Forces Robert Nivelle, as well the resignation of his minister of war.
In Arabia, Ottoman forces are sweeping the area, dealing casualties to the rebels, but the Ottoman failure to capture Yanbu means the rebels are still well supplied.
In the Russian capital of Petrograd, a company of soldiers refused to muster March 12, shooting its officers and joining the protesting civilians. Other regiments have followed, distributing 40,000 rifles to the workers, while loyal army officers have withdrawn to the admiralty building, one of the few remaining areas not under rebel control. Several members of the duma have formed the “Provisional Committee of the State Duma” in response to loyalist members abiding by the Tsar’s order not to meet. Socialist elements have declared the “Petrograd Soviet.” The following day, the Grand Dukes signed a manifesto calling on Tsar Nicholas II to issue constitutional reforms, removing much power from himself. The Tsar abdicated on March 15 on behalf of himself and his son, nominating his brother Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich as his successor. Michael declined the next day, unless the people chose him democratically.
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