World War One Diary for Wednesday, July 11, 1917:

Air War

Britain: Cabinet decides to set up committee including Smuts on air defence and organization.

Western Front: After bad weather delay, Royal Flying Corps Flanders pre-Third Ypres offensive begins, including night-bombing.

Mesopotamia: 121°F heat evaporates water in 3 Royal Flying Corps aircraft trying to support Ramadi attack (2 German aircraft similarly lost on July 9).

Middle East

Mesopotamia: c.2,500 British, 4 armoured cars, 14 guns with 127 vans and lorries (600 infantry carried) attack 820 Turks with 6 guns at Ramadi but foiled by terrain, dust and burning heat (321 out of 566 casualties to heat). British beat off 1,500 Arabs in retreat to Dhibban (July 13-14).

Home Fronts

Russia: Overworked and insomniac Lenin travels to Finland to rest (Until July 17).

Britain: India Secretary Austen Chamberlain resigns in Mesopotamia Debate, his PUS Montagu succeeds on July 17. Kiplings poem ‘Mesopotamia’ published in Morning Post.