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Key dates over January 1917

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

Lives lost on this day: 0

19th January 1917 - German Foreign Secretary, Arthur Zimmerman, sends a secret telegram to the German minister in Mexico telling him to offer German support to the Mexicans if they were to attack the United States. The telegram is intercepted by British naval

Rolling casualty count: 5218

War Front: 2nd Batt: The Soccer Competition was won by D Coy.

4th batt: Batt carrying up and laying duckboards.

10th Batt: There was an inspection of rifles and iron rations.

Yeomanry/Cavalry: Men patrolling the desert eastwards and taking part in tactical schemes against ”flag” enemies or Brigade drill.

Home Front: To the Editor: Sir, I am informed that there are people in Worcester entitled to pensions who for various reasons are not receiving them. I do not know whether this be true or not, but if anyone knowing such a case will send me name, address, and full particulars of it, I will personally investigate it. Anyone writing to me must give me his or her name and address, which I will keep strictly private, so that no-one need hesitate to write. I should like to add that old-age pensions are in no sense charity, but are just as honourable as the £100 gladly received by every Lord Chancellor in England. R.L.G. Simpson, Chacewater, Barbourne.

Among the men who come back broken from the war few are more to be commiserated than those who have suffered severe facial injuries. Many of the patients are so conscious of their affliction that they refuse to return to their homes and friends until they are convinced that everything possible has been done for them. Happily the marvels of present-day surgery are such that cures can be effected in 90 per cent of the cases if sufficient time and careful nursing are available, but experience shows that often a period of from one to two years is required to build up and restore the features of men who would otherwise be permanently disfigured.

Interviewed on his return from France, a non-commissioned officer of the Worcestershire Regt., who has been serving with a tank on the Western Front, had some good stories to tell of his adventures: “The Tank I was with,” he said, “ was nicknamed “The Sauce Box,” because it was serving with the Worcestershires. “The Sauce Box” was saucy enough for the Germans. My first day out we had it rough. As we went over the top, our chaps cheered and laughed themselves crooked. We sailed out into ‘No Man’s Land,’ and then the fun began. It was slow work getting over the ground because of the unevenness of it all, but we got over it in the end, and we had rare sport. The Germans started on us with their machine-guns, and nearly swamped us in bullets. They might have been chucking paper pellets at a stone wall for all the effect it had. One mob had a go at us with the butt ends of their rifles and hurt their hands. Then we opened up with our guns and let old Fritz have it fair and square. They couldn’t have been more surprised if it had started raining Lloyd George shells from the clouds…

Regimenting Women Workers: The Government intends to employ the aid of the Women’s National Land Service Corps and to organise a body of about 100,000 women workers on military lines. They will be asked to volunteer for duty; they will have to be of a certain age, probably between 18 and 35; they will undergo medical inspection; and they will be given uniforms, the pay of a soldier, and billeting allowance. They are to receive six weeks’ training on farms, and when they have undergone it they are to be drafted wherever they may be required.

Wounded Soldiers at Workhouse: On Thursday evening a party of wounded soldiers from Battenhall Mount Hospital paid a visit to the Workhouse, and entertained the inmates. The concert was arranged by Sapper Blackwell, one of the Battenhall patients. The programme was a long and well varied one, and the audience demanded encores.

Railway Fares Concession to Soldiers: With reference to the recent increase in railway fares, the Secretary of the War Office announces that officers and other ranks who are in possession of the Military Concession Army Form W 3,504, or of 1,800, will from January 19 be charged only at the rates in operation prior to January 1, 1917.

Information researched by The Worcestershire World War 100 team