World War I - The Definitive Visual History

["THE YEAR OF BATTLES 1916 1916 Russian troops inflict a major defeat CANADA GREENLAND upon Austro-Hungarian forces in the Brusilov Offensive in June. However, heavy NEWFOUNDLAND losses and poor leadership undermine the morale of Russian forces. Russian \u201choly man\u201d Rasputin is shown coming UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CHINA JAPANESE between Tsar Nicholas II EMPIRE and his wife. Rasputin\u2019s influence at court is widely resented. He is assassinated in December 1916. BRITISH HONDURAS MEXICO CUBA DOMINICAN REPUBLIC AT L A N T I C HAITI VIRGIN ISLANDS Mariana LEEWARD ISLANDS Islands WINDWARD ISLANDS SIAM FRENCH PHILIPPINE HONDURAS OCEAN INDOCHINA ISLANDS GUAM GUATEMALA NICARAGUA BARBADOS Marshall EL SALVADOR BRITISH Islands TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO NORTH BORNEO COSTA RICA GERMAN PACIFIC TERRITORIES VENEZUELA BRITISH GUIANA BRUNEI Caroline CANAL ZONE PANAMA DUTCH GUIANA Islands SARAWAK Christmas COLOMBIA FRENCH GUIANA Gilbert Island Islands PACIFIC MALAYA Bismarck Nauru OCEAN ECUADOR DUTCH EAST INDIES Archipelago Ellice KAISER Islands Cook Islands WILHELMSLAND Solomon BRAZIL PAPUA Islands UAY PORTUGUESE German Samoa French Polynesia PERU TIMOR New (Western) Hebrides Tonga BOLIVIA Fiji PARAG AUSTRALIA New CHILE Caledonia NEW ZEALAND U.S. general John URUGUAY THE WORLD IN Pershing, later commander ARGENTINA DECEMBER 1916 of American forces in Europe, leads an FALKLAND The Central Powers unsuccessful attempt to ISLANDS capture the Mexican Central Powers conquests revolutionary leader to Dec 1916 Pancho Villa. Allied states Allied conquests to Dec 1916 Neutral states Frontiers, Jul 1914 On the Eastern Front, Russia recorded a major victory against Austria- scandals at the tsarist court. Revolts broke out in the Ottoman Empire, Hungary in an offensive masterminded by General Aleksei Brusilov in where Arabs rose up against the Turks, and in Ireland where Catholic June. The victory had no decisive outcome, however. Both Russia and nationalists rebelled against British rule. In Germany, however, Field Austria-Hungary continued to fight, but their imperial regimes Marshal Paul von Hindenburg and General Erich Ludendorff took a tottered under the pressure of war. Austria-Hungary was threatened firm hold on the direction of the war. Despite severe food shortages in by rising nationalism among its Slav minorities, and in Russia German cities that fueled popular discontent, the military leadership discontent at all levels of society focused upon incompetence and geared up for a drive to victory at any cost. 149","YEAR OF BATTLES 1916 TIMELINE 1916 Battle of Verdun \u25a0 Naval battle at Jutland \u25a0 Russian Brusilov Offensive \u25a0 Arab revolt against Turkey \u25a0 Somme Offensive \u25a0 Irish Easter Uprising \u25a0 Tanks first used in combat \u25a0 Romania enters the war JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL MAY JUNE JANUARY 9 FEBRUARY 16 MARCH 6 APRIL 9 MAY 2 Russian Mosin- Final evacuation of Russians capture Erzurum Germans extend their Fresh German offensive General Robert Nivelle Nagant revolver Allied troops ends the in eastern Turkey. Verdun Offensive to at Verdun fails to break takes over field JUNE 4 Gallipoli Campaign. the west bank of the French resistance. command of French Russian general FEBRUARY 18 Meuse River. APRIL 20 forces at Verdun. Brusilov launches an JANUARY 10 German colonial forces Under American offensive in Galicia. Russians launch an in Cameroon, West MARCH 9 pressure, Germany MAY 4 It is initially successful. offensive against Africa, surrender. Germany declares war again restricts Germany suspends Turkish forces in on Portugal. submarine warfare. unrestricted submarine German Fahrpanzer, the Caucasus. warfare in order mobile artillery piece APRIL 24 to appease the JUNE 5 FEBRUARY 21 In Dublin, Irish United States. British Minister for War German troops Republicans attempt Lord Kitchener dies open an an uprising against MAY 14 at sea. offensive against British rule; it is crushed Austria-Hungary takes the French by the British army the offensive on the at Verdun. after a week. Trentino front in Italy. JANUARY 18 French temporary A nurse tends to a badly APRIL 25 MAY 15 Mass evacuation of grave marker wounded soldier German warships Germans seize Le Mort defeated Serbian troops bombard the English Homme ridge, a key from the Albanian FEBRUARY 24 MARCH 12 east coast ports of position in the French coast to Corfu begins. General Philippe P\u00e9tain Italians resume their Lowestoft and defense of Verdun. takes command of the offensive against Yarmouth. JANUARY 24 defense of Verdun. Austria-Hungary on MAY 31 Admiral Reinhard the Isonzo front. The British and German Scheer is appointed FEBRUARY 25 fleets clash in the commander of The Germans capture Fort largest naval battle of the German High Douaumont, the key French the war at Jutland, but Seas fleet. fortress at Verdun. it is indecisive. JANUARY 25 General Phillipe P\u00e9tain Invaded by Austro- Hungarian forces, MARCH 18 Montenegro surrenders. Russians launch an offensive against JANUARY 27 German forces at Lake The Military Service Act Naroch in Belarus. It is allows conscription to be a disastrous failure. introduced in Britain. JANUARY 29 MARCH 24 APRIL 30 JUNE 7 First experimental British passenger ferry The British Indian At Verdun, Germans trial of tanks is held SS Sussex is torpedoed garrison of Kut capture Fort Vaux. in Britain. by a U-boat in the al-Amara surrenders to English Channel after the Turks. JUNE 10 150 Germans resume Arab forces loyal to unrestricted submarine Sherif Hussein attack warfare. the Turkish garrison at Mecca, launching the Arab Revolt. British Victoria Cross awarded for bravery at Jutland","TIMELINE 1916 \u201cAnguish makes me wonder when and how this gigantic, unprecedented struggle will end\u2026 I wonder if it won\u2019t just \ufb01nish for lack of men left to \ufb01ght.\u201d LIEUTENANT ALFRED JOUBAIRE, DIARY ENTRY, MAY 22, 1916, AT VERDUN JULY AUGUST SEPTEMBER OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER JULY 1 AUGUST 9 SEPTEMBER 2 OCTOBER 1 NOVEMBER 2 DECEMBER 3 The British, with Italian troops take The Central Powers At the Somme, British At Verdun, the French Arab rebels defend the French support, launch Gorizia from invade Romania. forces attack the retake Fort Vaux. port of Yenbo against a major offensive at Austria-Hungary. For the first time, Ancre Heights. Turkish attack. the Somme. Britain AUGUST 27 a German airship NOVEMBER 5 loses almost 20,000 Romania declares war attacking London OCTOBER 3 Germany announces men on the first day. on the Central Powers at night is shot Raid on London by five its intention to create and invades Hungary. down by a British German airships kills an independent JULY 13 fighter aircraft. 71 civilians. Polish state. British achieve a limited The Krupp arms factory breakthrough at the AUGUST 29 British soldiers head OCTOBER 4 Somme with a surprise Falkenhayn is dismissed to the Somme battlefield Allied troops attack the night attack at as German Chief of the Bulgarians in a push toward Longueval Ridge. General Staff and SEPTEMBER 15 Monastir in Macedonia. replaced by Hindenburg Tanks are used for JULY 14 and Ludendorff, who the first time by the French launch propose a program British at Flers- counterattack of total war. Courcelette, in a at Verdun. renewal of the offensive at the JULY 23 Somme. At the Somme, Australian troops begin OCTOBER 10 British Sopwith Pup DECEMBER 6 fight for Pozi\u00e8res. Romanian forces are David Lloyd George driven out of all NOVEMBER 7 becomes British prime Austro-Hungarian Woodrow Wilson is minister. The Central territory they have reelected president of Powers occupy occupied. the United States. Bucharest. NOVEMBER 13 DECEMBER 12 British launch final Nivelle replaces Joffre attacks at the Somme. as French commander- Snow halts the in-chief. offensive five days later. DECEMBER 18 SEPTEMBER 23 OCTOBER 24 Battle of Verdun ends in Germans begin French counterattack at French victory. President construction of the Verdun commanded by Wilson circulates a peace Hindenburg Line. General Nivelle recaptures note, asking countries to Fort Douaumont from state their war aims. the Germans. DECEMBER 29 Rasputin, believed OCTOBER 25 to be an evil influence German and at the tsarist court, Bulgarian troops take is assassinated. the Romanian Black Sea port of Constanza. NOVEMBER 21 Austro-Hungarian OCTOBER 28 emperor Franz-Joseph Pilot Oswald Boelcke, dies. He is succeeded Germany\u2019s first flying by Charles I. ace, is killed in action over the Western Front. French propaganda poster David Lloyd George 151","YEAR OF BATTLES 1916 Facing Deadlock In 1916, the combatant countries were trapped in a war they could neither stop nor win. They needed to find either a basis for peace negotiations or a route to military victory, but neither strategy nor diplomacy could supply a way out of the paralyzing deadlock. BEFORE T he war had started with the an alternative to the slaughter of the expectation that a series of swift trenches, but it was slow to take effect. During 1915, both sides in the war had and decisive battles would be Through 1916, Britain applied made efforts to break the prevailing followed by victory for one side or mounting pressure on neutral states stalemate, but without lasting effect. the other. By 1916, the prospect of to limit trade with Germany and its this happening seemed remote, if not allies. In February 1916, Portugal FAILED ALLIED OFFENSIVES impossible. Instead, the war had was induced to intern German and Aerial camera become a contest of endurance, to be Austro-Hungarian ships in port at Photoreconnaissance was In the trench warfare \u276e\u276e 94\u201395 on the won by maximizing the losses and Lisbon, leading to Germany also typical of a number of technical innovations in the hardships imposed on the enemy. declaring war on the Portuguese, war\u2014ingenious and useful, but unable to break Western Front, the Allies failed to achieve a adding another country to the the military stalemate of trench warfare. General Erich von Falkenhayn, ranks of the Allies. But the growing breakthrough, while the Germans established German Chief of the General Staff shortages of food and raw materials systems in Europe, peace might have until August 1916, identi\ufb01ed Britain in Germany and Austria-Hungary, been expected to come to the forefront defensive positions of increasing strength and as Germany\u2019s main enemy. His decision although painful for the people, failed of the political agenda. Indeed, on to attack the French at Verdun in to derail the Central Powers\u2019 war effort. December 12, 1916, German depth. Hopes that landings of Anzac and February 1916 was based on the idea Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg did that France might be induced to Peace initiatives make a public peace offer to the Allies, other Allied troops at surrender and that, without its French the \ufb01rst peace initiative since the start ally, Britain would have to withdraw Given the vast scale of the suffering of the war. But it was too unrealistic to Gallipoli \u276e\u276e 110\u201313 from the con\ufb02ict. and the threat the war was posing to the survival of political and social might knock Turkey out The Allies based their strategy for 1916 on mounting simultaneous of the war proved false. offensives on all fronts to put maximum pressure on the Central Italy\u2019s entry into the Powers. But enormous losses in battle through the year brought no progress war on the Allied toward ending the war. side opened a Economic pressure new front without A British-led trade blockade of the Central Powers was seen by some bringing signi\ufb01cant British politicians and strategists as \u201c We must hope to hold our ground till the end of 1916 and \ufb01nish up with ANZAC HELMET progress. a decisive victory.\u201d EASTERN FRONT BREAKTHROUGHS FIELD MARSHAL PAUL VON HINDENBURG, SEPTEMBER 8, 1916 The Central Powers could point to more substantial successes. Between May and Fighters turned farmers September 1915, they drove the Russians British soldiers of the Seaforth Highlanders help French out of most of Poland \u276e\u276e 134\u201335, after peasants gather their potato crop in 1916. Disrupted which they tempted Bulgaria into the war and food supplies contributed to a rise in civilian deaths conquered Serbia \u276e\u276e 140\u201341. These were in countries on both sides in the war. striking victories, but they fell short of Germany\u2019s goal of knocking at least one of the three major Allied powers\u2014France, Russia, or Britain\u2014out of the war. GERMAN CHIEF OF THE GENERAL STAFF (1861\u20131922) ERICH VON FALKENHAYN As Prussian War Minister during the crisis of July 1914, General Falkenhayn bore a measure of responsibility for starting World War I. Six weeks into the war, he took command as German Chief of the General Staff. Enjoying the con\ufb01dence of the Kaiser, he resisted the political scheming of Field Marshal Hindenburg and General Ludendorff, keeping a personal grip on strategy until undermined by the failure of his offensive against France at Verdun. After his fall from power in August 1916, he dutifully accepted relegation to lower command, performing effectively as head of the Ninth Army in the Romanian Campaign and then of the German-Turkish Yilderim Force in Palestine. 152","FACING DEADLOCK be a serious gesture. The proposal Belgian soldiers on the Western Front demanded Allied acceptance of the Disagreement about the future of Belgium\u2014whose current military situation, with German soldiers were still fighting alongside the Allies in 1916 forces remaining in control of large despite their country being occupied by Germany\u2014 areas outside Germany\u2019s borders. An stood in the way of any possible peace agreement. essential objective, permanent German control of Belgium and northeast AFTER France, was clearly unacceptable to the British and French. The German The pattern of the war shifted in 1917, leadership had also become committed with the United States entering the to the goal of long-term domination of war and Russia leaving it. Central Europe, including the RUSSIA BACKS OUT 5 MILLION The number of troops Russia was the \ufb01rst major power to collapse on all sides killed, wounded, under the pressure of war. The abdication taken prisoner, or missing in of Tsar Nicholas II 210\u201311 \u276f\u276f in March 1916. Some 1.4 million of 1917 was followed by the Bolshevik these were German. seizure of power 252\u201353 \u276f\u276f in November. Austria-Hungary was also in trouble, treated as Germanization of Poland. This also an Allied victory, they had secretly through state control of industry, labor, a subordinate by Germany and facing demands ruled out any compromise with the agreed to allow Russia to take control and resources to maximize the war for independence from Slav nationalists Russians. The German \u201cpeace offer\u201d of Constantinople (Istanbul) and to effort, and unrestricted submarine 168\u201369 \u276f\u276f. Emperor Charles, who succeeded was in effect a call for the Allies to permit Italy to make territorial gains warfare, even though this was likely to Franz Joseph in November 1916, put out accept defeat. at the expense of Austria-Hungary. bring the United States into the war in peace feelers in March 1917. support of the Allies. Germany planned American mediation War escalates to defeat Russia while standing on the FRESH HOPE defensive in the West, and then launch Unrestricted submarine warfare by Germany President Woodrow Wilson also From the end of August 1916, the rise a decisive offensive in the West before in April 1917 led to the United States pursued a peace initiative as an to power of Field Marshal Paul von American troops had time to arrive in entering the war 212\u201313 \u276f\u276f. This gave uninvited mediator in Europe in 1916. Hindenburg and General Erich Europe. It was a plan that ensured the hope to Britain and France, who suffered His \u201cpeace note,\u201d issued six days after Ludendorff led Germany to adopt a war would be fought remorselessly to heavy losses on the Western Front in 1917, Bethmann-Hollweg\u2019s offer, called on all risky strategy to break the deadlock. its conclusion, one way or the other. with the French army racked by mutinies after sides to make a statement of war aims Military victory was to be achieved the Nivelle Offensive 224\u201325 \u276f\u276f. as a prelude to negotiations. This was also doomed to failure, for the Allies were no more able than Germany to pursue a compromise. In the event of","German firepower at Verdun A howitzer of the First Bavarian Foot Artillery fires on French defenses. Heavy artillery prepared the way for specially trained assault troops. The French were poorly prepared for this onslaught. BEFORE The German Offensive at Verdun In 1916, the historic fortress town of Verdun, standing on the Meuse River, On February 21, 1916, German forces attacked the French in front of Verdun, launching was an exposed, lightly held outpost one of the bloodiest battles of the entire war. The success of the initial German offensive of France\u2019s eastern defenses. was soon turned to stalemate by a stubborn French defense. FORTIFIED CITY G erman Chief of the General It included 1,200 guns, ranging from In the late 19th century, concentric rings of Staff Erich von Falkenhayn giant 420 mm howitzers to 77 mm \ufb01eld modern forts armored in steel and concrete viewed the Verdun operation\u2014 guns, and 2.5 million shells. French had been built around Verdun as part of a Germany\u2019s only major offensive on aerial reconnaissance over the sector defensive line following the Franco-Prussian the Western Front between 1914 and was hampered by German \ufb01ghter War. In 1914, the initial \ufb01ghting came to a 1918\u2014as an attack on France\u2019s will to planes. Nonetheless, hints of the halt at trench lines outside the forti\ufb01ed \ufb01ght. French morale would be hit by German preparations \ufb01ltered through perimeter. Verdun was left surrounded by the loss of Verdun or by the huge losses to French intelligence. German-held territory on three sides and sustained in defending it. supplied by inadequate road and Bad weather forced the Germans to rail links to the rear. Massive \ufb01repower postpone the offensive, originally scheduled for February 10. This gave STRIPPED OF ARTILLERY The offensive was entrusted to the French time to send in two Verdun was a quiet sector of the front. French Germany\u2019s Fifth Army, commanded divisions as reinforcements, but they commander-in-chief General Joseph Joffre by Crown Prince Wilhelm, but \u276e\u276e 56\u201357 resisted pressure to strengthen its Falkenhayn kept overall control of the Verdun fortress trench line, which was recognized as weak. battle. Through January and early An aerial photo shows Fort Douaumont, which was In autumn 1915, believing the fortresses February 1916, a huge concentration taken by German infantry in February 1916. Like other outdated, Joffre stripped the Verdun of artillery was built up opposite Verdun forts, most of its structure was underground, forts of most of their guns and garrisons Verdun, on the east bank of the Meuse. with its main guns set in rotating retractable turrets. to feed his Champagne Offensive \u276e\u276e 142\u201343. In December 1915, Verdun was identi\ufb01ed by German Chief of the General Staff General Erich von Falkenhayn as the ideal target for a powerful blow against France. 154","THE GERMAN OFFENSIVE AT VERDUN \u201c The forces of France will bleed to death\u2026 whether we\u2026 reach our goal or not.\u201d GENERAL FALKENHAYN, MEMORANDUM TO KAISER WILHELM II, DECEMBER 25, 1915 were still outnumbered two to one. Before the German offensive, General The offensive opened on the morning Joseph Joffre had viewed Verdun as of February 21 with a bombardment indefensible. Military logic dictated lasting seven hours. The French that, if attacked in strength, French forward positions were battered troops should withdraw to the west of relentlessly. To the the Meuse. Politically, rear, French artillery however, this was batteries were impossible. One eliminated, and of the dead in the early communication and \ufb01ghting was Colonel supply links cut. The \u00c9mile Driant, a politician German infantry and writer as well as an attacked in the late army of\ufb01cer, who had afternoon, the vigorously criticized specially trained Joffre\u2019s neglect of Verdun. As someone who didn\u2019t Vital supply line subscribe to the widespread French Trucks and soldiers follow La Voie Sacr\u00e9e (the Sacred troops using the defenses at belief in the inherent superiority of Way), the road that kept Verdun supplied with men and attack over defense, he turned out to munitions through 10 months of fighting. Troops going grenades and Verdun. He was now be the ideal person to lead the defense. up to the front passed the wounded coming down. \ufb02amethrowers a martyr whose P\u00e9tain\u2019s \ufb01rst step was to cancel costly density of shelling, P\u00e9tain instituted infantry counterattacks and focus on strict troop rotation. In principle, no to clear French heroic death could artillery as the means to stop the soldier was to spend more than eight German advance. Guns on the west days at the front. By early March, soldiers from Steel helmet be laid at Joffre\u2019s P\u00e9tain had restored morale and the POILUS The popular term used for stubborn French \u201cpoilus\u201d brought the their dugouts During the Battle of Verdun, German troops were issued door. If Verdun fell, French soldiers, literally meaning Germans to a halt. Falkenhayn released \u201chairy ones\u201d or \u201cshaggy ones,\u201d reserves for an attack on the west bank and bunkers. with a steel helmet, the Stahlhelm, to replace their Joffre would be a reference to the bushy beards of the Meuse, but again the French and mustaches favored by held out, defending a ridge between By February 23, leather Pickelhaube headgear. The Stahlhelm provided blamed. Wishing to French troops. their positions at C\u00f4te 304 and Le Mort Homme. Verdun had been saved, but French battalions better protection and led to fewer head wounds. avert this, Joffre bank of the Meuse, still in French the battle went on. hands, were used to batter the in the forward sent his deputy, Germans on the east bank. The issue AFTER of supply was vigorously addressed. defenses were reduced to a half or third General Noel de Castelnau, to assess As French forces built up\u2014soon half a By early March, Germany\u2019s best million French soldiers and 200,000 chance of a breakthrough at Verdun of their initial strength and were the situation. Castelnau duly decided horses were in the salient\u2014a road was had passed but their offensive made to carry the supplies they needed continued to put extreme pressure running out of ammunition and food. that Verdun must be held at all costs. to keep them \ufb01ghting. It was known as on the French army until July 1916. La Voie Sacr\u00e9e\u2014the Sacred Way. The Germans pressed forward through THE SOMME Afraid that the soldiers\u2019 morale would Because of the French commitment at Verdun, the outer trench zone toward the forts Last-ditch defense crack under the strain of the Verdun the Somme operation 180\u201385 \u276f\u276f, battle\ufb01eld, with its unprecedented planned by France and Britain for summer around Verdun. On February 25, Fort On February 25, the day on which Fort 1916, became a predominantly British German offensives at Verdun offensive. It was launched on July 1, earlier Douaumont, the largest fort, was taken Douaumont fell, General Philippe An initial German offensive east of the Marne was than British commander General Douglas Haig followed by further offensives on both sides of the river. wanted, in order to draw German troops away by the 24th Brandenburg Regiment. P\u00e9tain took command of the forces at The French position continued to deteriorate slowly from Verdun. In this, it succeeded. Germany until July, when France regained the initiative. was also distracted by the Russian Brusilov 4 March\u2013May 1 February 21 Offensive 174\u201375 \u276f\u276f. Fighting at Verdun Offensive switches to west Initial German assault on the KEY continued until December 1916, ending in east bank of the Meuse. German attack a series of French counteroffensives bank of the Meuse. French front line, Feb 21, 1916 under P\u00e9tain\u2019s successor, General Robert Fierce battles for Le Mort Meuse French front line, Feb 24, 1916 Nivelle 224\u201325 \u276f\u276f. French front line, Apr 9, 1916 Homme ridge and French fort neighboring C\u00f4te 304. Railroad Beaumont 2 February 25 Fort Douaumont Bezonvaux captured. Avocourt C\u00f4te 304 Le Mort Douaumont 6 June 7 Homme Fleury Vaux Fort Vaux captured. Marre 7 July 11\u201312 Belleville Souville Last major German Tavannes offensive, against Verdun Fort Souville. Belrupt La Voie Sacr\u00e9e 3 February 25 5 April 9 French troops to the Launch of major east of Verdun begin to German offensive on withdraw to this line. both sides of the Meuse. La Voie Sacr\u00e9e, the Souilly Meuse FRANCE road that kept French forces supplied during the battle 0 6 km N0 6 miles 155","EYEWITNESS February 21, 1916 Verdun The German army began its offensive at Verdun with a nine-hour-long artillery bombardment. Such was its ferocity that many French soldiers were buried alive in their trenches. In the afternoon, the German assault troops began their advance. The French conducted a tenacious defense and gradually mounted successful counterattacks. The fighting continued for a further 10 months at a terrible cost\u2014almost 650,000 French and German soldiers were killed. \u201cThousands of projectiles are flying in all directions, some whistling, others howling, others moaning low, and all uniting in one infernal roar. From time to time, an aerial torpedo passes, making a noise like a gigantic motorcar. With a tremendous thud, a giant shell bursts quite close to our observation post, breaking the telephone wire and interrupting all communication with our batteries. A man gets out at once for repairs, crawling along on his stomach through all this place of bursting mines and shells. It seems quite impossible that he should escape in the rain of shell, which exceeds anything imaginable; there was never such a bombardment in war\u2026 Finally, he reaches a less stormy spot, mends his wires, and then, as it would be madness to try to return, settles down in a big crater for the storm to pass. Beyond, in the valley, dark masses are moving over the snow- covered ground. It is German infantry advancing in packed formation\u2026 They look like a big gray carpet being unrolled over the country\u2026 and as they deploy, fresh troops come pouring in. There is a whistle over our heads. It is our first shell. It falls right in the middle of the enemy infantry\u2026 Through glass we can see men maddened, men covered with earth and blood, falling one upon the other. When the first wave of the assault is decimated, the ground is dotted with heaps of corpses, but the second wave is already pressing on. Once more our shells carve awful gaps in their ranks\u2026 Then our heavy artillery bursts forth in fury. The whole valley is turned into a volcano, and its exit is stopped by the \u201dbarrier of the slain. ANONYMOUS FRENCH STAFF OFFICER, DESCRIBING THE FIRST GERMAN ATTACK AT VERDUN Bombardment French infantry struggle under shell fire during the Battle of Verdun. In an impressive logistical feat, the Germans had moved up over 1,000 artillery pieces in preparation for their offensive. 156","","YEAR OF BATTLES 1916 FRENCH COMMANDER Born 1856 Died 1951 Philippe P\u00e9tain \u201cI am taking command. Inform your troops. Keep up your courage.\u201d P\u00c9TAIN\u2019S MESSAGE TO THE GENERALS, VERDUN, FEBRUARY 26, 1916 O ne of the most controversial part of French commander-in-chief \ufb01gures in modern French Joseph Joffre\u2019s response to the German history, Philippe P\u00e9tain was invasion of France, he advanced in born into a farming family in the just two months from being a colonel village of Cauchy-\u00e0-la-Tour in in charge of a brigade to a general in northern France. During the long command of a corps. peace in Europe between the Franco- Battle\ufb01eld successes Prussian War and World War I, he pursued a dull but solid army career, P\u00e9tain\u2019s star continued to rise after the taking 35 years to reach the rank of onset of trench warfare. In the Artois colonel. His humble family background offensive of May 1915, his corps was advantageous for penetrated the promotion in German lines to a Republican France, depth of 3 miles which was keen to (5 km) on the \ufb01rst dilute the aristocratic day, before being composition of the driven back by of\ufb01cer corps, but his counterattacks. Joffre attitudes marked him was impressed, and out as unfashionable. by the time of the Cautious character autumn offensive in Champagne, P\u00e9tain P\u00e9tain lacked the had an army under optimism considered his command. essential in a general. P\u00e9tain insisted on In the lectures that making meticulous he delivered at the preparations for an French war college, offensive, including he emphasized the Famous three a preliminary battle\ufb01eld dominance The preeminent French generals of World bombardment. of artillery, scorning War I were Joseph Joffre, Ferdinand Foch, Through 1915, the belief that the and Philippe P\u00e9tain. All three were honored however, he seemed attacking spirit of as Marshals of France. as ready as any other infantry could commander on the outweigh \ufb01repower. Such views were Western Front to sacri\ufb01ce soldiers\u2019 considered heresy. By 1914, P\u00e9tain was lives for limited gains. 58 years old and could expect to When the Germans launched their advance no further in his career. offensive at Verdun in February 1916, P\u00e9tain was chosen to command the Rapid promotion defense not because of any special The war changed everything, however. characteristics he possessed, but simply Commanding troops in action for the because he was available. He traveled \ufb01rst time, P\u00e9tain proved levelheaded, to Verdun on February 25, learning of reliable, and decisive. In the torrent the fall of Fort Douaumont when he of \ufb01rings and promotions that were arrived. He instantly imposed himself upon a chaotic situation. Subordinate Soldier and political leader commanders were urged to use P\u00e9tain came to prominence as a general in World artillery to stop the Germans, only War I. His simplicity of dress expressed his counterattacking with infantry where identification with the ordinary soldier. tactical advantage was to be gained.","PHILIPPE P\u00c9TAIN Meeting the troops TIMELINE P\u00e9tain visits a group of French Territorials at soup time. He was \u25a0 1856 Born at Cauchy-\u00e0-la-Tour in the Pas de unusual among World War I generals Calais region, northern France. for his habit of talking with the ordinary troops on the ground. \u25a0 1876 Joins the army, later entering the Saint-Cyr Military Academy. Maintaining supplies was of \ufb01rmness and understanding in this, Morale and discipline were duly recognized as vital by punishing ringleaders but making restored, as the French performance in \u25a0 1911 Promoted to colonel. Commands the 33rd P\u00e9tain, and he tackled the concessions on matters such the great battles of 1918 would show. infantry regiment. problem energetically. as leave and food, which were very Once again, however, P\u00e9tain was not Sensing that morale would important to the troops. Above all, he judged to be the man for the top job. \u25a0 August\u2013October 1914 Earns rapid promotion collapse if men were let the men know there would be no in the first phase of World War I, commanding exposed for too long to the more wastage of lives in futile, overly In spring 1918, it was General a division at the First Battle of the Marne. He is horrors of the artillery- ambitious offensives. The French army Ferdinand Foch, the \ufb01ercest advocate made a corps commander in October. saturated battle\ufb01eld, he was placed on a predominantly passive of offensive warfare, who was made instituted an eight-day footing, waiting, P\u00e9tain said, for \u201cthe Allied Supreme Commander. P\u00e9tain \u25a0 May 1915 Leads his corps in the spring rotation of units at the tanks and the Americans.\u201d was considered too defeatist and offensive in Artois, winning promotion to front. His orders of the day anti-British for the job, although he command of the Second Army in June. were delivered plainly, was still an effective commander-in- without bombast. He spoke chief of the French forces. \u25a0 September\u2013October 1915 Leads the Second to the soldiers, handed out Army in the failed Champagne offensive. medals, and visited the wounded\u2014a After World War I kind of direct contact scrupulously \u25a0 February-March 1916 Mounts a defense of avoided by most of the other World In the decades after the war, P\u00e9tain Verdun and prevents a German breakthrough. War I generals. was actively engaged in shaping French military policy. Faced with \u25a0 April 1916 Relieved of control of Verdun by Sidelined by Joffre spending cuts that weakened the promotion to command of Army Group Center. French army, he embraced a A national hero after the defense of defensive strategy and construction \u25a0 May 1917 Appointed commander-in-chief as Verdun, P\u00e9tain was less admired in mutinies sweep the French army in the wake France\u2019s ruling circles, where his of the Maginot Line of the Nivelle Offensive. Restores order. approach was perceived as negative. forti\ufb01cations along the To Joffre, his readiness to cede border with Germany. \u25a0 March 1918 In the German Spring Offensive, P\u00e9tain is subordinated to Ferdinand Foch. \u201c Upon the day when France had At some point, his native to choose between ruin and pessimism and bitter \u25a0 November 1918 Given the honorary rank reason, P\u00e9tain was promoted.\u201d experience of war tipped of Marshal of France. over into defeatism. CHARLES DE GAULLE, ON P\u00c9TAIN BECOMING COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF IN MAY 1917 Brought into government \u25a0 February 1922 Appointed Inspector General in World War II to stiffen of the Army, a post he holds until 1931. ground and his reluctance to order resolve, he advocated an counterattacks at Verdun were armistice in June 1940 \u25a0 September 1925 Commands the French forces unacceptable. Unable to \ufb01re a man during the German invasion sent to suppress the Riff Rebellion in Morocco. who had become the embodiment of of France. As head of the French resistance, in April 1916 Joffre collaborationist Vichy \u25a0 February\u2013November 1934 During a political promoted him to command the Army regime, he saw himself as crisis in France, accepts a government post as Group controlling the Verdun sector, restoring order to France, Minister of War. formally increasing his authority but in purging it of the vices that practice removing him from frontline had brought about its FRENCH POSTER DURING responsibility. downfall. Instead, he THE VICHY REGIME became an accomplice in P\u00e9tain suffered another rebuff when crimes against Jews and \u25a0 June 1940 Appointed prime minister. With the optimistic General Robert Nivelle resistance \ufb01ghters. France facing defeat by Germany, he agrees was promoted over his head to succeed to an armistice. Joffre as commander-in-chief in In 1945, at age 89, December. However, in May 1917, P\u00e9tain was convicted of \u25a0 July 1940 Becomes head of state of the French P\u00e9tain was appointed to replace Nivelle treason and sentenced to government at Vichy. in order to deal with widespread life imprisonment by a mutinies following the failure of the French court. He died in \u25a0 August 1945 After the liberation of France, Nivelle Offensive at Chemin des prison six years later. he is tried and sentenced to death for treason, Dames. P\u00e9tain showed a mixture later commuted to life imprisonment. Liberation of Alsace \u25a0 1951 Dies in prison on the Ile d\u2019Yeu. P\u00e9tain visits an area of Alsace retaken from the Germans in October 1917. He became a focus for conservative patriotism in the postwar years, trusted by many because of his reputation as a humane general who cared about his men. 159","YEAR OF BATTLES 1916 BEFORE The French Fight BackInitialGermansuccessatVerdunwas halted when French commander Philippe P\u00e9tain took up the reins. at Verdun FRENCH AND GERMAN POSITIONS The German offensive at Verdun \u276e\u276e 154\u201355 in February 1916 was fought to a standstill in early March. P\u00e9tain depended on From spring to winter 1916, the German and French armies remained locked in combat at artillery \ufb01re to hold back the German infantry. The most effective gun positions were on the Verdun, expending hundreds of thousands of lives in a sustained battle. In the end, France west bank of the Meuse and they were ready could claim a defensive victory, but a huge price had been paid. 259 The number of French B attles on the Western Front had a seriously detrimental effect infantry regiments (out de\ufb01ed the generals\u2019 efforts to on French morale, and the troops of a total of 330) that fought at impose a shape and sense of nicknamed Mangin \u201cthe Butcher.\u201d some point at Verdun, because of purpose on the \ufb01ghting. German P\u00e9tain\u2019s system of troop rotation. Ten days later, the Germans mounted Chief of the General Staff Erich von a full-scale assault on Fort Vaux. Its to repel German troops attempting to advance Falkenhayn\u2019s decision to use a reserve heroic defense by Major Sylvain- on the east bank. On March 6, the Germans corps to launch an offensive on the Eug\u00e8ne Raynal and his small garrison launched a second offensive, this time west bank of the Meuse in early March was one of the minor epics of the war. on the west bank. was logical: French guns were savaging German infantry broke into the his troops on the east bank. building on June 1, but the French SACRED CAUSE But the new offensive immediately held out in a maze of tunnels and The patriotic press in France turned the battle turned into a stalemated struggle for corridors, communicating with the for Verdun into a sacred cause. The narrow control of a ridge stretching between outside world by pigeon. They resisted French supply route to the battle\ufb01eld, dubbed two key French positions, Le Mort poison gas and \ufb02amethrowers, but La Voie Sacr\u00e9e (Sacred Way) by the press, Homme and C\u00f4te 304. Unable to take eventually succumbed to thirst, carried 50,000 tons of ammunition and the crest of the ridge, the attempted surrendering on June 7 with their 90,000 men to the front every week. German advance bogged down. water supply exhausted. Falkenhayn tried again on April 9, Battle raged in the air as well as on launching simultaneous attacks both the ground. It was over Verdun that east and west of the river using combat between \ufb01ghter aircraft was \u201cI thought: If massive artillery support. The German invented, with ace pilots such as the guns exhausted 17 trainloads of shells. View of the battlefield Germans Max Immelmann and Oswald you haven\u2019t This onslaught sorely tried French German soldiers use periscopes at an observation post Boelcke and the French elite of the morale, prompting General P\u00e9tain to on C\u00f4te 304, a ridge on the west bank of the Meuse Cigognes (Storks) squadron contesting seen Verdun end his order that day with the phrase wrested from the French in April\u2013May 1916. command of the air. you haven\u2019t \u201cOn les aura!\u201d (\u201cWe shall have them!\u201d). Whether encouraged or not by this Yet this only brought them up against Turning point optimism, the French held \ufb01rm. the next French defensive line at the On the whole, the aerial battle was seen anything Battle of the generals Bois Bourrus. Falkenhayn was urged won by the French, but on the ground by Crown Prince Wilhelm, commander the Germans held the upper hand into of war.\u201d In May, the Germans took C\u00f4te 304 of the German Fifth Army at Verdun, early July. On June 23, they captured and Le Mort Homme after an artillery to call off the battle, but the German Fleury, within 3 miles (5 km) of PRIVATE J. AYOUN, FRENCH SOLDIER, 1916 bombardment that in places reduced Chief of Staff had become too closely Verdun, provoking Nivelle to end his the height of the ridge by 23 ft (7 m). identi\ufb01ed with Verdun to admit it had order of the day with the phrase: \u201cIls been a failure. Meanwhile, on the ne passeront pas!\u201d (\u201cThey shall not TECHNOLOGY French side, P\u00e9tain\u2019s cautious posture 162,440 The estimated was frustrating commander-in-chief number of FLAMETHROWERS General Joseph Joffre. French soldiers killed at Verdun. The German army adopted \ufb02amethrowers The saving of Verdun in February 143,000 The estimated in 1911. They ranged from large static 1916 had made P\u00e9tain a national hero, number of devices to portable backpacks. When but Joffre removed him from control German dead at Verdun. on the battle\ufb01eld by promoting him operated, pressurized gas forced a to the command of the Army Group stream of ignited oil out of a tube. First overseeing Verdun. On April 19, pass!\u201d). On July 11, using diphosgene used effectively by the Germans against General Robert Nivelle, who shared gas for the \ufb01rst time, the Germans the British at Hooge, Joffre\u2019s belief in attack, took over attempted to storm Fort Souville. This Flanders, in July 1915, frontline responsibility, with General was a desperate moment for the French they became standard Charles Mangin in command of a troops, who successfully repulsed the stormtrooper equipment. Although division. The French infantry was soon attack. By then, however, the tide had they had some drawbacks, including being thrown forward in the wasteful already turned in favor of the French, unwieldiness and a short range, they manner P\u00e9tain had avoided. because of events elsewhere. had impressive psychological The \ufb01ght for the forts Falkenhayn had been forced to effect and were useful in clearing transfer troops to the Eastern Front in trenches. The British, French, and ITALIAN On May 22, Mangin led a brave response to the crisis caused by the Italians had their own versions. FLAMETHROWER attempt to retake Fort Douaumont. Russian Brusilov offensive in June. The Its failure, at the cost of many lives, launch of the British-led Somme 160","THE FRENCH FIGHT BACK AT VERDUN offensive on July 1 made continuing the concentration of German forces at Verdun impossible. Falkenhayn\u2019s great offensive had failed and he paid the price, losing his job as Chief of the General Staff on August 27. French success On the French side, Nivelle was now the rising star. With Mangin, he retook Fort Douaumont on October 24 in a lightning attack that combined artillery and infantry. Fort Vaux was recaptured nine days later. By the time the battle ended in December, the French had returned roughly to their position before it began. For this, some 300,000 French and German soldiers had died. Boosting French morale This war bond poster designed by French illustrator Jules-Abel Faivre combines a classic image of the French infantryman with General P\u00e9tain\u2019s famous morale-boosting order of the day for April 10, 1916: \u201cOn les aura!\u201d (\u201cWe shall have them!\u201d). AFTER The enormous number of French and German casualties at Verdun strained morale and resources on both sides. CHANGES AT THE TOP His reputation sky-high after his successes in the later stages of the battle, Nivelle replaced Joffre as French commander-in- chief in December 1916. The overambitious offensive he launched the following spring led to widespread mutinies in the French army 224\u201325 \u276f\u276f. The Germans did not launch another Western Front offensive until March 1918. Verdun was remembered by the French as their greatest sacrifice of the war. Remains of French and German soldiers \ufb01ll the Douaumont Ossuary, a memorial completed on the Verdun battle\ufb01eld in 1932. \u201c Certainly, humanity has gone mad! It must DOUAUMONT OSSUARY be mad to do what it\u2019s doing. Such slaughter! Such scenes of horror and carnage!\u201d LIEUTENANT ALFRED JOUBAIRE, DIARY ENTRY AT VERDUN, MAY 22, 1916 161","Fort Douaumont today One in a ring of fortresses around Verdun, Fort Douaumont was much fought over during the 1916 Battle of Verdun. Captured by the Germans in February, it was retaken by the French in October.","","YEAR OF BATTLES 1916 BEFORE The Easter Rising The outbreak of World War I occurred An armed rebellion against British rule in Ireland, the Easter Rising attracted at a critical moment in Irish history, as little public support and was swiftly suppressed. The execution of the rebel leaders, Britain prepared to grant the country however, outraged Irish Catholics and strengthened the Republican cause. Home Rule. W orld War I divided opinion in In January 1916, IRB leaders and Rebels\u2019 gun RELIGIOUS DIVIDE Catholic Ireland. A majority Connolly agreed to stage an uprising In 1914, before the outbreak of war, Germany had In 1914, the British parliament had passed a of people supported John on Easter Sunday, April 23. The IRB supplied the Catholic Irish Volunteers with Model 1871 bill giving Ireland an elected assembly Redmond, the leader of the Irish Party had taken over key positions in the Mauser rifles. Many of these were used by Irish rebels with limited powers. Welcomed by most in the Westminster parliament, who Volunteers, but did not control the against British soldiers during the Easter Rising. Irish Catholics, it was opposed called for the Irish to back the British by Ulster Protestants, who war effort in return for Home Rule, 116 The number of British coast on the steamer SMS Aud on April armed a militia, the which granted limited independence. soldiers killed in the 20 but there were no Volunteers to Ulster Volunteer A minority rejected Redmond\u2019s stance, course of the uprising. unload it. Trapped by the Royal Navy, Force (UVF), to resist it. seeing the war as an opportunity to the Aud was scuttled to avoid capture. The Catholics responded shake off British rule completely. 318 The number of Irish rebels Casement landed in Ireland from a by forming the Irish Volunteers. When and civilians who died. German submarine and was instantly Britain entered World War I, a political truce The Irish Volunteer militia re\ufb02ected organization. Their plan depended on arrested (the British hanged him as a was agreed with Ireland. Home Rule was this split, with a minority of its drawing the mass of Volunteers into traitor the following August). Faced enacted but deferred until the end of the war. members advocating that it reject the rebellion, since their own followers with a potential \ufb01asco, MacNeill The UVF became the 36th (Ulster) Redmond\u2019s proposal and prepare for numbered only a few thousand, chie\ufb02y revoked the order for an uprising. Division of the British Army. Many Irish a future rebellion. In addition to the in Dublin. MacNeill was induced to Pearse, Connolly, and their colleagues, Catholics also joined the British anti-Redmond Volunteers, radical issue the Volunteers with orders for a however, decided to go ahead. Army, with most forming part of the nationalist organizations included the nationwide uprising. 16th (Irish) Division \u276e\u276e 33. secretive Irish Republican Brotherhood As it happened, all the plans went The uprising (IRB), with Patrick Pearse as its main awry. The promised arms shipment IRISH NATIONALIST (1868-1916) spokesman, and the trade union\u2013based from Germany arrived at the Kerry On Easter Monday, a day later than Citizen Army, led by the socialist James planned, about 1,600 armed rebels JAMES CONNOLLY Connolly. There was broad Men of the Easter Rising seized control of key buildings in agreement among them that This painting shows the 14 Irish rebels executed for Dublin. Standing on the steps of Born and raised in Edinburgh by Irish a rising should be attempted their part in the Easter Rising in Dublin. A 15th Irish Catholic parents, James Connolly moved but disagreement about its nationalist, Thomas Kent, was also executed in May the General Post Of\ufb01ce, to Ireland as young married man, taking aims. The IRB felt that a 1916 for killing a policeman in Cork. which the rebels had taken up the position of secretary for the \u201cglorious failure\u201d would as their headquarters, Pearse Dublin Socialist Club in 1896. After a serve the cause, but others, read out a proclamation on spell in the United States from 1903\u201306, such as the Irish Volunteers\u2019 behalf of \u201cthe Provisional he returned to Dublin, setting up the chief of staff Eoin MacNeill, Government of the Citizen Army to protect trade unionists wanted German support for Irish Republic.\u201d in 1913. He joined with the Irish a \ufb01ght to defeat the British. nationalists in January 1916 and played Dubliners reacted with a leading role in the Easter Rising. German backing initial bemusement, Gravely wounded in the \ufb01ghting, he followed by a wave of was condemned to death by a British Roger Casement, a former looting as police withdrew military tribunal. On May 12, he was British diplomat and a critic from the streets. In the rest taken from the hospital in a military of colonialism, became the of Ireland, there were ambulance to the execution yard in Irish nationalists\u2019 key link isolated uprisings, but most Dublin\u2019s Kilmainham Jail. Unable to with the Germans. Casement Volunteers followed stand, he was tied to a chair so that failed to \ufb01nd recruits for a MacNeill\u2019s order to stay at he could be shot. rebel brigade among Irish soldiers in home. The British response German prisoner-of-war camps, nor was delayed by a lack of 164 would Germany send forces to invade troops in the area. Few of Ireland. The Germans did, however, the soldiers garrisoning Dublin had promise to ship arms to the Irish rebels. ammunition for their ri\ufb02es. On April 26, troop reinforcements arrived from England. Soldiers of the Sherwood Foresters, marching into the \u201cIn the name of God and of the dead generations from which she receives her old tradition of nationhood, Ireland\u2026 strikes for her freedom.\u201d PATRICK PEARSE, PROCLAMATION OF THE PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT OF THE IRISH REPUBLIC, APRIL 24, 1916","After the fighting As the rebels had conspired with Political developments after AFTER Dubliners walk through the ruins of the city\u2019s General Britain\u2019s enemies in time of war, harsh World War I led to the formation Post Office after the suppression of the Easter Rising. retribution was inevitable. Martial law of the Irish Free State in the masterminded by Michael Collins. In 1922, Used as the rebel headquarters, the building was was imposed under General Sir John south of Ireland, while parts of the Irish Free State was founded, while destroyed by British artillery fire. Maxwell, and 15 Irish nationalists were the north stayed British. Protestant-dominated Northern Ireland executed in early May. Among those city from the port of Kingstown, came who faced the \ufb01ring squad were Pearse THE RISE OF SINN FEIN remained part of the UK. under \ufb01re from rebels at Mount Street and James Connolly. The executions Sinn Fein emerged as a unifying Bridge on the Grand Canal. Ordered to outraged the Irish Catholics and won organization for Irish nationalists. FORGOTTEN ROLE make repeated frontal assaults across wider public support for republicanism In the general election held after The contribution that many Irish the bridge, the British soldiers suffered than had ever existed before. the war, Sinn Fein achieved a Catholics had made to the war effort was 240 casualties. landslide victory in Catholic forgotten. In Northern Ireland, the service The British were not insensitive to areas and set up a parliament Failure and the \ufb01ring squad the need for reconciliation. Almost in Dublin. Sinn Fein\u2019s military of Protestant soldiers at the 1,500 nationalists sent to internment arm, the Irish Republican Somme was contrasted with Further British losses occurred when camps following the uprising were Army (IRA), fought an Catholic rebels who had rebel positions were attacked by released at the end of the year. Most independence war against Britain \u201cstabbed Britain in the back.\u201d infantry, but mostly the British relied death sentences were commuted, with This prejudice still lingers on on artillery, shelling buildings held by those spared including the American- a century later. the rebels until they became untenable. born future Irish leader \u00c9amon de Driven from the burning General Post Valera. The alienation of Irish Catholic MICHAEL COLLINS Of\ufb01ce building on April 29, Pearse opinion would nonetheless prove ordered a surrender. The \ufb01ghting fatal to the continuance of British 165 ceased the following day. rule in Ireland.","YEAR OF BATTLES 1916 Intelligence and Espionage \u201c The number of agents of the German British Naval Intelligence Division Secret Police\u2026 working in our midst\u2026 under the command of Admiral are believed to be over \ufb01ve thousand.\u201d Reginald \u201cBlinker\u201d Hall. Captured German codebooks\u2014notably those WILLIAM LE QUEUX, SPIES OF THE KAISER, 1909 seized by the Russians from the cruiser SMS Magdeburg in the Baltic in late B efore World War I, tension military secrets. Much of the concern intelligence\u2014the interception of August 1914\u2014allowed Hall\u2019s code between the European powers about espionage was exaggerated, but enemy messages\u2014proved more breakers in Room 40, the British fueled anxieties that foreign agents were undoubtedly employed to fruitful. Although the experts of the Navy\u2019s secret intelligence room, to read agents and traitors could undermine sketch foreign naval ports and other French Deuxi\u00e8me Bureau were noted the German navy\u2019s radio traf\ufb01c. The national security. States developed military installations, or to search for their code-breaking skills, the information gathered permitted the organizations dedicated to gathering wastepaper baskets for war plans. most spectacular intelligence coups interception of the German High Seas foreign intelligence and protecting When war broke out, however, signals of the war were the work of the Fleet at Jutland in 1916. Military communications Of even greater importance was the French soldiers man the switchboard at a decoding of diplomatic messages. Since military headquarters on the Western Front. Britain had cut the undersea cables The communications on which armies and linking Germany to the outside world, navies depended were inherently insecure. the Germans had no safe way of communicating with their embassies. In January 1917, a message from the German Foreign Minister, Arthur Zimmermann, to the embassy in Mexico was decoded by Room 40 and passed on to the American government. 166","INTELLIGENCE AND ESPIONAGE BUTTONS WITH CODED TEXT provided the Allies with valuable TIMELINE information on the movement HIDDEN CAMERA of German troop trains. Typed \u25a0 1894 French officer Captain Alfred Dreyfus encrypted reports were either is arrested for allegedly passing secrets Spy kit smuggled across the border into the to Germany. After his sentence to life German agents employed a range Netherlands or sent to France across imprisonment, his case becomes a dividing of equipment to record and German lines by carrier pigeon. point in French politics. convey information. An invisible ink kit like this one was found The Belgian resistance movement, among Mata Hari\u2019s possessions much of which was operated by when she was arrested. Catholic priests and nuns, also smuggled people out of the country, including Allied prisoners of war and Belgians of military age wanting to join the Belgian army \ufb01ghting in Flanders. The executions of Edith Cavell and Philippe Baucq attracted world attention to these activities, but they INVISIBLE INK KIT Its instructions to the German spy scandal in 1917 when evidence Mata Hari CONTEMPORARY PORTRAYAL OF ambassador to lure Mexico into emerged of payments made by German Dutch exotic dancer Mata Hari was executed by firing ALFRED DREYFUS attacking the United States helped bring agents to antiwar elements in the squad by the French in October 1917 for being a America into the war against Germany. country, notably the left-wing journal German agent. France\u2019s wartime spy mania was \u25a0 1906 After the political triumph of his Le Bonnet Rouge. Among those arrested then at its height. supporters, Dreyfus is fully exonerated Secret agents and executed, the best remembered is and reinstated in the army. the dancer Mata Hari, whose alleged were only two among hundreds Attempts to use spies in enemy of resisters killed by the German \u25a0 1907 The French Deuxi\u00e8me Bureau, first countries had limited success. The 11 The number of people occupation forces. created in 1871, is reactivated to gather Netherlands and Switzerland, neutral in Britain executed for military intelligence abroad. countries on the edge of the con\ufb02ict, spying for Germany in the In Russia, the belief that key \ufb01gures became hotbeds of espionage activity course of World War I. in the tsarist court were German \u25a0 1909 The British government creates a secret where rival intelligence agencies agents undermined con\ufb01dence in service bureau to gather intelligence abroad operated freely. The advantage of use of exotic charms to extract secrets the regime. After the revolution that and counter foreign spies in Britain. employing \u201cneutrals\u201d as agents was from French of\ufb01cers appealed to the overthrew the Tsar in March 1917, that they were generally free to cross public\u2019s taste for the sensational. Germany actively supported antiwar \u25a0 May 1913 Colonel Alfred Redel, former head borders into enemy territory. revolutionaries, including the of Austrian counterintelligence, commits Resistance networks Bolshevik Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, who suicide after being exposed as a double agent However, counterintelligence was provided with money and a train working for Russia. organizations exercising surveillance The activity of resistance networks to bring him home from exile in over foreigners and reading letters and in German-occupied Belgium and Switzerland. After Lenin seized power \u25a0 October 1914 British Naval Intelligence telegrams generally picked up such northern France was of far more the following November, Allied agents establishes Room 40, devoted to the decoding agents quite swiftly. A total of practical importance than the work plotted against the Bolshevik regime. of intercepted German naval radio messages. 235 Allied agents were convicted of secret agents. Groups such as the Their only achievement, however, was of espionage by the Germans, without White Lady network based in the to stimulate Bolshevik paranoia and \u25a0 November 6, 1914 German agent Carl Lody is any notable intelligence emerging from Belgian city of Li\u00e8ge, for example, secret police activity. shot in the Tower of London. their activities. France had a full-blown \u25a0 October 12, 1915 British nurse Edith Cavell RESISTANCE WORKER (1865\u20131915) and four Belgian resisters, including Philippe Baucq, are executed by a German firing squad. EDITH CAVELL \u25a0 January 1917 British Room 40 cryptographers A British nurse working in Belgium before reveal German plans to induce Mexico to wage the war, Edith Cavell stayed there under war against the United States. the German occupation. A high-minded humanitarian, she became involved with \u25a0 June 1917 The Espionage Act is passed in the a resistance network run by an architect U.S., suppressing opposition to the war. named Philippe Baucq, helping wounded Allied soldiers or prisoners of war escape \u25a0 July 1917 French antiwar magazine Le Bonnet to Britain via the Netherlands. When the Rouge, allegedly funded by German agents, network was betrayed to the Germans, is suppressed. Cavell was arrested, tried, and shot. Cavell\u2019s execution was a propaganda \u25a0 October 15, 1917 Dancer Mata Hari is gift to the Allies, causing outrage in Britain executed for espionage at Vincennes in France. and the United States. Her reported last words included the famous phrase \u25a0 November 1917 Louis Malvy, a former \u201cPatriotism is not enough.\u201d minister in the French government, is arrested over alleged contacts with Germany. \u25a0 April 17, 1918 Paul Bolo, a German agent in France, is executed by firing squad. 167","Lancers on parade Polish Uhlan lancers serving in the Austro-Hungarian army parade in Warsaw on the founding of the Polish Regency Council in October 1917. Regency Poland was a client state of the Central Powers. BEFORE Slav Nationalism In 1914, Russia and Austria-Hungary World War I gave the subject Slavs a chance to fight for independence. But which side they were multinational empires. Their should take in the war was not always clear. Soldiers from oppressed Slav peoples in various large Slavic populations had long European countries served both the Allies and the Central Powers. nourished hopes of independence. T he assassination of Archduke between Russia and the Central protection against German domination DIVISION OF POLAND Franz Ferdinand by Bosnian Powers. The leading Polish nationalists and was allied with the democratic Poland had been partitioned between Serbs wishing to shake off were split over their attitude toward Western powers. Russia, Austria, and Prussia in the 18th Austro-Hungarian rule triggered World the war. The anti-Russian Josef century. Most Poles came under Russian rule, War I. Yet the nationalist aspirations of Pilsudski sided with Austria-Hungary, At the start of World War I, Pilsudski with a large population in Austrian-ruled Serbs and other Slav peoples became a while followers of the more pragmatic led a personal militia from Galicia Galicia. Substantial numbers also lived in side issue once the major powers went Roman Dmowski favored Russia, into Russian Poland, where he was Silesia and East Prussia, in Germany. There to war. Instead of rising up against on the grounds that it offered surprised not to be greeted as a were major uprisings in Russian Poland in their ruling empires, the impulse of the liberator. He was soon integrated into 1830 and 1863, suppressed by tsarist forces. subject Slavs was to support them in the Austro-Hungarian army, leading The struggle for Polish independence the con\ufb02ict. This enthusiasm rapidly a brigade of the Polish Legions that was recognized as a just cause by liberal waned, however, and mounting Slav he had helped to found. The Polish opinion across Europe. disaffection was accompanied by the Legions proved their \ufb01ghting quality efforts of nationalist leaders to exploit in the costly combat on the Eastern AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN PACT the opportunity offered by the war. Front, notably at the Battle of In 1867, the Austrian Empire, ruled by Kostiuchnowka in July 1916. ethnic Germans, made a power-sharing deal with its Hungarian population to The Polish position Polish Adrian helmet resist the nationalist aspirations of its Slav Soldiers in the Polish Army in France wore the French peoples\u2014Czechs and Slovaks, Poles and Poland stood out as a country with Adrian helmet with its distinctive emblem. This force Ruthenians, Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. By a long-established claim to 1914, Slav groups were a disruptive element nationhood, but also as the entered the fighting on the Western Front halfway in Austro-Hungarian politics. principal battleground through 1918. 168","SLAV NATIONALISM \u201cOnly the sword now carries AFTER any weight in the balance for the destiny of a nation.\u201d At the end of World War I, assured of Allied support, Slav nationalists JOSEF PILSUDSKI, 1914 declared new independent states. On the whole, Polish popular opinion was devastated and partially future of Poland, but in November POSTER (1918) FOR was initially more in favor of Russia, depopulated by the \u201cscorched earth\u201d 1916 Germany declared its intention POLAND\u2019S INDEPENDENCE with Poles in Galicia often aiding policy deployed by the retreating to found an independent Polish state. advancing Russian forces, but the Russian soldiers. It was then ruthlessly This gradually came into existence NEW NATIONS oppressive behavior of these forces exploited by Germany and Austria- through 1917\u2014it was proclaimed a In Poland, independence was declared soon swung attitudes the other way. Hungary as a source of food and kingdom and governed, in the absence on November 11, 1918. The Poles fought In fact, Polish civilians suffered at the forced labor. of a king, by a Regency Council\u2014but a major war against the Soviet Union hands of all the combatants. Before the its lack of genuine independence was before frontiers were \ufb01nalized in 1922. Central Powers conquered most of There were sharp disagreements clearly apparent. Czechoslovakia became independent on Russian Poland in 1915, the country between the German and Austro- October 18, 1918, with Tomas Masaryk its \ufb01rst Hungarian governments over the In July 1917, Pilsudski was arrested president. On December 1, 1918, South Slavs by the Germans after urging the Polish joined with Serbia to form the Kingdom Legions to reject an oath swearing of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, later loyalty to Germany. renamed Yugoslavia. Meanwhile, the revolution in Russia in Croats, Serbs, and Slovenes March 1917 and the espousal of Polish independence as a war aim by the Allies While some South Slavs in Austria- ended any hope of the Central Powers Hungary\u2014Croats, Serbs, and winning Polish support. On the Western Slovenes\u2014fought in the Austro- Front, a Polish Legion, recognized by the Hungarian army, others identi\ufb01ed with French as the \u201cPolish Army,\u201d was an already independent combatant formed from Polish emigrants to the country, Serbia. In 1916, after the United States and Canada. It fought in conquest of Serbia by the Central the epic battles of 1918. Powers, the Serbian parliament in exile in Corfu called for the creation of a Czechs and Slovaks kingdom of South Slavs. After the war, the new states came into being as the The idea that Czechs and Slovaks, Slav Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and minorities in Austria and Hungary Slovenes, the union of the three respectively, might make common peoples cemented by Allied pressure. cause had been mooted before World POLISH NATIONALIST (1867\u20131935) War I. It took solid shape in 1916 when Czech nationalists Edvard JOSEF PILSUDSKI Benes and Tomas Masaryk and Slovak nationalist Milan Stefanik created the Born in Russian Poland, Polish nationalist Czechoslovak National Council in Paris. Josef Pilsudski was twice imprisoned by the Russian authorities for his subversive These leaders worked tirelessly to activities. From 1914, he led the Polish attract Allied support for their cause. Legions \ufb01ghting for Austria-Hungary Benes and Masaryk, who were both against Russia. He collaborated with the academics, established contact with Central Powers until July 1917, when Allied leaders, while Stefanik sought he was imprisoned in Magdeburg, to create Czechoslovak Legions, Germany, after refusing to swear an primarily from prisoners of war or oath of loyalty to the German Kaiser. deserters from the Austro-Hungarian At the end of the war, Pilsudski army. The Czechoslovak proclaimed Polish independence, Legion in Russia becoming modern Poland\u2019s \ufb01rst head distinguished itself in the of state on November 22, 1918. Kerensky Offensive of summer 1917, \ufb01ghting at the Battle of Zborov. It was later drawn into the Russian Civil War. Czechs and Slovaks also fought with the Allies in France and Italy. Czech soldiers The Czech and Slovak volunteers who joined the French Foreign Legion served on the Western Front from 1915. They later formed an autonomous Czechoslovak Legion fighting alongside the French army. 169","YEAR OF BATTLES 1916 BEFORE The Battle of Jutland Germany was desperate to break the The only full-scale encounter between the German and British naval blockade imposed by Britain\u2019s fleets in World War I took place in the North Sea at the end Royal Navy, which controlled the sea of May 1916. A staggering 250 warships, including some of the routes through the North Sea and the world\u2019s largest battleships, fought a dramatic running battle, English Channel. but with no decisive result. NORTH SEA SORTIES O n May 30, 1916, Admiral Sir Grand Fleet steaming from Scapa Flow Award for heroism For a year after the British success at the John Jellicoe, commander of in the Orkneys. If Beatty encountered This Victoria Cross was awarded to Jack Cornwell, Battle of Dogger Bank \u276e\u276e 124\u201325 in the Royal Navy\u2019s Grand Fleet, the German High Seas Fleet, he was to a 16-year-old Boy Seaman. He was mortally January 1915, the German High Seas Fleet was informed by the Admiralty that lead it to Jellicoe, who would destroy it wounded while serving aboard HMS Chester, but stayed in port. In January 1916, however, the German High Seas Fleet was with his far superior weight of guns. still remained standing at his post. the \ufb02eet received a new commander-in-chief, preparing to go to sea the following Vice Admiral Reinhard Scheer. day. The information, from signals On May 31, the German \ufb02eet intelligence and the Admiralty\u2019s Room steamed northward with its battle An aggressive commander, Scheer ordered 40 cryptographers, was short on detail cruisers, commanded by Vice Admiral sorties into the North Sea in March and in April but suf\ufb01cient for action. Franz von Hipper, in the lead, and and bombarded the English east coast Admiral Scheer\u2019s main \ufb02eet following. towns of Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth. The Battlecruiser Fleet, based in the Scheer\u2019s aim was to lure the Royal Navy into Firth of Forth in Scotland, and Mighty confrontation combat on his own terms and sink enough of commanded by Vice Admiral Sir David its warships to undermine Britain\u2019s long-held Beatty, was dispatched toward the Hipper\u2019s forces consisted of 99 naval superiority. waters off Denmark\u2019s Jutland peninsula warships, including 16 modern in the expected path of the German battleships and \ufb01ve battle cruisers. The Battle of Jutland from the air sortie. There, it was to be joined by the British had 151 warships at sea, An artist\u2019s impression shows ships steaming in line, overwhelming might of Jellicoe\u2019s including 28 battleships and nine battle the formation that optimized chances for firing on the cruisers. Scheer\u2019s position was enemy. Much of the battle was fought at long range, with some guns hitting targets 10 miles (16 km) away.","THE BATTLE OF JUTLAND \u201c There seems to be High explosives AFTER something wrong with Armor-piercing shells, such as this British our bloody ships today.\u201d example, were used by both fleets at Jutland. The British lost 14 ships at Jutland, Inadequately armored British battle cruisers which was \ufb01ve more than Germany, VICE ADMIRAL SIR DAVID BEATTY, AT JUTLAND, MAY 31, 1916 proved vulnerable to shell fire, a defect but strategically the indecisive outcome worked in Britain\u2018s favor. precarious. Bad weather prevented the Queen Elizabeth class exploited by German gunners. Germans from using airships for battleships in support. ASSESSING THE DAMAGE reconnaissance. The British, for their However, the battleships Jellicoe now had a great The Royal Navy still maintained an part, did not make best use of their lagged behind, and the opportunity. If he could cut unshakable superiority in surface intelligence, as little of the information exchange of \ufb01re between off the German line of escape warships\u2014immediately after the Battle had reached Jellicoe. the rival battle cruisers of Jutland, the British had 24 battleships ready quickly turned to and force Scheer to \ufb01ght, to sail, while only 10 German battleships were It was a surprise to both sides when Germany\u2019s advantage. the High Seas Fleet would in a seaworthy condition. Scheer continued their battle cruiser forces made contact German gunnery was be destroyed. to mount occasional sorties into the accurate and the British 9 The number of survivors from battle cruisers had As a cautious man 6,094 The number of the 1,275-man crew of the insuf\ufb01cient armor. burdened with heavy British sailors battle cruiser Queen Mary. responsibilities, however, killed at Jutland, compared Tactical mistakes to 2,551 German dead. 2 The number of survivors from Jellicoe was aware of the the 1,019-man crew of the The Royal Navy had also great risks this action North Sea\u2014the next in August 1916 and the battle cruiser Indefatigable. neglected to protect their entailed. He feared that last in April 1918\u2014but without resulting in stock of weapons against in the heat of pursuit signi\ufb01cant combat. in the early afternoon. Hipper quickly \ufb01re. In quick succession, his best ships might be turned southward to draw Beatty the battle cruisers decimated by German In the wake of Jutland, Scheer pressed for towards Scheer\u2019s main force. Beatty Indefatigable and Queen submarines, torpedo the resumption of unrestricted gave chase. He had more battle cruisers Mary exploded and sank. boats, or mines. submarine warfare as the only truly valid than Hipper and four of the latest There were only 11 naval response to the British blockade. This survivors from two crews As Scheer measure was adopted in February 1917, posing totalling over 2,000 men. maneuvered severe problems for the Royal Navy Beatty\u2019s \ufb02agship, the desperately in search and effectively bringing America into Lion, was also badly hit, of an escape route, the the war 212\u201313 \u276f\u276f. only narrowly avoiding battleships of the Grand the same fate. Fleet twice had the BRITISH ADMIRAL (1859\u20131935) Germans under their When Scheer arrived guns, and in\ufb02icted JOHN JELLICOE on the scene with his heavy damage. main force, he sensed Admiral Sir John Jellicoe was appointed a chance for a major German escape commander of the Royal Navy\u2019s Grand victory. Beatty\u2019s surviving battle Fleet at the outbreak of war. His cruisers \ufb02ed to the north, while the At a crucial juncture, defensive approach made strategic four battleships, slow to pick up the however, German sense but did not satisfy the British maneuver, faced Scheer\u2019s pursuit from torpedo boats launched public\u2019s demand for dashing victories. In the rear. The British continued to lose a covering attack that the words of Sir Winston Churchill, then ships in the confused \ufb01ghting. caused Jellicoe to turn Lord of the Admiralty, he was perceived away from the pursuit. as \u201cthe only man on either side who Meanwhile, Jellicoe was drawing The British admiral was could lose the war in an afternoon.\u201d close to the battle area. Only hazily in any case convinced that, as night aware of the situation ahead of him, fell, he could position his \ufb02eet across In November 1916, Jellicoe was he deployed his ships in line of battle. the German route home and bring promoted to the post of First Sea Lord, At 6:30pm, the rival \ufb02eets emerged them to battle at daylight. Instead, and effectively sidelined. In December from thickening mist. Scheer was under cover of darkness, Scheer cut 1917, he was dismissed. taken by surprise. Facing a formidable behind Jellicoe\u2019s battleships and forced line of British warships 6 miles (10 km) a passage through the destroyers and 171 long across his bows, he turned cruisers at the rear of the British line. behind a smoke screen and headed There was \ufb01erce \ufb01ghting through toward home. the night. Among the ships sunk was the German pre-dreadnought battleship SMS Pommern, hit by torpedoes from a British destroyer. All hands were lost. When day broke, Jellicoe learned that the bulk of the German \ufb02eet had slipped past him and was almost home. \u201cEverything in the ship went quiet, the \ufb02oor of the turret was bulged up and the guns were absolutely useless.\u201d PETTY OFFICER ERNEST FRANCIS, ON BOARD HMS QUEEN MARY","EYEWITNESS May 31\u2013 June 1, 1916 On Board the SMS &GTH\u0183KPIGT Later nicknamed Iron Dog by British sailors, the Derfflinger participated in the sinking of two Royal Navy vessels, the Queen Mary and Invincible, during the course of the Battle of Jutland. But it did not escape unscathed. The Derfflinger received the highest casualty rate of any ship not sunk, with 157 men killed and 26 wounded, and was under repair for nearly five months after the battle. \u201cI selected a target and fired as rapidly as possible\u2026 And all the time we were steaming at full speed into this inferno, offering a splendid target to the enemy\u2026 Salvo after salvo fell around us, hit after hit struck our ship. A 38 cm [15 in] shell pierced the armor of the \u2018Caesar\u2019 turret and exploded inside. The brave turret commander, Lieutenant Commander von Boltenstern, had both his legs torn off and with him nearly the whole gun crew was killed\u2026 The burning cartridge- cases emitted great tongues of flame which shot up out of the turrets as high as a house\u2026 another shell pierced the roof of the \u2018Dora\u2019 turret\u2026 and exploded. The same horrors ensued. With the exception of one single man, who was thrown by the concussion through the turret entrance, the whole turret crew of eighty men\u2026 was killed instantly. From both after-turrets great flames were now spurting, mingled with clouds of yellow smoke, two ghastly pyres\u2026 The enemy had got our range excellently\u2026 A terrific roar, a tremendous explosion and then darkness in which we felt a colossal blow. The whole conning tower seemed to be hurled into the air\u2026 and then to flutter trembling into its former position. A heavy shell had struck the fore-control about 50 cm [20 in] in front of me. The shell exploded, but failed to pierce the thick armor\u2026 Poisonous greenish-yellow gases poured through the apertures into our control. I called out: \u2018Down gas masks!\u2019 and immediately every man pulled down his gas mask over his face\u2026 We could scarcely see anything of the enemy, who were disposed in a great semicircle around us. All we could see was the great reddish-gold flames \u201dspurting from the guns. COMMANDER GEORG VON HASE, FIRST GUNNERY OFFICER ON THE SMS DERFFLINGER, FROM HIS BOOK KIEL AND JUTLAND, 1921 The Battle of Jutland During the course of the battle, SMS Derfflinger was hit 17 times by heavy-caliber shells and nine times by secondary guns. The ferocity of its engagement with the British fleet is captured in this painting by German artist Claus Bergen. 174","","YEAR OF BATTLES 1916 BEFORE Despite massive losses of men and territory in campaigns on the Eastern Front in 1915, Russia was committed to a major offensive in 1916. DIVERSIONARY ATTACKS At the Chantilly Conference in December 1915, the Allies had pledged to launch diversionary offensives if one of the allied countries came under pressure. When Germany attacked the French at Verdun in February 1916 \u276e\u276e 154\u201355, France appealed to Russia for assistance. Russian commanders agreed to launch an attack towards Vilnius at the northern end of the Eastern Front in March 1916. RUSSIAN FAILURE Russian supplies of equipment had greatly improved, and thanks to the arrival of fresh conscripts and the transfer of German troops to Verdun, the Russians had a large numerical advantage. But the Lake Naroch Offensive, on March 18, was a disaster. Russia lost 100,000 men compared to German casualties of 20,000. The little ground gained was retaken by the Germans in April. RUSSIAN GENERAL (1853\u20131926) ALEKSEI BRUSILOV The Brusilov Offensive Russia\u2019s most successful operation of the war was the superbly prepared offensive launched by General Aleksei Brusilov in June 1916. It drove Austro-Hungarian forces back across a wide front and dealt a mortal blow to the tottering Austro-Hungarian Empire. Russian General Aleksei Brusilov came I n mid-April 1916, Russia\u2019s senior leading an attack they believed could Brusilov had made a careful study of from an aristocratic family with a commanders held a meeting with not succeed. Only when promised available trench warfare techniques long tradition of military service. He their commander-in-chief Tsar large-scale reinforcements did they and analyzed the reasons for previous performed well when leading the Eighth Nicholas II to discuss military plans for agree to the plan. To their surprise, failures. The offensive tactics so far Army in Galicia in 1914\u201315, before the summer. The tsar and his chief of General Brusilov, who was adopted by Russia had been based on sealing his reputation with the success staff, General Mikhail Alexeev, were commanding the Southwest Army concentrating a large mass of infantry of his 1916 summer offensive. committed to a summer offensive that Group facing Austro-Hungarian forces and artillery upon a small sector of the Disillusioned with the incompetence of would coincide with an Allied attack at in Galicia, also volunteered to mount front. This sledgehammer approach, he the tsarist regime, he encouraged the Somme on the Western Front. an offensive. Since he was not asking concluded, produced small initial gains Nicholas II to abdicate in March 1917. for reinforcements, Alexeev allowed at heavy cost, before enemy reserves Appointed commander-in-chief under The generals commanding the him to go ahead, viewing his operation delivered crushing counterattacks. Russia\u2019s Provisional Government, he northern sector of the Russian front, as a harmless diversion from the main failed to repeat the success of his 1916 chosen as the location for the offensive, Russian attack in the north. New Russian tactics offensive. In spite of his aristocratic were appalled at the prospect of roots, he sympathized with the common Brusilov planned an offensive delivered man and supported the Bolsheviks in \u201cThe great heart of the country by four armies at points across his the Russian Civil War. was beating in sympathy entire front, thus preventing the with the well-loved soldiers enemy from concentrating reserves at of my victorious armies.\u201d any point. He intended to seize enemy trenches without using substantial ALEKSEI BRUSILOV, A SOLDIER\u2019S NOTEBOOK, 1914\u201318 numerical superiority of infantry or artillery. Aerial reconnaissance would be used to locate Austro-Hungarian artillery batteries, and other key targets for the Russian guns, which for once were adequately supplied with shells. 174","THE BRUSILOV OFFENSIVE Russian soldiers frontline trenches with only light soldiers surrendered in vast Moisin-Nagant revolver The infantry of the tsarist armies, here photographed casualties. Brusilov then poured in numbers\u2014some 200,000 Introduced into service in 1895, marching in 1916, were better supplied than before his reserves to sustain the offensive. prisoners were taken during the the seven-shot Moisin-Nagant revolver and capable of fighting well if properly led. However, \ufb01rst nine days alone. was the standard sidearm of the Russian morale among Russian forces remained precarious. Unable to mount a viable resistance, army in World War I. It remained in use in the Austro-Hungarians were soon Austro-Hungarian Chief of the the Soviet Union until 1952. Soldiers were thoroughly trained falling back in disarray. Their forti\ufb01ed General staff Conrad von H\u00f6tzendorff for the operation and, unlike in the position at Lutsk fell in two days. was forced to transfer troops from Russian central command and the previous year, all had ri\ufb02es. Saps Within a week, Russian forces had the Italian front and plead for help generals to the north. The arrival of (short trenches) were dug forward into advanced up to 40 miles (65 km) from from Germany. Heavily engaged at increasing numbers of German troops no man\u2019s land to serve as launch pads their start lines. Austro-Hungarian Verdun and aware of an imminent stiffened defenses, so that Russian for surprise attacks. Farther back, huge Allied offensive on the Somme, the gains diminished and losses increased. dugouts were excavated to shelter 500,000 The number Germans had limited support to offer. By the time the offensive petered reserves within range of enemy guns. of Russian out in the autumn, Russian troops casualties, including prisoners By mid-June, supply and were suffering as many casualties The offensive begins of war, in the Brusilov Offensive transportation problems had halted as their enemies. from June to September 1916. the Russian advance, but an Austro- Launched on June 4, the offensive was Hungarian and German counterattack Austria-Hungary was the chief loser a total surprise to Austro-Hungarian 1,000,000 The number largely failed. Brusilov was able to in the \ufb01ghting. From September 1916, forces. The preliminary bombardment of Austro- renew his offensive in July, achieving the Germans took command of was brief and accurate. Waves of Hungarian casualties during the further advances\u2014Russian troops at Austro-Hungarian forces on the Russian infantry occupied enemy offensive, including some 400,000 the southern end of the front reached troops who were taken prisoner. the Carpathians. Eastern Front. Without control of its own army, Austria-Hungary had 6 Jul 6 Luminec But these gains were made at effectively ceased to be a fully Russian 8th Army pushes mounting cost. The glow of triumph for independent country. remnant of Austro-Hungarian the Russians gradually faded. Brusilov\u2019s army back to Stochod River. efforts were poorly supported by Austro-Hungarian helmet Steel helmets like this one, worn by Brest-Litovsk 8 Jul Pinsk 7 Jul 9 Pripet Austro-Hungarian troops in the later years Disciplined German resistance holds up 3RD ARMY Russian reinforcements of World War I, were variants of the Brusilov\u2019s advance. German Stalhelm. Like the Stalhelm, arrive from north. they sharply reduced deaths from head wounds caused by shrapnel. d Pripet Marshes Stocho AFTER 4 Jun 6\u20138 Styr German The Brusilov Offensive had important 4TH ARMY Sarny political and military consequences reinforcements both in the short and longer term. arrive. Kovel 3 Jun 6 Russian 8th Army captures ROMANIA ENTERS THE WAR Kholm Lutsk Lutsk after attacking along an The setback on the Eastern Front contributed 8TH ARMY 18 -mile (30 km) front and to the resignation of German Chief of the Bug in\ufb02icting heavy casualties on General Staff General Erich von Falkenhayn Austro-Hungarian 4th Army. at the end of August 1916. At the same time, 9 Sept 20 Rovno the Russian successes persuaded Romania Brusilov Offensive to enter the war 194\u201395 \u276f\u276f against the Central Powers\u2014an ill-advised decision as the collapses. country was swiftly defeated. In Russia, the strain of the war led to popular discontent Rava Russka 2ND ARMY Dubno and the overthrow of the tsarist regime 210\u201311 \u276f\u276f in March 1917. In AUSTRIA- Brody 1 Jun 4 Austria-Hungary, Emperor Franz Joseph Brusilov opens a general died in November 1916 and was succeeded HUNGARY offensive along a 300-mile by Emperor Charles I, who began a vain search (480 km) front with accurate for a peace agreement with the Allies. preliminary bombardment. R U S S I A N 11TH ARMY Lemberg SUD ARMY EMPIRE Map of the Brusilov Offensive On June 4, 1916, the Russian attack was Dniester Strypa Tarnopol Proskurov launched across a broad front between the Romanian border and the Pripet GALICIA Zlota Lipa Marshes. Further advances were made in Gnila Lipa July and August, but by mid-September German and Austro-Hungarian troops 7TH ARMY had stabilized a defensive line. Carpat 7TH ARMY 9TH ARMY KEY Austro-Hungarian army Stanislau Czernovitz Russian army ountains 2 Jun 5 Austro-German lines, June 4 M Russian 9th Army takes 11,000 Austro-German lines, June 10 hian Austro-German lines, Sept 20 prisoners in course of breaching Russian advance P Austro-Hungarian line. Russian reinforcements rut German reinforcements Fortified city 5 Jun 10 ROMANIA Major railroad Part of Austro-Hungarian 0 100 km 7th Army holds line on 0 100 miles Prut River while other part retreats. 175","YEAR OF BATTLES 1916 BEFORE Kitchener\u2019s Armies In all its military con\ufb02icts before In August 1914, the newly appointed British Minister for War, Lord Kitchener, appealed World War I, Britain had relied upon for volunteers to form a New Army. More than two million men from all walks of life a small professional army. responded to the call, giving Britain its first mass citizen army by the summer of 1916. THE TERRITORIAL FORCE M ilitary service had become predicted. He voiced his contempt of Recruitment posters featuring The British government realized that a commonplace in continental the piecemeal state of British military Kitchener\u2019s face became so well known European con\ufb02ict was a strong possibility, Europe before 1914, but preparations, commenting, \u201cDid they in Britain that the New Armies would but conscription was considered politically in Britain only a small consider when they went headlong always be known unof\ufb01cially as unacceptable. Richard Haldane, Minister for minority of men knew into a war like this, that they were Kitchener\u2019s Armies. War 1905\u20131912, sought other ways to how to \ufb01re a ri\ufb02e or without an army, and without any boost Britain\u2019s military capacity. He appear on parade. preparation to equip one?\u201d The recruitment process consolidated existing When Lord Kitchener bodies of part-time entered the British Kitchener had no faith in the From the start, there were lines soldiers\u2014militia and government as Minister part-time Territorial Force, which outside recruiting of\ufb01ces. The volunteer forces\u2014into for War in August 1914, might have been used as the basis for authorities struggled to \ufb01nd enough the Territorial he startled his political a mass army. Instead, on August 6, he recruiting of\ufb01cers, clerks, and doctors Force, primarily colleagues by stating that launched an appeal for volunteers to to carry out the process of selection intended for home the war would last three form a \u201cNew Army\u201d of 100,000 men. and enrollment. By early September, defense. A Special years, rather than the This number soon proved far too 33,000 men were enrolling per day\u2014 Reserve also offered three months generally modest. By October, four more New at a time when the entire British forces training to other men, Armies had been authorized. deployed in France numbered around who would provide reinforcement to regular regiments if a major war broke out. BRITISH ARMY RECRUITMENT POSTER Medical check-up Potential soldiers had to pass a medical exam before being accepted into the British Army. Early in the war, 40 percent of would-be conscripts failed the test, so standards were lowered.","KITCHENER\u2019S ARMIES \u201c We stood\u2026 stripped to the BRITISH MINISTER FOR WAR (1850\u20131916) nude\u2026 a medical of\ufb01cer gave us a swift examination.\u201d HERBERT KITCHENER PRIVATE PERCY CRONER, DESCRIBING A RECRUITING OFFICE, DECEMBER 1914 Lord Kitchener, a successful general in various imperial campaigns, was Britain\u2019s 100,000. New battalions were formed aged sergeant-majors, the veterans most eminent military \ufb01gure. Brought into government in August 1914, by local initiatives that allowed men of 19th-century imperial con\ufb02icts with he alone envisioned a long war. His personal intervention kept the British from the same area or workplace to no experience of modern warfare. Expeditionary Force \ufb01ghting alongside the French at the Marne in September, serve together. Lord Derby, promoting but his in\ufb02uence rapidly waned. Disliked by his political colleagues, Kitchener had such a formation in Liverpool, called it Into battle become a mere \ufb01gurehead by the end of 1915. He died in June 1916 when \u201ca battalion of pals\u2026 in which friends Morale on the whole survived intact the warship carrying him on a visit to Russia was sunk by a mine. from the same of\ufb01ce will \ufb01ght shoulder through the lengthy period of training, to shoulder.\u201d There were battalions and the \ufb01rst New Army volunteers to of stockbrokers and of soccer players, go into battle, at Loos in France in battalions based on public schools September 1915, did so in good spirits. and on Lads\u2019 Clubs Senior British Nonetheless, volunteering tailed off in 1915 as enthusiasm for the war faded. (working class youth commanders had The British government also needed to AFTER clubs), battalions of little con\ufb01dence in 5.7 MILLION The number of Conscription was extended twice British men who served in after its introduction. Men could claim postal workers, and these troops, who the army in World War I, a quarter exemption on conscientious grounds, of the adult male population. but few did so. of artists. came from a 2.4 MILLION The number of EXTENDING CONSCRIPTION The drawback of this stratum of society\u2014 men in the British Army The Military Service Act of January 1916 who were volunteers. introduced conscription for unmarried men system, made so clerks and factory age 18 to 41. It was extended to married men rationalize the recruitment process, so the following April. The upper age limit was apparent by the workers\u2014they that men doing essential work\u2014for eventually increased to 51. Men whose work example, in war industries such as was vital to the war effort were excluded. Somme Offensive in considered unlikely mining\u2014could be kept out of the army. Conscription was not extended to Ireland. July 1916, was that to yield decent In October 1915, the British CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS government tried a last-ditch Conscripts could apply for exemption. friends who fought military material. alternative to conscription, a national Most appeals were based on domestic registration scheme that invited all hardship, such as the need to look after an together also often In reality, the men men of military age to \u201cassent\u201d to serve elderly relative. About 16,000 \u201cconscientious if called upon. But this also failed to objectors\u201d claimed exemption on grounds died together. showed no lack of attract enough recruits, and in January of principle or religious belief. Most agreed to 1916 conscription was introduced. serve as noncombatants, such as stretcher- Battalions suffering courage or \ufb01ghting Nonetheless, it was largely as a result bearers. Some 1,500 men who refused any of Kitchener\u2019s call for volunteers that, kind of service were punished and imprisoned. heavy losses brought spirit, but their by summer 1916, Britain had around two million men on the Western Front. irreparable grief to training was Many of them would lose their lives during the bloody Somme campaign. the communities an inadequate from which they preparation for the were drawn. realities of the Female ambivalence Western Front. Wooden ri\ufb02es A British wartime poster enlists women in the Training and service of recruitment. In fact, while men were White feathers equipping the New often susceptible to moral pressure, most Social pressure on Armies was a long women had mixed feelings about their men to volunteer and dif\ufb01cult process. husbands or sons departing for the war. was intense. The To begin with, the White Feather volunteers lacked everything from movement, for example, encouraged uniforms and ri\ufb02es to a decent place women to present this traditional to sleep. They were still practicing symbol of cowardice to any man of drill with wooden ri\ufb02es in Britain military age who was not in uniform. while Territorial formations were proving their worth in France\u2014 Kitchener\u2019s initial doubts about the Territorial Force having been overridden by necessity. Lack of noncommissioned of\ufb01cers (NCOs)\u2014highly experienced soldiers who rose to corporal or sergeant level through the ranks\u2014was a serious problem for the New Armies. Volunteers found themselves in the hands of the inexperienced or the antiquated\u2014a mix of youthful of\ufb01cers from the prewar university and public school Of\ufb01cer Training Corps and On the way to the Somme Soldiers of the Worcestershire Regiment, on their way to the front on June 28, 1916, display high spirits. Many of them were to die in the Somme Offensive launched three days later. 177","YEAR OF BATTLES 1916 BRITISH GENERAL Born 1861 Died 1929 Douglas Haig \u201c With our backs to the wall\u2026 each one of us must \ufb01ght on to the end.\u201d DOUGLAS HAIG, SPECIAL ORDER OF THE DAY, APRIL 11, 1918 I n popular culture, Field Marshal Sir Controversial general Douglas Haig is often portrayed as Although showered with honors, Douglas Haig the epitome of military leadership was a commander whose reputation has always at its worst\u2014a man who sent hundreds been contested. He was known for being distant of thousands of brave soldiers to their and arrogant. deaths in unimaginative assaults for trivial objectives. Few military appointment as one of the historians, on the other hand, now commanders of the two corps regard Haig with such scorn. As was a matter of course. British commander-in-chief on the Western Front through the last three Haig was ruthlessly ambitious. years of the war, he grappled with at Promoted to commander of the times seemingly insurmountable new First Army in December problems and, in the end, led his 1914, he led the British armies to victory. offensive at the Battle of Loos in the autumn of 1915. Haig\u2019s headquarters When this ended in failure, The Ch\u00e2teau de Beaurepaire at Montreuil, in northern he ensured the blame fell France, was Haig\u2019s headquarters on the Western Front. on his commander-in-chief, Based far from the horrors of the trenches, he was Field Marshal Sir John criticized for being remote from the realities of warfare. French, for not moving reserves in on time. Haig was from a wealthy background, but not a member of the landed Having engineered aristocracy that dominated his chosen French\u2019s downfall, Haig arm of the military, the cavalry. He became commander-in- rose to senior command largely on chief himself in December merit, becoming a major-general by 1915. In his view, the war the age of 42. could only be won by victory on the Western Modernizing force Front. Like most commanders of his day, he British Minister for War Richard believed in the superiority Haldane chose Haig to play a key role of the offensive and in the in the modernization of the British importance of \ufb01ghting Army from 1906, including the spirit. He insisted on a shaping of the British Expeditionary policy of constant raids. Force (BEF). When the BEF went to His aim was to use massed France in August 1914, Haig\u2019s artillery and infantry to achieve a breakthrough that could be exploited by the cavalry riding through into open country. Attrition was a means to this end, wearing down enemy forces until they eventually cracked. Haig was an avid supporter of innovations in tactics and technology. 178","DOUGLAS HAIG 30 in (76 cm) Walnut stock Fine engraving steel barrel Oil bottle TIMELINE \u25a0 1861 Born in Edinburgh to a family of famous Haig\u2019s shotguns slaughter. Yet he not only failed to But Haig was not considered to have A pair of 12-bore shotguns owned by Haig and offer an alternative to the continuing the popular touch. As a commander, whiskey distillers. made by J. Purdey & Sons was auctioned for \u00a315,000 \ufb01ghting on the Western Front but also he neither spoke to the men \u25a0 1884\u201385 Attends the Royal Military College in 2011. The case is impressed with the initials \u201cD.H.\u201c failed to \ufb01nd any general prepared to directly nor visited the wounded\u2014 and the brass escutcheon is engraved \u201c7th Hussars.\u201c take Haig\u2019s place. apparently their terrible injuries upset at Sandhurst and becomes a cavalry officer. him too much. \u25a0 1898 Commands a squadron of cavalry in He encouraged improvements in The last man standing coordination between artillery and Both his private comments during the Anglo-Egyptian army that defeats infantry, pressed for maximum use In the crisis of spring 1918, when the war, however, and his founding Mahdist rebels at Omdurman in Sudan. of aircraft, and was enthusiastic German offensives threatened to win of the Haig Fund and British Legion to \u25a0 1899\u20131902 Serves as a staff officer and about the deployment of tanks. At commander of cavalry in the Boer War in \u201cTo throw away men\u2019s lives when South Africa. the same time, he \ufb01rmly believed there is no reasonable chance of \u25a0 1905 Marries Dorothy Vivian, a lady-in-waiting in the importance of cavalry in advantage is criminal.\u201d to Queen Alexandra. modern warfare and in the need \u25a0 1906 Appointed Director of Military Training for cavalrymen to \ufb01ght in the B.H. LIDDELL HART, THE REAL WAR, 1914\u201318 support ex-servicemen afterward, at the War Office. suggest respect and concern for the \u25a0 August 1914 Given command of I Corps, traditional manner, with saber the war, Haig cooperated resolutely ordinary soldier. His offensives cost one of the two corps of the British and lance. with his Allies, accepting subordination many lives. Whether this sacri\ufb01ce Expeditionary Force (BEF). to General Ferdinand Foch. His order contributed proportionally to the \u25a0 October\u2013December 1914 After leading High stakes of the day on April 11, calling for a Allies\u2019 eventual victory remains a I Corps at the First Battle of Ypres, Haig is given \ufb01ght \u201cto the last man,\u201d showed matter for debate. command of the new First Army in December. As commander of the largest army surprising eloquence for a notably \u25a0 March 1915 Commands the First Army at the Britain had ever put into the \ufb01eld, reserved commander. Battle of Neuve Chapelle. Haig will always be judged by his \u25a0 September\u2013October 1915 Commands the offensives at the Somme in 1916 Watching over the Legion British offensive at Loos. Blames its failure and Passchendaele (Third Ypres) Earl Haig visits the British Legion factory making remembrance on Field Marshal Sir John French. in 1917. Fought at a huge cost in poppies at Richmond, Surrey, in 1926. After the war, Haig devoted \u25a0 December 1915 Replaces French as lives, they failed to achieve major time and energy to upholding the interests of ex-servicemen. commander-in-chief of the BEF. breakthroughs. Haig was sustained \u25a0 July\u2013November 1916 Directs the offensive at through these epic con\ufb02icts by the Somme, which costs 420,000 British and his staunch belief in his eventual Commonwealth casualties. success. His optimism remained \u25a0 July\u2013November 1917 Oversees the British unshakable\u2014he wrote in his offensive at Passchendaele (Third Ypres), in diary after the \ufb01rst day of the Somme which British and Commonwealth casualties that the casualties \u201ccould not be total around 260,000. considered severe.\u201d \u25a0 April 1918 Faced with a German breakthrough Always glimpsing success just around on the Western Front, Haig urges the corner, Haig continued the battles his men to fight with long after they had irremediably failed, their \u201cbacks to driving men forward in renewed the wall.\u201c attacks for diminishing returns. On the other hand, no alternative to \ufb01ghting STATUE OF in this way was available, if \ufb01ghting EARL HAIG was to take place at all. \u25a0 August\u2013November 1918 Presides over British Battles with Lloyd George successes in the Hundred Days offensives. Haig\u2019s relations with David Lloyd \u25a0 1919 Raised to the British peerage as Earl Haig. George, British prime minister from \u25a0 1921 Founds the Haig Fund for ex-servicemen December 1916, were based on mutual distrust. Lloyd George wanted an end and helps establish the British Legion to what appeared to be senseless ex-servicemen\u2019s organization. \u25a0 1928 Dies of natural causes and is accorded a state funeral. 179","YEAR OF BATTLES 1916 BEFORE The Somme Offensive As the point where French and British The first day of the Somme Offensive, July 1, 1916, saw the heaviest loss of life in sectors of the Western Front met, the a single day\u2019s fighting in British military history. This was only the beginning of Somme was considered a good place a sustained slaughter that eventually caused over a million casualties. to launch an Anglo-French offensive. T he German defenses on the places a third behind that. The British trenches and stun or kill the defenders. JOINT ACTION stretch of front chosen for the plan to overcome these formidable It would be the job of the infantry to A major offensive at the Somme was \ufb01rst Allied Somme Offensive were defenses relied upon a prolonged and move across from the British trenches proposed in December 1915. Plans were among the strongest on the whole heavy preliminary bombardment. and occupy the devastated defenses. altered after the Germans attacked the French Western Front. The German front line at Verdun \u276e\u276e 154\u201355 in February 1916. consisted of a complex of trenches and The plan and its execution British commander-in-chief General Instead of an Anglo-French operation, it forti\ufb01ed strongpoints with deep Sir Douglas Haig then envisioned became a British offensive with French dugouts to shelter troops from artillery While the British engineers dug under cavalry breaking through into open support. General Sir Douglas Haig \ufb01re. A good distance behind this, there the German lines to lay mines, and cut country, over the German line. General \u276e\u276e 178\u201379 wanted to delay the offensive until was a second defensive line, and in their barbed wire, the artillery was Sir Henry Rawlinson, commanding the August, but the French insisted it go ahead expected to demolish the German British Fourth Army, which had the sooner, to relieve the pressure on Verdun.","THE SOMME OFFENSIVE largest role in the offensive, thought in explode. German soldiers sat in their terms of a more gradual advance that bunkers, profoundly shaken but safe, would chew its way through the through eight days of preliminary German defenses in a series of \u201cbites.\u201d bombardment. The wire in front of their trenches remained mostly uncut. Haig and Rawlinson were both too optimistic. The British artillery was Over the top not adequate to the task it was set. Although it had more than 1,000 guns, At 7:30am on July 1, the British these were spread too thinly across a infantry began their assault. Many broad front. What\u2019s more, in the rush were battalions of Kitchener\u2019s New to manufacture shells, quality had been Armies entering battle for the \ufb01rst neglected, and about a third of the time. Rawlinson had issued the order 1.5 million shells \ufb01red failed to that infantry were to advance at walking pace in evenly spaced lines. Welsh at the Somme Many experienced of\ufb01cers ignored this, The 38th (Welsh) Division attacked German positions \ufb01ltering men forward into no man\u2019s at Mametz Wood on July 10. Fighting at close quarters land in preparation for a dash to the with bayonets, they succeeded in capturing the wood enemy wire or exploiting cover to on July 12, but at a cost of 4,000 casualties. This move soldiers forward in small groups. painting by Christopher Williams depicts the episode. Thousands of soldiers, however, did emerge from their trenches to form up The role of mines AFTER in lines and walk steadily forward The Lochnagar crater near La Boisselle is a reminder of behind their of\ufb01cers. Ahead of them the first day of the Somme. Measuring 330 ft (90 m) in The British Army suffered 57,470 diameter, it was created by a mine detonated by British casualties on the \ufb01rst day at the 500,000 The number engineers just before the troops went \u201cover the top.\u201d Somme, including 19,240 dead. British of British troops commanders refused to accept that a assembled for the offensive. Some parts of the offensive were military disaster had occurred. a relative success. To the south of the 150,000 The number of British, the French progressed to take A STILL FROM A 1916 DOCUMENTARY FILM French troops most of their objectives, supported by COMMEMORATING THE SOMME OFFENSIVE assembled. They were deployed on a greater density of artillery. Alongside the southern flank of the British. the French, the troops at the southern NO TURNING BACK end of the British sector captured the After the initial battle, General Rawlinson said, the British artillery attempted to village of Mametz, occupying Fricourt \u201cI do not think that the percentage of losses is provide a creeping barrage\u2014landing the following day. Farther north, the excessive.\u201d Urged on by the French, the British shells just ahead of the advancing 36th (Ulster) Division broke through continued attacks through another \ufb01ve infantry\u2014but coordination was clumsy the German front line and penetrated months 184\u201385 \u276f\u276f. On the German side, and the barrage lifted too soon. Once the strongpoint of the Schwaben Chief of the General Staff General Erich von the shells had stopped falling, the Redoubt but were halted in front of Falkenhayn was forced to abandon his Germans emerged from their dugouts Thiepval and forced to pull back. offensive at Verdun and transfer and manned the machine guns. troops to the Somme. In that sense, the Over the next days a few more Somme operation achieved its objective. The slaughtered objectives were achieved\u2014La Boiselle was taken on July 7, and Mametz PUBLIC REACTION Blocked by intact wire, bombarded Wood on July 12. In other places, The heavy losses at the Somme could not be by German artillery, and cut down by there were minimal gains, or none. disguised from the British public, but the machine guns, the British infantry press made every effort to present the were massacred at many points along Backpack offensive as a success. A documentary the line. Out of 720 Accrington film of the battle, released in August Pals, a battalion of the East Helmet 1916, attracted large audiences. Including Lancashire Regiment sent both real and reenacted footage, it succeeded to attack a strongpoint at in depicting some of the horrors of the war, Serre, 584 were killed, while being carefully slanted to boost morale. wounded, or missing by 8am. Of the 780 men of Backpack and helmet the Newfoundland The soldiers who attacked on the first day of the Regiment attacking Somme were heavily burdened with equipment, such Beaumont Hamel, only as this backpack and helmet, which formed part of the 68 survived unscathed. gear of a British infantryman. The Grimsby Chums, a battalion of the Lincolnshire Regiment, advanced in the La Boisselle sector where a huge mine created the Lochnagar crater. Most of the Chums advanced no farther than the crater, where they were trapped under heavy \ufb01re. Their casualties numbered 502 of\ufb01cers and men out of a total of 600. 181","EYEWITNESS July 1, 1916 The First Day of the Somme July 1, 1916, marked the start of the Battle of the Somme. The costliest day in the history of the British Army, it resulted in nearly 58,000 casualties, including 19,240 dead. The day\u2019s enduring image is of heavily burdened infantrymen trudging across no man\u2019s land being mowed down by the thousands by German machine guns. Friday, June 30, 1916 \u201cMy dearest Mother and Dad, I\u2019m writing this letter the day before the most important moment in my life\u2026 The day has almost dawned when I shall really do my little bit [for] the cause of civilization. Tomorrow morning I shall take my men\u2014men whom I have got to love, and who, I think, have got to love me\u2014over the top to do our bit in the first attack in which the London Territorials have taken part as a whole unit. I\u2019m sure you will be very pleased to hear that I\u2019m going over with the Westminsters. The old regiment has been given the most ticklish task in the whole of the Division; and I am very proud of my section\u2026 my two particular machine-guns have been given the two most advanced, and therefore most important, positions of all\u2014an honour that is coveted by many. I took my Communion yesterday with dozens of others who are going over tomorrow\u2026 I have a strong feeling that I shall come through safely; but nevertheless, should it be God\u2019s holy will to call me away, I am quite prepared to go\u2026 and you, dear Mother and Dad, will know that I died doing my duty to my God, my Country, and my King. I ask that you look upon it as an honour\u2026 I wish I had time to write more, but time presses\u2026 I fear I must close now. Au revoir\u2026 fondest love to all those I love so dearly\u2026 Your devoted and happy son, \u201dJack SECOND LIEUTENANT JOHN SHERWIN ENGALL, 16TH LONDON REGIMENT, A LETTER WRITTEN HOME ON THE DAY BEFORE THE START OF THE SOMME OFFENSIVE. ENGALL WAS KILLED IN ACTION THE FOLLOWING DAY. Preparing for the Somme A unit of British troops moves toward the start line for an offensive on the Somme in July 1916. The Battle of the Somme was one of the bloodiest in World War I. 182","","YEAR OF BATTLES 1916 Attrition on the Somme As a result of the British failure to achieve a decisive breakthrough in July 1916, the Battle Initial success was followed by of the Somme degenerated into an attritional struggle on a vast scale. By November, British disappointment. Cavalry moved troops were still fighting to take some of the objectives set for the first day of the offensive. forward too slowly to exploit the opening and key objectives were BEFORE A fter the initial offensive, the improvements, however, gains were not taken, including Delville Wood, \ufb01ghting at the Somme became small and hard-won in the face of which only fell to South African troops a series of local attacks and tenacious German resistance. after a two-week struggle. counterattacks over several months, At \ufb01rst, British generals still seriously German counterattacks Launched on July 1, 1916, the British aimed at capturing or recovering contemplated a breakthrough. On The Germans poured large numbers of and French offensive at the Somme places\u2014hills, woods, small towns\u2014 July 14, the Fourth Army commander, troops and guns into the Somme to achieved limited initial gains. held as strongpoints or offering a General Sir Henry Rawlinson, planned resist the Allied pressure. Their orders perceived tactical advantage. Losses an offensive to take the German were to hold positions to the last man DIVERSION FROM VERDUN were consistently heavy on both sides. second-line defenses and regain lost Allied commanders were resolved to continue The Allies came out marginally better on Longueval Ridge 6.5 MILLION The number ground at whatever the Somme Offensive, partly because it was in the \ufb01ghting. Aided by command of and push cavalry of shells fired by British cost. The savage effective in relieving German pressure on the the air, which enabled aircraft to through the opening. artillery at the Somme in the \ufb01ghting this entailed French at Verdun \u276e\u276e 154\u201355. German pinpoint targets, the British artillery Troops prepared for a two months from July 15 to was exhibited at the Chief of the General Staff Erich von Falkenhayn became far more effective. Cooperation night attack, with September 14, 1916. village of Pozi\u00e8res on responded to the Somme Offensive by insisting between the infantry and the gunners those involved in the the Albert-Bapaume on immediate counterattacks to regain enabled soldiers to advance close initial assault taking up position in road. Australian troops broke into the any ground lost. The \ufb01rst of these German behind a creeping barrage that no man\u2019s land close to the German forti\ufb01ed village on July 23, but \ufb01ghting counterattacks was made on July 2. suppressed German defenses. line. After a brief but intense artillery continued for two weeks as the Attacking British troops also became bombardment, the troops rushed Germans \ufb01rst refused to give up the LIMITED GAINS better at using light machine guns, forward at dawn to capture the part of the position they still held and In the opening phase of the battle grenades, and mortars. In spite of these pulverized trenches. then mounted \ufb01erce counterattacks. \u276e\u276e 180\u201381, the Allies made progress in the southern part of the front, where French \u201cAmong the living lay the dead\u2026 One company troops advanced up to 6 miles (10 km) and British forces also made gains. Farther north, after another had been shoved into the drum \ufb01re however, the British ground to a halt on the Albert-Bapaume road and in front of German defenses at Thiepval, Beaumont and steadily annihilated.\u201d Hamel, and Serre. ERNST J\u00dcNGER, GERMAN LIEUTENANT, IN HIS MEMOIR STORM OF STEEL TECHNOLOGY MARK I TANK The British Mark I was the \ufb01rst operational the vehicle, which they did with great tank. Developed to support attacking discomfort. The interior of the tank was infantry in trench warfare, it was designed hot, noisy, and \ufb01lled with fumes. Steering to advance across broken ground at was achieved using a complex system of walking speed. gears, operated by two of the crew. Most Mark Is had 6-pounder naval guns Mark Is were not as invincible as they mounted in sponsons (projections in which \ufb01rst appeared. They frequently suffered the gunners sat) on each side of the hull, mechanical breakdowns and were although some carried only machine guns. vulnerable to artillery \ufb01re, armor-piercing A crew of eight was required to operate ri\ufb02e ammunition, and grenades. 184","ATTRITION ON THE SOMME 5 Sept 15 2 Jul 15 6 Sept 25 Tanks are deployed by British for Battle for Delville Wood begins. South African In renewed offensive, French the \ufb01rst time, in attack on Flers. troops secure most of it after hard \ufb01ghting. attack Bouchavesnes. 1 Jul 14 Canal Renewed offensives British break through Sailly-Saillisel Nov 18 Bouchavesnes du Nord P\u00e9ronne After the failure of their initial operation on July 1 German lines at Le Transloy to reach most of its objectives, the Allies launched Rancourt a series of local offensives from mid-July to Longueval Ridge to 1ST ARMY Guedecourt Morval Combles Sept 15 Somme 2ND ARMY November. Although gains were made, they take Bazentin-le-Petit. Gallwitz were not as considerable as had been hoped Below and the human cost was high. Bapaume Delville Somme KEY Flers Wood Ginchy Maurepas de la Flacourt Guillemont Herbecourt Jul 14 Canal Fresnes High Longueval Hardecourt Nov 1 Le Sars Wood 8 Frise Dompierre Sept 15 l 14 Montauban BernyJu Courcelette Bazentin-le-Petit 6TH ARMY Martinpuich Bazentin-le- Maricourt Fayolle Chaulnes German army Miraumont Pozi\u00e8res Petit Wood British army Thiepval Ri Contalmaison Mametz Contalmaison Beaucourt Thiepval Mametz 10TH ARMY French army Micheler British front line Wood Fricourt Beaumont dge 4TH ARMY French front line Hamel Rawlinson Albert British advance Ancre French advance Road Railroad 8 Nov 13 7 Sept 26 3 Jul 23 4 Sept 3 Beaumont Hamel and Beaucourt British capture Thiepval Australian troops break into forti\ufb01ed village French 10th Army involved in attacks, taken in surprise attack. with aid of tanks. of Pozi\u00e8res, clear it, and hold it in \ufb01erce \ufb01ghting. but meets with little success. The Australians ended up in possession effect. The appearance of these objectives\u2014from Thiepval, occupied AFTER of Pozi\u00e8res, but at the cost of 23,000 armored monsters certainly had a on September 26, to Beaumont Hamel, casualties\u2014similar to their losses in psychological effect on German seized on November 13. The Battle of The \ufb01ghting at the Somme caused an the entire Gallipoli operation. soldiers, but most of the tanks quickly the Somme ended on November 18. estimated 420,000 British, 200,000 broke down, became stuck in shell By then, snow was falling and even French, and 500,000 German casualties. The \ufb01rst use of tanks holes, or were taken out by enemy Haig could see that no purpose could These losses led to a reconsideration of artillery. A few tanks led infantry in the be served by continuing. Allied troops strategy on both sides of the con\ufb02ict. On September 15, a new element capture of the village of Flers, however, had gained at most 7.5 miles (12 km). entered the battle when the British and Haig was impressed. deployed 32 Mark I tanks for an attack at Flers-Courcelette. The commander- As summer moved into autumn, rain in-chief, Sir Douglas Haig, chose to reduced the battle zone to mud. The employ the tanks despite their crews British continued to creep forward, being inadequately prepared and too taking German positions few vehicles being available for decisive that had been \ufb01rst-day BRITISH AND COMMONWEALTH CEMETERY, POZI\u00c8RES GERMAN AND ALLIED REACTIONS Taking over supreme command in September 1916, Field Marshal Paul von Hindenburg and General Erich Ludendorff decided to construct a new fortified line that was shorter and easier to defend. In February\u2013 March 1917, the Germans withdrew from the Somme to the Hindenburg Line. In spite of criticism of Haig\u2019s strategy, the British attacked again at Arras 226\u201327 \u276f\u276f in April 1917. Haig also asked for mass production of tanks. These had a big impact at Cambrai 248\u201349 \u276f\u276f in November 1917. REMEMBERING THE DEAD After the war, the remains of the men who fell at the Somme were reburied in dedicated war cemeteries, such as the one at Pozi\u00e8res, where so many Australian soldiers died. Crossing the battleground Troops of a British supply train cross an area devastated by shelling during the Battle of the Somme. Conditions steadily deteriorated as the fighting was prolonged and the weather worsened. 185","YEAR OF BATTLES 1916 Medical Treatment \u201c It is\u2026 always like this in a \ufb01eld started with \ufb01rst aid on the battle\ufb01eld. hospital. Just ambulances rolling in, Of\ufb01cers and men often carried \ufb01eld and dirty, dying men\u2026 \u201d dressings and painkillers, sometimes including morphine tablets. Stretcher- AMERICAN NURSE ELLEN LA MOTTE, THE BACKWASH OF WAR, 1934 bearers braved \ufb01re to bring the wounded to an advanced dressing I n the century before World War I, forces on the Western Front did\u2014 The outbreak of \u201cSpanish in\ufb02uenza\u201d in station, where they were sorted\u2014 the provision of decent care for disease levels were remarkably low. the last year of the war\u2014inexplicable hopeless cases were left to die, those soldiers at war had become a When hygiene and sanitation broke and untreatable by medicine at the super\ufb01cially wounded were directed recognized humanitarian issue as down, as they did among British troops time\u2014caused large-scale losses among back to their units. The seriously well as a practical concern for army at Gallipoli and among the Russians soldiers that continued into peacetime. wounded were loaded onto commanders. By World War I, on the Eastern Front, the ensuing ambulances and taken to a casualty wounded combatants on all sides epidemics killed thousands. From \ufb01rst aid to amputation clearing station, a set of tents or huts were treated by dedicated army where emergency treatment, including medical services, who had increasingly Trench fever, a disease spread by lice, To deal with combat casualties, a surgery, was carried out. During a modern medical techniques. de\ufb01ed attempts to suppress it. Other coordinated system was needed that major battle, a clearing station might persistent medical stretched from the battle\ufb01eld back to handle more than a thousand cases a Hygiene and sanitation problems were day. The wounded were then trench foot, caused base hospitals far from the front. The mobilization of millions of men by dampness, The German army entered the war 19 MILLION The number meant a daunting task for preventive and frostbite, with such a system in place; other of men wounded in all medicine. The static, overcrowded both severely countries caught up under the armies during World War I. conditions of trench warfare were an disabling pressure of the war. Treatment obvious breeding ground for disease. conditions transferred to a base hospital by train. Yet when combatants combined that could lead Wounded men\u2019s chances of survival inoculation against epidemic diseases to amputation. such as typhoid with strictly enforced depended upon the speed and measures to ensure good hygiene and ef\ufb01ciency of the medical evacuation sanitation\u2014as British and German process and the quality of care they Tending to the wounded A nurse cares for a badly wounded soldier at a hospital in Antwerp, Belgium, early on in the war. Many soldiers expressed profound gratitude for the nursing care they received. 186","MEDICAL TREATMENT Pictorial instructions German bandage TIMELINE Soldiers often had to tend one another in the heat of Cr\u00eape triangle battle before proper medical care could be found. \u25a0 1854 British nurse Florence Nightingale\u2019s This German cr\u00eape bandage incorporates interventions to improve sanitation and received during it. Providing timely illustrated instructions on the correct medical facilities in the Crimean War lead tetanus shots, for example, reduced the way to bind wounds. to major developments in military hospitals rate of tetanus infection among British and nursing. wounded from around a third in 1914 instead of transferred person-to-person. were probably a few cases of this. to almost zero by the war\u2019s end. The prevalence of facial wounds led to As the war went on, all combatants \u25a0 1854\u201356 French military surgeons widen the progress in plastic surgery. Specialized established psychiatric wards and use of chloroform as an anesthetic during World War I weaponry caused hospitals were established for the hospitals. The U.S. Army had 263 the Crimean War. wounds that were appalling in both reconstruction of faces. number and severity. Field surgeons, American surgeons in \u25a0 1862 During the American Civil War, operating for up to 16 hours a day particular made advances Dr. Jonathan Letterman, surgeon-general of the during a major offensive, resorted in this \ufb01eld, although Army of the Potomac, pioneers the use of a freely to amputation of limbs as the permanent dis\ufb01gurement field ambulance service to evacuate casualties. best hope for many of the wounded. remained the fate of thousands. \u25a0 1864 The Red Cross is established, inspired by The use of anesthetics was long- the Swiss businessman Henri Dunant. established, and by the later stages Shell shock Wartime surgery of the war, procedures to limit By 1914, operations had a reasonable success rate. \u25a0 1870\u201371 During the Franco-Prussian War, postoperative infection were as effective Casualties suffered mental During the last stages of the war, more than nine out German military surgeons employ antiseptics, as could be achieved in the absence as well as physical trauma. of ten wounded men survived. sharply reducing postoperative death rates. of antibiotics, which were not Psychiatric medicine was becoming increasingly military psychiatrists in France in \u25a0 1899\u20131902 In the Boer War in South Africa, 500,000 The estimated accepted in the early 20th 1918. Therapy ranged from analysis British troops suffer 13,000 deaths from number of century, and disturbed of in-depth mental problems to crude disease due to poor hygiene and failure to boil amputations performed during behavior as a result of combat stress electric-shock treatment. drinking water. This was compared to 8,000 the course of World War I. was recognized as a medical problem. deaths in combat. The German army was broadly up to Tending the wounded available until World War II. A major date with this modern thinking, but \u25a0 1904\u201305 At war with Russia, Japan greatly innovation was the widespread use of to many British and French army Nurses were among the heroes of the reduces losses to disease through use of blood transfusion, a lifesaving procedure commanders \u201cshell shock\u201d seemed con\ufb02ict. Established bodies of military antitoxins and good hygiene. Russia becomes that became a practical proposition like a sign of weakness. It is nurses were too small to cope with the the first country to recognize battle stress as through the use of anticoagulants and not true that men suffering scale of the war, so there was a demand a medical problem to be treated by psychiatry. refrigeration, allowing blood to be stored mental collapse were for volunteers such as the British routinely executed as Voluntary Aid Detachment \u25a0 1909 In Britain, the Voluntary Aid Detachment Red Cross symbol cowards, although there (VAD) nurses or the 3,000 (VAD) nursing organization is established. women who became Nursing Sisters in the Canadian Army. \u25a0 1911 The U.S. Army introduces compulsory typhoid vaccination for all recruits. Often from sheltered backgrounds, they coped astonishingly well with the \u25a0 1914 The use of sodium citrate is shown task of tending severely wounded men. to prevent coagulation (clotting) in blood Women such as British VAD nurse Vera transfusions. It is widely used during the war. Brittain and American nurse Ellen La Motte wrote some of the most \u25a0 1915 The Gallipoli operation is a medical disaster for the British Army, which fails to eloquent testimonies of the war. maintain good hygiene, supply clean water, or evacuate the wounded efficiently by sea. Horse-drawn ambulance At the start of the war, all ambulances were Medicine horse-drawn, but large numbers of motor pouch ambulances were introduced later on. The Red Cross symbol was universally recognized, but did Morphine not stop ambulances from coming under fire. MEDICAL ORDERLY\u2019S KIT \u25a0 1916 The British Medical Corps records the treatment of 2.65 million sick and wounded men during the course of the year. \u25a0 1917 William Rivers pioneers shell shock treatment. \u25a0 1918 The U.S. Army\u2019s medical service grows to a staff of 295,000, from 5,000 in June 1917. \u25a0 1943 Mass production of penicillin provides the first effective antibiotics for use in World War II. 187","YEAR OF BATTLES 1916 Fold-up collar Dog\ufb01ghts and Aces Goggles with tinted glass Air combat developed as an offshoot of trench warfare and had the same high death rates as the war on the ground. But the myth of ace fighter pilots as \u201cknights of the air\u201d engaged in chivalrous combat fulfilled a popular need for heroes in a grim industrialized war. BEFORE M ost armies used aircraft during World War I. In trench warfare The rival armies entered World War I from 1915, generals found with about 500 aircraft between them invaluable for observing enemy them. The planes were \ufb02imsy and lines and liaising with artillery. not armed for aerial combat. Fighter aircraft developed later RECONNAISSANCE ROLE in order to shoot down enemy Aircraft had been used in war by the Italians reconnaissance and bomber planes. in Libya in 1911 and by the Balkan states But mounting a machine gun on a in the wars of 1912\u201313. They had proved propeller-driven plane was not easy. capable of attacking ground targets with One solution, exempli\ufb01ed by the grenades or small bombs, but the major British Vickers \u201cGunbus,\u201d was to place European armies were interested in their the propeller behind the pilot while an potential for reconnaissance \u276e\u276e 144\u201345. observer with a machine gun sat in a balcony in the nose of the aircraft. THE FIRST SHOT At the start of the war, pilots had a supporting Solo \ufb01ghter planes Long \ufb02ying coat role. Their job was to ferry observers, who outranked them, on reconnaissance missions. Single-seat aircraft with a front On their own initiative, some observers carried propeller performed much better. pistols or carbines to shoot at any enemy The introduction of the interrupter aircraft they encountered. This proved gear\u2014allowing bullets to pass through ineffectual, but on October 5, 1914, a French a spinning propeller\u2014enabled the observer shot down a German aircraft German Fokker Eindecker monoplane using a Hotchkiss machine gun. to dominate the skies over France in the winter of 1915\u201316. The Allies responded with their own solo \ufb01ghters. The French Nieuport 11 \u201cB\u00e9b\u00e9\u201d biplane, introduced in early 1916, had a machine gun mounted on its upper wing to \ufb01re over the TECHNOLOGY The \ufb01rst man to \ufb01re a machine gun Sheepskin-lined \ufb02ying boots through the arc of his spinning propeller INTERRUPTER GEAR was French pilot Roland Garros in April Rubber soles for 1915. Garros had metal plates attached secure grip 188 to the propeller blades to de\ufb02ect any bullets that struck them. British pilot\u2019s clothing Flying in an open cockpit, a World Anthony Fokker, a Dutch aircraft War I airman needed warm, head-to-toe clothing. designer working for the Germans, This also offered a degree of protection if the trumped this by equipping his Eindecker aircraft caught fire, the most feared hazard monoplane with an interrupter gear. This of aerial combat. device, which had been patented before World War I, synchronized the \ufb01re of the machine gun with the rotation of the propeller, so the bullets passed through the arc without hitting the blades. This allowed the pilot to simply aim his aircraft at the target and \ufb01re, in effect making the solo \ufb01ghter pilot possible.","DOGFIGHTS AND ACES Flying helmet with face mask propeller. It was operated allotting \u201cace\u201d status to pilots who shot French fighter ace by the pilot pulling a chord. down a certain number of enemy Rejected as too frail to serve in the infantry, French The Allies developed their own aircraft. The British army resisted a fighter pilot Captain Georges Guynemer became a interrupter gear, using both formal ace system, but the press national hero as a pilot in the elite Cigognes squadrons. celebrated the most successful \ufb01ghter He was killed in action in September 1917, at age 22. wing-mounted guns and guns pilots. Men such as Charles Nungesser \ufb01ring through the propeller. in France, Albert Ball in Britain, AFTER Once both sides had Billy Bishop in Canada, and Eddie \ufb01ghter aircraft, pilots Rickenbacker in the United States By the last year of the war, about fought one another were glamorized as \u201cknights of the air.\u201d 8,000 aircraft were deployed by all as well as destroying combatants, more than 40 percent reconnaissance craft. Deadly dog\ufb01ghts of them \ufb01ghters. Initially lone hunters, they were From 1916 onward, a struggle for air FIGHTING ANOTHER DAY later grouped into squadrons. By supremacy accompanied the great About 15,000 airmen were killed in the war. summer 1915, German pilot Oswald battles on the ground. In addition Some \ufb01ghter pilots who survived went on to Boelcke had formulated basic principles to dueling with other aircraft in have notable postwar careers, including of air combat, such as to attack out of \u201cdog\ufb01ghts,\u201d pilots were instructed to Hermann Goering, a member of Manfred the sun and to open \ufb01re only at close attack ground troops and observation von Richthofen\u2019s \u201cFlying Circus.\u201d He became range. He taught them to other pilots, balloons, activities that exposed them a leading \ufb01gure in Adolf Hitler\u2019s Nazi regime. including the top German \ufb01ghter pilot to ground \ufb01re. Squadrons suffered Manfred von Richthofen, popularly \ufb02ying accidents and mechanical failure In April 1918, Britain was the \ufb01rst country known as the Red Baron. as well as actual combat. Airmen had to create an independent air force, placing its no parachutes until the Germans began army and navy aircraft under the control of the Flying aces to issue them in 1918. Royal Air Force. Germany was forbidden to have an air force under the Treaty of Air combat proved to be an activity The strain on elite \ufb01ghter squadrons Versailles 338\u201339 \u276f\u276f, but Hitler at which a few individuals such as the French Cigognes (\u201cStorks\u201d) reestablished it as the Luftwaffe in 1935. excelled, achieving multiple and Richthofen\u2019s Jagdgeschwader 1 \u201ckills\u201d while their (the \u201cFlying Circus\u201d) was immense. colleagues scored few The pilots were mostly young and few or none. The German lived long\u2014when British ace Albert and French armies Ball died in 1917 he was just 20 years established a old. During the Battle of Arras in spring system for 1917, the life expectancy of newly trained British pilots was two weeks. Sheepskin gauntlets Neither side was able to establish permanent air supremacy, since the advantage changed hands as new aircraft were introduced. The British and French won the production battle, however, manufacturing almost three times as many aircraft as Germany did in 1917. Father of air combat One of Germany\u2019s first flying aces, Oswald Boelcke (center) formalized the principles of aerial combat and founded the first elite fighter squadron. He was killed in action in October 1916. Warm wool lining Map case 189","Dogfight in France Aerial combat over the Western Front was typically fought by biplanes with fixed undercarriages. In this painting by English painter William Wyllie, an aircraft has burst into flames, a fate feared by pilots.","","YEAR OF BATTLES 1916 Warplanes World War I was the first conflict in which aircraft were used on a large scale. They were initially unarmed and used for observation, but advances in technology soon led to the development of fighters, bombers, and ground-attack planes. 1 Bristol F.2B Fighter (British) This two-seat 7 Caudron G.3 (French) Used early in the war 3 AIRCO DH.9A (BRITISH) reconnaissance and \ufb01ghter biplane was for reconnaissance and later as a training 4 SOPWITH CAMEL (BRITISH) popularly known as the Bris\ufb01t or Biff. 2 Avro aircraft, the Caudron G.3 was withdrawn from 504K (British) Primarily a training aircraft, this frontline operations in mid-1916. 8 Spad 8 SPAD S.XIII (BELGIAN) plane was also used as an emergency home S.XIII (Belgian) This French-designed S.XIII was defense \ufb01ghter against German bombers. \ufb02own by the Belgian 10th Squadron. It was 3 Airco DH.9A (British) This two-seat light \ufb01rst used by the Belgian airforce in March bomber, which saw frontline service from July 1918. 9 Hanriot HD.1 (Belgian) Rejected by 1918, \ufb02ew in missions against German French squadrons, the HD.1 \ufb01ghter was used railroads, air\ufb01elds, and industrial centers. successfully by Belgian pilots from 1916. 4 Sopwith Camel (British) Introduced to the 10 Fokker D.VII (German) This Fokker design, skies over the Western Front in 1917, Camels which entered service in May 1918, was highly are credited with shooting down 1,294 enemy regarded as a \ufb01ghter. 11 LVG C.VI (German) planes, more than any other Allied aircraft. This two-seat reconnaissance plane, which 5 Sopwith Baby (British) This single-seat entered frontline service in mid-1918, was seaplane was used as a naval scout and armed with two machine guns. 12 Albatros bomber aircraft. 6 Sopwith Pup (British) On D.V (German) The \ufb01nal development of the August 2, 1917, a Pup became the \ufb01rst aircraft Albatros D series, the D.V was the standard to land aboard a moving ship, the HMS Furious. German \ufb01ghter aircraft in 1917. 7 CAUDRON G.3 (FRENCH) 11 LVG C.VI (GERMAN) 192","1 BRISTOL F.2B FIGHTER (BRITISH) WARPLANES 2 AVRO 504K (BRITISH) 5 SOPWITH BABY (BRITISH) 6 SOPWITH PUP (BRITISH) 9 HANRIOT HD.1 (BELGIAN) 10 FOKKER D.VII (GERMAN) 12 ALBATROS D.V (GERMAN) 193","YEAR OF BATTLES 1916 The Romanian Campaign In August 1916, Romania entered the war on the side of the Allies. It was an unfortunate move, Romanian horseman based on poor assessment of the success of the Brusilov Offensive. By December, most of In 1916, Romania\u2019s army was large Romania was occupied by the Central Powers. but poorly trained and ill-equipped compared to its German opponent. T he Romanians signed a treaty Russia would renew its offensive on running out of This Romanian cavalryman carries a lance. with Allied negotiators in the Austro-Hungarian front while steam and the Bucharest on August 17, 1916. British, French, and other Allied forces Germans, under In return for entering the war, attacked Bulgaria from their base at their new Chief Romania would be allowed to annex Salonika in northern Greece. of the General Staff Transylvania, Bukovina, and other Field Marshal Paul territories, chie\ufb02y at the expense of Romania goes to war von Hindenburg, Hungary. As part of the Bucharest were able to agreement, the Allies promised military With these assurances, Romania intervene to shore action in support of Romanian forces. declared war on the Central Powers on up their Austro- August 27. The Romanian conscript Hungarian ally. BEFORE army, numbering some 650,000, had Hindenburg\u2019s an impressive reputation gained against predecessor as Chief The Kingdom of Romania was an ally the Bulgarians in the Second Balkan of the General Staff, of Germany and Austria-Hungary War of 1913. The troops were, General Erich von before World War I, but it chose to however, short of equipment, with Falkenhayn, was remain neutral at the outbreak of war. outdated ri\ufb02es, few machine guns, sent to take overall and little artillery. command of TERRITORIAL AMBITIONS operations against Romania was connected to Germany through Romanian strategy focused on Romania, while also its royal family, who were Hohenzollerns. ful\ufb01lling its territorial ambitions. leading the German However, it nursed ambitions to annex Advancing through inadequately Ninth Army in Transylvania and Bukovina, territories in Transylvania. Austria-Hungary with a large ethnic Romanian 680 The length in miles population. Romania fought against Bulgaria (1,100 km) of the border The experienced \ufb01eld in the Second Balkan War in 1913, gaining that Romania had to defend marshal August von a substantial slice of Bulgarian territory. in 1916. It was as long as the entire Mackensen was sent to Russian front from the Baltic Bulgaria to command a INITIAL NEUTRALITY to Romania. combined force of Bulgarian Although Romania\u2019s King Carol I was bound and German troops on the to the Central Powers by a secret treaty 550,000 The number Danube front opposite signed in 1883, popular opinion was hostile to of Romanians Romania\u2019s southern border. Austria-Hungary. The king thus opted for who died in World War I, consisting They were later joined by neutrality in August 1914. Romania joined the of 220,000 military and 330,000 Turkish troops carried by ship war in summer 1916, when the success of the civilian fatalities. across the Black Sea. Brusilov Offensive \u276e\u276e 174\u201375 opened the prospect of defeating Austria-Hungary. defended mountain passes into Problems mount Hungary, Romanian forces occupied GERMAN GENERAL (1849\u20131945) eastern Transylvania. If they had Romania\u2019s allies failed to provide done this a few months earlier, when the promised military support. The AUGUST VON MACKENSEN the Russian Brusilov Offensive was Russians regarded the Romanian front succeeding, it might have contributed as a distraction, and the assistance they August von Mackensen began his to the collapse of Austria-Hungary. But provided was limited and slow. Initially, military service with the Prussian Life by September, Russian operations were just 50,000 Russian troops were sent to Hussars\u2014in later life, he often wore stiffen the Romanian army. their death\u2019s head emblem. Leading a corps at the outbreak of World War I, The planned offensive from Salonika, he was given command of an army in under French general Maurice Sarrail, November 1914. He performed was preempted by German and outstandingly in campaigns in Poland Bulgarian attacks in southern Serbia and was promoted to \ufb01eld marshal in and eastern Greece in August. June 1915. He was engaged in occupied Outmaneuvered, Sarrail achieved only Romania from 1916 until the end of a limited advance when he launched the war, overseeing the exploitation his offensive in September, crawling of Romanian resources for the forward to force the Bulgarians out German war effort. of Monastir (modern-day Bitola in Macedonia) by mid-November. Left exposed to an invasion from Bulgaria and to counterattacks in Transylvania, Romania was soon in dire straits. Mackensen led his forces from Bulgaria into Romania\u2019s Dobruja province on September 1. To meet the threat, the Romanians transferred 194","THE ROMANIAN CAMPAIGN 0 100 km Prut The Romanian Campaign Sereth Romanian troops advancing into Transylvania 0 100 miles RUSSIAN were counterattacked by German and AUSTRIA-HUNGARY Jassy Austro-Hungarian forces, while Mackensen\u2019s s EMPIRE Danube Army pushed into Dobruja. Maro 3 Sept 18 Klausenburg 4TH ARMY KEY Falkenhayn launches TRANSYLVANIA D Austro-Hungarian army counterattack, forcing O MOLDAVIA Bulgarian army Romanians back through 1ST ARMY BR U J A Berlad German army Vulcan Pass on Nov 10. Schossburg 9TH ARMY Hermannstadt Romanian army Hatseg Focsani Galatz Romanian offensive into Transylvania, Aug 27\u2013 Sept 18, 1916 Vulcan TRANSYLVANIAN ALPS Isman Austro-German advance through Pass Wallachia and Moldavia, Sept 18, Mehadia Orsova 1ST ARMY OCT 14 Predeal 7 Dec 1 1916\u2013Jan 7, 1917 Campolung Pass 2ND ARMY Falkenhayn\u2019s superior forces Danube Army advance through defeat Romanian attacks Dobruja, Sept 1, 1916 \/ Jan 7, 1917 Ploesti from Bucharest area. Central Powers front in Transylvania Sept 18, 1916 1 Aug 27 WALLACHIA OCT 25 Central Powers front in Dobruja Romanians begin advance Sept 23, 1916 into Transylvania. DEC 6 Cernavoda Romanian positions Nov 26, 1916 Central Powers front Jan 7, 1917 Bucharest Town captured by Central Powers, Arges with date AlutaROM A NI A3RD ARMY Danube OCT 25 Major railroad NOV 21 Jiu SEPT 6 Constanza AFTER Craiova Turtukai 5 Oct 20 With most of its territory occupied by A SEPT 9 Mackensen\u2019s forces I SERB Danube Rustuchuk Silistria begin advance to Constanza and Sistova DANUBE Cernavoda. Mackensen 4 Sept 23 6 Nov 23 2 Sept 1 Front stabilized. Danube Army begins Combined army of Bulgarians Varna advance on Bucharest. and Germans crosses border. Black Sea BULGARIA the Central Powers, from the start of 150,000 troops from 1917 Romania was subjected to economic exploitation. \u201c We will march into battle withTransylvania to the Danube in mid- September, and the irresistible \u00e9lan of a people attempted an ambitious counteroffensive at \ufb01rmly con\ufb01dent in its destiny.\u201dthe end of the month, including crossing the Danube to attack Mackensen\u2019s army PROCLAMATION BY ROMANIAN KING FERDINAND I, AUGUST 28, 1916 from the rear. 35 miles (56 km) north of Bucharest, the Central Powers. His main task was ROMANIAN CURRENCY UNDER but these fell into German hands, as to ensure that supplies of grain, oil, and GERMAN OCCUPATION March on Bucharest did the Black Sea port of Constanza. other materials \ufb02owed to Germany. As a consequence, many Romanians CONTINUING THE FIGHT Disrupted by adverse Hampered by bad roads and winter suffered from malnutrition. Around Holding Moldavia, the Romanian army fought weather conditions, the river weather, the Germans and their allies half a million of them are estimated to well alongside the Russians, but their efforts crossing proved a chaotic failed to mount an effective pursuit. have died of hardships and de\ufb01ciencies. were undermined by the failure of the failure and was abandoned As \ufb01ghting died down for the winter Russian Kerensky Offensive on October 3. Falkenhayn elsewhere on the 234\u201335 \u276f\u276f. German attacks on Moldavia then launched the German Eastern Front, Russia were repulsed, but the Bolshevik Ninth Army and the Austro- belatedly began Revolution 252\u201353 \u276f\u276f and the Russian Hungarian First Army in an transferring forces to Civil War left them isolated. After an offensive against the Romania from the end Romanian forces in of October. Most did Transylvania, bursting through the Vulcan Pass into Wallachia. not arrive until armistice with Germany in December 1917, the Falkenhayn\u2019s and Mackensen\u2019s December, in time to Romanian government accepted punitive armies advanced on the stabilize a defensive peace terms in May 1918. Romania Romanian capital, Bucharest, line that left most of nominally reentered the war on the Allied side from the south and west. The Romania occupied by on November 10, 1918. city fell on December 6. the Central Powers. The Romanians had lost more than Under occupation Bucharest occupied 300,000 men, a large proportion of them taken prisoner. The survivors Mackensen was German, Turkish, Austro-Hungarian, and Bulgarian retreated north into Moldavia, behind installed as military soldiers are photographed in the Romanian capital, the Sereth River. British agents tried to governor of the area of Bucharest, in 1917. The military occupation was to destroy the oil installations at Ploesti, Romania controlled by prove a bitter experience for the Romanian people. 195","YEAR OF BATTLES 1916 The Arab Revolt In June 1916, Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca, proclaimed an Arab revolt against the rule of Ottoman Turkey. This triggered a guerrilla campaign that contributed significantly to Turkey\u2019s defeat, which in turn led to the division of the Middle East by the Allied powers. BEFORE S harif Hussein, head of Arabia\u2019s Rebel warrior Hashemite clan, was a prestigious Emir Faisal, the military leader of the Arab Revolt, was a The Ottoman Turkish Empire had ruled Islamic \ufb01gure, claiming descent member of the Hashemite clan, dominant in the Hejaz most of the Arab Middle East for four from the Prophet Muhammad and region of western Arabia. Faisal collaborated closely centuries, but by 1914 the Arabs were controlling Islam\u2019s holiest city, Mecca. with British intelligence officer T.E. Lawrence. becoming restless under Turkish rule. His power base, the Hejaz region on Arabia\u2019s Red Sea coast, was part of in Egypt, that Britain would broadly \ufb01rst it seemed unlikely to be more than ARAB ASPIRATIONS Turkey\u2019s Ottoman Empire, its cities support Arab independence from a local disturbance. Supplied with When Turkey entered the war \u276e\u276e 74\u201375 garrisoned by Ottoman soldiers. Arabia north to Syria and east to British ri\ufb02es, the rebels overcame the in 1914, its sultan, Mehmed V, the caliph Mesopotamia. Hussein proposed to Ottoman garrison in Mecca and seized (secular leader of Islam), called on the After Turkey entered the war in rule this vast area as an Arab king. the port of Jeddah with the support of Ottoman Empire\u2019s Muslim subjects to join a autumn 1914, relations with its Britain\u2019s Royal Navy, but they failed to jihad against the Christian enemy. Few Arabs Arab subjects deteriorated. Food Call to arms take the second holy city of Medina. responded to this call, and Britain was able shortages and growing hardship to consolidate its hold on Egypt. stimulated discontent, which was Sharif Hussein launched his revolt in Meanwhile, an advance by British brutally surpressed. June 1916. Although it called for the troops from Egypt across the Sinai Even before the war, the leader of Arabia\u2019s support of \u201call brother Muslims,\u201d at Desert, timed to coincide with the Hashemites, Sharif Hussein, had ambitions to In October 1915, Hussein obtained a assert the independence of the Arab promise from Sir Henry MacMahon, lands. He had also explored the possibility of the British high commissioner gaining British support for such aspirations. Barrel Rear sling swivel aids accuracy Cocking lever","THE ARAB REVOLT AFTER revolt, made slow progress. Turkish The dissolution of the Ottoman reinforcements were sent to Arabia Empire after World War I only from Syria along the Hejaz railroad. partially satis\ufb01ed the nationalist aspirations of the Arabs, leading Lawrence of Arabia to further con\ufb02icts in the future. In November 1916, Lieutenant Colonel irregulars ranged across northern Turkish artillery ARAB HOPES DASHED T.E. Lawrence, a British intelligence Arabia, carrying out guerrilla attacks A Turkish field gun in action in Palestine in 1918. Emir Faisal attended the Paris Peace of\ufb01cer, was sent to establish relations on targets such as the Hejaz railroad Highly mobile Arab rebels supported the British Army Conference 334\u201335 \u276f\u276f in 1919 as the with Hussein\u2019s son, Emir Faisal, who and evading the Turkish troops sent to as it took on the Ottoman main force. Arab representative, but returned frustrated. was leading a force of chie\ufb02y Bedouin counter them. In July 1917, they In March 1920, with popular support, he irregulars around the port of Yenbo captured the Red Sea port of Aqaba (in seriously shook Arab con\ufb01dence in declared himself king of Syria and (in modern-day Saudi Arabia). In modern-day Jordan), overrunning the their alliance with Britain. Emir Palestine, but was deposed by French December, with British naval support, defenses with a camel charge. Aqaba Faisal discreetly contacted the Turks troops the following June. Britain and became an important base for landing to see if they would provide a better France were then authorized by the IRREGULARS Combatants who do not British supplies from Egypt. deal. However, further evolution of newly formed League of Nations to rule belong to any formal army. They the murky political situation was most Arab areas of the former Ottoman often favor guerrilla tactics, such as As the British Army from Egypt preempted by Allied military successes Empire, including Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, raids, ambushes, and sabotage. advanced to \ufb01ght the Turks in southern in Palestine and Mesopotamia. Faisal\u2019s and Mesopotamia. Palestine, the Arab irregulars operated forces, continuing to operate beyond Lawrence and Faisal repulsed a Turkish on their eastern \ufb02ank, raiding the right \ufb02ank of the British Army in THE FUTURE OF PALESTINE counterattack at Yenbo, and in January northward into Syria. Palestine, captured the important rail In 1921, Britain made Faisal king of mounted a bold operation to seize the junction of Dera in September 1918. the new state of Iraq, which roughly port of Wejh, 190 miles (300 km) north. Secret agreement With Australian cavalry, they occupied corresponded to the former Mesopotamia. the Syrian capital, Damascus, before The British also turned the eastern part Faisal and Lawrence understood While militarily the Arab Revolt the war\u2019s end. of Palestine into the Kingdom of the importance of spreading the revolt gathered momentum, political Transjordan (later known as Jordan) beyond the Hejaz region. Faisal\u2019s developments were running counter under a Hashemite ruler. The rest of to Sharif Hussein\u2019s aspirations. From Palestine remained under direct British British rifle November 1915, two Middle East control. By the 1930s, it had turned into an The Martini-Henry rifle, a experts, the French diplomat Fran\u00e7ois arena of con\ufb02ict between Jewish settlers, veteran of 19th-century Georges-Picot and the British adviser Palestinian Arabs, and the British authorities. colonial wars, was among the weaponry supplied by Sir Mark Sykes, held discussions in Britain to arm the Arab rebels. The Martini-Henry was London to de\ufb01ne French and British prized for its accuracy and reliability. spheres of in\ufb02uence in the region. The secret Sykes-Picot Agreement of \u201c God has vouchsafed the land May 1916 allotted Syria and Lebanon an opportunity to rise to France and the rest of the region to in revolt\u2026 to seize her Britain, except for Palestine, which was independence.\u201d to be shared between Britain, France, and Russia. Although the agreement SHARIF HUSSEIN, PROCLAMATION OF THE ARAB REVOLT, JUNE 27, 1916 allowed for the creation of Arab kingdoms in these spheres of in\ufb02uence, BRITISH ARMY INTELLIGENCE OFFICER (1888\u20131935) it clearly ran counter to Britain\u2019s understanding with Sharif Hussein. T.E. LAWRENCE The situation was further complicated Popularly known as \u201cLawrence of Arabia,\u201d in November 1917 when British Thomas Edward Lawrence was an Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour archaeologist working in the Middle East publicly declared British support for when the war broke out. Employed as a the Zionist project of a \u201cnational home British Army intelligence of\ufb01cer in Cairo for the Jewish people\u201d in Palestine. because of his knowledge of the region, he was sent to Arabia in 1916. Sense of betrayal Lawrence acted as a liaison of\ufb01cer with The Balfour Declaration and the Emir Faisal\u2019s Arab rebels, helping to Sykes-Picot Agreement, made public develop the strategy and tactics for a by the Bolsheviks after their seizure guerrilla war against Ottoman forces. of power in Russia in November 1917, Lawrence identi\ufb01ed with the cause of Arab nationalism and acted as Faisal\u2019s adviser Arab forces at Yenbo at the Peace Conference in 1919. He This photograph of Arab irregulars outside the Red Sea wrote a highly colored account port of Yenbo was taken by T.E. Lawrence in December of his experiences in The Seven Pillars 1916. Bedouin tribesmen formed a major part of of Wisdom (1922). the rebel forces. 197","YEAR OF BATTLES 1916 BEFORE The Strains of War The outbreak of war stimulated a Throughout 1916, many people in the warring states of Europe faced mounting economic wave of social and political solidarity hardship. Governments struggled to maintain social cohesion. States that could not in the combatant countries. However, cope with the demands of war faced the threat of revolution. this mood did not last when the prospect of a swift victory receded. F or many civilians in Germany and occasional food riots and strikes in Misery of war Austria-Hungary, the experience RESOLVE WEAKENS of the war centered on their daily Berlin, Vienna, and other cities, and An elderly woman falls ill while waiting for food The sacri\ufb01ces demanded of people in the struggle to \ufb01nd enough to eat. states at war were extreme. By the end of Inevitably, the Central Powers blamed a perception that sacri\ufb01ces were not in Germany in 1916. German civilians suffered from 1915, for example, around 640,000 French their acute food shortages on the Allied soldiers had been killed in the con\ufb02ict. economic blockade. From the start of being fairly shared. Support grew for malnutrition in the course of the war, as did people in Civilians had also found themselves exposed the war, Britain included foodstuffs to mounting hardships as among the items that its Royal Navy antiwar socialists, and for separatism other countries, including Russia and Austria-Hungary. governments mobilized their full resources. In Germany, the need banned from entering Germany. among Austria-Hungary\u2019s minorities. to conserve supplies of animal feed But Germany and Austria- had led to the mass slaughter Hungary were large agricultural shortages of food became acute in of livestock producers and not heavily in 1914\u201315, dependent on seaborne imports of Social disintegration Russian cities and the rail network exacerbating the staple foods. The blockade contributed food shortages to shortages, but a steep fall in Russia\u2019s problems were more acute began to break down for lack of fuel. of 1916. The political domestic agricultural output truce that had prevailed at was also a factor. This was partly than those of the Central Powers In the countryside, where men and the beginning of the war caused by the transfer of labor from began to break down. agriculture to the army and factories, because its less developed economy horses had been taken off to the army, and partly by a shortage of fertilizers, TEMPORARY GRAVE due to chemicals being diverted to and inef\ufb01cient administration could women were yoked to plows to till the MARKER, FRANCE make high explosives. not cope with the strains the war soil. In factories, strikes erupted as TSARIST COURTIER (1869\u20131916) Germany\u2019s black market imposed. Well-meaning liberals price in\ufb02ation ran ahead of wages, GRIGORI RASPUTIN From 1915, Germans were eating \u201cK-bread\u201d made chie\ufb02y of potatoes. from Russia\u2019s making scarce food A peasant by birth, Grigori Rasputin Ersatz (substitute) products replaced was a Russian monk who gained access many items, including coffee, butter, professional, WINDSOR The name adopted by the unaffordable for to the court of Tsar Nicholas II. His and sausages. The German government apparent ability to suppress the introduced rationing and created business, and British royal family in July 1917, to many. Meanwhile, hemophilia of the tsar\u2019s son, Alexis, various agencies to enforce controls on won him the trust of Nicholas\u2019s food production and prices. The effect landowning classes replace its original Germanic name among Russia\u2019s German-born wife, Alexandra, who of these was often counterproductive acted as regent when Tsar Nicholas and a black market \ufb02ourished. set up a voluntary Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. aristocracy and went off to lead the Russian army. By 1916, Rasputin\u2019s relationship with Germany\u2019s harvest in 1916 was a organization, the administrative Alexandra was the subject of scurrilous disaster. There followed the \u201cTurnip rumors. On December 16, 1916, he Winter,\u201d named after the only food Zemstvo Union, to run some aspects of class, \ufb02agrant corruption was was murdered by a group of noblemen many people could obtain. The of\ufb01cial and monarchists, who believed he was ration allowed 3.5 oz (100 g) of meat the war. These included military widespread, as was conspicuous bringing the regime into disrepute. and one egg a week, but these were often unobtainable. Germans with supply and food relief for the hungry. consumption of luxury goods. 198 money to buy goods on the black market or contacts in the countryside They were, however, often obstructed Under these dif\ufb01cult circumstances, could eat, but poor people in urban areas suffered malnutrition. by of\ufb01cials, who regarded them as Russia\u2019s tsarist regime could not hold The food situation in Germany was subversives. The Duma, the Russian the allegiance of the common people at its worst in the winter of 1916\u201317, although shortages, soup kitchens, and parliament representing liberal or the middle classes. Increasingly, food lines were a permanent fact throughout wartime life. There were opinion, was rarely summoned to sit blame was pinned on German and had no power. Through 1916, elements within the court. Popular \u201cThe women who stood in lines\u2026 spoke more about their children\u2019s hunger than about the death of their husbands.\u201d ERNST GLAESER, GERMAN AUTHOR, DESCRIBING GERMANY IN WORLD WAR I"]