The Germans bombard the Belgian Front and make a number of attacks there which are repulsed.
A British air-raid on Mannheim.
Mar. 19 (Tues.)
Great Britain:—Lord Pirrie is appointed Controller-General of Merchant Shipbuilding.
Mar. 21 (Thur.)
The great German offensive on the Western Front begins (the second Battle of the Somme; see April 5): the Germans attack, with immense weight of troops, the British Third and Fifth Armies on a fifty-mile front between the Scarpe and the Oise; they carry the British front-line positions over large sectors and penetrate more deeply at certain points.
Eighteen German destroyers raid Dunkirk. They are met by an Anglo-French flotilla consisting of two British destroyers (Botha and Morris) and three French destroyers, under the command of H.M.S. Botha. Three German destroyers are sunk and one disabled.
British monitors bombard Ostend.
Mar. 22 (Fri.)