- The Siege of Kut-al-Amara begins in Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq). Also known as the First Battle of Kut, the Ottoman Army led by Nur-ed-Din besieges the 8,000 strong British–Indian garrison on the banks of the Tigris River 160km south of Baghdad.
Nine members of the Australian Flying Corps serving with 30 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps become prisoners.
The siege continues until Major General Charles Townshend and his remaining 10,000 men surrender on 29 April 1916. Their surrender marks the largest single surrender of troops in British history to that date and is later described by British historian James Morris as “the most abject capitulation in Britain’s military history”.
- The French submarine Fresnel is detected while on patrol in the Adriatic Sea off Cattaro in Albania. She is pursued by Austrian warships and aircraft and driven aground in the Bojana estuary, where she is scuttled and abandoned. The destroyer Warasdiner takes her crew prisoner.
- King Constantine of Greece confirms his country’s neutrality in a statement to the London Times, declaring:
“I am King of Greece, and my first duty is to keep Greece clear of the disaster … I will only consent to war if the existence of Greece is threatened, or the certainty of victory is so great that the rewards justify the sacrifice.”
