World War I - The Definitive Visual History

smithsonian EDITORIAL CONSULTANT RICHARD OVERY THE DEFINITIVE VISUAL HISTORY FROM SARAJEVO TO VERSAILLES



WORLD THE DEFINITIVE VISUAL HISTORY WAR I



smithsonian WORLD THE DEFINITIVE VISUAL HISTORY WAR I From Sar ajevo to versailles R .G. Gr ant

LONDON, NEW YORK, MELBOURNE, CONTENTS MUNICH, AND DELHI 1 The Slide to War 30 Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia. Senior Editor Senior Art Editor THE TROUBLED Germany declares war on Russia and Janet Mohun Ina Stradins CONTINENT France. Britain enters the war in defense of Belgian neutrality. US Senior Editor Project Art Editor 1870 – 1914 Rebecca Warren Anna Hall Pulling Together 32 Introduction Political and social interest groups in Editor Producer combatant countries voice their support for Laura Wheadon Alice Sykes Timeline the war. Opposing voices are quickly silenced. US Editor Jacket Designers Europe’s High Noon ■ THE DECLARATION OF WAR 34 John Searcy Mark Cavanagh, Paul Drislane The power and prosperity of Europe, its political systems and empires. The web 210 Managing Editor Managing Art Editor of alliances between the great powers. Angeles Gavira Guerrero Michelle Baxter 12 Crises and Conflicts 14 Preproduction Producer Art Director Tensions between rival European powers. 16 Rebekah Parsons-King Philip Ormerod The first and second Moroccan crises. The Austro-Hungarian annexation of Bosnia- Jacket Editor Publisher Herzegovina. Slav nationalism and the Manisha Majithia Sarah Larter Balkan Wars. Cartographers Associate Publishing Director Simon Mumford, Liz Wheeler Encompass Graphics Ltd, Publishing Director Brighton, UK Jonathan Metcalf DK INDIA NOT OVER BY 18 CHRISTMAS Editorial Manager Deputy Design Manager Rohan Sinha Sudakshina Basu 1914 Senior Editor Senior Art Editor Introduction Vineetha Mokkil Mahua Mandal Editors Art Editors 36 Sudeshna Dasgupta, Sanjay Chauhan, Suhita Dharamjit, Arijit 38 Ganguly, Amit Malhotra, Kanika Mittal, Dharini Ganesh Shreya Anand Virmani ■ KAISER WILHELM II 20 Timeline 40 Production Manager DTP Designers Pankaj Sharma Neeraj Bhatia, Syed Md Farhan, Shanker Prasad, Sachin Singh, Tanveer Abbas Zaidi DTP Manager Balwant Singh TOUCAN BOOKS LTD. Planning for War 22 The Invasion of Belgium 42 Belgian troops fight the German army Managing Editor Senior Art Editor The armies of the major European powers to defend the country’s independence. Ellen Dupont Thomas Keenes Germany carries out massacres and brutal prepare for war. The German Schlieffen Plan. acts of destruction. Senior Editor Picture Research Dorothy Stannard Roland Smithies (Luped) British hesitancy. French belief in the offensive. Assistant Editor Indexer ■ EVOLVING MILITARY 24 David Hatt Marie Lorimer TECHNOLOGY The French Offensive 44 Proofreader French forces attack in Alsace, Lorraine, and Caroline Hunt ■ RIFLES 26 the Ardennes. Germany launches successful counteroffensives. French eventually halt Editorial Consultants Assassination at Sarajevo 28 Germans in front of Nancy. Barton C. Hacker, Senior Curator of Armed Forces History, National Museum of American History, Kenneth The shooting of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke The British Go into Action 46 E. Behring Center, Smithsonian Institution; Richard Overy, Professor of History, University of Exeter Franz Ferdinand, by a Bosnian Serb in Sarajevo. The reactions of Austria-Hungary Arrival of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) First American edition, 2014 and Germany. Published in the United States by in France. The battles of Mons and Le Cateau. DK Publishing, 4th Floor, 345 Hudson Street, New York 10014 The BEF retreats from Belgium. 14 15 16 17 18 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 001 – 184796 – June/2014 Copyright © 2014 Dorling Kindersley Limited All rights reserved Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book. Published in Great Britain by Dorling Kindersley Limited. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN: 978-1-4654-1938-5 DK books are available at special discounts when purchased in bulk for sales promotions, premiums, fund-raising, or educational use. For details, contact: DK Publishing Special Markets, 345 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014 or [email protected]. Printed and bound in Hong Kong Discover more at www.dk.com

■ BATTLE OF MONS 48 Turkey Enters the War 74 Mobilizing Resources 92 Disaster in Mesopotamia 122 British Indian forces advance from Basra The Ottoman Empire sides with Germany Combatants attempt to harness resources to Baghdad. They surrender to the Turks 50 and Austria-Hungary. The British take at Kut al-Amara. ■ ARTILLERY efficiently and maximize production of military Basra and successfully defend the Suez supplies. Increased employment of women in The Great Retreat 52 Canal. Turkey attacks Russia in the Caucasus. many countries. War profiteering. French and British troops are pursued by The Battle at Dogger Bank 124 British and German naval confrontation German armies. Paris comes under threat. African Diversions 76 ■ TRENCH WARFARE 94 in the North Sea. German battle cruisers narrowly avoid a major defeat. France plans to strike back. The Allies strike at German colonies, seizing Togoland, Kamerun, and South West Africa. ■ LIFE IN THE TRENCHES 96 The Battle of the Marne 54 The British lose the Battle of Tanga. Fighting France and Britain end their retreat continues in East Africa. Failure on the Western Front 98 The Sinking of the Lusitania 126 The Allies launch costly offensives at and launch a counterattack. Germany Champagne and Neuve Chapelle. German German submarines begin attacking merchant defenses hold. is forced onto the defensive. German hopes Confrontation at Sea 78 shipping off the British coastline. The sinking of a quick victory come to an end. British naval blockade of Germany. Threats of the transatlantic liner RMS Lusitania. to Allied shipping posed by mines and Subsequent outrage in the United States. 56 submarines. British victory at the Battle ■ JOSEPH JOFFRE ■ TRENCH FIGHTING 100 EQUIPMENT of Heligoland Bight. ■ WARTIME POSTERS 128 The Race to the Sea 58 Allied advance from the Marne is halted on ■ WARSHIPS AT SEA 80 Second Ypres 102 America and the European War 130 the Aisne River. A war of movement continues The Germans attack at Ypres. Chlorine gas President Woodrow Wilson declares the farther north. Belgium is halted by the Coronel and the Falklands 82 spreads panic in the Allied lines. Germany United States neutral. American anger at Germans at the Battle of the Yser. Allied trade threatened by German cruisers. makes limited gains before the front stabilizes. perceived German aggression. U.S. economic The battles of Coronel and the Falklands support. The Preparedness Movement. Fighting to a Standstill 60 in the South Atlantic. German East Asiatic ■ CHEMICAL WARFARE 104 The First Battle of Ypres in Flanders. The end Squadron is destroyed by Britain’s Royal Navy. The Zeppelin Raids 132 Germany bombs Paris, London, and of the mobile phase of the war. Trenches are Italy Enters the War 106 other cities. Fighter aircraft deployed In a bid to gain territory, Italy joins the Allies to counteract attacks. dug along the entire Western Front. War in the East 84 and declares war on Austria-Hungary. Italy launches first Isonzo Offensive but captures ■ THE CHRISTMAS TRUCE Japan declares war on Germany and captures only a small area. 62 Tsingtao. New Zealand seizes Samoa, and Australia occupies Kaiser Wilhelmsland. The Campaigns on the Eastern Front 134 Austro-German Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive. The Battle of Tannenberg 64 contribution of China to the Allied war effort. German forces advance across Poland. Russian army embarks on its Great Retreat. Russia invades East Prussia. German forces ■ ANZAC TROOPS 108 soundly defeat the Russians at Tannenberg. German commanders Hindenburg and 366 The Gallipoli Campaign 110 Ludendorff become national heroes. Allied attempt to seize the Dardanelles 68 strait. British and Commonwealth troops ■ ANIMALS AT WAR 136 ■ PAUL VON HINDENBURG land on the Gallipoli peninsula. Turkey repulses the Allied attack. ■ MACHINE GUNS 138 Austro-Hungarian Failures Russia makes successful attacks in Galicia. Serbia Crushed 140 Austro-Hungarian, Bulgarian, and German ■ BATTLE OF LONE PINE 114 forces occupy Serbia. Corfu becomes the seat of the Serbian government in exile. The Austro-Hungarian invasion of Serbia is repulsed by Serbian forces. The Armenian Massacre 116 Deportation and slaughter of Armenians The Battle for Poland 70 STALEMATE living in Turkey’s Ottoman Empire. War The Artois-Loos Offensive 142 between Russian and Turkish forces on the Allied autumn offensives in Champagne and Germany launches offensive operations 1915 86 Caucasus front. Artois. German defense tactics. Heavy losses against Russia in Poland in support of on both sides. Austria-Hungary. After the indecisive Battle of Lodz, both sides prepare for winter. Introduction 88 ■ IN SERVICE OF THE EMPIRE 118 ■ RECONNAISSANCE AND 144 COMMUNICATION ■ CAVALRY 72 Timeline 90 ■ COLONIAL TROOPS 120

The Brusilov Offensive 174 The Battle of Arras 226 4 5Kitchener’s Armies British launch dawn attack at Arras to Russia’s most successful operation of the war. support the Nivelle Offensive. Canadians capture Vimy Ridge. Austro-Hungarian forces driven back across a wide front. 176 ■ SHELL CASINGS 228 Britain creates a New Army by appealing for volunteers. The creation of pals battalions. ■ CANADIANS IN THE WAR 230 Social pressure to join the army. YEAR OF BATTLES 178 REVOLUTION AND The German Bomber Offensive 232 Large heavy bombers launch raids against ■ DOUGLAS HAIG British cities. Effect on civilians. 1916 146 The Somme Offensive 180 DISILLUSION Britain and France launch a joint attack at the Somme. It results in the heaviest loss 1917 The Kerensky Offensive 234 Last Russian offensive of the war. Introduction 148 204 The disintegration of the Russian army. of life in a single day’s fighting in British Timeline 150 military history. Introduction 206 ■ THE REVOLUTIONARY ARMY 236 Facing Deadlock 152 ■ THE FIRST DAY OF 182 Timeline 208 THE SOMME The combatant powers search for strategies Messines Ridge 238 British detonate mines under the German to end the war. U.S. president Woodrow Wilson’s The Tsar Overthrown 210 lines and seize Messines Ridge. Russia’s February Revolution and abdication “peace note.” The resumption of offensives. Attrition on the Somme 184 of the tsar. The Provisional Government’s decision to continue the war. Lenin’s return Lack of a decisive British breakthrough leads to Russia from exile. The German Offensive at Verdun 154 to costly fighting. Third Ypres 240 One of the bloodiest battles of the war. Major British offensive bogs down in the General Philippe Pétain takes over French ■ MEDICAL TREATMENT 186 Flanders mud. defense. Initial German success turns to stalemate. America Enters the War 212 New U-boat attacks and the uncovering Dogfights and Aces 188 of a plot to invade the United States from ■ PASSCHENDAELE 244 Development of single-seat fighter aircraft Mexico. President Woodrow Wilson declares ■ VERDUN 156 and aerial combat tactics. The glorification war on Germany. Italian Disaster at Caporetto 246 of flying aces. Attack by Austro-German forces the Italian army into retreat. Events on the Italian ■ PHILIPPE PÉTAIN 158 home front. ■ DOGFIGHT 190 ■ WOODROW WILSON 214 The French Fight Back at Verdun 160 German and French armies remain locked in battle. Combat between fighter aircraft. ■ WARPLANES 192 Organizing America for War 216 False Dawn at Cambrai 248 Defensive victory for the French. The Romanian Campaign The United States creates a mass army. British offensive against the German Romania’s decision to join the Allies. The German-led invasion of Romania. 194 Conscription is introduced. Unprecedented Hindenburg Line. Led by tanks, the operation The Arab Revolt federal intervention in the economy. achieves a short-lived breakthrough. Guerrilla war waged by Arab rebels ■ FORT DOUAUMONT 162 against Ottoman Turkey. The role of British intelligence officer T.E. Lawrence. Peace Initiatives and War Aims 218 ■ TANK WARFARE 250 The Easter Rising 164 196 Rise of antiwar forces in combatant Armed rebellion against British rule in Ireland countries. Wilson’s Fourteen Points and The Bolshevik Revolution 252 Seizure of power by revolutionary Bolshevik is crushed. Execution of perpetrators. statement of Allied war aims. German plans Party in Russia. The new Bolshevik government seeks an armistice with the to dominate Europe. Central Powers. ■ INTELLIGENCE AND 166 ESPIONAGE The Strains of War 198 The U-boat Onslaught 220 Mounting economic hardship for European Germany’s unrestricted submarine warfare Slav Nationalism 168 civilians. “Turnip winter” in Germany. against Allied merchant shipping. The use of Guerilla War in East Africa 254 Subject Slavic peoples of Austria-Hungary, Breakdown of social cohesion. The threat convoys, nets, and mines. Campaign mounted against the British by Germany, and Russia seek independence. of revolution in Russia. German colonial troops. Impact on the local African population. ■ ERIC LUDENDORFF 222 The Battle of Jutland 170 ■ DAVID LLOYD GEORGE 200 Indecisive clash between British and German The Nivelle Offensive 224 Naval War in the Mediterranean 256 A French attack fails to break the German fleets in the North Sea. Germany’s New Order 202 defensive line. Morale of the French soldiers Allied intervention in Greece. Japanese help Ludendorff and Hindenburg control the breaks down. Widespread mutinies sweep German war effort. The formulation of plans the French army. counter the U-boat threat to Allied merchant to populate Eastern Europe with Germans. ■ ON BOARD THE 172 shipping. Italian attacks on the Austro- SMS DERFFLINGER Hungarian navy.

From Gaza to Jerusalem 258 The German Search for Victory 282 Attacking the Hindenburg Line 312 ■ GEORGES CLEMENCEAU 336 A series of Allied offensives break through 314 338 British and Commonwealth forces, aided by German offensive continues with Operation the fortifications of the Hindenburg Line. The Versailles Treaty The Allies impose a peace treaty on the 340 their Arab allies, mount a successful campaign Georgette. British and Portuguese troops ■ ST. QUENTIN CANAL Germans. They regard it as unjust. 342 against the Turks in Palestine. come under pressure. Ferdinand Foch becomes ■ SIGNING THE VERSAILLES 344 TREATY Supreme Commander of the Allied Armies. 346 Postwar Conflicts 348 ■ RECORDING THE WAR 260 Red Army victory in the Russian Civil War. Violence in Ireland. The rise of fascism. 352 The Battle of Belleau Wood 284 Turkey and Bulgaria Defeated 316 The Greco-Turkish War. 359 U.S. marines engage advancing German Military defeats force Germany’s allies to 318 6 troops near the Marne River. seek armistices with the Allies. Germany 320 Never Again is unable to intervene. 322 Mourning the dead. Isolationism and The Second Battle of the Marne 286 324 pacifism in the postwar world. German offensive at Reims halted. German Italy Victorious troops are transferred from Flanders. The Italians repulse an Austro-Hungarian ■ MONUMENT TO THE FALLEN Successful French-led counteroffensive offensive at the Piave River, then launch a ends hope of a German victory. successful attack at Vittorio Veneto. In Memoriam Austria-Hungary collapses. Country by country register of key World ■ GAS ATTACK 288 War I battle sites, cemeteries, memorials, Mutiny and Revolution and museums. VICTORY AND ■ FERDINAND FOCH 290 Germany seeks an armistice. German naval DEFEAT revolt at Kiel. The abdication of the Kaiser. Index The Zeebrugge Raid 292 Germany becomes a republic. 1918 British attempt to block the movements of Acknowledgments 262 U-boats from the port of Zeebrugge ends in The Armistice failure, but boosts civilian morale. More than four years of fighting come to an end. The last shots of the war. Public Introduction 264 reactions to the news. Climax of the Air War 294 ■ CELEBRATIONS Allies win fight for air supremacy over the Timeline 266 Western Front. Strategic bombing campaign begins against German industrial targets. Home Fronts 268 Government attempts to raise civilian morale in combatant countries. Rationing, 7■ AERIAL COMBAT 296 strikes, and falling standards of living. ■ MANFRED VON RICHTHOFEN 298 ■ THE GERMAN HOME FRONT 270 Allied Intervention in Russia 300 Trench Warfare Transformed 272 Attempts to revive Russia’s war effort against New innovations end deadlock of the trenches. Infiltration tactics developed by Germany causes Allied troops to become Germany. Use of ground attack aircraft. Greater coordination between infantry embroiled in the Russian Civil War. and artillery. ■ WRITERS AT WAR 302 AFTERMATH Turning Point at Amiens 304 1919 – 1923 ■ STORMTROOPER 274 A British and Commonwealth offensive at Introduction 326 EQUIPMENT 328 Amiens inflicts a sharp defeat on the German army. Loss of morale among German troops. German Victory in the East 276 Bolsheviks and Germans sign the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, ending hostilities. Germany Taking the St. Mihiel Salient 306 Timeline 330 receives vast areas of Russia. U.S. Army enters battle for the first time. It defeats the exposed German troops in Devastated World 332 the St. Mihiel salient. The horrific death toll. Malnutrition, Spanish The Michael Offensive 278 flu epidemic, and poverty. The rise of extreme Germany launches the first of its Spring Offensives. Ludendorff’s gamble to win the The Meuse-Argonne Offensive 308 nationalism and new conflicts. war before U.S. troops arrive. The largest battle in the history of the U.S. Army. American and French troops push the The Paris Peace Conference 334 Germans back across the Meuse River. Attempts to create a lasting peace. Conflicting ■ THE OPENING OF THE 280 demands of the national delegations. Creation MICHAEL OFFENSIVE ■ JOHN PERSHING 310 of the League of Nations.

Foreword T he War of 1914–1918, also known as the “Great War”, was a world historical event, recognized as such by contemporaries. The wealthy and powerful Western nations and empires that had come to dominate the globe wrecked themselves in a paroxysm of destruction unmatched in any previous era. Empires toppled, millions died, and the world changed forever. To a remarkable degree, the self-inflicted war wounds to Western economies, societies, and polities sprang from the same sources that had nourished Western primacy—the growth of industry, the expansion of capital, the extension of citizenship, scientific prowess, and technological innovation. War was fueled by far-reaching changes in Western military institutions and technology since the mid-19th century. Repeating rifles, smokeless powder, quick-firing long-range field artillery, and machine-guns multiplied firepower and extended the killing zone. Clad in field gray or khaki, soldiers left firing lines and maneuvered for ground cover and trenches. Runners gave way to telegraph and wireless, muscle to steam and petrol, which powered new war machines on the battlefield, in the air, and at sea. Judging the impact of such innovations surpassed most contemporary imaginations. Few people expected the new technology to reduce rather than augment the ability of armies to be decisive on the battlefield. World War I was the first great industrial war. Manufacturing and logistics came to matter more than all other aspects of war making. The new weapons demanded ammunition in staggering quantities, but that was only the first challenge. General staffs burgeoned to direct vast armies, as nations prepared to put millions of men under arms. Armies so huge required supplies of every kind on a formerly unimagined scale. “War economy” and “home front” entered the lexicon for the conversion of industrial capacity, for the reorientation of civic life, for the mobilization of imperial resources, for the concentration of all efforts toward fighting total war. Managing the armies and keeping them supplied exhausted military art and science. Industrial engineering displaced generalship, and attrition became the recipe for victory. World War I fractured history. The world before 1914 was dominated by confident, wealthy, and forward-looking Western— mainly European—imperial states, the products of a century of progress. That world vanished in the cauldron of the Great War. After 1918, the Western world comprised destroyed or shaken polities, war-ravaged economies, the shards of empire, and dispirited citizens haunted by the ghosts of dead millions. From the wreckage left by the war grew the Great Depression, totalitarian dictatorships, and a second world war—all preface to the modern world. Barton C. Hacker Senior Curator of Armed Forces History, Smithsonian Institution





1 THE TROUBLED CONTINENT 1870 – 1914 In the early 20th century, Europe was dominated by ambitious imperial states. This produced an unstable international system and fueled an arms race. War broke out in Europe with the assassination of Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand in the summer of 1914.

THE TROUBLED CONTINENT 1870–1914 THE TROUBLED CONTINENT German chancellor The assination of German propaganda Otto von Bismarck Archduke Franz Ferdinand, portrayed Germany in 1914 as a masterminded the heir to the Austrian throne, creation of a united and his wife by Bosnian Serb chivalrous and heroic defender Germany in the 1860s Gavrilo Princip, in Sarajevo of civilization against the and 1870s. He created on June 28, 1914, led barbarism of its enemies. the Dual Alliance with Austria-Hungary to declare Austria-Hungary and war on Serbia. Y kept friendly relations with Russia. ICELAND A N EUROPE NORW FAEROE ISLANDS SWEDE (Denmark) N O R W AY BRITAIN SWEDEN GERMANY RUSSIAN EMPIRE tic Sea AT L A N T I C FRANCE AUSTRIA- HUNGARY OCEAN I TA LY Black Sea Caspian Sea North PORTUGAL S PA I N TUNISIA OTTOMAN N Sea DENMARK Bal SPANISH MOROCCO EMPIRE PERSIA AFGHANISTA MOROCCO CYPRUS KUWAIT BRITAIN TIBET (autonomous) NETH. G E R M A N Y RUSSIAN ALGERIA LIBYA EGYPT BAHRAIN NEPAL EMPIRE QATAR RIO DE ORO ANGLO- NEJD INDIA EGYPTIAN TRUCIAL BEL. LUX. HEJAZ (Saudi) OMAN SUDAN OMAN FRANCE AUSTRIA- FRENCH WEST AFRICA HADHRAMAUT HUNGARY SWITZ. GAMBIA TOGO FRENCH (British mandate) ADEN PROTECTORATE PORTUGUESE GUINEA EQUATORIAL ERITREA FRENCH SOMALILAND CEYLON SIERRA LEONE NIGERIA AFRICA ABYSSINIA BRITISH SERBIA ROMANIA LIBERIA GOLD CAMEROON SOMALILAND ITALIAN IT BULGARIA B l a c k S e a ALY MONT. COAST BRITISH EAST SOMALILAND PORTUGAL RIO MUNI FRENCH AFRICA (Spain) CONGO SPAIN ALB. BELGIAN Me diterr GREECE OTTOMAN CONGO GERMAN EAST INDIAN ean Se EMPIRE AFRICA ALGERIA TUNISIA (France) (France) a DODECANESE NORTHERN ANGOLA MADAGASCAR OCEAN (Italy) RHODESIA n a CYPRUS SOUTHERN MOROCCO RHODESIA GERMAN (France) (Britain) SOUTH WEST BECHUANA- PORTUGUESE AFRICA LAND EAST LIBYA EGYPT AFRICA (Italy) (Britain) UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA Austro-Hungarian emperor In the Balkan Wars of The arrival of the German Franz Joseph, here holding court in 1912–13, Serbia, Greece, gunboat Panther off Agadir in Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna, was Romania, and Bulgaria fought July 1911 was a challenge to head of a vast but restless empire against Ottoman Turkey and French imperial ambitions in with a large Slav population. Its against one another. Serbia Morocco. The episode brought annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina gained military strength and Europe to the brink of war. in 1908 angered Serbia. confidence in these conflicts. A series of wars in the 1860s and 1870s established Germany leading up to World War I, peace was maintained by a balance of as Europe’s dominant military power. In the 1890s, France power between the two hostile alliance systems. The European states and Russia formed an alliance to counter the might of Germany and expanded their armed forces and equipped them with the latest its close ally, Austria-Hungary. In the first decade of the 20th century, technology. They developed plans for the rapid mobilization of Britain, feeling threatened by the growth of the German navy, mass conscript armies that threatened to turn any confrontation abandoned its traditional isolationism and a formed an entente— into full-scale war. Every country felt that the side that struck first a loose unofficial alliance—with France and Russia. In the years would have a decisive advantage. 12

THE TROUBLED CONTINENT 1870–1914 1870 – 1914 New technology transformed the nature of warfare. This Russian Ilya Mourometz was the world’s largest aircraft on the eve of World War I. Capable of carrying bombs, it was widely imitated. CANADA CHINA JAPANESE UNITED STATES Woodrow Wilson, U.S. president EMPIRE OF AMERICA from 1913, here addressing an American audience, was a high-principled political leader who, in August 1914, declared the United States strictly neutral. BRITISH HONDURAS MEXICO CUBA DOMINICAN REPUBLIC AT L A N T I C HAITI VIRGIN ISLANDS Mariana Hawaiian Islands PACIFIC LEEWARD ISLANDS Islands WINDWARD ISLANDS SIAM FRENCH PHILIPPINE HONDURAS OCEAN INDOCHINA ISLANDS GUAM OCEAN GUATEMALA NICARAGUA BARBADOS EL SALVADOR BRITISH Marshall Islands Christmas TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO NORTH BORNEO Island GERMAN PACIFIC TERRITORIES COSTA RICA VENEZUELA BRITISH GUIANA BRUNEI French Polynesia DUTCH GUIANA Caroline CANAL ZONE PANAMA SARAWAK Islands COLOMBIA FRENCH GUIANA Gilbert MALAYA Bismarck Nauru Islands ECUADOR Archipelago KAISER Ellice Cook DUTCH EAST INDIES Islands Islands WILHELMSLAND Solomon BRAZIL PAPUA Islands UAY PORTUGUESE German Samoa PERU TIMOR New (Western) Hebrides Tonga BOLIVIA Fiji PARAG AUSTRALIA New CHILE Caledonia URUGUAY ARGENTINA An industrial giant by the FALKLAND beginning of the 20th century, the ISLANDS United States was manufacturing munitions for the European arms THE WORLD IN JULY 1914 race well before 1914. America’s Frontiers own army was small, and it relied upon its navy for defense. The behavior of Germany’s leader, Kaiser Wilhelm II, was aggressive minorities, including Serbs, within its own borders. In June 1914, and erratic, particularly during the Moroccan Crisis of 1911. But the a Serb terrorist assassinated the heir to the Austro-Hungarian spark that ignited war came in the Balkans, where states such throne. Austria-Hungary was determined to use this as a pretext as Serbia had become independent of Ottoman Turkish rule in the for a war with Serbia. 19th century. Russia had ambitions to spread its influence in the Balkans as the champion of the Slav peoples. This led to hostile When Russia mobilized in defense of Serbia, Germany declared relations with Austria-Hungary, which was at odds with restless Slav war on Russia and France. The German invasion of neutral Belgium then ensured that a hesitant Britain would enter the conflict. 13

THE TROUBLED CONTINENT 1870–1914 TIMELINE 1870 – 1914 Franco-Prussian War ■ Rival military alliances ■ Wilhelm II is Kaiser ■ Boer War ■ Anglo-German naval race ■ Moroccan Crises ■ Wars in the Balkans ■ Assassination in Sarajevo ■ Declarations of war 1870 – 1880 1881 – 1890 1891 – 1900 1901 – 1902 1903 – 1904 1905 – 1906 JULY 1870 1881 1891 1901 MARCH 1903 King Edward VII visits Paris Outbreak of the Russia joins Germany Architect of Germany’s Discussions about Germans make plans for the Entente Cordiale Franco-Prussian War. and Austria-Hungary prewar planning Alfred a possible alliance with Ottoman Turkey 1905 in the League of the von Schlieffen becomes between Britain to build a railroad German army adopts the JANUARY 1871 Three Emperors. German Chief of the and Germany come between Berlin Schlieffen Plan for fighting France is defeated. General Staff. to nothing. and Baghdad. a war on two fronts. The King of Prussia 1882 DECEMBER 1903 is declared Emperor The Triple Alliance JANUARY 1894 JANUARY 1901 The Wright brothers of Germany. is formed between Franco-Russian Alliance Death of Queen make the first powered Germany, Austria- is concluded. Victoria. heavier-than-air flight. Hungary, and Italy. Alfred von Schlieffen MARCH 1901 1884 In the Boer War, the The Maxim gun, the British adopt the policy of first true machine gun, moving Boer civilians into is invented. The Berlin concentration camps. Conference formalizes the division of Africa SEPTEMBER 1901 between European China signs a humiliating colonial powers. treaty with foreign powers after suppression of the Boxer Rebellion. JUNE 1888 1898 JANUARY 1902 FEBRUARY 1904 MARCH 1905 Wilhelm II becomes Germany begins naval Britain establishes Russo-Japanese War begins. Japanese army defeats emperor (Kaiser) expansion, starting a military alliance the Russians at the Battle of Germany. an Anglo-German with Japan. APRIL 1904 of Mukden. Germany naval race. Britain forms the Entente provokes the First 1889 Cordiale with France. Moroccan Crisis to test the Russia begins a OCTOBER 1899 Anglo-French Entente, rapprochement The Boer War in South which holds firm. with France. Africa reveals deficiencies in the British Army. French Legion of Honor 1890 1900 MAY 1902 MAY 1905 medal European armies begin First effective Boer War ends in The Imperial Japanese to adopt bolt-action submarines come into British victory. Navy destroys a Russian MARCH 1878 repeater rifles, service. First flight of fleet at the Battle of Defeated in war with Russia, increasing infantry Zeppelin airship. JUNE 1902 Ottoman Turkey is forced to rate of fire. Triple Alliance Tsushima. recognize the independence between Germany, of Serbia and Romania. Austria-Hungary, and SEPTEMBER 1905 Italy is renewed. Russo-Japanese War 1879 ends in humiliating Germany and Austria-Hungary form defeat for Russia. the Dual Alliance. FEBRUARY 1906 HMS Dreadnought is launched, rendering all earlier battleships obsolete. Belgian machine gun Kaiser Wilhelm II 14

TIMELINE 1870–1914 “The accelerating arms race is… a crushing burden that weighs on all nations and, if prolonged, will lead to the very cataclysm it seeks to avert.” TSAR NICHOLAS II, ADDRESSING THE HAGUE CONFERENCE, 1899 1907 – 1908 1909 – 1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 AUGUST 1907 MARCH 1909 JULY FEBRUARY 12 MARCH 23–MAY 30 German vacationers, Russia and Britain sign Germany backs General Joseph Joffre is China becomes a Bulgarians capture summer 1914 a convention settling Austria-Hungary over appointed commander-in- republic as the last Adrianople, Turkey, JUNE 28 outstanding disputes the annexation of chief of the French army. emperor abdicates. in First Balkan War. Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Central Asia. Bosnia-Herzegovina, Treaty of London is assassinated by a 1908 forcing Russia to JULY 1 redraws boundaries. Bosnian Serb in Sarajevo. German army withdraw its opposition Arrival of German gunboat JULY 6 adopts the MG 08 by threatening war. in Tangier provokes the JUNE 29 Germany agrees to support machine gun. Second Moroccan Crisis, Second Balkan War Austro-Hungarian action Political postcard of taking Europe to the begins. Bulgaria fights against Serbia. European balancing act brink of war. Serbia, Greece, and Romania. JULY 23 APRIL 1909 Austria-Hungary Young Turks depose issues the Serbians Ottoman Sultan Abdul an ultimatum. Hamid II and replace JULY 28 him with Mehmed V. Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia. German Uhlan NOVEMBER 1909 The German High Seas Fleet MARCH 28 AUGUST 7 helmet Britain creates an in the North Sea British House of Commons France enacts the Imperial General rejects votes for women, Three-Year Law, Staff to coordinate SEPTEMBER 29 provoking suffragettes into extending conscription. military planning Italy declares war on adoption of militant tactics. in Britain and Turkey in pursuit of AUGUST 10 its dominions. territorial claims in Libya. Second Balkan War ends with defeat of Bulgaria. 1910 OCTOBER 8 Armies and navies of the First Balkan War begins, major powers begin to pitting Turkey against acquire planes and train the Balkan League: military pilots. Serbia, Montenegro, Greece, and Bulgaria. JULY 1908 Suffragette banner Young Turk revolution OCTOBER 18 begins drive to MAY 1910 NOVEMBER 1 Italo-Turkish War Announcement of war modernize In Britain, George V First combat use of ends. Italy takes in Berlin Ottoman Turkey. becomes king on the aircraft by Italians in possession of Libya. death of Edward VII. North Africa. JULY 30 OCTOBER 1908 NOVEMBER Russia begins general Austria-Hungary Britain and France mobilization. announces the agree to share naval annexation of responsibilities, the French 15 Bosnia-Herzegovina. concentrating on the Mediterranean. NOVEMBER 4 Treaty of Fez resolves NOVEMBER 5 the Moroccan Crisis. Woodrow Wilson is elected president of the United States.

Royal visit A state visit by the British king Edward VII to Paris in 1903 was the prelude to a diplomatic agreement between Britain and France, the Entente Cordiale, signed on April 8, 1904. BEFORE Europe’s High Noon A series of localized wars in the 1860s Convinced of the superiority of their civilization, Europeans had achieved a dominant position and 1870s redrew the borders of in the world, rooted in the spectacular growth of their industries and populations, and in the major European states. strength of their military forces. GERMAN UNIFICATION A t the dawn of the 20th century, Hungary. Italy and Ottoman Turkey In 1860, Germany was a collection of separate Europe was at the height of its aspired to join them. Of these states, states. Prussia was acknowledged as its military and economic power. Germany was the most dynamic force. leading power, and in 1870–71, it defeated France in the Franco-Prussian States such as Britain and France Since the unification of Germany in War. This victory led directly to the founding of the German Empire under the king of controlled huge empires, encompassing 1871 the country had undergone rapid Prussia, who later became the German Kaiser. nearly all of Africa and large parts of industrialization. The population had AUSTRIA-HUNGARY The Austrian Hapsburgs survived Asia. European capital and commerce grown a massive 43 percent between in power by forming Austria- created enormous 1880 and 1910. France, Hungary, the Dual Monarchy, held together by influence and wealth. 1.63 BILLION The estimated by contrast, had an allegiance to the emperor of Austria, Global transportation global population in 1900. almost static population who was also the king of Hungary. and communication Around one-quarter of this growth and less GERMAN ARMY networks tied the number resided in Europe. developed industries, HELMET global economy to its despite ruling an 16 European hub. The United States extensive empire. Russia lagged even was the only major non-European further behind industrially, but was by Precarious balance A 1910 postcard shows various heads of state economic power, although Japan far the most populous European state. embarked upon an uncertain journey, precariously mounted aboard a motor vehicle. In the early had emerged as an industrializing Britain had lost its industrial lead but 20th century, the political balance was always threatening to tip over into war. military force in the 1890s. The leading still exercised unchallenged dominance European powers were Britain, France, over international finance, maritime Germany, Russia, and Austria- trade, and its vast overseas empire.

EUROPE’S HIGH NOON AFTER Oppressed nationalities’ demands Imperial splendor Tensions between the European for self-rule were a threat to the Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria receives guests at powers mounted over disputes multinational Austro-Hungarian Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna. A member of the outside Europe and in the Balkans. Empire. Governments feared a Hapsburg dynasty, he was Europe’s longest-ruling breakdown of order and responded by monarch in 1914, having come to the throne in1848. THE MOROCCAN CRISES asserting the military and diplomatic Germany challenged French imperial prestige of the state. They hoped this traditionally isolationist, but its fear ambitions in Morocco, leading to diplomatic would serve as an antidote to internal of Germany led to agreements with crises in 1905 and 1911 18–19 ❯❯. forces of disintegration and subversion. France, and later Russia. These divisive alliance systems existed among nations CENTRAL POWERS Name given to All the major powers spent large bound by cultural similarities, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and amounts on their armed forces. Mass economic interdependence, and the their allies in World War I. education and a popular press united ties that linked the various royal in spreading a message of patriotism families. The inability of the countries ENTENTE POWERS Name given to that easily slipped into jingoism. As no to stop the slide to war was to be a Britain, France, and Russia, which formal institution existed for regulating catastrophe for Europe, from which it are also referred to as the Allies. international affairs, states sought would never recover its global power. security in alliances. Germany allied OTTOMAN DECLINE itself with Austria-Hungary and Italy, The long-term decline of the Turkish and France with Russia. Britain was Ottoman Empire was a serious source of instability, triggering an Italian invasion of Libya, an Ottoman-ruled area of North Africa, in 1911, and two Balkan Wars in 1912–13 18–19 ❯❯. Ottoman weakness and Balkan conflicts were a temptation for both Russia and Austria-Hungary to intervene in an area on their southern borders where they had competing interests. This was where World War I would start, after the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in June 1914 28–29 ❯❯. Political systems European alliances, 1878–1918 NORWAY SWEDEN By 1900, shifting military alliances had resolved into a Sea Most European states were ruled by fixed confrontation between Russia and France on one hereditary monarchs. In Germany, side and Germany and Austria-Hungary on the other. Austria-Hungary, and Russia, these monarchs retained a large measure KEY of political power, despite the existence of elected parliaments. Britain had Austro-German alliance, North ic retained its monarchy, but kings and 1878–1918 DEN. Balt queens scrupulously respected the Sea authority of the Houses of Parliament. Three Emperors’ alliance, France, conversely, was a republic. 1881–87 BRITAIN RUSSIAN EMPIRE Both Britain and France had restricted electoral franchises—women could Austro-Serbian alliance, NETH. GERMANY not vote, and in Britain the poor were also excluded. 1881–95 BEL. Threats and alliances Triple alliance, FRANCE LUX. AUSTRIA– 1882–1915 SWIT. HUNGARY Although often seen in retrospect as a golden age of tranquil prosperity, the Austro-German-Romanian ATLANTIC ITALY ROMANIA years before World War I were racked alliance, 1883–1916 OCEAN SERB. by political conflict. Mass socialist Black Sea movements preached the overthrow Franco-Russian alliance, of the capitalist system. Anarchists 1894–1917 MONT. BULGARIA practiced “propaganda of the deed,” assassinating monarchs such as the Russo-Bulgarian military ALB. Italian King Umberto I in July 1900, and bombing symbols of power. convention, 1902–13 PORT. SPAIN GREECE OTTOMAN Suffragettes turned to violence in their Anglo-French Entente, EMPIRE quest for women’s voting rights. 1904–1918 MOROCCO TUNISIA Mediterranean Sea Anglo-Russian Entente, (French) (French) 1907–1917 ALGERIA PERSIA ALLIANCES DURING WORLD WAR I, (French) 1914–18 17 LIBYA EGYPT The Allies (and allied states) (Italian) (British) Central Powers (and allied states) Neutral states

THE TROUBLED CONTINENT Crises and Conflicts In the years before the outbreak of World War I, the European powers engaged in brinkmanship and an accelerating arms race. A series of diplomatic crises and conflicts in the Balkans accustomed Europeans to the possibility of a major war. G ermany was indisputably a presented a direct challenge to the subsequent international conference. Crisis in Morocco major military and economic Royal Navy’s dominance of its home The Germans took up the issue again The dispatch of the German gunboat Panther to Agadir, power by the end of the waters, the cornerstone of Britain’s in 1911, sending the gunboat SMS caricatured in this contemporary German illustration, 19th century. However, it lacked two national security. The British responded Panther to the Moroccan port of Agadir. took Europe to the brink of war in 1911. Diplomacy of the attributes then regarded as with a massive warship-building This move provoked a diplomatic solved the crisis but strengthened Anglo-French resolve. indicative of great power status: a program of their own, setting a crisis, briefly raising fears of a general substantial overseas empire and an new standard for battleships with European war. By the end of 1911, army increasing, it was in Germany’s oceangoing navy. HMS Dreadnought in 1906. As the naval a settlement had been negotiated, best interest to make the conflict race gathered pace, the British buried involving a small concession of happen sooner rather than later. Under the unstable Kaiser Wilhelm II, old rivalries to form an entente with territory to Germany from French Germany set out to flex its muscles on France in 1904 and with France’s ally, Equatorial Africa. This saber-rattling, Slav nationalism the world stage. A plan to build a Russia, in 1907. along with some anti-British remarks world-class fleet, proposed by Admiral dropped by the Kaiser, drove Britain In southeastern Europe, tensions were Alfred von Tirpitz, was adopted in Moroccan crises to strengthen its links with France. rising. The Balkans were a traditional 1897. To Britain, this appeared to be a area of rivalry between Austria- hostile act. The German naval program While making an enemy When the crisis of 1911 blew over, Hungary and Russia. The Russians had of Britain, Germany also the prospect of a general war adopted the role of protectors and BEFORE manufactured a confrontation appeared to recede. Yet at leaders of the area’s Slav states, with France. In 1905, Kaiser a private meeting in The accession of German Kaiser Wilhelm made a provocative December 1912, the Kaiser Wilhelm II in 1888 was followed by visit to Morocco, a nominally and his senior military a fatal shift in great power relations. independent country that France commanders discussed was absorbing into its sphere of launching a preventive war LEAGUE OF THE THREE EMPERORS influence. He called for all the against France and Russia. In 1873, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck powers to be given equal access They argued that with the tried to stabilize Europe through an alliance to Morocco, a claim rejected by a strength of the Russian of three empires: Germany, Russia, and Austria-Hungary. In the 1880s, rivalry German fleet, pre-1914 between Russia and Austria-Hungary Dreadnought battleships of the undermined this system. Germany formed the German High Seas Fleet steam Dual Alliance with Austria-Hungary, but into the North Sea before World maintained friendly relations with Russia. This War I. The navy was a source of policy was abandoned by Wilhelm II. By 1894, pride to the German people, its Russia had allied itself with France expansion supported by a against Germany. patriotic Navy League with more than a million members. OTTO VON BISMARCK

CRISES AND CONFLICTS including Serbia and Bulgaria. Russia Balkan soldiers also had long-term ambitions to The two Balkan Wars of 1912–13 were fought with expand at the expense of the declining great ferocity, resulting in more than half a million Ottoman Turkish Empire. For Austria- casualties. The instability of the region drew Russia Hungary, Slavs were a domestic and Austria-Hungary into a dangerous confrontation. problem, a restive part of the empire’s ethnic mix. By asserting itself against period of political upheaval. In 1912, hostilities, Bulgaria was heavily Serbia and Bulgaria was a major the Balkan Slavs, especially Serbia, the Balkan League—an alliance defeated. The major winner of both setback for Russia’s Balkan policy. which was not in the Hapsburg Empire, of Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, and wars was Serbia, which almost doubled Unable to back both countries, Russia Austria-Hungary hoped to reinforce its Montenegro—attacked and defeated its territory. was left with Serbia as its sole ally in authority over its own Slav minorities. Turkey in the First Balkan War. the Balkans. The victors then fell out over the After the war, Bulgaria was left a In 1908, the Austro-Hungarian spoils. Bulgaria attacked Serbia and discontented state, eager for revenge Germany, meanwhile, sought to annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina, an Greece to start the Second Balkan on the Serbs, while the strengthening extend its influence southward, and area it already administered, provoked War. When Romania also joined the of a hostile Serbia was a disaster for planned to build a Berlin-to-Baghdad a hostile response from Russia, but its Austria-Hungary. The split between railway. This was interpreted by Britain allies, Britain and France, refused to as a threat to its interests in the Middle back military action. The annexation East. Enver Pasha, a Young Turk army left the Russians humiliated and officer who became Turkish leader in angered Serbia, which covertly backed 1913, was pro-German. He invited a a campaign of attacks on Austro- German military mission, headed by Hungarian officials by Bosnian Serbs. General Otto Liman von Sanders, to modernize the Turkish army. The Ottoman Empire None of these crises, fears, and The weakness of Ottoman Turkey was conflicting ambitions made a general another source of instability. In 1908, European war inevitable, but it had Turkish nationalists, known as the become distinctly imaginable and even Young Turks, rebelled against the tempting for some as a possible sultan, Abdul Hamid II, opening a solution to intractable problems. “ If the German fleet becomes superior to ours, AFTER the German army can conquer this country.” In the years leading up to World War I, SIR EDWARD GREY, BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY, 1906 a growing arms race was a clear sign of insecurity and potential conflict. THE ARMS RACE In its naval race with Britain, Germany had built 17 dreadnoughts and five battle cruisers by August 1914. Due to Britain’s massive financial investment, however, it retained its superiority over Germany, boasting 24 dreadnoughts and 10 battle cruisers. DREADNOUGHT The name of a British battleship that entered service in 1906. It became a general term for all modern battleships of comparable armament and performance. France extended conscription by the Three Year Law of 1913, attempting to match the size of the German army from a much smaller population base. Russia increased military spending. BALKAN TROUBLES World War I was in part a third Balkan War, following on from the two wars of 1912–13. Triggered by the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand by Bosnian Serbs at Sarajevo in June 1914 28–29 ❯❯, World War I began when Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia 30–31 ❯❯.

THE TROUBLED CONTINENT EMPEROR OF GERMANY Born 1859 Died 1941 Kaiser Wilhelm II “ England, France, and Russia have conspired… to wage a war of annihilation against us.” KAISER WILHELM II, MEMORANDUM WRITTEN JULY 30, 1914 T o his enemies, Wilhelm II, King of Young leader Prussia and Kaiser (Emperor) In the early part of of Germany was the embodiment his reign, Wilhelm was of aggressive Prussian militarism. Yet in a fresh force in German many ways, Wilhelm had struggled to life, promising to lead the adapt to the requirements of his social country on a new course to status and official role. A difficult birth global power and prosperity. had left him with a withered and paralyzed left arm. To this disability, patriarchal. He was, however, about which he was self-conscious, neither physically nor was added a neurotic nature. He emotionally fit for the role. A hero-worshipped his stern and warlike weak man trying to prove he was paternal ancestors, and molded himself strong, he developed a habit of in the image of the Prussian military erratic posturing, alternately bullying tradition—strict, hard, pitiless, and and ingratiating. The other European powers viewed Germany as unreliable and dangerous. Churchill meets the Kaiser On the global stage The Kaiser hosted Winston Churchill during military maneuvers in 1909. Churchill described him as a man Coming to the throne at the age of 29, who wanted to be like Napoleon “without having to Wilhelm was determined to assert his fight his battles.” personal rule. He quickly disposed of the experienced Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. Weltpolitik, the theory that Germany should take its place as a global superpower, was adopted as official German policy in 1897. This expansionist outlook was not his own invention. It reflected the ideas and aspirations of a host of German nationalists, who demanded that their country should have a colonial empire, an oceangoing navy, and possibly Lebensraum (living space) in eastern Europe. For Wilhelm, diplomacy was partly a family affair. He was a grandson of Britain’s Queen Victoria, on his mother's side, and cousin to Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. These blood connections were important to him, but did not necessarily imply friendship. His attitude toward Britain in particular was contradictory. He 20

KAISER WILHELM II The Kaiser at war TIMELINE Wilhelm was sidelined by military leaders, but could not be ignored completely. ■ January 1859 Born in Berlin, the son of Prince Here, he stands between generals Paul von Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia and Princess Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff at German Victoria of Great Britain. General Headquarters in 1917. ■ February 1881 Marries Augusta Victoria, In the years leading up to Princess of Schleswig-Holstein. World War I, the German high command under General ■ June 1888 Becomes Kaiser after the death Helmuth von Moltke and the of his father, Friedrich III. chancellor, Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, dictated ■ March 1890 Forces the resignation of veteran policy. In the crisis of summer Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. 1914, Wilhelm wavered between violent assertions of ■ January 1896 Sends a personal telegram to the need for war and feeble South Africa to congratulate Boer leader Paul attempts to preserve peace. Kruger for defeating the British-backed Jameson Raid. This causes offense to Britain. veered from clear admiration to a November 1908, General Dietrich, The war years conviction that the British were intent Count von Hülsen-Haeseler, the ■ 1897 Backs Admiral von Tirpitz’s plan to build on seeking his destruction. Such Chief of the German Imperial Military Although the spirit of national a modern navy capable of challenging the instability was typical of the Kaiser, Cabinet, died while dancing in front unity that gripped Germany in British in the North Sea. as was his impulsiveness. of the Kaiser dressed in a ballerina’s August 1914 carried the Kaiser tutu. More damagingly, from 1907 to an unprecedented level of ■ March 1905 Visits Tangier to assert German Waning authority the Kaiser’s closest confidant, Prince popularity, his marginalization interests in Morocco, antagonizing France and Philip of Eulenburg, had to defend continued. He intervened in the causing a diplomatic crisis. Wilhelm liked dramatic diplomatic himself against press allegations of direction of the German war effort, initiatives, such as his unexpected homosexual behavior. but did not control it. He took a special ■ April 1907 Prince Philip of Eulenburg, appearance in Tangier in 1905, interest in naval affairs, limiting the Wilhelm’s closest friend and personal adviser, provoking the First Moroccan Crisis. Germany’s military and bureaucratic operations of the High Seas Fleet in is accused in the press of homosexual activities, Yet the language of his speeches could establishment was beginning to tire order to avoid loss of his precious initiating a major scandal. be blustering in a way that damaged of Wilhelm’s ill-considered public battleships. His attitudes showed his Germany’s international image. statements and erratic attempts to habitual instability, one moment ■ October 1908 Gives an ill-considered interview advocating genocidal policies on the to the British Daily Telegraph that includes wild Eastern Front, the next considering statements on foreign affairs. a peace initiative based on an appeal to his royal relatives. From 1916, he ■ July 1914 Assures Austria-Hungary of German lost control of senior appointments and support for military action against Serbia following the assassination of Archduke Epaulettes Franz Ferdinand. These shoulder boards formed part of the ■ August 1914 Delivers an eloquent address Kaiser’s Hussar Life to the deputies of the German Reichstag, Guard uniform. Wilhelm welcoming national unity. loved military regalia and was deeply captivated by ■ August 1916 Sidelined as generals the grandeur of parades Hindenburg and Ludendorff take control and ceremonies. of the German war effort. “ Germany is a young and growing empire… ■ January 1917 Approves the decision to resort to which the legitimate ambition of patriotic to unrestricted U-boat warfare, which will Germans refuses to assign any bounds.” bring the United States into the war. ■ November 1918 Having lost the support of his army commanders and the German people, Wilhelm abdicates and flees to exile in the neutral Netherlands. ■ June 1919 The Treaty of Versailles attempts to prosecute Wilhelm for “supreme offense against international morality.” The Dutch government refuses to extradite him. ■ November 1922 After the death of Victoria Augusta, Wilhelm marries his second wife, Princess Hermine Reuss of Greiz. ■ June 1941 Dies in his country house at Doorn in the Netherlands. KAISER WILHELM II, INTERVIEW IN BRITAIN’S DAILY TELEGRAPH, OCTOBER 28, 1908 In 1900, he told German troops sent to exercise personal diplomacy. The last was forced to accept the ascendancy WILHELM AND HERMINE IN EXILE suppress the Boxer Rebellion in China straw was an interview the Kaiser of General Erich Ludendorff, whom that they should behave like “Huns,” a accorded to a British journalist for the he loathed. Almost powerless, he was reference to the devastating attacks on Daily Telegraph in October 1908, in dubbed the “Shadow Kaiser.” His last European areas of the Roman Empire which he described the British as “mad exercise of authority was to sack by the hordes of Attila the Hun in the as March hares,” suggested German Ludendorff as the war effort fell apart fifth century. naval expansion was aimed at Japan, in October 1918. In November, facing and claimed to have personally shown defeat and revolution, the army Beginning in 1908, Wilhelm’s the British how to win the Boer War insisted that he abdicate. Wilhelm personal position weakened and his in South Africa. This outburst alienated was spirited away into exile in the influence on policy-making waned. His public opinion inside Germany as Netherlands, an irrelevant figure reputation was damaged by association well as abroad. as Germany entered a new era. with scandal. At a private party in 21

THE TROUBLED CONTINENT Planning for War The armies of the major European powers had long prepared for the conflict that erupted in 1914. Their military plans were a crucial factor in fueling the buildup to war, although its actual course confounded all their expectations. T he war plans of all the Continental This risky plan, based on optimistic line of fortresses on its eastern border. powers were built on the rapid assumptions about everything from the In 1911, however, General Joseph mobilization of mass armies. marching speed of German troops to Joffre took over as French commander- in-chief, and French tactics changed. European states maximized their the slowness of Russian mobilization, Offense versus defense manpower by conscripting a large was adopted in 1905. Influenced by military theorists such as proportion of their male population Schlieffen’s successor as Chief of the General Ferdinand Foch, who argued that in modern warfare the offense into short-term peacetime service. General Staff, Helmuth von Moltke would always triumph over the defense, Joffre adopted Plan XVII, prescribing an These trained men formed a reserve (known as Moltke the Younger), immediate invasion of German-annexed Alsace and Lorraine if war broke out. By that could be easily merely tinkered with 1913, the French had also managed to extract from their Russian allies, whose deployed in the 42 The number of days it details of the plan, rearmament they were financing, a event of war. would take for France to such as avoiding the promise to launch an offensive against Part-time soldiers This created armies fall to Germany, according to violation of Dutch A British soldier, British lion, and the figure of Britannia advertise a military exhibition held at the Earl’s Court of unprecedented the Schlieffen Plan. neutrality and shifting Exhibition Centre in London in 1901. size in Germany, some troops from the France, Austria-Hungary, and Russia. enveloping maneuver to reinforce the Britain, which did not have border with France. The consequences conscription, had a relatively small of violating Belgian neutrality were number of regular troops and reserves, not addressed. Germany within 15 days of mobilization. The Russians continued to have BEFORE backed up by a part-time Territorial At the time the Schlieffen Plan was Prussian victories in wars against Army intended for home service only. adopted, French war planning was separate plans for a possible war with Austria in 1866 and France in 1870–71 essentially defensive. Fearing German Austria-Hungary alone. convinced all European powers of the Plans for a war on two fronts military strength, France had built a Austria-Hungary faced a problem of need for meticulous war planning by a properly trained general staff. The assumption behind Germany’s war “ Let the last man on the right planning was that it would have to brush the Channel with PROFESSIONAL PLANNERS fight France and Russia simultaneously, his sleeve.” Staff officers trained at the Prussian War a Franco-Russian military alliance Academy had excelled in the organizational having been in place since the 1890s. REMARK ATTRIBUTED TO COUNT ALFRED VON SCHLIEFFEN, 1905 task of moving masses of men swiftly to the The German army’s Chief of the borders by rail and of supplying them once General Staff from 1891 to 1906, Alfred von Schlieffen, believed that they arrived. After a two-front war could be won only 1870, other European through bold aggression. He devised countries imitated the a plan to hurl most of the Prussian system— France, for example, German army into an annel NETH. creating its École de initial offensive against Calais Guerre in 1880. New France. Approaching via BRITAIN Ostend Antwerp Düsseldorf railroads were built Belgium, his troops would Dunkerque to facilitate encircle the French, English B Ghent I U M Maastricht 1ST ARMY Cologne mobilization, and attacking from the rear Ch Yser the drawing up of and crushing them within ELG Aachen G E R M A N Y railroad timetables was six weeks of mobilization. recognized as a vital The German troops would Boulogne Brussels 2ND ARMY staff function. then move by train to the Eastern Front and defeat Lys Lille Liège R hine the Russians. Meuse Koblenz Sambre Namur Mose lle Somme Amiens Mauberge 3RD ARMY LUXEMBOURG Som me Oise Trier Sedan 4TH ARMY Compiègne Aisne 5TH ARMY Luxembourg Ois Soissons Reims BRITISH REFORMS The Schlieffen Plan Seine Diedenhofen Germany’s plan for defeating France involved The British Army lagged an advance through neutral Belgium, the e 5TH ARMY BRITISH BOER behind Continental Verdun Metz WAR MEDAL Europe, but serious Netherlands, and Luxembourg to sweep 4TH ARMY 3RD ARMY Moselle 6TH ARMY behind the French armies, which were to failings revealed during be enveloped and swiftly destroyed. Paris Toul Nancy Strassburg Britain’s war against the Boers in South Africa Provins 2ND ARMY 7TH ARMY in 1899–1902 led to major military Seine reforms. Pushed through by War Minister Mar n Meuse KEY Seine Epinal Richard Haldane from 1905, these reforms Yonne Planned routes of e 1ST ARMY created the post of Chief of the Imperial German armies General Staff and instituted detailed planning for mobilization in case of war. German fortified town Belfort Belgian fortified town French fortified town FRANCE SWITZ. 22

PLANNING FOR WAR German troops on maneuvers in 1904, designed to deter German force across the English Channel to AFTER A crowd watches soldiers cross a pontoon bridge aggression, led to the development of take up position on the left of the during Germany’s 1912 military maneuvers. These war plans that would commit the French line, facing the border with The mobilization of European armies annual occasions were a testing ground for new tactics British to a European war. Belgium. The British were careful to in 1914 mostly proceeded with an and technology and a display of military strength. avoid any formal promise to carry out efficiency that was a credit to the From 1911, informal talks between this commitment to their French allies. professionalism of army staff officers. split objectives. The Austro-Hungarian British and French army commanders Once the fighting had started, chief of staff, Conrad von Hötzendorf, resulted in an understanding that, if The pre-1914 war plans were however, little went as planned. favored an offensive war against France were attacked by Germany, worked out in great detail by staff Serbia, and was inclined to stand Britain would send an expeditionary officers, with timetables that had to THWARTED EXPECTATIONS on the defensive against Russia. be adhered to if the military machine None of the plans of the initial protagonists But Austria-Hungary’s German allies Belgium 0.1 was to function smoothly. Collectively, worked out as they had expected. Attacking needed Austro-Hungarian forces they created a situation in which the on their eastern frontier, the French army to attack the Russians in Poland, to Serbia 0.4 mobilization of armies could only quickly discovered their troops’ relieve pressure on Germany’s Eastern with great difficulty be prevented vulnerability to defensive firepower. Front. Despite Austro-Hungarian plans Countries Britain 0.7 from leading to large-scale battles. At the same time, instead of achieving the for a “swing force” to be mobilized 1.9 The planners had written the script rapid defeat of France they had envisioned, against Serbia or Russia as required, Austria- for a Europe-wide war that could German forces were driven back at the Battle the issue was still unresolved in 1914. Hungary 3.7 be precipitated at any moment by of the Marne in September 1914 54–55 ❯❯. a single incident. On Germany’s eastern front, advancing France Russian armies suffered heavy defeats. Army sizes at the outbreak of war There was to be no quick victory for anyone. British commitments Germany 3.8 Russia’s army was substantially larger than those Russia 4.2 of other European nations, but it was poorly equipped 23 Britain’s front line of defense was its and badly organized. Britain had a relatively small Royal Navy, which had long enabled 0 12345 army, and depended on the Royal Navy for defense. British governments to adopt a Troops (in millions) detached pose in relation to European affairs. But its entente with France

THE TROUBLED CONTINENT Evolving Military weapons were being replaced by Technology bolt-action rifles with ammunition fed from a magazine. A well-trained “ Everybody will be entrenched... The soldier using the Lee-Enfield, the spade will be indispensable.” British Army’s standard rifle from 1895, could fire more than 20 rounds JAN BLOCH, POLISH FINANCIER AND INDUSTRIALIST, IN THE FUTURE OF WAR, 1897 a minute. This rate of fire was far exceeded by machine guns. The T he European armies and navies in precision engineering made it much a ball and powder down the barrel, Maxim gun, the first true machine of 1914 were the beneficiaries of easier to mass-produce weapons with and cannon firing solid shot. Navies gun, brought into active service in a century of progress in industry, complex mechanisms. Chemists went to sea in wooden sailing ships. the 1890s, fired 600 rounds a minute. science, and technology. Change was experimented with new explosives The pace of change was slow at first, The German army took to machine often not specifically driven by military that would provide a more powerful but by the 1870s a firepower guns enthusiastically, while other requirements. Railroads transformed replacement for gunpowder. revolution was under way. countries struggled to find a good the speed at which armies could be tactical use for the weapon. deployed to frontiers. New means Arming the infantry In the Franco-Prussian War of of communication, from the electric 1870–71, both sides armed their Rapid-fire artillery telegraph to the telephone and radio, In 1815, at the end of the Napoleonic infantry (foot soldiers) with breech- were adapted to military uses. Progress Wars, armies fought with smoothbore loading single-shot rifles. By the 1880s, Artillery guns (long-range weaponry flintlock muskets, loaded by ramming these already effective infantry used for bombardment) also adopted rifled barrels and breech-loading. The range of guns greatly increased, and gunners began practicing the bombardment of targets beyond their field of view. The invention in the 1870s of a hydraulic mechanism that returned the gun’s barrel to its original position after recoil cleared the way for rapid-fire artillery. Most important of all, scientifically designed shells packed with nitrate-based high explosives ensured that artillery fire Potential bomber Just before the outbreak of World War I, Russian aviation pioneer Igor Sikorski (right) built the first multiengine aircraft. These flying machines could carry a substantial load and were turned into bombers during the war. 24

EVOLVING MILITARY TECHNOLOGY “ Aviation is fine as a sport. High-explosive shells TIMELINE But as an instrument of Mass-produced in factories and fired from breech- ■ 1840s Prussia is the first European state to war, it is worthless.” loading rifled guns, these shells marked a revolutionary advance in destructive power over the gunpowder and equip its infantry with a breech-loading rifle, FERDINAND FOCH, FRENCH GENERAL, 1911 smoothbore cannons of the mid-19th century. the Dreyse needle gun. ■ 1859 In France, the army makes the first mass was more destructive. Rifled guns and radio equipment proved cumbersome The rapid developments in military movement of troops by railroad, transporting high-explosive shells were also used at on land, and armies preferred to use technology from the 1870s occurred an army to fight the Austrians in northern Italy. sea, mounted in rotating turrets aboard field telephones. during a long period of peace between steam-driven steel warships. the great powers. The Russo-Japanese BELGIAN Inventors Wilbur and Orville Wright War of 1904–05, the first conflict to MACHINE GUN, 1869 New technology developed a heavier-than-air flying use modern armaments, provided a machine between 1903 and 1905. preview of what was to come in World ■ 1860s The first hand-cranked rapid-fire By the early 20th century, armies European armies showed interest but War I. At sea, torpedoes and mines weapons are introduced, including the Belgian and navies were eager to explore other adoption of the invention was delayed proved capable of sinking the largest Montigny Mitrailleuse and the American new inventions that might give them by the brothers’ refusal to demonstrate warships. On land, troops were Gatling gun. an advantage over the enemy. Wireless their aircraft in public. entrenched behind barbed wire. telegraphy (radio), first demonstrated Invented to control cattle in the ■ 1866 British engineer Robert Whitehead experimentally in the 1890s, was in Meanwhile, airships were developed American West, barbed wire inflicted invents the first self-propelled naval torpedo. use by navies by 1904. However, early by, among others, German Count massive casualties on infantry Ferdinand von Zeppelin. From 1909, attempting frontal assaults. ■ 1870–71 In the Franco-Prussian War, Krupp’s the year in which French pilot Louis rifled artillery guns prove their effectiveness. Blériot flew a monoplane across the The old ways die hard Channel, an air craze gripped Europe. ■ 1880s High explosives such as picric acid Air enthusiasts and fantasy fiction In Europe, naval commanders (lyddite) and TNT come into widespread use writers envisaged future aerial wars continued to focus on bigger and better as fillings for artillery and naval shells, greatly with mass bombing of cities. More battleships, while army commanders increasing their destructive effect. preached the triumph of offensive spirit 12,000 The number of over defensive firepower. Openness to ■ 1884 The first recoil-operated machine gun is machine guns in technological innovation coexisted with invented by Sir Hiram Maxim. The Maxim gun, service with the German army in an attachment to venerated traditions, as it is known, is used by the British Army in August 1914. In contrast, the British such as the cavalry charge with saber colonial wars in the 1890s. Its derivatives and French armies had only a few and lance, and the infantry assault with include the German MG 08 (1908) and the hundred machine guns each. fixed bayonets. World War I would be British Vickers gun (1912) used in World War I. characterized by the contrast between soberly, armies and navies explored the the efficient exploitation of weaponry ■ 1886 Replacing gunpowder with a smokeless potential of airplanes and airships for supplied by science and industry and propellent makes rifle fire more effective. reconnaissance, integrating both into the persistence of many attitudes to war maneuvers from 1911. belonging to an earlier era. ■ 1890s European armies are equipped with the bolt-action repeater rifles they will use in World By that date, motor transportation Clément-Bayard II airship War I, such as the German Mauser Gewehr 98, was having a major impact on Built in 1910 for the French army, this airship never French Lebel, and Russian Mosin-Nagant. civilian life, but armies remained entered service. It was the first airship to fly over the overwhelmingly reliant upon horse- English Channel, and its wireless transmitter achieved ■ 1897 The U.S. Navy adopts the first successful drawn vehicles. Armored cars began to the first air-ground radio communication. powered submarine. come into service, and were used by Italy in its war with Turkey in 1911. ■ 1898 France introduces the 75 mm field gun that can fire up to 30 rounds a minute to a range of 5 miles (8.5 km). ■ 1904–05 In the Russo-Japanese War, the combination of trenches and barbed wire, artillery firing high-explosive shells beyond line of sight, and the use of field telephones and radio anticipate the warfare of World War I. ■ 1906 The British battleship HMS Dreadnought enters service, making all previous leading warships obsolescent. ■ 1911 The military use of aircraft begins as Italy drops grenades on Ottoman Turks in Libya. 25

THE TROUBLED CONTINENT 1 MAUSER GEWEHR 98 (GERMAN) 2 7.92MM X57 MAUSER CARTRIDGE (GERMAN) 5 PATTERN 1907 SWORD BAYONET (BRITISH) 7 KNIFE BAYONET (GERMAN) 8 .303 MKVII CARTRIDGE (BRITISH) 9 SHORT MAGAZINE LEE-ENFIELD (BRITISH) 11 HALES NO. 3 RIFLE GRENADE (BRITISH) Rifles The infantry was armed with bolt-action rapid-fire rifles, with ammunition fed from a box magazine. These were reliable, efficient weapons, and armies saw no need for substantial innovations during the war. 1 Mauser Gewehr 98 (German) entered service in 1898. caused the cartridge to twist and deform, inflicting more This model has been fitted with a telescopic sight for use severe wounds on the enemy. 9 Short Magazine by a sniper. 2 7.92mm X57 Mauser cartridge (German) Lee-Enfield (British) was the standard British infantry was adopted in 1905. Its use with the Gewehr 98 rifle led weapon. The rifle shown is the Mark III Star, introduced in to the name “Mauser” being added. 3 Ross .303IN MK III late 1915. 10 Berthier MLE 1916 (French) A modified (Canadian) Produced until 1916, the Ross was favored by version of the earlier MLE 1907/15, this increased the many snipers due to its long-range accuracy. However, it magazine size from three rounds to five. 11 Hales No. 3 often jammed in the muddy conditions of the trenches. rifle grenade (British) Rifle grenades, which clipped to the muzzle, provided greater range for explosives. 12 Cartridge 4 M91 Moschetto de Cavalleria (Italian) This was a belt (American) Standard issue for infantrymen, these belts shorter variant of the Carcano M91 rifle, the standard Italian enabled them to carry extra ammunition. 13 Mosin Nagant infantry weapon. 5 Pattern 1907 sword bayonet (British) M1891 (Russian) was the main weapon of the Russian Designed for the Lee-Enfield rifle, this was based on the infantry. Due to shortages, Russia issued contracts to Japanese Arisaka bayonet, but its long blade was unwieldy American firms for over three million of these rifles. in the trenches. 6 Steyr-Mannlicher M1895 (Austro- 14 M1903 Springfield (American) After encountering Hungarian) was used by Austro-Hungarian troops, who Mauser rifles in the Spanish-American War of 1898, the called it the “Ruck-Zuck” (very quick) due to its high firing United States negotiated a license to manufacture a rate. 7 Knife bayonet (German) Short and double-edged, Mauser-style rifle of its own. 15 Cartridge belt (Turkish) This this attached to the Gewehr 98 rifle and doubled as a belt with its cartridge pouches was made in Germany, as trench knife. 8 .303 MKVII cartridge (British) This version was most of the equipment used by the Turkish troops. of the Lee-Enfield cartridge had a heavy lead base, which 26

RIFLES 3 ROSS .303IN MK III (CANADIAN) 4 M91 MOSCHETTO DE CAVALLERIA (ITALIAN) 6 STEYR–MANNLICHER M1895 (AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN) 10 BERTHIER MLE 1916 (FRENCH) 13 MOSIN NAGANT M1891 (RUSSIAN) 12 CARTRIDGE BELT (AMERICAN) 14 M1903 SPRINGFIELD (AMERICAN) 15 CARTRIDGE BELT (TURKISH) 27

THE TROUBLED CONTINENT BEFORE Assassination at Sarajevo Austria-Hungary was a multiethnic state in crisis. Its stability was under On June 28, 1914, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, threat from growing discontent and his wife, Sophie, were shot to death by a Bosnian Serb in Sarajevo. This act among its Slav subject peoples. triggered a chain of events that would lead to the outbreak of war. AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN WEAKNESS A rchduke Franz Ferdinand’s visit the Austro-Hungarian authorities in not fully control one of the provinces The country’s ruler, Emperor Franz to Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The Austrian of their empire. The archduke’s Joseph, had come to the throne in 1849. Bosnia-Herzegovina, was a government had received specific planned route and schedule were His regime was splendid in its public blunt assertion of imperial authority in warning of a planned assassination publicized in advance of the visit. a recently annexed province. Even its attempt against the archduke, but the ceremonies but shaky in its political timing was provocative— June 28 was Imperial visitor foundations. In 1908, Austria-Hungary a day sacred to Serb nationalists as the The Hapsburgs of Austria-Hungary anniversary of the 1389 Battle of were one of Europe’s oldest royal Franz Ferdinand arrived in Sarajevo annexed Bosnia- Kosovo, in which a defeat by the Turks families. They took their name by train at 9:50am. He was delighted Herzegovina ❮❮ 18–19, a had cost Serbia its independence. from a castle in Switzerland. to be accompanied by his wife, who province with a mixed Serb, was usually excluded from all public Bosnian Serb separatists, who were visit went ahead regardless. To cancel ceremonies under the terms of their Croat, and Bosnian Muslim armed, trained, and organized by it, or even to mount a heavy-handed marriage. The archduke first inspected population. This annexation shadowy nationalist groups and security operation, would have been troops drawn up on the Filipovic angered Serbia, an military intelligence officers in Serbia, an admission that the Hapsburgs did parade ground and then set off for aggressive Balkan state with had been carrying out attacks against the town hall in a procession of cars. ambitions to unite the region’s Slav population under its rule. The Austro-Hungarian government felt the rising power of Serbia was a threat to its authority over its restive Slav subjects in the Balkans. EMPEROR FRANZ JOSEPH Assassin apprehended Gavrilo Princip is arrested after shooting Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife on June 28, 1914. Princip declared himself inspired by a mission to free Slavs from Austrian rule “by means of terror.”

ASSASSINATION AT SARAJEVO Waiting among the Assassin’s gun been planned and ARCHDUKE (1863–1914) crowds along the route were The assassination was organized in Serbia. seven young conspirators bent carried out with a This was enough. A FRANZ FERDINAND on assassination. Six of them Belgian-manufactured band of assassins, were Bosnian Serbs and one a Fabrique Nationale Model with Serbian backing, Franz Ferdinand was the nephew of Bosnian Muslim, apparently 1910 semiautomatic had killed the heir to the Emperor Franz Joseph. He became heir chosen deliberately to give the pistol, supplied by the throne. Austria-Hungary’s apparent to the Hapsburg throne in operation multicultural credentials. Serbian army. honor, prestige, and 1889. His relations with Franz Joseph Between them they had six bombs credibility required that were soured by his insistence on and four Serbian army pistols. the abdomen. The Serbia be made to pay. marrying an impoverished Czech couple died within aristocrat, Sophie Chotek, in 1900. He The assassination minutes, while still in The road to war was forced to agree to humiliating the car. Princip tried to kill terms in order to marry her. She was As the motorcade drove along the himself but was overpowered by Austro-Hungarian ruling denied royal status, and any offspring quay by the Miljacka river, one of the onlookers and arrested. circles were split between would be barred from inheriting the conspirators, Nedjelko Cabrinovic, hawks and doves. Chief of throne. Franz Ferdinand’s political threw a bomb that bounced off the Austria-Hungary reacts position varied over time, but he was back of the archduke’s car and the General Staff Count viewed by the Austro-Hungarian exploded. This injured a number of The news of the couple’s death was a Franz Conrad von establishment as dangerously liberal bystanders, including a police officer. shock to the Hapsburg court. There Hötzendorf had long on the key issue of Slav nationalism. The would-be assassin then swallowed was no state funeral. Franz Ferdinand sought a war with a cyanide pill and jumped into the and Sophie were interred side by side Serbia. He saw the AFTER shallow river, where he was arrested, in a private crypt at Artstetten Castle in assassinations as an the cyanide dose proving nonlethal. the Danube valley. Emperor Franz ideal pretext for military The interrogation and trial of the Angry and shocked by the incident, Joseph was privately relieved that he action. Other important figures, conspirators failed to dispel the Franz Ferdinand continued making his would never be succeeded by a including Count István Tisza, prime mystery surrounding the event. way to the town hall. The conspirators nephew he neither liked nor trusted. minister of Hungary, were more dispersed into the crowds, their “A higher power,” the emperor said, cautious, preferring a diplomatic TRIALS AND EXECUTIONS assassination bid having seemingly “has restored that order which I could solution. In the first week of July, Twenty-five Bosnian conspirators ended in failure. unfortunately not maintain.” But the implicated in the archduke’s assassination public affront to the Austro-Hungarian 47 PERCENT of the population were tried in Austria-Hungary in October Nineteen-year-old Gavrilo Princip state was gross. Although there was no of Austria-Hungary were Slavs. 1914. Sixteen were found guilty and three went into a delicatessen to buy a clear evidence that the Serbian They included Poles, Czechs, Croats, hanged. Gavrilo Princip was spared execution sandwich. Coming out of the shop, government had been directly Slovaks, Slovenes, and Serbs. Only because he had been under 20 years old when he found the archduke’s car stopped involved, the operation had definitely 24 percent of the population were the crime was committed. He died of directly in front of him. Franz ethnic Germans. tuberculosis in prison in April 1918. Ferdinand had decided to visit the injured police officer in the hospital, Austria-Hungary sought the opinion of The planning of the operation was but his driver had taken a wrong turn its ally Germany. Kaiser Wilhelm II had traced to the head of Serbian military and was trying to reverse. Seizing his been outraged by the assassinations. intelligence, Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijevic. opportunity, Princip pulled out his His advisers, including Chancellor Using the code name Apis, he also led a pistol and fired twice, hitting the Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg, Serbian secret society known as the Black archduke in the neck and his wife in agreed that Austria-Hungary should Hand. In 1917, the Serbian government had be encouraged to take decisive, but Dimitrijevic and three other Black Hand “ Sophie, Sophie, don’t die! unspecified, action against Serbia. members executed after a rigged trial. Stay alive for our children!” Whatever the Austro-Hungarian government chose to do, it could be THE OUTBREAK OF WAR LAST WORDS OF ARCHDUKE FRANZ FERDINAND, JUNE 28, 1914 assured of Germany’s support. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914 30–31 ❯❯. Within a week, a This loose guarantee of German wider European war had broken out. World backing—often referred to as the War I led directly to the collapse of Austria- “blank check”—put the hawks firmly Hungary and the fall of the Hapsburg dynasty. in control in Vienna. Austria-Hungary then drew up a series of demands 29 deliberately designed to prove unacceptable. Their rejection by Serbia would provide a pretext for an attack by the Austro-Hungarian army. No one was planning for a full- scale war. The idea was for a swift punitive invasion followed by a harsh peace settlement to humiliate and permanently weaken Serbia. However, nothing could happen quickly. Much of the army was on leave, helping to bring in the harvest. After some hesitation, the date for delivery of an ultimatum was set for July 23. Private burial Franz Ferdinand knew his Czech wife would be denied burial in the Hapsburg imperial crypt below the Capuchin Church in Vienna. He therefore specified in his will that they be buried at Artstetten Castle, Austria.

THE TROUBLED CONTINENT The Slide to War In late July 1914, an Austro-Hungarian confrontation with Serbia plunged Europe into crisis. Such situations had been resolved before by diplomacy, but this time the major powers slid with startling rapidity from peace to a long-anticipated war. O n July 23, at 6pm, the allow Austro-Hungarian officials to faced the prospect of war spreading Life as usual Austro-Hungarian ambassador take part in the investigation of those to engulf them all. The insecurity The gravity of the diplomatic crisis in July 1914 was delivered an ultimatum to the who were responsible for the Sarajevo and crises of the last decade had masked by summer holidays. Relaxation in the sun Serbian government, starting the world assassinations. The Serbians were strengthened rival alliances and distracted ordinary German citizens and cloaked the on the road to war. The ultimatum given 48 hours to accept the demands hardened mutual suspicions. France machinations of military and political leaders. demanded that the Serbs suppress of the ultimatum or face war. Serbia and Russia felt that they must stand or anti-Austrian terrorist organizations, accepted most of them but, assured fall together. Neither had the military occasions that, for Germany, it was stop anti-Austrian propaganda, and of support from Russia, rejected or industrial capability to stand up to better if the war came sooner rather outright the idea of Austrian officials Germany alone. By making no effort to than later. On July 29, he urged BEFORE operating in its territory. restrain their ally, the French in effect mobilization to support Austria- abandoned all influence over the Hungary. German war plans dictated The assassination of Archduke A diplomatic solution was still evolving situation. that this had to be directed against both Franz Ferdinand and his wife by a possible. On July 26, British Foreign Russia and France and involve the Bosnian Serb in Sarajevo on June 28, Secretary Sir Edward Grey proposed a German mobilization invasion of neutral Belgium. 1914 ❮❮ 28–29 was followed by an conference of the major powers. Kaiser interlude in which, in public at least, Wilhelm, returning from his holiday At this point in the crisis, a general war Meanwhile, in St. Petersburg, debate little happened. cruise in the North Sea, enthused over was still far from inevitable. Yet leading raged about the practicality of partial the humiliation of Serbia and suggested figures in the German political and mobilization. The Russian foreign PLANNING FOR WAR that war was no longer necessary. military ruling circle, including the minister Sergei Sazonov, fearful of Dominant figures in Austria-Hungary, notably Chief of the General Staff, Helmuth German intentions, forced through a Chief of Staff Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf, The Russian reaction von Moltke, and Prussian War Minister shift to general mobilization on the were determined to use the assassination as a Erich von Falkenhayn, decided the evening of July 30. This played into pretext for war against Serbia. They had The dominant elements within the moment for the long-predicted war the hands of the German hawks, who received clearance from Germany to take Austro-Hungarian military and with France and Russia had come. could now present themselves as whatever action they wanted. It took time for political establishment did not want Moltke had argued on previous responding to Russian aggression. Austria-Hungary to organize its blow against a diplomatic triumph. They wanted a Serbia, so through the first three weeks of July military victory to dismember Serbia the crisis appeared to subside. and bolster Hasburg authority. Thus, on July 28, Austria-Hungary formally BUSINESS AS USUAL declared war on Serbia. Maintaining a facade of normality, Kaiser To stand by while Serbia was defeated Wilhelm left for a summer cruise. by Austria-Hungary would have been Meanwhile, French president a severe humiliation for Russia. It Raymond Poincaré made a would have signaled the end of its prearranged visit to Russia to long-nourished ambition to expand its confirm the long-established influence in the Balkans and toward Franco-Russian Constantinople (modern Istanbul). alliance. The issue of So, on July 28, Russia declared the Serbia was mentioned, mobilization of its armed forces in but without the urgency those regions facing Austria-Hungary, of a matter that might but not along its border with Germany. threaten war. Suddenly the great European powers TSARIST STATE EMBLEM “The lights are going out all over Europe; we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.” ATTRIBUTED TO SIR EDWARD GREY, BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY, AUGUST 3, 1914 Naval review In July 1914, Britain’s Royal Navy conducted a test mobilization, followed by a review at Spithead. Submarines were among the ships on show.

THE SLIDE TO WAR AFTER Through 1914, there were more declarations of war as the conflict took on a global scale. Other countries asserted neutrality. THE WIDENING WAR Britain and France also brought their empires into the war 118–19 ❯❯. In Britain’s case, this included the British dominions of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and South Africa—although in South Africa entry into the war was contested by anti-British Boers. Japan, an ally of Britain since 1902, declared war on Germany on August 23, 1914 84–85 ❯❯. The Ottoman Empire entered the war as an ally of Germany at the end of October 74–75 ❯❯. NEUTRALITY Italy opted to stay neutral. It had been a member of the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria- Hungary since 1882, but with the Italian people in equal measure hostile to Austria-Hungary and hostile to going to war, in August 1914 neutrality seemed the best policy. The United States also declared neutrality 130–31 ❯❯. PUBLIC UNITY FRENCH MEDAL Combatant countries OF HONOR experienced a wave of social solidarity and patriotic fervor at the outbreak of war 32–33 ❯❯. Rallying the nation Germania, the personification of the German nation, stands ready for war in Friedrich August von Kaulbach’s 1914 painting of the same name. The German government presented itself as the armed defender of civilization against tsarist Russia in the East. On July 31, German chancellor limit the war to Russia, he was told government was horrified by the its commitment to Belgium. Britain Bethmann-Hollweg asked Moltke, that mobilization for a war on two prospect of war. An inner circle of was a guarantor of Belgian neutrality “Is the fatherland in danger?” Moltke fronts could not be changed. A German ministers had gone much further than under the terms of the 1839 Treaty answered in the affirmative. On declaration of war on France followed was publicly known in committing of London. In order to implement the August 1, Germany declared war on on August 3. British military support to France in Schlieffen Plan,the German army had Russia. The Kaiser made a last-ditch bid case of war. As fighting broke out on to cross Belgium. On August 2, for peace by sending a telegram to his Enter the British the continent, they could not carry Germany demanded right of passage cousin, Tsar Nicholas II, but the two the rest of the government with them. for its troops. heads of state were not in control. For the Germans, a crucial but More clear-cut than Britain’s ententes When the Kaiser ordered Moltke to unknown factor in the crisis was the with France and Russia, however, was The Belgians opted to fight. When reaction of Britain. The British Liberal German troops entered Belgium on August 3, Britain responded with an ultimatum demanding their withdrawal. A British declaration of war on Germany followed on August 4. Chancellor Bethmann- Hollweg, appalled at this turn of events, told the departing British ambassador, Edward Goschen, that Britain had gone to war “just for a scrap of paper.” 31

THE TROUBLED CONTINENT Pulling Together extremist in a Parisian café. This act of violence might have been expected The outbreak of war in August 1914 produced a remarkable show of solidarity in deeply on a wider scale—a struggle between divided societies. As the mobilization of mass citizen armies proceeded smoothly, those in favor of the war and those revolutionary aspirations and antiwar sentiments drowned in a flood of patriotism. against it. Instead, the outbreak of war was followed by an extraordinary B efore 1914, war was a divisive In Germany, the Social Democrats, parties of all the major European social and political solidarity. issue in Europe. Nationalists and outspoken critics of Prussian countries belonged, believed it could imperialists praised war as a militarism, were the largest party in make war impossible through Growing patriotism healthy struggle for survival. Liberals the Reichstag. European socialists took coordinated working-class resistance. and socialists denounced it as an the slogan “Workers of the world, In every country, the vast majority offense against civilized values or unite!” seriously. The Second On July 31, 1914, France’s most of people were convinced that their an evil product of capitalism and International, to which the socialist prominent antiwar socialist, Jean nation’s cause was just, a necessary autocracy. Although newspapers were Jaurès, was killed by a nationalist act of defense or the fulfillment of an often aggressively jingoistic, most Called to war obligation. Accepting the need to ordinary people were not, as their German reservists, some in defend their country against tsarist voting patterns showed. uniform and others still in Russia, the most reactionary regime in civilian dress, are mobilized Europe, the German Social Democrats A general election in France in spring at the start of World War I. voted in support of the war. Surprised 1914 brought a landslide victory for Part-time, nonprofessional and elated, Kaiser Wilhelm stated that radicals and socialists opposed to the troops, reservists were soon he “no longer saw parties, but only country’s virulently anti-German to be thrown into battle. Germans.” In Austria-Hungary, to president, Raymond Poincaré. general astonishment, even the empire’s Slav minorities showed initial enthusiasm for the war. In France, squabbling politicians buried their differences in response BEFORE If the slide to war took Europe by surprise in summer 1914, it was partly because other crises and scandals were holding governments’ attention. INTERNAL UNREST Russia faced widespread strikes that threatened to develop into revolutionary upheaval. In France, the public was preoccupied with the sensational trial of Henriette Caillaux, wife of a former prime minister. She had shot a French newspaper editor for publishing her love letters. The British were wrestling with a grave crisis over Irish Home Rule 106–07 ❯❯, which threatened civil war between Irish Protestants and Catholics, and an arson campaign by suffragettes seeking voting rights for women. SUFFRAGETTE BANNER 32

PULLING TOGETHER AFTER Unity in support of the war was never complete and did not last. Social conflicts soon resurfaced and opposition mounted. DISSENTING VOICES Socialists who opposed the war from the start included Kier Hardie in Britain, Karl Liebknecht in Germany, and Russian Bolshevik leader Vladimir Ilyich Lenin. In 1915, Liebknecht and Rosa Luxemburg formed the revolutionary Spartacus League to oppose the war. to President Poincaré’s appeal for a Britain was similarly swept by a wave Reviewing the Ulstermen HONORING THE SPARTICUS LEAGUE, BERLIN Union sacrée (Sacred Union) in defense of patriotism. This was stimulated by The Ulster Volunteers are reviewed by their founder, of the fatherland. French socialists fear of an increasingly powerful Edward Carson. On the outbreak of war, this Protestant SUFFRAGETTE (1858–1928) redirected their hostility against Germany and widespread sympathy militia, set up to fight Irish Home Rule, formed the German militarism. In Russia, widely for the plight of Belgium. Suffragettes basis of the British 36th (Ulster) Division. EMMELINE PANKHURST believed to be on the brink of a negotiated a halt to their violent revolution in the summer of 1914, campaign for women’s voting rights, Rule when it ended. Somewhat Born in Manchester, Emmeline a vast crowd assembled with banners with the government freeing reluctantly accepted by the British Pankhurst was the founder of the and icons in St. Petersburg to pledge suffragette prisoners in return for Army, Redmond’s Irish Volunteers Women’s Social and Political Union their support to Tsar Nicholas II. the movement’s support in the war. formed the basis of the 16th (Irish) (WSPU) suffragist movement. From Division. Some Volunteers refused 1903, she adopted militant tactics, “ A fateful hour has fallen to follow Redmond and continued including attacks on property and their campaign against British rule. hunger strikes, in pursuit of women’s right to vote. On the outbreak of war in upon Germany… The sword Conscript armies 1914, she dedicated her organization to support of the war effort. She called on Mobilization of Europe’s conscript women to “fight for their country as they fought for the vote.” Pankhurst is being forced into our hands.” armies—a complex operation on a vast felt her stance was vindicated by the scale—mostly proceeded smoothly. British parliament’s partial extension Millions of men and horses were of voting rights to women in 1918. KAISER WILHELM II, IN A SPEECH IN BERLIN, JULY 31, 1914 assembled, equipped, and sent by train 33 to the front. Before the war, French British trade unions also rallied behind military authorities had estimated that the call for war, canceling a planned up to 13 percent of those called up series of strikes. might not appear; in fact, only 1.5 percent failed to present themselves as Irish support instructed. There were antidraft riots Most remarkably, a perilous situation in some Russian towns and country in Ireland was transformed. The war districts, but they were the exception. broke out as Britain was about to grant Nonetheless, the popular image of the Irish a measure of self-government, smiling soldiers leaving for the front known as Home cheered by crowds is Rule. This was 715,000 The deceptive. There were opposed by the number tears, anxiety, and Protestants in Ulster, of horses mobilized by resigned acceptance, who had formed an Germany in 1914. as well as enthusiasm. armed militia, the The large number of Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF), to resist those not liable for military service such moves. Pro–Home Rule Catholics who volunteered to fight in August had responded by arming a militia of 1914 is evidence of the war fever their own, the Irish Volunteers. gripping European nations. Britain was The outbreak of the European war the only combatant country that did prevented a civil war in Ireland. UVF not conscript. Responding to an appeal leaders offered the services of their for volunteers launched by the newly militia to the British Army, which appointed Minister for War, Lord readily accepted them. Irish nationalist Kitchener, over 750,000 men had leader John Redmond also supported enlisted by the end of September. Britain in the war, calculating that this World War I was, at least initially, would ensure implementation of Home a people’s war.

EYEWITNESS August 1914 The Declaration of War The outbreak of war in the summer of 1914 was greeted with a range of emotions from the people of Europe. Most imagined it would be a brief conflict, with short, murderous battles and a clear result. Thousands of young men immediately rushed to take part in the glory, while mobilization papers soon took others—fathers, brothers, and sons—away from their worried families. “Up and down the wide road… crowds paced incessantly by day and night, singing the German war songs: ‘Was blasen die Trompeten?’, which is the finest, ‘Deutschland, Deutschland über Alles,’ which comes next, and ‘Die Wacht am Rhein,’ which was most popular. As I walked to and fro among the patriot crowds, I came to know many of the circling and returning faces by sight… Sometimes a company of infantry, sometimes a squadron of horses went down the road westward, wearing the new grey uniforms in place of the familiar Prussian blue… Sometimes the Kaiser in full uniform swept along in his fine motor, cheered he was certainly… [But] the most mighty storm of cheering was reserved for the crown prince, known to be at variance with his father in longing ”to test his imagined genius in the field. MR. H.W. NEVINSON, A CORRESPONDENT FOR THE LONDON DAILY NEWS, IN BERLIN DURING THE FIRST DAYS OF AUGUST 1914 “‘The tocsin!’ cried someone in the field. ‘There’s a fire in the fields!’ Then we saw men running… Soon the field was swept with a wave of agitation. My husband and I stared without understanding before we heard, right in our faces, the news that a neighbor, in his turn, was yelling, ‘War! It’s war!’ Then, we dropped our tools… and joined the crowd, running as fast as our legs could carry us, to the farmhouse. The men usually so calm… were seized with frenzy. Horses entered at quick trot, whipped by their drivers, while the oxen, goaded until they bled, hurried in reluctantly. In this coming and going of wagons and animals, I could hear disjointed phrases: ‘General mobilization…’, ‘What a misfortune, what an awful misfortune!’, ‘I’ll have to leave right away!’, ‘It was all bound ”to come to this.’ MÉMÉ SANTERRE, A WEAVER FROM A FRENCH VILLAGE NEAR THE BELGIAN BORDER War is declared News of the much-anticipated announcement of war in August 1914 drew huge crowds onto the streets of Berlin. It was greeted with a mixture of solemnity and excitement, for a swift victory was expected. 34





2 NOT OVER BY CHRISTMAS DECEMBER 1914 When Europe went to war in summer 1914, most people expected a decisive victory for one side or the other by the year’s end. In fact, although battles were fought on a vast scale, costing hundreds of thousands of lives, the outcome of the war remained undecided.

NOT OVER BY CHRISTMAS 1914 NOT OVER BY CHRISTMAS Britain’s naval supremacy King Albert I of Belgium At the Battle of allows it to impose a blockade leads his nation’s defiance of Tannenberg on the on Germany from the start Eastern Front in August of the war. Its warship German military might. 1914, cavalry play an HMS Queen Elizabeth, Belgium is overrun by the important role in the launched in 1913, was a German army and subjected fighting between Russia super-dreadnought, at the to brutal reprisals for alleged and the Central Powers. time the world’s most advanced battleship. acts of resistance. ICELAND Y A N NORW SWEDE EUROPE N O R W AY BRITAIN SWEDEN FAEROE ISLANDS GERMANY (Denmark) tic Sea AT L A N T I C AUSTRIA- RUSSIAN EMPIRE FRANCE HUNGARY OCEAN I TA LY Black Sea Caspian Sea PORTUGAL S PA I N TUNISIA OTTOMAN N DENMARK Bal SPANISH MOROCCO EMPIRE P E R S I A AFGHANISTA North MOROCCO CYPRUS Sea TIBET NETH. G E R M A N Y (autonomous) BRITAIN RUSSIAN ALGERIA LIBYA KUWAIT BAHRAIN NEPAL EMPIRE RIO DE ORO EGYPT QATAR INDIA HEJAZ NEJD TRUCIAL BEL. LUX. ANGLO- (Saudi) OMAN EGYPTIAN OMAN FRANCE AUSTRIA- FRENCH WEST AFRICA SUDAN HADHRAMAUT HUNGARY SWITZ. GAMBIA TOGO FRENCH (British mandate) ADEN PROTECTORATE PORTUGUESE GUINEA FRENCH SOMALILAND EQUATORIAL ERITREA BRITISH SIERRA LEONE NIGERIA AFRICA ABYSSINIA CEYLON SERBIA ROMANIA LIBERIA CAMEROON SOMALILAND IT BULGARIA B l a c k S e a GOLD ITALIAN ALY MONT. COAST BRITISH EAST AFRICA SOMALILAND INDIAN RIO MUNI PORTUGAL SPAIN ALB. (Spain) FRENCH BELGIAN GERMAN EAST CONGO AFRICA CONGO OTTOMAN OCEAN M edite GREECE EMP I R E nean S ANGOLA TUNISIA (France) r r a DODECANESE NORTHERN (Italy) ALGERIA RHODESIA SOUTHERN MADAGASCAR (France) MOROCCO e a CYPRUS GERMAN RHODESIA (France) (Britain) SOUTH WEST BECHUANA- PORTUGUESE LIBYA AFRICA LAND EAST (Italy) AFRICA EGYPT (Britain) UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA General Joseph Gallieni is Ottoman Turkey joins the war on The King’s African Rifles, a entrusted with the defense of the side of the Central Powers in late British colonial force, fight the Paris in 1914. He leads the October 1914. Russia declares war Germans in East Africa. German counterattack against the flank on Turkey after it bombs Russian colonial troops sustain a of invading German forces in Black Sea ports. guerrilla campaign throughout September, using taxis to move the war, led by Colonel troops from Paris to the front. Lettow-Vorbeck. I n August 1914, Germany implemented the Schlieffen Plan. counteroffensive at the Battle of the Marne. Germany was denied its German leaders intended to defeat France in six weeks before swift victory and a series of battles progressing northward to Ypres turning to fight the Russians on the Eastern Front. Courageous and the Yser River left both sides dug into trenches by December resistance from the Belgians, although soon swept aside, slowed the 1914. Meanwhile, on the Eastern Front, a Russian invasion of advance of the main German armies into northern France. The French Germany was halted at Tannenberg. In warfare involving large-scale suffered tremendous losses attacking Germany’s western border but, maneuvers, the Russians generally performed better than Austria- aided by the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), turned the tide with a Hungary but lost when fighting German forces. 38

NOT OVER BY CHRISTMAS 1914 1914 GREENLAND CANADA NEWFOUNDLAND CHINA JAPANESE The Japanese Siege of Tsingtao, a UNITED STATES EMPIRE German naval base on the Shantung OF AMERICA Peninsula of China, is the first of several successful Japanese assaults on German territory in the Pacific. BRITISH HONDURAS MEXICO CUBA DOMINICAN REPUBLIC AT L A N T I C HAITI VIRGIN ISLANDS Mariana Hawaiian PACIFIC LEEWARD ISLANDS Islands Islands OCEAN PHILIPPINE WINDWARD ISLANDS SIAM FRENCH ISLANDS HONDURAS OCEAN INDOCHINA GUAM GUATEMALA NICARAGUA BARBADOS Marshall EL SALVADOR BRITISH TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO NORTH BORNEO Islands COSTA RICA BRITISH GUIANA BRUNEI GERMAN PACIFIC TERRITORIES CANAL ZONE PANAMA VENEZUELA DUTCH GUIANA SARAWAK Caroline Islands COLOMBIA FRENCH GUIANA Gilbert Christmas Islands Island MALAYA KAISER Bismarck Nauru Ellice Cook ECUADOR DUTCH EAST INDIES Archipelago Islands Islands WILHELMSLAND Solomon BRAZIL PAPUA Islands UAY PORTUGUESE German Samoa PERU TIMOR New (Western) French Polynesia Hebrides Tonga BOLIVIA Fiji PARAG AUSTRALIA New CHILE Caledonia Kaiser-Wilhelmsland, part In the Battle of the URUGUAY THE WORLD IN of German New Guinea Falklands in December 1914, ARGENTINA DECEMBER 1914 is attacked by an Australian Vice Admiral Sir Frederick FALKLAND The Central Powers expeditionary force in Sturdee commands the ISLANDS Central Powers conquests September 1914. Only lightly victorious British squadron. to Dec 1914 defended, the territory quickly falls. Four German cruisers are sunk Allied states in the naval battle. Allied conquests to Dec 1914 Neutral states Frontiers, Jul 1914 At sea, the superiority of the British Royal Navy mostly kept the Germany’s colonies in Africa, China, and the Pacific were mostly taken German High Seas Fleet pinned in port. German cruisers stationed with ease by the Allies, including Japan, which entered the war at outside Europe when the war began threatened Allied merchant Britain’s request. Only in East Africa would prolonged German shipping but were tracked down and destroyed. A German resistance require a large-scale campaign. The entry of Ottoman squadron commanded by Vice Admiral Maximilian von Spee was Turkey into the war as one of the Central Powers extended the conflict at large in the Pacific, but after a victory at Coronel, off Chile, into the Middle East. The Ottoman sultan called for a Muslim holy war was sunk off the Falkland Islands. against the European empires. 39

NOT OVER BY CHRISTMAS 1914 TIMELINE 1914 Declarations of war ■ Germany invades Belgium ■ Battle of Tannenberg ■ First Battle of the Marne ■ Turkey enters the war ■ First Battle of Ypres ■ Start of trench warfare ■ Christmas Truce AUGUST SEPTEMBER AUGUST 1 AUGUST 16 AUGUST 24 Germany declares war Germans capture French and British on Russia. Belgium’s Liège forts, forces begin a retreat using siege artillery. from Belgium. AUGUST 3 Germany declares war AUGUST 20 AUGUST 25 on France. Brussels falls to the Belgian city of Louvain Germans. Belgian army is sacked by German French infantry withdraws to Antwerp. troops. Fortress uniform Germans retreat in East of Namur falls to Prussia after Battle of the Germans. AUGUST 4 Gumbinnen. Germany invades AUGUST 26 Belgium. Britain First day of the Battle of Indian cavalry in SEPTEMBER 5 declares war on Tannenberg between northern France French Sixth Army Germany. Russian and German counterattacks German forces. British fight SEPTEMBER 2 troops marching east AUGUST 5 rearguard action at French government of Paris. Austria-Hungary Le Cateau in France. evacuated from Paris declares war on Russia. to Bordeaux. SEPTEMBER 6 French general AUGUST 6 AUGUST 12 AUGUST 21 AUGUST 28 Joffre launches a Belgian city of Liège Austro-Hungarian Serbs drive back Clash of British and counteroffensive, the surrenders to the forces invade Serbia. Austro-Hungarians German warships at First Battle of the Marne. Germans but its forts at the Jadar River. Heligoland Bight results continue resistance. AUGUST 14 in British victory. SEPTEMBER 7 French offensive French fortress of AUGUST 7 in Lorraine begins, Maubeuge surrenders First troops of British opening the Battle after 13-day siege. Expeditionary Force of the Frontiers. (BEF) land in France. SEPTEMBER 11 Australian troops land in German New Guinea. German knife AUGUST 29 British recruitment poster SEPTEMBER 13 Russians suffer defeat at German troops AUGUST 23 Tannenberg. German SEPTEMBER 3 retreating from the British encounter German advance from Belgium Russians take Lvov Marne dig into troops for the first time at delayed by French (Lemberg) from Austria- trenches at the Aisne. Mons, Belgium. More than counterattack at Guise Hungary in Galicia. 600 Belgian civilians are and St. Quentin. SEPTEMBER 14 massacred by Germans Defeated at the Masurian at Dinant. Japan declares Lakes, Russians are driven war on Germany. out of East Prussia. Falkenhayn becomes The Battle of Mons German chief of staff. AUGUST 15 SEPTEMBER 22 Russian troops Three British cruisers advance into are sunk by a German East Prussia. submarine in the North Sea. 40 SEPTEMBER 26 First British Indian troops arrive in France. French refugees

TIMELINE 1914 “In a battle on which the country’s fate depends, every effort must be made to attack… A soldier must be killed where he stands rather than retreat.” FRENCH GENERAL JOSEPH JOFFRE, ORDER NO 6, ISSUED SEPTEMBER 5, 1914 OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER OCTOBER 1 OCTOBER 17 NOVEMBER 9 DECEMBER 16 French offensive at Arrival of Russian Australian cruiser German battle cruisers Arras is halted by the reinforcements forces Sydney sinks the shell Scarborough and Germans during the the Germans to begin German commerce other towns on the “Race to the Sea.” withdrawal from Poland. raider SMS Emden in English east coast. the Indian Ocean. OCTOBER 8 OCTOBER 19 Belgian army abandons First Battle of Ypres NOVEMBER 1 German pilot’s badge DECEMBER 8 Antwerp under begins as Germans Royal Navy squadron At the Battle of the bombardment from fight to reach the is defeated by Admiral NOVEMBER 11 Falkland Islands, the German siege guns. Channel ports. von Spee at the German offensive in British Royal Navy Battle of Coronel in Poland launches the destroys a German OCTOBER 12 OCTOBER 22 the Pacific. month-long Battle squadron commanded Germans occupy the Germans suffer heavy of Lodz. by Admiral von Spee. French city of Lille. British losses at the Battle of NOVEMBER 4 Expeditionary Force is Langemarck, known In German East Africa, NOVEMBER 12 Field Marshal moved to positions as the Kindermord. a British Indian At the First Battle of Paul von Hindenburg in Flanders. invasion force is Ypres, fierce German OCTOBER 27 defeated by German attacks are repulsed OCTOBER 15 Britain’s Royal colonial troops at Gheluvelt. First Canadian troops Navy dreadnought at Tanga. arrive in Britain. Germans HMS Audacious is NOVEMBER 16 and Russians fight in front sunk by a mine. NOVEMBER 7 Sultan of Turkey calls of Warsaw. Japanese take the for a jihad (holy war) German base of against the British Tsingtao in China. Empire. DECEMBER 10 DECEMBER 17 With opposing armies The British depose the NOVEMBER 8 NOVEMBER 21 in France and Belgium pro-Turkish Khedive of Austria-Hungary British Indian forces dug into trench lines, Egypt. Egypt becomes relaunches its invasion take Basra in southern the French launch a British protectorate. of Serbia. Mesopotamia. an offensive in Champagne. It is a DECEMBER 22 NOVEMBER 29 costly failure. On the Caucasus front, Germans launch a final the Russians launch a offensive at the First counteroffensive at Battle of Ypres. Sarikamish that crushes Turkish forces. The Battle of the Yser OCTOBER 29 Turkey enters the war OCTOBER 16 on the side of the Belgians resist the Central Powers, Germans at the Battle bombarding Russian of the Yser. Japanese Black Sea ports. attack the German Renewed German base at Tsingtao offensive at Ypres drives in China. back Allied forces. OCTOBER 30 DECEMBER 15 British and German soldiers Belgians flood land Austro-Hungarian during the Christmas Truce at the Yser Canal, forces are driven out halting the German of Belgrade by the DECEMBER 25 advance. Serbs after occupying Soldiers of the opposing the city for two weeks. armies fraternize at many points along the Barbed wire Western Front in the “Christmas truce.” British naval aircraft raid German airship sheds at Cuxhaven. 41

NOT OVER BY CHRISTMAS 1914 BEFORE The Invasion of BelgiumNeutralBelgiumwasasmallcountry, but densely populated and heavily industrialized. In 1914, it stood in the In August 1914, the Belgians fought the German army to defend their independence. path of the German attack on France. GERMAN THREATS Outraged by Belgium’s determined stand, which they had not expected, the Germans The German Schlieffen Plan ❮❮ 22–23, carried out massacres and acts of destruction that shocked the world. adopted in 1905, required the bulk of the G erman forces invaded Belgian refugees German army to advance through Belgium on August 4. Carrying a few belongings, Belgians fleeing the Belgium. On August 2, the German Immediately in their path German invasion cross into the Netherlands in ambassador delivered a note to the Belgian government, stating that the German army lay the industrial city of Liège, August 1914. About 300,000 Belgians sought was going to enter Belgium to forestall surrounded by fortresses. refuge in the Netherlands, Britain, or France for a violation of Belgian neutrality by France. Expecting only token resistance, the duration of the war. The note gave the Belgians 12 hours to decide the Germans instructed a force of Civilians pay the price on whether to allow this or go to war. The next 39,000 men, under General Otto day, Belgium informed Germany that it would von Emmich, to seize the city in Many German officers seem resist “by all means in its power.” 48 hours. to have regarded the fact that Belgium’s King Albert I Belgium fought at all as a form BELGIUM PREPARES entrusted the defense of Liège of treachery and a cause for Belgium’s army was weak, and military to the reliable General Gérard outrage. Rumors of attacks on service had only been introduced in 1913. In Leman, with firm instructions to soldiers by Belgian civilians and their favor, the Belgians had built state-of-the- hold out to the end. The Belgians of the mutilation of corpses were art fortresses at Liège and Namur. In blew up the bridges over the Meuse penetrated the city and received the rife in the German ranks and repeated addition, Britain was a guarantor of River to slow the German advance. surrender of its citadel. Most of the by the German press. In the confusion Belgian neutrality under the 1839 Treaty When Emmich’s infantry and cavalry other fortresses held out, their concrete of war fought amid towns and villages, of London ❮❮ 30–31. At the outset of war, the reached Liège, their frontal assaults on and armor plate invulnerable to it was easy for troops to convince Belgian government told civilians not to prepared Belgian defensive positions German artillery. But on August 12, themselves that they had been shot carry out acts that might give the Germans were repulsed by artillery and Krupp 420 mm and Skoda 305 mm at by civilians, when in fact they were a pretext for “bloodshed or pillage or massacre machine-gun fire, with heavy losses. howitzers—monstrous siege guns— victims of friendly fire or Belgian of the innocent population.” The great German offensive was reached Liège. Within three days the troops firing from houses. immobilized until, on August 7, staff Germans had bombarded the fortresses There is no evidence that civilians officer Erich Ludendorff and his forces into submission, and the way was resisted the Germans at all, but open for them to flood across Belgium. nonresistance did them no good. In “ Our advance in Belgium is German troops were under orders many places prominent individuals— to respond to any Belgian civilian typically the parish priest and the certainly brutal, but we are resistance with summary executions mayor—were shot. Occasionally, and collective reprisals. From the first massacres occurred. In the town of day of the invasion, soldiers shot Dinant on August 23, 674 civilians, fighting for our lives…” Belgian civilians and burned down including women and children, were houses as a punishment for alleged executed by German firing squads. HELMUT VON MOLTKE, GERMAN CHIEF OF STAFF, AUGUST 5, 1914 acts of resistance. At Tamines, the death toll was 384. German advance News of German attacks on civilians and the burning of towns and villages was inflated by rumors, such as the false allegation that German soldiers were cutting off the right hands of male children. A flood of Belgian refugees was soon fleeing from the advancing German forces. Determined to continue the struggle but incapable of facing the Germans in the field, King Albert withdrew the bulk of his army to Antwerp, which had a fortified perimeter. Brussels was abandoned to occupation by the German First Army. Farther south, the fortress complex of Namur, in the path of the German Second Army, held out for only three days after the German siege guns arrived on August 21. Effects of German bombardment Pre-World War I fortresses were armor-plated structures buried deep in the earth, with their guns mounted on rotating turrets. Only the largest German siege guns could bombard them to rubble. 42

By the third week in August, British Pickelhaube THE INVASION OF BELGIUM and French troops were beginning to engage with the Germans on M1898 Cartridge Belgian soil. As the next phase bayonet pouch of the war opened, however, there was a final paroxysm of German rage against the Belgian nation. On August 25, German troops occupying the historic city of Louvain, 19 miles (30 km) east of Brussels, fired on one another in a confused nighttime incident. Convinced they 5,521 The number of Belgian civilians who were massacred by advancing German forces during their invasion of Belgium. According to official figures, at least 14,000 buildings were deliberately destroyed. had been attacked by civilians rather than by friendly fire, German soldiers reacted ruthlessly, looting and burning the town’s buildings (including its famous medieval library), executing more than 200 people, and emptying the town of its population. The destruction of Louvain proved to be a propaganda disaster for Germany, confirming an image of the brutal “Huns” that would sustain its enemies in war for four years. KING OF BELGIUM (1875–1934) ALBERT I Albert I had come to the Belgian throne Model 1866 Scabbard in 1909 and was a popular king. As a boots constitutional monarch, he had no AFTER control over military matters until the German infantry uniform outbreak of war, when the constitution The uniform of a German noncommissioned The Germans occupied made him commander-in-chief. His officer at the start of World War I included a almost the whole of resistance to Germany was motivated by Pickelhaube (spiked helmet), made of boiled Belgium. Antwerp fell a determination to preserve Belgium as leather (no army used steel helmets in in early October, but Belgian forces an independent nation. He kept his 1914). The cloth cover prevented the held on to a strip of the Flanders army intact in 1914, first in Antwerp helmet from glistening in the sun. coast in the Battle of the Yser and then through withdrawing later that month. westward along the Flanders coast. He headed a government-in-exile in PLUNDERED NATION Le Havre, France. In October 1918, he The Germans placed Belgium under commanded Allied forces in the Courtrai military government. In 1916–17, Belgians Offensive, in Belgium, re-entering were deported to work in German factories. Brussels in triumph in November 1918. Belgian resistance workers who spied on German troop movements or aided escaping Allied prisoners of war were executed. Many Belgians also suffered from malnutrition, despite food aid from the United States. Flemish separatism was encouraged by the Germans, and the annexation of Belgium became a German war aim 202–03 ❯❯. 43

NOT OVER BY CHRISTMAS 1914 The French Uncovered kepi Offensive Tunic France’s attacking strategy at the start of the war, flawed in conception and naively executed, led to heavy losses in Alsace, Lorraine, and the Ardennes. Despite the scale of the casualties, this military disaster did not break French resolve. O n August 8, French commander- infantry. The Schlieffen Plan dictated in-chief General Joseph Joffre that the Germans should hold prepared issued General Instruction defensive positions at Morhange and No. 1, ordering a general offensive to Sarrebourg, but Crown Prince open on August 14. Two armies were Rupprecht of Bavaria, commanding in to advance into Lorraine and three Lorraine, obtained permission from into the Ardennes forest and southern German General Staff to launch Belgium. By the time the order was a counteroffensive. Celebrating victory issued, one French force had already French propaganda shows Alsace-Lorraine as a woman carried off by a Prussian in 1870 but returned to her crossed the German border. An army Forced back true French lover in 1914. Optimism about the recovery of the lost provinces proved to be premature. corps and a cavalry division under On August 20, German infantry moved BEFORE General Louis Bonneau was sent into forward after a concentrated artillery In the first week of August 1914, five Alsace on August 7 to take the city bombardment. Stunned by the power French armies mobilized on the country’s eastern borders, ready to of the German heavy guns, the French implement General Joffre’s Plan XVII. 84 PERCENT of eligible French Second Army reeled back from FAST FORWARD men were called up for Morhange, forcing the First Army French mobilization was efficiently conducted. The French First and Second military service. From 1913, the to fall back as well. By August 23, Armies faced Alsace and Lorraine, the provinces lost by France to Germany in 1871. service period was three years. the French troops, much depleted The other three armies took up positions from Verdun northward. The British in numbers, had been thrown back Expeditionary Force (BEF) was stationed to their left at Maubeuge. of Mulhouse. The Alsatians, supposedly to their starting points on the FRENCH CONFIDENCE groaning under German rule since Meurthe river. The French anticipated a German move through southern Belgium, but not the 1871, were expected to rise up against By then, the French Third and Fourth Bayonet large-scale sweeping movement planned by Hobnailed boots their oppressors. Overcoming light armies were engaged farther north, Alfred von Schlieffen ❮❮ 22. By August 14, German troops German resistance, Bonneau entered with similarly disastrous results. They were pouring into Belgium ❮❮ 42–43, but Mulhouse, triggering a fanfare from marched into the heavily wooded General Joffre remained confident of success, French propagandists euphorically Ardennes expecting to achieve surprise dismissing fears expressed by celebrating the liberation of Alsace. and find it lightly held. For the General Charles Lanrezac, who The Germans quickly counterattacked Germans, this sector formed the was commanding troops on the left and Bonneau embarrassingly innermost part of their great wheeling of the French line. scampered back across the French movement through Belgium. Their VON SCHLIEFFEN border, where he became the first of Fourth and Fifth Armies, respectively many French generals in the war to be commanded by Albrecht, Duke dismissed by Joffre. A hastily organized of Württemberg, and German Crown Army of Alsace retook Mulhouse, but Prince Wilhelm, were advancing in the French effort in Alsace was the opposite direction from the French. overtaken by events farther north German reconnaissance aircraft and soon abandoned. reported the presence of French troops, alerting Attempt on Lorraine the Germans to the The main French imminence of battle. offensive opened in Depending on cavalry Lorraine on August 14. for reconnaissance, the The French First and French plunged Second Armies crossed forward, believing that, the border, advancing as Joffre’s headquarters with banners and bands informed them, “no playing. The German serious opposition Sixth and Seventh need be anticipated.” Armies withdrew, Royal commander On August 22, the fighting stiff delaying Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria, opposing armies collided actions in which their depicted on this medal, commanded in morning fog. Both machine guns took a German forces in Lorraine in August sides suffered heavy heavy toll of the 1914. Bavaria was part of the German casualties. The rapid fire brightly clad French Empire but had its own monarchy. of the French 75 mm 44

THE FRENCH OFFENSIVE Regimental “ In an instant it had AFTER markings become clear that all the courage in the At the same time that French world could not offensives failed in Lorraine and the withstand this fire.” Ardennes, French and British forces encountered the main German armies CHARLES DE GAULLE, A PLATOON COMMANDER IN THE advancing through Belgium. FRENCH FIFTH ARMY, AUGUST 1914 SAMBRE AND MONS Cartridge pouch field guns slaughtered German troops The French Fifth Army, under General Haversack caught on open ground, but the French Charles Lanrezac, fought the German came off worse. They were too often Second Army at the Battle of the Sambre. thrown forward in futile bayonet On Lanrezac’s left, the British Expeditionary charges and reluctant to dig trenches, Force confronted the German First Army at the only effective protection against Mons 46–47 ❯❯. Overwhelmed by the artillery and machine gun fire. German forces, the French and British began a retreat from Belgium that took them 140,000 The estimated south of Paris 52–53 ❯❯. number of French casualties in the Battle of FRENCH RECOVERY the Frontiers, August 14–24, out of Departing from the Schlieffen Plan, Chief some 1.25 million troops deployed. of the General Staff Helmuth von Moltke provided reinforcements to continue the The French Third Colonial Division lost German offensive in Lorraine. In desperate 11,000 of its 15,000 men in a day. fighting in early September, France’s eastern Despite receiving orders from Joffre to line held in front of Nancy and Verdun. resume their advance in the Ardennes, Meanwhile, Joffre set about rearranging the French armies fell back in disarray his armies. On September 5, he launched a behind the Meuse River. major counteroffensive at the Battle of the Marne 54–55 ❯❯. End of the offensive Forced on the defensive, however, the By August 24, the French offensive French troops fought like tigers. The laid down in Plan XVII had clearly Germans, in their turn, discovered how failed. On the attack, French forces difficult it was to assault determinedly had proved naive, launching infantry held defensive positions. By August 26, assaults without artillery support and the French had halted their enemy in without adequate reconnaissance. front of the town of Nancy. Lack of heavy guns and entrenching equipment had proved fatal defects. African soldiers Arab and Berber troops of the French Army of Africa were brought to France from Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia on the outbreak of war. These colonial soldiers soon moved into frontline positions. Scabbard Pants French infantry uniform The French army entered the war with uniforms that made little concession to the need for camouflage. Dark blue overcoats and bright red trousers offered a clear target for enemy fire, although the red kepi was hidden by a cloth cover. 45

NOT OVER BY CHRISTMAS 1914 BEFORE The British Peak cap Britain declared war on Germany Go into Action on August 4, 1914. By the time the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) had The regular professional soldiers of the British Expeditionary Force deployed to France, the fighting was arrived in France in August 1914 to find themselves directly in the already well under way. path of the main German offensive through Belgium. They received their first taste of war at the Battle of Mons. BRITAIN JOINS FRANCE First organized in 1907, the BEF consisted of six infantry divisions and a cavalry division. Under plans discussed with the French army from 1911, the BEF was to take up position on the left of the French line. Home defense was to be entrusted to the Territorial Army and reserves. At the outbreak of war, P laced in command of the British sector. By August 16, when Field Expeditionary Force (BEF), Field Marshall French went for his first Marshal Sir John French was meeting with General Charles given written instructions by the newly Lanrezac, commander of the French appointed Secretary of State for War, Fifth Army, it was becoming apparent Lord Kitchener. These told him to this would not be the case. “support and cooperate with the Mutual incomprehension French army,” while at the same time stressing that he would “in no case Ordered by a complacent General come under the orders of any Allied Joffre to advance into southern general.” The field marshal was also Belgium, Lanrezac was convinced he instructed to take the greatest care to was about to be overwhelmed by minimize “losses German forces. He and wastage.” 100,000 The number of did not trust the How the BEF British soldiers British to protect was to remain deployed by the BEF in August 1914. his left flank, BRITISH FORCES ARRIVE AT BOULOGNE independent and By the end of the year, 90 percent especially as they intact while were killed, wounded, or missing. had arrived with however, the nervous British government wholeheartedly only four divisions insisted on two infantry divisions remaining at supporting the French was not instead of the promised six. The home. Mobilization was punctual and explained. Kitchener also sent a meeting between French and Lanrezac efficient, with large numbers of horses also personal message to the troops in ended in mutual incomprehension. sent to the front. The BEF was in position which they were advised, among other The British advanced into Belgium, around Maubeuge in France by August 20. things, to behave courteously in reaching the Condé-Mons canal on By then, the Lorraine offensive was in foreign lands and resist “temptations August 22, a day ahead of General trouble ❮❮ 44–45, and Belgium was both in wine and women.” Alexander von Kluck’s German First being decimated ❮❮ 42–43. The BEF’s position on the Belgian Army, which was advancing from the frontier at the extreme left of the east. Under orders to maintain the French line was considered a quiet pace of the advance through Belgium, Kluck mounted a frontal assault on the British, who were BRITISH GENERAL (1852–1925) in defensive positions along the far bank of the canal. The Battle of JOHN FRENCH Mons, as it became known, was a fierce skirmish. The first commander of the British Expeditionary Gunned down Force, Field Marshal Sir John French made his reputation as a dashing cavalry officer fighting The British were short of machine the Boers in South Africa. guns but the rapid rifle fire of the Appointed Chief of the Imperial General regular soldiers mowed down the Staff in 1912, he resigned in April 1914 over massed columns of German government policy on Ireland. His seniority infantry. British field artillery made him a natural choice to lead the BEF, but was pushed dangerously he soon proved to be out of his depth. He was forward, because the reluctant to liaise with the French and, after gunners were unpracticed in initial setbacks in August, was persuaded firing beyond line of sight, but only with great difficulty to return its shrapnel was brutally effective to the fight at the Battle of the against soldiers advancing in the open. Marne. Considered ill-equipped By the end of the day, the BEF had to cope with the challenges of suffered 1,600 casualties, and the B5 ammunition boots trench warfare, he was replaced Germans 5,000. Outnumbered two to by Sir Douglas Haig in one in soldiers and guns, the British December 1915. had been forced to pull back, but they were ready to resume the next day. 46

THE BRITISH GO INTO ACTION AFTER Knapsack The Battle of Mons was a minor THE GREAT RETREAT engagement, but because it was the Mons was the starting point for the Great Tunic first entry of British troops in the war, Retreat 52–53 ❯❯, in which French and Cartridge it was portrayed as an epic pouch battle to the British public. British troops marched from Belgium to south THE MONS MYTH of the Marne river, Mons was soon being compared with German armies to historic examples of British advancing behind them. forces defying much larger enemy armies, such as the Joffre struggled to Battle of Agincourt. reorganize French A popular myth developed in forces. With some difficulty, 1915 that angels had he revived cooperation with intervened to protect British the British, convincing their soldiers. The “angel of Mons” commander to resume became a standard theme the fight. of British propaganda. MUSIC SCORE COMMEMORATING BRITISH SUCCESS AT MONS To the right of the British position, from French to continue the however, Lanrezac’s army was in withdrawal, which he considered serious trouble. The French faced a impossible, Smith-Dorrien turned to large-scale attack by General Karl von fight. On the morning of August 26, Bülow’s German Second Army, which the British delivered a sufficient check had established bridgeheads across the to the Germans to allow an orderly Sambre and Meuse rivers. withdrawal later in the day, but this was achieved at the cost of some 8,000 Retreat and pursuit men, including a battalion of Gordon Highlanders who, failing to receive the Lanrezac needed to extricate his army order to retreat, fought on until all from potential encirclement and were dead or captured. destruction. On the night of August 23, he sent Joffre the unwelcome news The war had hardly begun and the that he was going to withdraw the BEF had already lost about 10 percent following day. The BEF had no choice of its original strength. but to follow Lanrezac’s example. Beginning on August 24, there was 38 The number of British field guns that were lost to the Germans at the Battle of Le Cateau during the British retreat. Pattern British uniform a series of hard-fought actions as the 1907 The British army adopted khaki British sought to disengage from an bayonet as its campaign uniform in 1897, enemy in close pursuit. Getting the replacing the traditional red coats. field guns away before they were seized was often a hazardous This camouflage increased soldiers’ operation, as batteries kept firing chances of survival, but the cloth until the very last moment, covering and leather headgear gave no the infantry as it fell back from the German advance. protection against shrapnel. The largest engagement was at Scabbard Le Cateau, northern France, where the Germans caught up with the BEF’s II Corps, commanded by General Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien, on the night of August 25. Disobeying an order “You’d have to load your rifle Retreating troops and fire, tip the case out, fire, A British officer with a head wound is helped to walk fire, fire, fire.” in the retreat from Mons. Combat against the odds, followed by a long retreat, placed immense strain upon CORPORAL BILL HOLBROOK, ROYAL FUSILIERS, AT THE BATTLE OF MONS British morale and physical endurance. 47

Retreat from Mons Richard Caton Woodville’s painting Charge of the Ninth Lancers shows British troops fighting to save a battery of field guns on August 24, 1914, the first day of the retreat from Mons. Captain Francis Grenfell of the Ninth Lancers won a Victoria Cross for his part in the incident.