Naval War.—During the beginning of 1917 the activities of the German sub marines became especially intensive. It was on Feb. 1, 1917, that the German ad miralty announced its determination to carry on its submarine attacks without restriction. Within a week the lists of sunken vessels grew and presently these lists could no longer be published. Be fore July 16, 1917, the United States alone had lost about forty merchant vessels, amounting to more than 100,000 tons. During one week, ending on April 22, the British lost forty vessels over 1,600 tons, and fifteen under that ton nage. In twenty-two weeks England lost 438 vessels over 1,600 tons, 170 vessels under 1,600 tons, and 137 fishing vessels. All together the total loss in tonnage was close to 2,000,000 tons. During the rest of the year this rate of loss con tinued unabated.
Aside from the submarine warfare the year 1917 was unmarked by any naval engagements of the first magni tude. On Feb. 25, 1917, German destroyers bombarded Broadstairs and Margate on the English coast. At about the same time, on February 15, it was announced that a British cruiser had fought a successful engagement against three German raiders off the coast of Brazil, damaging two of them, while the third escaped. On March 22, 1917, the German Government announced that the raider "Moewe" had returned to her home port from a very successful second raid ing trip in the Atlantic Ocean which had yielded twenty-seven captured vessels, most of which had been sunk. Tha "Seeadler" was another successful raider operating during the year in the Atlan tic. She was the former American bark "Pass" of the Bahamas, which had been captured in 1915 and at that time had been taken into Cuxhaven. She had left Germany in December, 1916, escorted by a submarine, and had successfully passed through the British patrols.
During March, 1917, the British Gov eminent announced an extension of the danger area in the North Sea.
On April 21 six German destroyers attempted an attack on Dover. Two of them were sunk by British destroyers. Six days later another similar attack was made on Ramsgate. Both Calais and Dunkirk were bombarded by Ger man destroyers.
In the early part of September, Ger man submarines appeared in the Gulf of Riga and bombarded that city. In October it became known that the "See. adler" had run ashore on Lord Howe Island, one of the Society Islands, in the Pacific Ocean, leaving forty-seven pris oners on the island in a state of destitu tion. On the morning of October 2 the British cruiser "Drake" was torpedoed off the N. coast of Ireland. She succeeded
in making the harbor, but was sunk in shallow water. In the middle of October strong German naval forces took part in the fighting in the Gulf of Riga, pro tecting the landing of forces on Oesel and Dago Island- and later on Moon Island. A Russian destroyer was sunk, and a few days later the Russian battleship "Slava" was reported to have been destroyed.
Germany's African, Colonies.—In her East African colonies Germany had made thorough preparations to resist in vasion. Though there were only three white regiments, native contingents had been well trained and well armed. As a result the campaign of conquest which the Allies had begun late in 1916 had made at first little progress.
On July 30, 1917, it was announced that sharp fighting had been taking place and as a consequence the Germans had been driven back in the Lugungu river district, and at Ntulira, fifty-five miles S. of Mahenge, the central point between Lake Nyasa and the sea. Slowly the Germans were forced into a retreat toward the Portuguese frontier. The for ward movement of the British forces, in the Lindi area, began on Aug. 2, 1917, along the road leading S. W. to ward Nyangao and Massassi. Here the fighting was especially heavy and the losses on both sides comparatively nu merous.
In Portuguese Nyasaland all but one of the German detachments which had established themselves in the Lujenda and on the shores of Lake Nyasa had now been driven N. on the Rovuma river by a British column advancing from the S.
By the beginning of September, 1917, a convergent advance of British and Belgian troops from the direction of Iringa, 160 miles N. E. of Lake Nysasa, and of a Belgian force from Kilossa, on the Central railway, 150 miles W. of Dar-es-Salaam, had cleared the country between the Ruaha and Kilom bera rivers, a distance of fifty miles, and driven all the German detachments in the N. area to the S. of the Ulanga. In the S. area, Tunduru, forty-five miles N. of the Portuguese frontier, was oc cupied by the British an August 23, as the result of an advance through Portu guese territory from Fort Johnson, at the S. end of Lake Nyasa.
The campaign continued energetically until November, the fighting continuing vigorously throughout that month. Dur ing November the European Germans captured or killed numbered 981, while nearly 2,000 native German soldiers had been killed or captured during the same period.