World War One Diary for Tuesday, November 5, 1918:

Western Front

Sambre – Pursuit after Battle of the Sambre begins: BEF Fourth, Third and First Armies engaged; Mormal Forest cleared. Canadian Corps and 3 British divisions with tanks force river Grand Honnelle (mainly just inside Belgium; until November 7). OHL ORDERS GENERAL RETIREMENT INTO ANT­WERP-MEUSE POSITION (issued 0400 hours). Foch given ‘supreme strategical direction of all forces operating against Germany on all fronts’.

Aisne: French take Chateau-Porcien.

Meuse: GENERAL RETREAT OF GERMANS from the Meuse to Conde on the Scheldt begins, French Centre Army Group joins in pursuit. Groener in Berlin informs German Cabinet ‘… one thing must not be allowed to happen. The American Army … must be prevented from advancing north of Verdun’. MacArthur in command of 42nd ‘Rainbow’ Division (until November 22) on advancing US I Corps flank after AEF link with Gouraud.

Sea War

Adriatic: Italians enter Pola.

Baltic: Captain Weniger and 2 other officers of battleship Koenig, shot dead while attempting to prevent hoisting of red flag on their ship (Kiel town cadet also killed by sailors on November 6). Kaiser’s brother Grand Admiral Prince Heinrich flees in a truck flying the red flag.

North Sea: British carrier Campania sunk in collision with battleship HMS Revenge, Firth of Forth.

Politics

Britain: Lloyd George announces Armistice conditions in Commons.

USA: Wilson tells Germany she must apply to Foch for terms. Government recognizes Rumanian Unity National Council (Britain on November 11, Italy on November 22).

Germany: Soviet Ambassador Yoffe expelled from Germany for subversion, but gives Independent Socialists 4 million roubles for propaganda on November 6.