- Day 965 of the war
- Campbell Joseph Edwards, a labourer from East Orange, describes the stopovers in Durban, Cape Town and Cape de Verde on the voyage to England. He is given four days’ leave shortly after arrival, which he uses to explore the sights of London. In England
- Arnold Cassin Caldwell, a draughtsman with the Land Board Office in Orange, provides an insight into daily life at Perham Downs training camp on the Salisbury Plains. He says:
We are just beginning to settle down to life here, which is hardly a bed of roses, but we are making the best of it… The ground is frozen all day long, and we have to break the ice to wash in the mornings. Soldiers’ Letters – With The Engineers
- Ernest William Lee of Blayney depicts the Battle of Rafa in Sinai in great detail. Bloomfield farmer, James Stuart McLean, informs his mother that he has sent her some souvenirs from the Western Front, including a small organ bellows from the ruined cathedral in Ypres. In Sinai – Clearing Out The Turks From Rafa
Sir Frederick Stanley Maude leads the Indian Army into Baghdad, 11 March 1917. Image courtesy Sir Stanley Maude and Other Memories.
- One week after the British Army’s occupation of Baghdad, Lieutenant General Frederick Stanley Maude delivers The Proclamation of Baghdad, promising freedom for the Arab race. He declares:
Our armies do not come into your cities and lands as conquerors or enemies, but as liberators…It is the wish not only of my King and his peoples, but it is also the wish of the great nations with whom he is in alliance, that you should prosper even as in the past, when your lands were fertile, when your ancestors gave to the world literature, science, and art, and when Baghdad city was one of the wonders of the world.
- Allied forces on the Western Front capture a further 40 villages; a total of 170 villages have been taken in the last three days
- German submarine U-64 torpedoes the French battleship Danton torpedoed in the Mediterranean Sea 35 kilometres off the coast of Sardinia. 806 men are rescued; 296 men, including the captain go down with the ship.
- The Russian Provisional Government announces amnesty for political prisoners
