June 1 Zeebrugge, Ostend and Bruges were heavily bombed by the Royal Naval Air Service. June 2 After some of its vessels were sunk by German submarines, Brazil revoked its neutrality and seized all German ships in Brazilian ports. June 3 Italy proclaimed its Protectorate over independent Albania. The Independent Labour Party and the Socialist Party met in Leeds to advocate a peace settlement. Among the attendees were future British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald and philosopher Bertrand Russell. June 4 General Aleksei Brusilov succeeded Mikhail Alexeiev as Russian Commander-in-Chief. June 5 German aeroplanes bombed the port of Sheerness and other Naval establishments on the Thames Estuary during daylight hours. June 7 The Battle of Messines launched an Allied offensive near the village of Messines in Flanders. The battle began when a number of enormous underground mines were detonated under the Messines Ridge. June 8 The Tenth Battle of the Isonzo was called off by Chief-of-Staff Luigi Cadorna with only minor territorial gains for the Italians. June 9 The Russian Provisional Government refused a German proposal for unlimited armistice. June 10 The Battle of Mount Ortigara began between Italian and Austro-Hungarian troops to gain possession of Mount Ortigara, on the Asiago Plateau. June 11 Allied Governments delivered an ultimatum to Greece demanding the abdication of King Constantine I. June 12 King Constantine I of Greece abdicated his throne in the face of pressure from Britain and France and internal opponents - including Greek Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos - who favoured Greece's entrance into the war on the side of the Allies. June 13 US Major General John J. Pershing arrived in France. German Gotha aircraft launched a major heavy bomber raid on London in daylight. June 14 The German Zeppelin L43 was shot down by a British fighter aircraft during a reconnaissance mission in the North Sea. The British Admiralty approved plans for the convoying of merchant ships. June 15 The Espionage Act was passed in the United States. The act prohibited any attempt to interfere with military operations, to support US enemies during wartime, to promote insubordination in the military, or to interfere with military recruitment. All Irish veterans of the Easter Rebellion still in custody were freed by the British government. June 17 The German airship L48 was intercepted and destroyed by British fighters over the sea near Great Yarmouth. June 18 Austrian Premier Count Heinrich Clam-Martinitz resigned. June 19 General Arthur Currie was appointed to command the Canadian Corps. June 20 The British Sloop HMS Salvia, operating as a Q-ship, was sunk by German submarine U-94 off the west coast of Ireland. June 23 The P&O liner SS Mongolia struck a mine and sank off the coast of Bombay. June 25 The first contingent of United States troops arrived at the port of Saint Nazaire in France. An Austrian counterattack in Trentino recaptured Monte Ortigara. June 27 Greece severed diplomatic relations with Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey and a state of war was declared. June 28 General Edward Allenby succeeded Sir Archibald Murray in command of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force. June 29 The Russian Summer Offensive began along a broad front in Galicia. June 30 The British steamer SS Ilston was torpedoed and sunk by the German submarine UB-23 on a voyage from Swansea to France with a cargo of railway material.
(From The Great War - Unseen Archives by Robert Hamilton)
"Take the cylinder out of my kidneys, The connecting rod out of my brain, my brain, From out of my arse take the camshaft, And assemble the engine again."
