["","NOT OVER BY CHRISTMAS 1914 Artillery At the start of the war, field artillery was relatively mobile and often loaded with shrapnel to scythe down advancing infantry. Trench systems demanded heavier guns that could saturate enemy defenses with shell fire. 1 18-Pounder \ufb01eld gun (British) The standard British \ufb01eld number of bullets, shrapnel shells were effective against 1 18-POUNDER FIELD GUN gun lacked the power or angle of \ufb01re to be effective against massed troops in open terrain. 7 Munitions carriage with (BRITISH) trenches. 2 149 mm Obice Krupp M14 Howitzer (Italian) 38 cm shell (German) Some shells were so large that they This German design was built in Italy under license. had to be transported by carriage. 8 75 mm shells (French) Howitzers were used to \ufb01re heavy shells on a high trajectory, Shells for the 75 mm \ufb01eld gun contained either shrapnel or enabling them to reach concealed targets. 3 2.75 in high explosives. 9 Schneider mortar (French) Designed to mountain gun (British) This weapon saw service in \ufb01re at a steep angle, mortars were useful in trench warfare. Mesopotamia (Iraq) and on the Macedonian front. 10 Fahrpanzer (German) This gun was mounted on narrow- 4 75 mm \ufb01eld gun (French) The hydraulic recoil gauge railroad tracks and operated by a two-man crew. mechanism of this gun enabled accurate and rapid \ufb01re, 11 149 mm Howitzer M14\/16 (Austro-Hungarian) This without the need to reposition the gun after each shot. howitzer was built by Skoda, the largest industrial enterprise 5 Gas shell (German) The \ufb01rst use of artillery-\ufb01red in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. 12 21 cm M\u00f6rser 16 chemical shells was at Neuve-Chapelle in October 1914. (German) This howitzer, here packed for transportation, was 6 77 mm shrapnel shell (German) Packed with a large used by the German army until 1940. 4 75 MM FIELD GUN (FRENCH) 5 GAS SHELL 6 77 MM SHRAPNEL SHELL 7 MUNITIONS CARRIAGE WITH 38 CM SHELL (GERMAN) (GERMAN) (GERMAN) 11 149 MM HOWITZER M14\/16 (AUSTRO\u2013HUNGARIAN) 50","ARTILLERY 2 149 MM OBICE KRUPP M14 HOWITZER (ITALIAN) 3 2.75 IN MOUNTAIN GUN (BRITISH) 9 SCHNEIDER MORTAR (FRENCH) 8 75 MM SHELLS (FRENCH) 12 21 CM M\u00d6RSER 16 (GERMAN) 10 FAHRPANZER (GERMAN) 51","NOT OVER BY CHRISTMAS 1914 The Great Retreat In the last days of August 1914, French and British troops were retreating as fast as they could march, pursued by German armies. The Germans were occupying French territory and threatening Paris. Faced with this debacle, General Joffre calmly set about organizing a counteroffensive. BEFORE O n August 25, Joffre issued his planned to withdraw his General Instruction No. 2. This army. The British war In August 1914, the German Schlieffen envisioned a withdrawal of the minister, Lord Kitchener, Plan, intended to defeat France in six French and British armies to a made a lightning visit to weeks, appeared to be working. But defensible line\u2014initially set at the Paris and told him to in reality, the German offensive was Somme, but later revised to the stay in line. going awry. Marne\u2014where the German advance would be halted. A new French Sixth General Gallieni The line holds FATALLY WEAKENED Army would be created and moved by French General Joseph Gallieni was recalled from The basis of the Schlieffen Plan \u276e\u276e 22\u201323 rail north of Paris to help repel the retirement to take command of the defense of Paris in By early September, was the concentration of German forces on German armies \ufb02ooding into France August 1914. In September, he turned the capital into Joffre\u2019s plans were taking their right wing to sweep through Belgium and from Belgium. This strategic vision the base for a counterattack against the German flank. shape. The French northern France. These forces became fatally continued to hold against weakened. Troops had to be detached to 137 The number of miles In Paris, there was panic as the German attacks in front besiege the Belgians at Antwerp and the (220 km) marched by the Germans approached. The French of Nancy and Verdun. French fortress at Maubeuge. The German British Expeditionary Force from government \ufb02ed to Bordeaux while The French Third and offensive from Lorraine \u276e\u276e 44\u201345 was Mons during the Great Retreat. General Gallieni defended the capital. Fourth Armies lost reinforced at the expense of the armies on the Meanwhile, the BEF commander, Field more ground, including right. On August 26, two German corps were seemed mere fantasy when set against Marshal Sir John French, had lost all the city of Reims on sent to the Eastern Front to face the Russian the reality faced by French and British con\ufb01dence in his allies. Determined to September 5, but a threat to East Prussia 64\u201365 \u276f\u276f. troops on the ground. save his army from destruction, he defensive line was emerging, with a new Ninth Army under the command ALLIED RESPONSE The battered British Expeditionary of General Ferdinand Foch inserted In spite of their massive losses, the Force (BEF) and French Fifth Army between the Fourth and Fifth armies. French maintained their coherence and were marching up to 12 miles (20 km) Meanwhile, the strains imposed on \ufb01ghting spirit. The British confirmed a day in burning summer heat with Allied troops by the Great Retreat their commitment to the war by the German First and Second Armies were mirrored on the German side. sending another infantry division to France at their heels. Occasionally, British Soldiers on the German right wing had on August 19. and French troops fought rearguard been marching for a month since actions, including a successful French crossing the Belgian border. Dependent counterattack at St. Quentin. Mostly on horse-drawn transportation, their they marched, often short of food supplies failed to keep up, leaving and drink, their feet blistered, and troops hungry and thirsty. The German snatching sleep by the roadside. First and Second Armies, advancing in","THE GREAT RETREAT Invasion of France 1 Aug 20 The course of the German invasion departed from the Schlieffen Plan, turning east of Paris instead of west. Belgian Army withdraws BELGIAN NETHERLANDS Joffre refused to allow his armies to be enveloped and ARMY prepared a counteroffensive for September 5. to Antwerp. After heavy King Albert KEY Ramsgate bombardment, city \ufb01nally Antwerp German advance (Aug 2\u2013 Sept 5) (117,000) German army Dover surrenders on Oct 10. Belgian army Folkestone el Bruges Ghent British army English French army Chann Dunkerque German position, Sept 5 Belgian position, Sept 5 Calais Yser BELGIU M Brussels Louvain Maastricht Aachen 1ST ARMY GERMAN GHQ British position, Sept 5 Saint-Omer French position, Sept 5 Ypres Scheldt Dender Kluck German GHQ Lille French GHQ (320,000) Moltke German fortified towns Belgian fortified towns Boulogne-sur-Mer AUG 22\u201323 AUG 21\u201325 2ND ARMY moved to French fortified towns Luxembourg, Major battle or siege 2 Aug 24 Charleroi Namur B\u00fclow Maubeuge, besieged by Lys AUG 4\u201316 Aug 30 parallel, had dif\ufb01culty keeping in touch Germans, holds out until Sept 8. AUG 23 Sambre Meuse (260,000) hine with each other and with Moltke\u2019s Li\u00e8ge 3RD ARMY R staff headquarters in Luxembourg. Maubeuge Dinant Although Moltke had planned for the Mons Koblenz Arras Landrecies Givet AUG 23 106 The distance in miles Hausen (170 km) between the (180,000) German Second Army\u2019s front Cambrai OurtheMeu seWarche Mos and its supporting railroads on elle September 4\u2014too far for the Abbeville Som AUG 26 GERMANY supply system to work properly. me Rhine Le Cateau Hirson Ardennes LUXEMBOURG 4TH ARMY First Army to march west of Paris, its Amiens Albrecht commander, General von Kluck, chose P\u00e9ronne St. Quentin AUG 29 Neufch\u00e2teau Trier (180,000) to turn east of the capital, heading for TERRITORIAL Luxembourg the Marne River. This was a disastrous & RESERVE e Oise Guise M\u00e9zi\u00e8res 5TH ARMY DIVISIONS Chaulnes Som m Sedan Refugees on the road As the German armies advanced, thousands of D\u2019Amade La F\u00e8re Belgian and French citizens fled their homes. In northern France, the Germans burned down villages Rouen Seine 6TH ARMY Ois e Compi\u00e8gne Aisne Montm\u00e9dy Longwy Crown Prince and killed civilians as they had in Belgium. Maunoury Ou r cq Reims Diedenhofen (200,000) (Thionville) Saar Saarbr\u00fccken PARIS Chantilly Ch\u00e2teau Epernay Verdun Metz M ose Morhange Thierry Marne DEFENCE lle 6TH ARMY Rupprecht FORCES Meaux Montmirail Ch\u00e2lons 3RD ARMY Nancy (220,000) Grand Morin Toul Gallieni Paris Sarrail Sarrebourg (168,000) 2ND ARMY Strassburg Castelnau 9TH ARMY Vitry-le- 4TH ARMY (200,000) 7TH ARMY FRANCE Langle Heeringen Melun Provins Foch Fran\u00e7ois de Cary (125,000) (formed BEF Seine 5TH ARMY Aug 29) (193,000) MMeousrethllee French Franchet Marnee (110,000) d\u2019Esperey Aub Bar-sur-Aube Epinal (254,000) Seine 1ST ARMY Colmar FRENCH GHQ Langres Dubail M\u00fclhausen Joffre moved (256,000) (Mulhouse) from Vitry- 0 100 km 0 100 miles le-Fran\u00e7ois, Thann Altkirch Sept 2 Belfort Basel decision, for it left the right \ufb02ank of Joffre was still hesitating over the SWITZERLAND Kluck\u2019s army exposed to potential optimum moment to launch his attack by both the Paris garrison and counterblow, but Gallieni, with not AFTER Joffre\u2019s newly formed Sixth Army. only the Paris troops but also the Sixth Army under his overall command, As the Great Retreat came to a halt, Time to attack forced Joffre\u2019s hand. Informed from Joffre launched the Battle of the various sources, including aerial Marne. This counteroffensive was In the \ufb01rst days of September, the Great reconnaissance, of Kluck\u2019s exposed a turning point of the war. Retreat was still under way. The BEF and \ufb02ank, on September 4 Gallieni sent out French Fifth Army withdrew across the orders to prepare to attack. Accepting THE BATTLE OF THE MARNE Marne River on September 2 with Kluck Gallieni\u2019s initiative, on the following Pressure for a swift counterattack came a day behind them, his rapid advance day Joffre informed his armies, \u201cThe from General Gallieni in Paris and General opening up a gap between his army and time for retreat has ended.\u201d Louis Franchet d\u2019Esp\u00e8rey, the new commander General von B\u00fclow\u2019s Second Army. of the French Fifth Army. They obtained Joffre\u2019s agreement for the offensive on the GERMAN GENERAL (1848\u20131916) Marne 54\u201355 \u276f\u276f to start on September 6. Field Marshal Sir John French agreed to stop HELMUTH VON MOLTKE retreating only after Joffre appealed to \u201cthe honor of England\u201d on September 5. Helmuth von Moltke was known as \u201cthe Younger\u201d to distinguish him from his uncle, whose victories FIGHTING WITHDRAWAL had created the German Empire. A neurotic On the German side, Kluck\u2019s First Army personality, the younger Moltke preferred playing advanced across the Marne on September 5, the cello to riding a horse, but also liked to strike despite orders from Moltke to go on the poses of brutal ruthlessness. Appointed Chief of defensive. Kluck did not pull back until the the General Staff in 1906, he argued the case for following day. The Germans managed the preventive war against Russia and France. In the transition from headlong attack to a crisis of July 1914, he was pessimistic about fighting withdrawal skilfully. They Germany\u2019s chances but insistent that war must eventually stabilized a defensive position be launched. In the early weeks of the war, he at the Aisne River 58\u201359 \u276f\u276f. made poor decisions that undermined the Schlieffen Plan and failed to control his generals. In poor health, he was relieved of command on September 14. 53","German offensive Initially overcoming the French Sixth Army, a German machine gun detachment advances at full gallop into the battle zone, September 1914. The Battle of the Marne The French and British counteroffensive launched on September 5\u20136, 1914, was one of the severe dif\ufb01culties. Despite Gallieni\u2019s decisive battles in world history. By forcing the German armies in France onto the defensive, commandeering of Parisian taxis and it ended Germany\u2019s hopes of a quick victory and set the course for a drawn-out global conflict. buses to rush troops to the front\u2014the French army had almost no motor BEFORE T he Battle of the Marne opened opted to attack, exploiting the transportation\u2014by September 8, Kluck prematurely. General Joseph Joffre advantage of high ground. Soon, an was threatening Paris. Up to the \ufb01rst week in September, ordered the Allied counteroffensive already familiar spectacle was being when the Battle of the Marne began, to begin on September 6. In preparation, repeated: French troops in their bright Nonetheless, the strategic situation the war had brought a remarkable on September 5, the eager General uniforms, poorly supported by artillery, was shifting in favor of the Allies. series of German victories on both the Gallieni, commanding in Paris, moved cut down in swathes by superior While the French Ninth Army under Eastern and Western fronts. General Michel-Joseph Maunoury\u2019s German \ufb01repower. The German First Ferdinand Foch fought a desperate Sixth Army forward toward the exposed Army commander, General Alexander holding action in the Gond marshes, RAPID GERMAN ADVANCE \ufb02ank of the German First Army. von Kluck, responded to the outbreak General Louis Franchet d\u2019Esp\u00e8rey led French offensives were thrown back in of \ufb01ghting by skilfully shifting troops his Fifth Army forward against General Lorraine and the Ardennes \u276e\u276e 44\u201345. Strengths and weaknesses back to confront the threat. Karl von B\u00fclow\u2019s German Second Driven out of Belgium, the French Fifth Army and Army. The Allies were short of supplies the BEF were pursued by German armies The Germans\u2019 main strength had The French Sixth Army was a and exhausted by weeks of marching, advanced to the south, leaving only a hastily assembled formation, chie\ufb02y but after tough \ufb01ghting it was the 250 The number of miles reserve corps under General Hans von consisting of reserves and Moroccan Germans who fell back. (400 km) German\u2019s Gronau defending the \ufb02ank. Spotting troops. Facing the increasing weight of First Army had advanced the French advance, Gronau boldly Kluck\u2019s forces, it was soon experiencing Lost opportunity before the order was given to retreat. Meanwhile, Franchet d\u2019Esp\u00e8rey fumed at the tardiness of the British and forced to retreat beyond the Marne on his left. Field Marshal Sir John River \u276e\u276e 52\u201353. This rapid German French, who had been persuaded advance, however, left the flank of the German with some dif\ufb01culty to promise Joffre First Army exposed to a counterattack by his cooperation, was asked to advance General Joseph Gallieni\u2019s forces around Paris. into a gap that had opened between the German First and Second Transportation to the front Armies. He did so, but with excessive Parisian buses and taxis were requisitioned by the caution and a distinct lack of urgency. French army to rush reinforcements to the front on To the French commanders, it September 7. The \u201ctaxis of the Marne\u201d became a seemed that a chance to impose a French national legend, although their contribution decisive defeat on the Germans to victory was limited. was being lost. The German Chief of the General Staff Helmuth von Moltke, at his headquarters in Luxembourg, was a worried man. Unclear about the state of the \ufb01ghting, he sent a staff intelligence of\ufb01cer, Lieutenant Colonel Richard Hentsch, to visit each of the army headquarters in turn. 54","THE BATTLE OF THE MARNE The counteroffensive, 1 Sept 5 3 Sept 6 AFTER September 5\u20136 French 6th Army encounters General von German 2nd and 3rd Armies Rapid advance of German Gronau\u2019s Reserve Corps on the \ufb02ank of German force Foch\u2019s French 9th back The retreating Germans dug into a 1st and 2nd Armies had left 1st Army. Gronau attacks successfully. across the St. Gond Marshes. strong defensive position on the them exposed to counterattack. Aisne, where they halted the Allied The French 6th Army struck Compi\u00e8gne Juvigny Aisne Craonne counteroffensive on September 12. from the flank while the BEF Soissons and other French armies Oise GERMAN MG08 attacked from the south. F\u00e8re-en-Tardenois Vesle Reims MACHINE GUN 6TH ARMY Maunoury Ourcq Forest of Reims TRENCH WARFARE BEGINS The successful German defense on the Aisne 1ST ARMY Ch\u00e2teau Thierry Marne initiated static trench warfare\u2014the Kluck rival armies were still \ufb01ghting over the same Epernay 3RD ARMY ground in spring 1918. Elsewhere on the Petit Morin Hausen Western Front, mobile warfare continued until Meaux 2ND ARMY November 1914, with the out\ufb02anking B\u00fclow Ch\u00e2lons movements of the \u201cRace to the Sea\u201d 58\u201359 \u276f\u276f culminating in the First Battle Paris Montmirail of Ypres 60\u201361 \u276f\u276f. Garrison Grand Mor in MARNE REVISITED Gallieni Two million men took part in the Battle of the Marne. By the end, a quarter of these had BEF 9TH ARMY St. Gond 30 km been killed, or were wounded or missing. French Foch Marshes 20 miles Many of the battle sites would be fought over again in the Second Battle of the Marne 5TH ARMY 0 286\u201387 \u276f\u276f in July\u2013August 1918. Franchet d\u2019Esp\u00e8rey N 0 5 Sept 6 2 Sept 6 4 Sept 6 The BEF halts its Kluck sends troops back across the Marne French 5th Army launches a retreat and advances to support Gronau, who has withdrawn to vigorous offensive across hesitantly northward. a position in front of the Ourcq River. the Grand Morin. The turning point, 1 Sept 7 2 Sept 7 3 Sept 8 September 7\u20138 Kluck orders III and IX Corps north of the Gap held by small Surprise attack by French 5th Army Fighting raged north of Paris, Marne to participate in counterattack detachments opens between forces B\u00fclow to pull back behind at the Petit Morin and in the against French 6th Army. German 1st and 2nd Armies. the Petit Morin. St. Gond Marshes. Compi\u00e8gne Juvigny Aisne Craonne 4 Sept 8 The Germans came out Soissons A night attack by on top in some of Oise German 3rd Army these encounters, Vesle forces Foch to retreat. but a dangerous 6TH ARMY gap opened in Maunoury F\u00e8re-en-Tardenois Epernay Reims their line. Ourcq Forest of Reims 1ST ARMY Marne Kluck Ch\u00e2teau Thierry Meaux Marne 2ND ARMY Ch\u00e2lons KEY British advance B\u00fclow German army British position Paris 3RD ARMY British army French advance Garrison Montmirail Hausen French army French position German advance Road Gallieni Grand Morin Petit Morin German position German retreat\/ BEF 5TH ARMY St. Gond Marshes withdrawal French Franchet 9TH ARMY 0 30 km d\u2019Esp\u00e8rey Foch 0 20 miles N After discussing the situation with The German retreat, 1 Sept 9 5 Sept 12 3 Sept 10\u201312 4 Sept 12 B\u00fclow, Hensch judged that a German September 9\u201312 BEF advances into gap German 7th Army arrives French 5th Army and the BEF advance German armies reach withdrawal was urgently needed. British and French troops advanced almost unopposed to the Aisne. the Aisne, where they On September 9, B\u00fclow began to into the gap between the between German to \ufb01ll gap between 1st dig into defensive disengage his forces, while Hensch German 1st and 2nd Armies. 1st and 2nd Armies. and 2nd Armies. positions. passed on the news to Kluck. Although With the situation perilous, the German First Army was winning the Germans mounted a Compi\u00e8gne Aisne Juvigny 7TH ARMY Craonne 2 Sept 9 its part of the battle, Kluck had no general withdrawal to Soissons Heeringen B\u00fclow orders choice but to pull back his troops the Aisne River. Oise Aisne 2nd Army to along with B\u00fclow. retreat. Vesle Last act Ch\u00e2lons Ourcq F\u00e8re-en-Tardenois Reims Belatedly intervening in a situation 3RD ARMY that had slipped beyond his control, Forest of Reims Hausen Moltke set the Aisne River as the line to which the armies would withdraw. 6TH ARMY Ch\u00e2teau Thierry Marne 55 It was his last act as Chief of Staff. Maunoury Having failed to implement the 1ST ARMY Epernay Schlieffen Plan, he was dismissed. Meaux Kluck Joffre, the architect of the \u201cmiracle 2ND ARMY of the Marne,\u201d was hailed as the Marne B\u00fclow savior of France. Paris Grand Morin BEF Petit Morin Montmirail Garrison French 5TH ARMY St. Gond Marshes Gallieni Franchet d\u2019Esp\u00e8rey 9TH ARMY Foch 0 30 km 0 20 miles N","NOT OVER BY CHRISTMAS 1914 FRENCH GENERAL Born 1852 Died 1931 Joseph Joffre \u201cThe hour has come to advance at all costs and to die where you stand.\u201d JOFFRE\u2019S INSTRUCTIONS TO HIS COMMANDERS AT THE MARNE, SEPTEMBER 1914 W hen General Joseph Joffre On the other hand, Joffre had often was appointed Chief of Staff impressed his superiors by the of the French army in 1911, thoroughness and tenacity with the most common reaction among his which he executed the unglamorous peers was astonishment that such a but dif\ufb01cult tasks entrusted to him. modest man should have been placed Vitally, he was a man of the people in in such an elevated position. a largely aristocratic of\ufb01cer corps, his lowly origins as the son of an artisan An of\ufb01cer in the Engineers, Joffre recommending him to the French had pursued a solid career building Republican government. railroads and forti\ufb01cations in France\u2019s Attack at all costs African and Asian colonies. As he admitted in his response Sublimely self-con\ufb01dent, Joffre was to the offer of the post, he had never a man to underrate himself, but \u201cno knowledge whatever of nor did he mistake himself for an general staff work.\u201d His only original military thinker. Contrary to experience of leading men what might have been expected from in combat conditions had a builder of forti\ufb01cations, he believed been a march across that an offensive strategy was more West Africa to effective than a defensive one. It was Timbuktu in 1893 a view that was prevalent at the time among hostile and one shared by his brightest nomads. of\ufb01cers. Plan XVII, which laid out a new French offensive strategy in 1913, clearly stated: \u201cIt is the commander-in- chief\u2019s intention to advance with all forces united to the attack of the German armies.\u201d Joffre never wavered in his commitment to the attack at all costs. He blamed the disasters of the \ufb01rst month of the war not on the failings of Plan XVII, but on \u201clack of offensive spirit.\u201d His greatest success, the Battle of the Marne, was a strategically defensive victory, but achieved by a general offensive of the French and British armies. In the trench warfare that prevailed from December 1914, Joffre continued to launch massively costly offensive operations, as much with the aim of Commanding presence This portrait of Joffre by Henry Jacquet was painted at the height of his renown as commander-in-chief of the French armies in 1915. His bulky physical presence and placid, unflappable manner were reassuring amid the crises and horrors of the war.","JOSEPH JOFFRE Meeting of Allies TIMELINE Joffre meets, from left to right, President Poincar\u00e9, King George V, General Foch, and General Haig in \u25a0 January 1852 Joseph Jacques C\u00e9saire Joffre August 1916, during the Battle of the Somme. He is born at Rivesaltes in Rousillon, southern cultivated a good relationship with his British allies. France, one of 11 children of a barrel-maker. maintaining the aggression and spirit \u25a0 1870 Enters the \u00c9cole Polytechnique, France\u2019s of his troops as with any real hope of elite school of military engineering, afterward achieving a breakthrough. becoming an officer in the Corps of Engineers, serving mostly in France\u2019s colonies. If his commitment to attack showed Joffre as stubborn and unimaginative, \u25a0 1893 Promoted to lieutenant-colonel after his strengths as a commander grew leading a column of troops to Timbuktu, Mali, out of the same powerful, unshakable through territory dominated by Tuaregs. root of his character. \u25a0 1899 Serves under General Joseph Gallieni \u201cPapa\u201d Joffre whom Joffre wrongly blamed for achieving this goal were \ufb02exible. He in Madagascar, impressing Gallieni with his ordering the necessary retreat from repositioned armies and created new diligent work on fortifications. While his opponent at the start of the Belgium. The choice of Foch to lead the ones, keeping a tight hold on his war, German Chief of the General Staff Ninth Army at the Marne and of P\u00e9tain commanders through clear and concise \u25a0 1908 Promoted to general and given Helmuth von Moltke, came close to a to oversee the defense of Verdun orders. Nothing went according to a command of the French Second Army Corps. nervous breakdown through the in February 1916 were other strains of an apparently victorious inspired appointments. plan, yet Joffre controlled the \u25a0 July 1911 Appointed French Chief of Staff campaign, Joffre remained calm and battle, taking decisions in his on the recommendation of Gallieni. resolute in the face of the failure of his Winning over the British measured manner. offensives and the invasion of France. Victory at the Marne \u25a0 1913 As Chief of Staff, endorses a new war He lost neither appetite nor sleep. In dealing with France\u2019s allies, made Joffre a French strategy, Plan XVII, which envisages a Visitors to his headquarters in the early whom he could neither order hero. For a while, general offensive by French armies on the weeks of the war, \ufb01rst at Vitry-le- nor \ufb01re, Joffre proved effective his prestige saved outbreak of war. Fran\u00e7ois and then at Bas-sur-Aube, at eliciting cooperation. Like him from criticism, marveled at the long, copious lunches, everyone else, he found the \ufb01rst but the stalemate \u25a0 August 8, 1914 Issues General Instruction always followed by an hour\u2019s siesta, BEF commander, Sir John of trench war No. 1, which orders French armies to take the which no one would dare interrupt. French, intractable, but in a eroded his offensive; these offensives are repulsed with dramatic visit to French\u2019s reputation. By exceptionally heavy losses. His absolute self-con\ufb01dence headquarters on the eve of the late 1915, after a communicated itself to his staff and Marne counteroffensive, he series of failed \u25a0 September 5\u20136, 1914 Launches a to his subordinate commanders. Even won British cooperation offensives in Artois counteroffensive at the Battle of the Marne, while they were being killed by the through an and Champagne, forcing the German armies in France to retreat. tens of thousands in the offensives emotional Joffre\u2019s magic began to ordered by their commander-in-chief, appeal that fail. In February 1916, he \u25a0 1915 Launches the Champagne and Artois French soldiers responded to his \ufb01rm came across was blamed for the poor state offensives, in which French troops suffer heavy but benevolent paternal appearance despite the lack of a of the defenses at Verdun. casualties for little or no gain. by dubbing him \u201cPapa\u201d Joffre. common language. With French\u2019s successor, Douglas \u25a0 February 1916 Widely blamed for the poor Joffre was implacably authoritarian. Haig, Joffre built a relationship state of Verdun\u2019s defenses when the Germans He ruled the battle zones in eastern of trust and mutual aid, helped launch an offensive at Verdun. France like a military dictator. by Haig\u2019s own wholehearted Despising politicians, he rejected all commitment to the alliance. \u25a0 December 13, 1916 Replaced as commander- political interference in military in-chief by Robert Nivelle, but accorded the decisions and barely kept his The Battle of the Marne was title of Marshal of France. government informed of his intentions. the high point of Joffre\u2019s career. In a rapidly changing situation, \u25a0 1917 Heads French military missions to Sound judgment with armies in retreat, he Romania and the United States. pursued the goal of establishing Joffre was famous for \ufb01ring generals a line facing the invader from \u25a0 January 3, 1931 Dies in Paris and is buried whom he believed to be incompetent which a counteroffensive could at his estate in Louveciennes. or lacking in offensive spirit\u2014more be launched. His means of than 70 corps or divisional commanders Sidelined were dismissed in the \ufb01rst two months of the war. His judgment was Politicians who were offended usually shrewd, if not always fair. The by Joffre\u2019s arrogance plotted his replacement of Lanrezac by the downfall. With losses unbearable, energetic Franchet d\u2019Esp\u00e8rey as and Joffre unable to propose a commander of the Fifth Army before quick route to winning the war, the Battle of the Marne was essential to in December 1916 he was victory, although unjust to Lanrezac replaced by Robert Nivelle, whom Joffre had promoted. Still \u201c My faith in the soldiers of popular, Joffre was made a Marshal of France\u2014the \ufb01rst to be accorded the title since 1870\u2014 but was sidelined from then on. After the war, Joffre retired from military and public life. He died in Paris in 1931. France had been justi\ufb01ed\u2026 Sword of honor WORLD WAR I POSTCARD How gloriously they fought!\u201d Joffre won adulation both in France and abroad, and was presented with numerous JOSEPH JOFFRE DESCRIBING THE BATTLE OF THE MARNE swords of honor and other symbolic gifts. Although known for his modest demeanour, he was not averse to a little hero worship. 57","NOT OVER BY CHRISTMAS 1914 The Race to the Sea The Allied advance from the Marne was brought to an abrupt halt in front of the German trenches on the Aisne in mid-September 1914, but a war of movement continued farther north in the \u201cRace to the Sea.\u201d P ursuing a supposedly defeated their advance, the British and French trench system that would eventually enemy northward in the second week in September, French and attacked immediately. Under heavy extend from Switzerland to the coast. British commanders were in an optimistic mood. They estimated that it shelling from the German guns, they At Reims, the armies were equally would take their advancing forces from Destroying a bridge over the Aisne three weeks to a month to reach found a precarious way across bridges stuck, with the French holding the city As the Germans withdrew across the Aisne River, they Belgium\u2019s border with Germany. But blew up bridges to stop the French and British from they did not know that the outgoing partially destroyed by German but suffering under a heavy German pursuing them. Allied troops had great difficulty German Chief of General Staff, General crossing the river under enemy fire. Moltke, had ordered his withdrawing engineers or built their own pontoon bombardment, which devastated the armies to fortify and defend a line BEFORE along the Aisne River. bridges over the 48 The number of fortresses city\u2019s cathedral. broad river, which surrounding Antwerp to Neither French On the Western Front, the \ufb01rst six Battle of the Aisne was swollen by weeks of the war had been dramatic commander-in-chief but indecisive, leaving both sides When Allied troops reached the Aisne options for offensive operations. on September 12, they found the heavy rain. Once defend it from attack. Joffre, nor Moltke\u2019s Germans entrenched on the Chemin STRATEGIC DECISIONS des Dames ridge, easily defensible they were on the replacement as Despite the Allied victory at the Marne heights on the far side of the river. \u276e\u276e 54\u201355, German troops controlled a large Determined to maintain the rhythm of other side, Allied infantry mounted German Chief of the General Staff, area of northeastern France and Belgium. The Belgian army had withdrawn uphill assaults against the German lines Erich von Falkenhayn, was interested inside a defensive perimeter around Antwerp. Fighting along France\u2019s eastern and were repeatedly driven back by in accepting a stalemate. The country borders subsided, but battle raged at the city of Reims, retaken by the French after German \ufb01repower. was almost empty of troops north a brief German occupation on September 12. The French fortress of Maubeuge fell after The Germans followed up with their from the Aisne to the coast, and both a two-week siege on September 8. German armies retreating from the Marne had own counterattacks, but these proved commanders hastened to assemble orders to stand at the Aisne River, but this left open space to be exploited equally unsuccessful as Allied troops forces for an out\ufb02anking move into this between the Aisne and the coast. dug in. Soon, two lines of trenches inviting space. They transferred troops faced one another immovably\u2014 from other sectors\u2014chie\ufb02y the the start of the now largely dormant front line","THE RACE TO THE SEA 5 Oct 21\u201329 Troop movements A series of attempted outflanking moves by armies Belgians open sluices along Yser Canal to let on both sides carried the fighting from the Aisne north to the coast, where Belgian troops retreating from in seawater at high tides. The resulting \ufb02oods NETHERLANDS Antwerp held the line at the Yser. IUM IN 3 Oct 6\u201313 thwart the German attempt to cross the Yser. GERMANY KEY Belgian Army retreats LUXEMBOURG Major French attack (with date) BRITA Antwerp Major German attack (with date) from Antwerp via Ghent Ostend Major battle (with date) to a line along the Yser. Nieuport Oct 19\u201330 Allied front line, November Belgian sector OCT 16\u201330 Ghent British sector French sector Yser Yser Dixmude German front line, November 1914 Belgian fortified town\/city OCT 19\u2013NOV 22 Oct 19\u2013Nov 11 Brussels French fortified town\/city St Omer First Ypres BEL AFTER 4 Oct 19\u2013 Nov 11 Hazebrouck Lys Armenti\u00e8res Sambre Charleroi G The Race to the Sea culminated in the Hardest \ufb01ghting of the \u201cRace Maubeuge First Battle of Ypres, fought from to the Sea.\u201d British and French OCT 10\u2013NOV 2 Lille Oct 4\u20138 mid-October to late November. hold on to salient around Ypres, APPROACHING STALEMATE which remains in Allied hands La Bass\u00e9e Beginning while \ufb01ghting raged to the north at the Battle of the Yser and to the south at throughout the war. Sept 30 Lens SEPT 27\u2013OCT 12 La Bass\u00e9, intensive combat at Ypres 60\u201361 \u276f\u276f continued until the third week in 2 Sept 27\u2013 Oct 12 Arras First Artois November. With neither side able to make a French 10th Army holds off t5 Oct 1 breakthrough, this ended the first attempted German breakthrough. Sept 22 Oc mobile phase of the war on the Western Cambrai Front. Joffre launched another offensive in Abbeville se Sept 27\u201328 Champagne in December, but no further substantial movement could be achieved Somm Sept 17\u201318Albert by either side. The trenches that were dug by troops at various points in these battles were P\u00e9ronne Sept 24 gradually joined together to create a arne continuous trench line. 1 Sept 22\u201326 e Oise French 2nd Army attempts to Boulogne and Calais. With battle raging, out\ufb02ank German right wing. Roye SEPT 22\u201326 on October 25 King Albert ordered engineers to open the locks. As water Sept 18 First Picardy \ufb02ooded a wide area, German troops were forced to retreat or drown. The Belgians Noyon SEPT 12\u201328 Aisne were left in possession of a coastal strip of their national territory that they held Aisne throughout the war. Compi\u00e8gne Soissons Reims Oi Ourcq Chantilly Verdun Seine Ch\u00e2teau Thierry M PARIS FRANCE 0 80 km Nancy 0 80 miles along France\u2019s eastern border\u2014and \u201cWe established a rough \ufb01ring \ufb02ung them forward in a series of line and there we stayed\u2026 offensives, each of which met the We bogged down.\u201d enemy head on. DRUMMER E.L. SLAYTOR, COLDSTREAM GUARDS, AT THE AISNE, SEPTEMBER 16, 1914 Clashes in northern France While infantry and cavalry clashed in KEY MOMENT Once troops entrenched, no progress northern France, the Belgians, led in could be made and a new \ufb02anking person by King Albert I, were engaged THE BATTLE OF THE YSER maneuver had to be attempted farther in a desperate defense of Antwerp. north. The French came close to a From September 28, the Germans Abandoning the defense of Antwerp on major defeat at Arras, but held \ufb01rm mounted a major attack on the forti\ufb01ed October 9, Belgian troops withdrew along after General Foch, put in overall city. Their array of heavy siege guns the coast to the Yser Canal between had the same effect as at Li\u00e8ge, Namur, Nieuport and Dixmude, where they took command in the northern sector, and Maubeuge, and battered Antwerp\u2019s up position on high embankments issued the order \u201cNo retirement; fortresses to destruction. dominating low-lying land. The German every man to the battle.\u201d Fourth Army attacked, hoping to break Making aggressive use of As the defense wavered, Britain sent through to the vital Channel ports of massed cavalry divisions, the the Naval Division to Antwerp to Germans captured Lille in early bolster Belgian morale, and a British October. Meanwhile, the infantry division landed at the Belgian British Expeditionary Force port of Zeebrugge. The First Lord of the (BEF) was moved by train Admiralty, Winston Churchill, traveled to the far left of the Allied to Antwerp to persuade the Belgians to line. Advancing toward continue resistance. It was in vain. Lille, it ran into German The city\u2019s defenses were penetrated and cavalry at La Bass\u00e9e. on October 9 the king and his government left for the coastal town of Driving to battle Ostende. Antwerp surrendered to the In 1914, the Belgian army Germans the following day. Most of the equipped a number of Minerva Belgian army escaped to continue the automobiles with steel plating \ufb01ght at the Yser River. and mounted guns on top, creating the first armored cars. They were used as rescue vehicles and for reconnaissance. 59","NOT OVER BY CHRISTMAS 1914 Fighting to a Standstill The collision of Allied and German forces in Flanders at the First Battle of Ypres was a bloody climax to the opening mobile phase of the war on the Western Front. After the battle proved indecisive, the armies settled into trench warfare. F rench commander-in-chief Falkenhayn succeeded in assembling Falkenhayn then General Joffre regarded the area around the Belgian city of Ypres superior forces to the Allies, partly launched a fresh as the gateway through which Allied forces would advance to liberate through calling on corps of enthusiastic attack toward Ypres northern France and Belgium from German occupation. To German Chief young volunteers, many of them still along the Menin Road. of the General Staff Erich von Falkenhayn, it was the route by which students, who had joined up in the His expectations of success his forces could seize the Channel ports of Dunkirk, Calais, and Boulogne\u2014 early days of the war. These reservists\u2014 were high, for the British Britain\u2019s links to the battle\ufb01elds. whose numbers included the young forces had been severely BEFORE Adolf Hitler, an Austrian enrolled in the depleted. When Kaiser Wilhelm Between August and September 1914, it became clear that plans drawn up Bavarian forces\u2014had received only two came to forward headquarters on before the war had failed to work. Fresh offensives were improvised by months of military training. October 31, it was in the hope of generals still seeking a quick victory. By this stage in 360,000 The number of celebrating a major INSPECTION OF INDIAN TROOPS, 1914 the war, the British French, British, victory. In fact, the were able to \ufb01eld and Belgian troops killed in action Germans did BATTLE MOVES NORTH seven infantry by the end of 1914. The majority achieve a A series of attempted out\ufb02anking movements divisions plus three (300,000) were French. potentially known as the Race to the Sea \u276e\u276e 58\u201359 cavalry divisions, important carried the \ufb01ghting northward from the Aisne to Flanders. The BEF was moved by train to which fought 240,000 The number of breakthrough Flanders, where it fought the Germans at dismounted, German troops at the village of La Bass\u00e9e from October 10. The Belgian army, retreating from Antwerp, defended alongside the foot who were killed during this period. Gheluvelt on the a coastal strip at the Yser. The British rushed troops to Flanders, including elements of the soldiers. After some outskirts of Ypres. Indian army. initial \ufb01ghting, the \ufb01rst major German Their heavy guns hit a British The Indian troops who took part in the \u201cRace to the Sea\u201d offensive was launched on October 20. divisional headquarters at Hooge had only been in Europe for six weeks. Their first engagement Because of Allied inferiority, the battle Ch\u00e2teau, just east of the village, was at the Battle of La Bass\u00e9e in October 1914. turned into a desperate Anglo-French unusually adding staff of\ufb01cers to the defense of a salient around Ypres, with lengthening list of casualties. British troops holding positions in The Allies lost the vital high ground front of the town and the French dominating Ypres, but remnants defending the \ufb02anks. of half-broken British battalions Heavy losses on both sides were assembled The British and French improvised to mount a defensive positions, digging counterattack shallow trenches and exploiting and, with the protection of stone walls, the help of ditches, and village houses. The just a handful British were chronically short of of French heavy artillery and machine guns, reinforcements, but their rapid ri\ufb02e \ufb01re, which the a line was held. Germans persistently mistook for The British were the \ufb01re of machine guns, imposed desperately short heavy losses on the massed of soldiers and German infantry. ammunition. The TECHNOLOGY The slaughter of German troops arrival of forces BARBED WIRE marching into gun\ufb01re while from India helped Invented in the United States in the 1860s, barbed wire was originally singing patriotic songs at alleviate the problem, designed to control cattle. It had seen extensive military use in the Russo- Langemarck, near Ypres, on and a number of Territorial Japanese War of 1904\u201305. By the end of 1914, barbed wire attached to October 22 became one the battalions were sent across the wooden or metal stakes was being planted in front of trenches to block best-known German stories of Channel for the \ufb01rst time. infantry assaults or raiding parties. When attacking infantry found their path barred the war. In fact, this was a Nonetheless, the German by uncut wire, they were stranded under the \ufb01re of enemy guns and massacred. half-truth, since the troops renewal of the offensive in the Soldiers devoted perilous night hours to repairing their own wire and sabotaging were singing only to identify second week of November came the enemy\u2019s with wire-cutters. themselves in the morning mist. perilously close to overwhelming By late October, the Allies had the British line. ceded ground, but the initial British counterattack German offensive had stalled. At the climax of the battle, on German commemorative bayonet November 11, elite Prussian Foot The Iron Cross on this bayonet is a reference to Guards were at one point resisted Germany\u2019s most common military decoration. only by hastily armed British Four million Iron Crosses were awarded in the cooks and of\ufb01cers\u2019 servants. By war, including one to Adolf Hitler at First Ypres. the end of that day, however, a 60","FIGHTING TO A STANDSTILL Simple but effective Barbed wire increased the dominance of defense over offense by entrapping the attacking troops. Later in the war, barbed wire entanglements in front of trenches could be up to 100 ft (30 m) deep. Troops dig in AFTER The original trenches on the Western Front were hastily dug temporary field fortifications. These hard-pressed British soldiers would have been grateful even for this primitive protection against enemy fire. Kaiser that there was no further chance The First Battle of Ypres resulted of achieving an early victory on the in many casualties. But it was inconclusive, and \ufb01ghting at Ypres Western Front. The German high continued for the next four years. command eventually concluded \u201c We must\u2026 strike the that it was best to create a REMEMBERING THE DEAD decisive blow against our strong defensive trench Germans remember First Ypres as the most detested enemy.\u201d system on the Western Kindermord (\u201cmassacre of children\u201d), Front while taking the because of the heavy losses among young GERMAN ORDER OF THE DAY, YPRES, OCTOBER 30, 1914 offensive against the volunteers. One victim was the youngest son Russians in the east. of sculptress K\u00e4the Irrepressible in his Kollwitz, who made pursuit of the offensive, grieving statues for the war cemetery General Joffre continued to order his at Vladslo, Belgium. troops to attack in Champagne and counterattack by British light infantry named because of an alleged derisive Artois in December, but elsewhere on HARD TO DEFEND KOLLWITZ SCULPTURE at Nonnebosschen succeeded in driving reference by the Kaiser to their puny the Western Front the \ufb01ghting The battle left the the Guards back, and Falkenhayn \ufb01ghting strength. The original BEF subsided. Soldiers had dug themselves Allies occupying an knew the Ypres offensive had ended in troops that landed in France in August into trenches as best they could exposed salient. failure. Although some \ufb01ghting 1914 had suffered around 90 percent wherever the \ufb01ghting had come to a Over the next four continued around Ypres until casualties, with a large proportion of halt. As time passed, these trench lines years, the \ufb01ghting November 22, the of\ufb01cial date of the the losses at Ypres. were gradually reinforced, joined continued, including end of the battle, the German armies together, and extended. Troops on Second Ypres no longer threatened a breakthrough. German setback both sides settled in. 102\u2013103 \u276f\u276f in 1915 and Third Ypres For the British, First Ypres was the Strategically, the failed offensive As the \ufb01nal weeks of 1914 240\u2013241 \u276f\u276f in 1917. graveyard of the prewar regular at Ypres was a serious setback for approached, it was apparent that there army\u2014the \u201cOld Contemptibles,\u201d so Germany. Falkenhayn informed the would not be a swift victory for the Allies or the Germans. War would certainly not be over by Christmas. 61","EYEWITNESS Christmas 1914 The Christmas Truce The Christmas Truce was actually a series of ceasefires that took place along the Western Front in 1914. Although it was not an official truce, and in some areas the fighting continued, it is thought that up to 100,000 British and German troops took part. Troops sang carols across the trenches and met in no man\u2019s land to exchange gifts and souvenirs. \u201cOn Christmas Eve the Germans entrenched opposite us began calling out to us\u2026 \u2018Pudding\u2019, \u2018A Happy Christmas\u2019 and \u2018English- means good\u2019\u2026 so two of our fellows climbed over the parapet\u2026 and went towards the German trenches. Halfway they were met by four Germans, who said they would not shoot on Christmas Day if we did not. They gave our fellows cigars and a bottle of wine and were given cake and cigarettes. When they came back I went out with some more of our fellows and we were met by about 30 Germans, who seemed to be very nice fellows. I got one of them to write his name and address on a postcard as a souvenir. All through the night we sang carols to them and they sang to us and one played \u2018God Save the King\u2019 on a mouth organ. On Christmas Day we all got out of the trenches and walked about with the Germans, who, when asked if they were fed up with the war, said \u2018Yes, rather\u2019\u2026 Between the trenches there were a lot of dead Germans whom we helped to bury. In one place where the trenches are only 25 yards apart we could see dead Germans half buried. Their legs and gloved hands sticking out of the ground. The trenches in this position are called \u2018The Death Trap\u2019 as hundreds have been killed there. A hundred yards or so in the rear\u2026 there were old houses that had been shelled. These were explored\u2026 and we found old bicycles, top hats, straw hats, umbrellas, etc. We dressed ourselves up in these and went over to the Germans. It seemed so comical to see our fellows walking about in top hats and with umbrellas up\u2026 We made the Germans laugh. No firing took place on Christmas night and at four the next \u201dmorning we were relieved by regulars. RIFLEMAN C.H. BRAZIER, QUEEN\u2019S WESTMINSTERS, EXCERPT FROM A LETTER WRITTEN HOME, PUBLISHED IN THE HERTFORDSHIRE MERCURY ON JANUARY 9, 1915 A temporary peace Among the many soldiers who participated in the truce were these British soldiers from the 11th Brigade, Fourth Division, and their German counterparts, gathered at Ploegsteert, Belgium, on Christmas Day 1914. 62","","NOT OVER BY CHRISTMAS 1914 The Battle of Tannenberg The war on Germany\u2019s Eastern Front opened in August 1914 with a Russian invasion of East Prussia. The defeat of a Russian army at Tannenberg was greeted by the German people as a miracle of deliverance, making national heroes of generals Hindenburg and Ludendorff. BEFORE F ollowing the dictates of the defensive positions, the German Eighth Schlieffen Plan, the Germans Army advanced toward the Russian At the start of the war, Germany had sent seven of their eight First Army. Commanded by General intended to stand on the defensive against Russia until France had been armies to Belgium and France. The Paul von Rennenkampf, the Russians defeated in the west. Eighth Army, commanded by General repelled German attacks at Gumbinnen. PLANS FOR THE EAST Germany assumed Russian mobilization Maximilian Prittwitz, was to act as would take at least 40 days to complete. The Russians, however, had promised the a holding force until troops could Role of intelligence French that Russian forces would launch an attack against Germany within 15 be transferred from the west. The When reconnaissance aircraft reported days of the outbreak of war. Russia planned to begin its role in the war by taking the Russians, their forces divided between the advance of the Russian Second offensive against Austria-Hungary. the German and Austro-Hungarian Army to the south of the Masurian Russian prisoners The Germans took over 90,000 Russian soldiers fronts, had two armies available for Lakes, Prittwitz panicked and ordered a prisoner at Tannenberg. Remaining captives until 1918, they provided valuable labor for Germany\u2019s war effort, an invasion of East general withdrawal Eye in the sky including building trench systems on the Western Front. This German pilot\u2019s badge shows a Taube monoplane, Prussia, giving EAST PRUSSIA The easternmost area to the Vistula, the main aircraft used by Germany for reconnaissance in August 1914. These frail machines had a decisive them considerable of Germany, on the Baltic coast, angering the effect at the Battle of Tannenberg. local superiority which is now divided between German high halted Rennenkampf, the Germans decided to concentrate their forces in manpower. Poland, Russia, and Lithuania. command. against the Russian Second Army, commanded by General Alexander Honoring their Prittwitz was \ufb01red Samsonov, which was blithely pushing forward almost unopposed through the agreement with France, the Russians and replaced by veteran General Paul forests to the south. attacked on day 15 of the war, even von Hindenburg, with General The German plan took advantage of aerial reconnaissance, by both though their mobilization was far Ludendorff\u2014the hero of the recent primitive Taube airplanes and from complete. siege of Li\u00e8ge\u2014as his Chief of Staff. The advance of Russian troops onto Hindenburg and Ludendorff arrived German soil, preceded by marauding in East Prussia to \ufb01nd a perfectly viable Cossack cavalry, sent a wave of panic plan for a counteroffensive already through Germany. Roads were clogged in place, devised by Prittwitz\u2019s staff. with East Prussian refugees \ufb02eeing Gambling that the \ufb01ghting at westward. Abandoning prepared Gumbinnen would have temporarily","THE BATTLE OF TANNENBERG airships. An intercepted Russian The Russian advance, August 17\u201323 4 Aug 20\u201323 2 Aug 20 1 Aug 15\u201320 radio message, transmitted uncoded, The Russian 1st and 2nd Armies advanced Two German corps move by German forces attack at Gumbinnen. Russian 1st Army crosses the East con\ufb01rmed that Rennenkampf was not with a wide gap between them. When the train to reinforce the line in Despite some success, they are forced to Prussian border. Part of German intending to resume his advance. Germans moved against the Russian 1st Army, front of Russian 2nd Army. 8th Army moves to block them. withdraw westward. Setting the trap they were defeated at Gumbinnen. The Gulf of K\u00f6nigsberg Pregel Insterberg AUG 20 Russian 2nd Army threatened to advance Danzig Leaving a thin screen of cavalry and behind the German forces from south of Gumbinnen reserves in front of the Russian First the Masurian Lakes. Army, an entire German corps under Danzig A General Hermann von Fran\u00e7ois was app moved by train to the south of the GERMANY 8TH ARMY nge r Russian Second Army. Other German Hindenburg 1ST ARMY troops marched from Gumbinnen Marienburg Angerburg Rennenkampf toward Samsonov\u2019s northern \ufb02ank. Bischofsburg Masurian Samsonov was ignorant of the position of German forces and had no Lakes contact with the Russian First Army. Nonetheless, a spirit of optimism Allenstein Sensburg reigned. When German \ufb02ank attacks began on August 26\u201327, Samsonov Deutsch Eylau Hohenstein Ortelsburg pressed forward. By August 29, the Graudenz Tannenberg Jedwabno RUSSIAN Strasbourg EMPIRE 3 Aug 20 Frankenau Russian 2nd Army Neidenburg Willenberg istula Seeben Usdau crosses the East Prussian border. Thorn G Lautenberg Soldau 2ND ARMY Narev N ERM Samsonov A 0 80 km N Y 0 50 miles German pincers had closed behind him V V and most of the Second Army was trapped. Having lost control of his 1 Aug 24 2 Aug 24 3 Aug 25 KEY forces, Samsonov walked into the Samsonov orders Russian 2nd Hindenburg and Ludendorff Rennenkampf pushes slowly Russian army forest and shot himself. Claiming a Army forward, driving back a start to send the bulk of westward, planning a siege German army great victory, the Germans named it their forces south. of K\u00f6nigsberg. Russian advance Tannenberg after a 15th-century battle German corps in his path. Russian retreat famed in Prussian history. German advance Gulf of K\u00f6nigsberg Insterberg Gumbinnen German retreat Danzig Russian position Pregel German position German fort\/fortified town 1ST ARMY Major battle nge r Rennenkampf Major railroads Fighting switches to the south, August 24\u201326 Danzig A Hindenburg and Ludendorff took command and ordered the app 5 Aug German 8th Army south to attack the Russian 2nd Army. Marienburg German forces under While Rennenkampf\u2019s 1st Army dithered and Samsonov\u2019s 8TH ARMY Angerburg Mackensen march south from 2nd Army advanced, by August 26 the Germans were GERMANY Hindenburg Gumbinnen and drive back ready to spring the trap and destroy Samsonov\u2019s army. Bischofsburg Masurian Russian VI Corps. Allenstein Lakes Sensburg Deutsch Eylau Hohenstein Graudenz Tannenberg Ortelsburg Frankenau Jedwabno Usdau istula Strasbourg Seeben Neidenburg RUSSIAN Earev0 M P I R E Lautenberg Soldau Willenberg 0 2ND ARMY 4 Night of Aug 25 Samsonov N 80 km German I Corps under Fran\u00e7ois reaches 50 miles Seeben by train and prepares to attack Thorn N Samsonov\u2019s southern \ufb02ank. A German victory, August 27\u201331 4 Aug 29 5 Aug 30\u201331 AFTER The Russian forces were defeated Mackensen\u2019s XVII Corps Russian attempts to break through in every major engagement. completes the encirclement Francois\u2019s line are turned back. Germany was to \ufb01nd no easy victory Outgunned and outmaneuvered, 92,000 Russians are captured. on the Eastern Front to compensate they tried to retreat, but of Russian 2nd Army. for its failure to win in the west. their route was barred by the German I Corps. Bischofsburg Sensburg RUSSIA RALLIES The Russians recovered from Tannenberg. 8TH ARMY Allenstein 2 Aug 27\u201328 When the Germans turned their forces Hindenburg Remnants of against the Russian First Army in September, Russian VI Corps Rennenkampf managed a fighting Hohenstein withdraw across withdrawal at the Battle of the the border. Masurian Lakes 134 \u276f\u276f, and then mounted a successful counteroffensive. Russia was also Tannenberg Ortelsburg scoring successes against the Austro- Hungarians in Galicia 68\u201369 \u276f\u276f, and Jedwabno \ufb01ghting on the Eastern Front continued in Poland 70\u201371 \u276f\u276f. Hindenburg and Frankenau Ludendorff took the credit for saving Germany from the Russian hordes, and were endowed Usdau Neidenburg Willenberg 2ND ARMY the two generals with almost magical prestige. Seeben Samsonov Their rise to power had begun. Lautenberg Soldau Narev R U S S I A N 65 EMPIRE 0 40 km 30 miles N 0 1 Aug 27\u201328 3 Aug 28\u201329 German I Corps under Fran\u00e7ois Samsonov orders continuation of Russian attack in the advances eastward, forming a line center. Under heavy bombardment from German XX that will block the Russian retreat. Corps, the Russians become disorganized.","NOT OVER BY CHRISTMAS 1914 GERMAN GENERAL Born 1847 Died 1934 Paul von Hindenburg \u201c With clean hearts we marched out to defend the Fatherland.\u201d PAUL VON HINDENBURG, SPEECH AT THE OPENING OF THE TANNENBERG MEMORIAL, SEPTEMBER 1927 I f Paul von von Hindenburg had but always fell short of the highest Hero of Tannenberg died at the age of 65, no one in the appointments. In 1911, he retired\u2014 Painted after the victory at Tannenberg, world would have heard of him. not, he later claimed, because of this portrait shows Hindenburg as the Born a Junker\u2014a member of the \u201cprofessional or personal friction,\u201d but stern, paternal embodiment of the landed aristocracy who formed the in ful\ufb01llment of \u201cthe duty to make way Prussian military tradition. Germans social, political, and military elite of for younger of\ufb01cers.\u201d were reassured by his air of calm the Prussian state\u2014he adopted the strength and simplicity. conservative values of his class and Call of duty pursued a military career. Joining the elite Prussian Foot Guards as a junior After the outbreak of war in August of\ufb01cer in 1865, he swore the standard 1914, all recently retired of\ufb01cers oath to behave as \u201can upright, fearless, expected the call to return to arms. For dutiful, and honorable soldier.\u201d Hindenburg, it came three weeks into the war. The German General Staff had Prussian wars decided that Erich Ludendorff, who had distinguished himself at the siege That is no doubt how Hindenburg of Li\u00e8ge, was the man to handle a saw himself throughout his life. He threatening situation on the Eastern experienced \ufb01rsthand the dramatic Front. Ludendorff was ordered to East events that created the German Prussia, where he would take over as Empire, serving in Prussia\u2019s victorious Chief of Staff. He needed an army wars against Austria and France, and commander to serve under. witnessing the proclamation of the king of Prussia as emperor (kaiser) Hindenburg was living in Hanover, of Germany in Versailles in 1871, at on the rail route Ludendorff would the end of the Franco-Prussian War. take from Belgium. On the evening Recognized as solid, able, and reliable, of August 22, he was informed that he made a successful career through he was to take command of the Eighth four decades in the peacetime army, Army. At 4am the next morning, he joined Ludendorff\u2019s train at Hanover Austro-Prussian War As a young officer, Hindenburg was commended for his bravery against the Austrians at the Battle of K\u00f6niggr\u00e4tz. He was one of a few German commanders old enough to have fought against European powers. 66","PAUL VON HINDENBURG station, dressed in an old Prussian made himself both respected and TIMELINE uniform, the only military out\ufb01t disliked for his aggressive ambition and that he possessed. Within a week, ruthless intelligence. Hindenburg\u2019s \u25a0 October 1847 Born at the family estate in the Eighth Army had won the Battle Prussian dignity and implacable calm Posen, Prussia (now Pozn\u00e1n, Poland). of Tannenberg. were the perfect foil to Ludendorff\u2019s nervous energy and abrasiveness. \u25a0 1858 Joins the Prussian Cadet Corps, at age 11. Hindenberg and Ludendorff were to be an inseparable pair in military Fervent nationalist \u25a0 June\u2013July 1866 Second lieutenant in the Foot command and political power through Guards at the Battle of K\u00f6niggr\u00e4tz. the following four years. Together, The two men shared the typical views they mounted large-scale campaigns of German nationalists. Hindenburg \u25a0 August 1870 Distinguishes himself at the against the Russians, and fought a long was anti-Semitic and regarded Battle of Gravelotte\u2013St. Privat in the and vicious power struggle against socialists\u2014a substantial part of the Franco-Prussian War. Chief of the General Staff Erich von German population\u2014as a potential Falkenhayn. Together they led the threat to the war effort. He advocated \u25a0 1878 Appointed to the German General Staff. Third Supreme Command that ran the the clearance of the Slav population German war effort from Falkenhayn\u2019s from territories around the Baltic and \u25a0 1879 Marries Gertrud von Sperling, a general\u2019s downfall in August 1916 to the \ufb01nal their replacement by German settlers. daughter. They go on to have three children. collapse in 1918. Although contrasting He rejected the pursuit of peace except in social background and personality, on terms that would include \u25a0 1903 Promoted to General of Infantry. Given they were perfectly matched in permanent German control of command of an army corps at Magdeburg. attitudes and opinions. Coming from a northeastern France and Belgium and lower social stratum, Ludendorff had German domination of Central and \u25a0 1911 Retires from the army at the age of 63. Eastern Europe. Wooden titan \u25a0 August 1914 Recalled to the army. Sent to In these matters Hindenburg and In September 1915, a colossal wooden statue of command the Eighth Army in East Prussia with Ludendorff were as one. In terms of Hindenburg was erected in Berlin, a gesture imitated Erich Ludendorff as his Chief of Staff. Wins public image, it was Hindenburg who in other German cities. Members of the public paid for Battle of Tannenberg. replaced the sidelined Kaiser as the a chance to hammer a nail into the statue, a scheme focus of wartime patriotism. He became devised to raise funds for war widows. \u25a0 November 1914 Promoted to field marshal. the object of a personality cult, which Appointed commander in chief of the armies was fostered by German propagandists. that was never healed. In theory a on the German sector of the Eastern Front. From August 1916, his name was monarchist, but with no great personal appended to major initiatives such as regard for Kaiser Wilhelm, he presided \u25a0 January 1915 Demands concentration on war the Hindenburg Program to mobilize over the Kaiser\u2019s abdication and the against Russia, starting a long struggle with German society for total war and the transition to a German republic. German Chief of the General Staff Falkenhayn. Hindenburg Line for forti\ufb01cations along the Western Front. Postwar president \u25a0 August 1916 Replaces Falkenhayn. Heads a virtual military dictatorship, the Third Supreme Taking responsibility Hindenburg never lost his hold over Command, until Germany\u2019s defeat in 1918. the German people. His image as an Ludendorff is generally credited with honorable soldier survived, while he \u25a0 October\u2013November 1918 Oversees the the real exercise of power in the helped shift the blame for the country\u2019s Armistice and abdication of Kaiser Wilhelm. partnership, whether in planning and defeat onto the subversive socialists executing military campaigns or in and Jews who had allegedly stabbed \u25a0 June 1919 Retires for a second time. determining strategic policy, but the army in the back. After the war, Hindenburg was much more than \u25a0 November 1919 In a statement to a Reichstag committee, he launches the myth that the German army was \u201cstabbed in the back.\u201d \u25a0 April 1925 Elected president of the Weimar Republic. \u25a0 April 1932 Reelected president, defeating Nazi candidate Adolf Hitler. \u25a0 January 1933 Presides over the appointment of Hitler as German chancellor. \u25a0 August 1934 Dies at age 86. \u201cHindenburg is extraordinarily well versed in military history and has a clear mind.\u201d GENERAL WILHELM GROENER, MEMBER OF THE GENERAL STAFF, OCTOBER 1916 a passive front man. He took he was persuaded to return from HINDENBURG WITH responsibility for all the decisions that retirement a second time in 1925 to ADOLF HITLER eventually led Germany to disaster, stand as the right-wing candidate for from the adoption of unrestricted the presidency of the Weimar Republic, submarine warfare in 1917 to the and was elected. large-scale Spring Offensives on the Western Front in 1918. Hindenburg\u2019s enduring popularity ensured he remained president until Whereas Ludendorff came close his death in 1934, overseeing the to nervous collapse as the German collapse of democratic government. He position disintegrated in October 1918, disliked Adolf Hitler as a social upstart Hindenburg remained calm, advocating and a dangerously socialist politician, acceptance of an armistice because but was persuaded to appoint the Nazi of the lack of any alternative. When leader on the promise that he could be Ludendorff was forced to resign, controlled by the old elite. By default Hindenburg stayed in place, causing he became the bridge between the old a breach between the two men Prussia and the Third Reich. 67","Austro-Hungarian Failures In the first months of the war, Austro-Hungarian forces suffered serious setbacks against Austrian spa when war broke out. both Russians and Serbs. The scale of their early casualties, which included many of their The Austro-Hungarian invasion was finest troops and officers, was a severe shock to this fragile and divided state. entrusted to Oskar Potiorek, governor of Bosnia, who had ridden in Franz BEFORE T he mobilization of the Austro- Ferdinand\u2019s car on the day of the Hungarian armies was plagued Sarajevo assassination. He was \ufb01ercely In August 1914, Austria-Hungary by indecision about whether committed to punishing the Serbs, found itself at war with Serbia and their initial target should be Russia giving his troops license to kill civilians Russia, a two-front con\ufb02ict for which or Serbia. Prewar planning had given and destroy property. it was ill-prepared. Austro-Hungarian Chief of Staff Franz Conrad von H\u00f6tzendorf the Second Falling apart WAR ON SERBIA Army, to send against either the Serbs Austria-Hungary triggered World War I with its or Russians. At the outbreak of war, he Potiorek\u2019s plans proceeded woefully, declaration of war on Serbia \u276e\u276e 30\u201331 on ordered it to Serbia, but then realized however. Crossing the Drina and Sava July 28, 1914, provoking Russian mobilization he needed to use it against the Rivers, his forces advanced only as far in support of the Serbs. Austro-Hungarian mobilizing Russians. The Second Army as Putnik\u2019s defensive line. After heavy Chief of Staff Franz Conrad von H\u00f6tzendorf\u2019s went to the Serbian front, stayed for \ufb01ghting, they were thrown back, and priority was to defeat Serbia, but he was under three weeks, and then went by train by August 24 the attack against Serbia pressure from Germany to mount an to Austria-Hungary\u2019s eastern province had fallen apart. offensive against Russia. of Galicia. It played no part in the opening battles on either front. In early September, Serbian forces RUSSIAN STRATEGY advanced into Bosnia. By then, the Also committed to splitting their forces Misplaced con\ufb01dence Elite Austrian troops Serbian front was a sideshow, dwarfed between two fronts, the Russians A regiment of the Tyrolean Kaiserj\u00e4ger, elite riflemen, is by the clash of the Russian and intended to invade Germany through East Austria-Hungary expected an easy led forward by Colonel Brosch von Aarenau. The colonel Austro-Hungarian armies in Poland Prussia \u276e\u276e 64\u201365, while also attacking victory against Serbia, but its divided and many of his men died fighting in Galicia in early and Galicia. This was warfare Austria-Hungary\u2019s eastern province of Galicia. forces left inadequate strength to September 1914. conducted across wide plains where overcome a country that had mobilized armies could maneuver freely, most of its male population. The Serbs inhibited only by the obstacle of major were commanded by Field Marshal rivers. Both sides used large bodies of Radomir Putnik, who had been cavalry to spearhead their movements. allowed to return to Serbia from an Operations proceeded in a fog of confusion, with commanders ill- informed of the scale and position 68","AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN FAILURES AFTER A partial Austro-Hungarian revival in the last three months of 1914 could not disguise its military weakness. AUSTRIA-HUNGARY REELS The spirit of unity achieved between Austria-Hungary\u2019s diverse ethnic groups at the outbreak of war began to fray, and the country could not sustain the losses it was facing. In response to the near collapse of their allies, the Germans created a new army in Silesia to mount an offensive against Warsaw, thus threatening the rear of the Russian armies in Galicia 70\u201371 \u276f\u276f. On the Serbian front, \u201c The war is taking us Serbian determination 400,000 The number into a country [Serbia]\u2026 The Serbian army was a highly motivated force, with of Austro- with a fanatical hatred recent experience of battle in the Balkan Wars of Hungarian casualties on the toward us.\u201d 1912\u201313. It was also supplied with state-of-the-art Eastern Front by the end of military equipment. September. Some 300,000 of these were taken prisoner. the Serb invasion of Bosnia was repulsed and Austro-Hungarian forces brie\ufb02y occupied Belgrade before being forced to withdraw. COMMANDER OSKAR POTIOREK, AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN GENERAL, AUGUST 1914 128mm-long barrel of enemy forces. Conrad opened with In the last week of August, the eastern border near the fortress of Butt houses an advance northward from Galicia Austro-Hungarian forces\u2014which Lemberg (now Lviv). The eight-round into Russian Poland, as demanded by included formations of ethnic Poles Austro-Hungarian army in front of \ufb01xed magazine his German allies. Barely across the eager to liberate their people from Lemberg, which had been depleted to border, Austro-Hungarian forces Russian oppression\u2014won encounters provide troops for the Polish operation, Steyr pistol unexpectedly met Russian armies at Krasnik and Komarov in Poland. advanced to meet the Russians, who The Steyr M1912 heading southward. Put into the \ufb01eld Hypnotized by the prospect of crushing were far stronger than expected. semiautomatic 9mm before mobilization was complete, the Russian armies in Poland, Conrad pistol was used by the the Russians had arrived more quickly paid little attention to the advance of Suffering heavy losses at Zlotchow, Austrian and German than Conrad had anticipated. other Russian forces over Galicia\u2019s the Austro-Hungarians fell back in armies. It was disarray. Neither side understood the manufactured by Steyr- AUSTRO-HUNGARIAN GENERAL (1852\u20131925) situation, the Russians not realizing Mannlicher, part of Austria- the weakness of enemy forces, and the Hungary\u2019s advanced weapons industry. FRANZ CONRAD VON H\u00d6TZENDORF Austro-Hungarians underestimating Russian strength. The Austrian Second On September 11, he ordered a general Austro-Hungarian Chief of Staff from Army was thrown into an offensive in withdrawal to the natural barrier of 1906, Conrad was a determined advocate eastern Galicia on August 29, only to the Carpathians. Pursued by Russian of war against Serbia. As such, he probably be repulsed with many casualties. Cossack cavalry, the Austro-Hungarian did more than any other individual to start armies \ufb02ed westward, some retreating World War I. His military operations were Conrad\u2019s strategy was to pull back over 100 miles (160 km) in two days. overoptimistic but sporadically successful. behind Lemberg, drawing the Russians Przemysl, with a garrison of 150,000 He claimed much of the credit for victory forward, while his Fourth Army, in soldiers, was left surrounded by over the Russians in the Gorlice-Tarnow Poland, turned to attack the Russian Russians. By the time the Austro- offensive in 1915, but his use of Austro- \ufb02ank. Disaster ensued. Lemberg fell Hungarians stabilized a defensive Hungarian forces to settle scores with to the Russians on September 3. Three position at the end of September, they Serbia and Italy often left insuf\ufb01cient days later, the Fourth Army was cut were reduced to a quarter of their strength for the war with Russia. to pieces attacking the Russians at original strength. Only German After the accession of Emperor Charles, Rava Russka, north of Lemberg. intervention could prevent defeat. Conrad was dismissed as Chief of Staff in March 1917, serving as a \ufb01eld Withdrawal to the Carpathians commander until the end of the war. Conrad suddenly awoke to the possibility that his forces in Poland could be surrounded by Russians advancing westward across Galicia. 69","NOT OVER BY CHRISTMAS 1914 BEFORE The Battle for Poland Divided between Russia, Germany, The weakness of Austria-Hungary drew Germany into offensive operations and Austria since the 18th century, against Russia in Poland. In a war of movement on a monumental scale, the Polish lands became a major battles were fought at the cost of previously unimaginable levels of casualties. battle\ufb01eld in World War I. I n the opinion of the Grand Duke Nikolai German general staff, the The uncle of Tsar Nicholas II, Grand main function of Austro- Duke Nikolai Nikolaievich was appointed Hungarian forces at the start commander-in-chief of Russian forces of the war was to invade at the outbreak of the war. His personal Russian Poland, therefore authority was reinforced by his imposing preventing the Russians from physical presence. mounting an offensive against POLAND DIVIDED BY RUSSIA, Germany from that direction. railways, bridges, villages, and GERMANY, AND AUSTRIA, 1766 But by mid-September 1914, cattle. The Ninth Army got instead of aiding German back to its starting lines SPLIT LOYALTIES plans, Austria-Hungary was relatively intact. Farther south, Most of Poland was a province of the becoming a liability. After the Austro-Hungarians, Russian Empire, but many Poles also lived heavy defeats in Galicia, attempting to support the in Galicia in Austria-Hungary and a Austro-Hungarian Chief of Germans, were defeated smaller number in East Prussia. Poles served Staff Conrad von H\u00f6tzendorf at Ivangorod. as conscripts in all three armies. pleaded for German troops to rescue his threatened armies. from East Prussia, transferred south Reinforcements Polish nationalists seeking independence by the German railway system. On were split at the start of the war. The Polish Germany to the rescue September 29, Ludendorff launched an Both sides intended to Legions under Jozef Pilsudski fought with the offensive toward Warsaw, coordinated return to the offensive with Austro-Hungarian army, while other The German commanders had with an Austro-Hungarian advance in the shortest possible delay. nationalists sided with Russia and its little sympathy for Austria- Galicia. The Russians had begun their The Russians were steadily allies. Austria-Hungary was defeated by Hungary\u2019s plight, but they advance towards Silesia. receiving reinforcements, as the Russians in Galicia in August\u2013 could not ignore the fact that conscripts mobilized in Siberia September 1914 and forced to abandon an their ally\u2019s military failures left Great bodies of troops marched along and Central Asia arrived at the invasion of Russian Poland \u276e\u276e 68\u201369. Germany exposed to a possible Poland\u2019s muddy roads, with only front. At the start of Russian thrust through Silesia fragmentary information about the November, the Germans FORMIDABLE FORCE toward Berlin. The Russian movement of the enemy gleaned from transferred forces to the Ninth The successful partnership of German generals central command, Stavka, radio intercepts and reconnaissance by Army from the Western Front. Erich Ludendorff and Paul von Hindenburg had under Grand Duke Nikolai, cavalry or aircraft. already been proved at the Battle of was indeed assembling its forces at The Russians had superiority Tannenberg \u276e\u276e 64\u201365 on the Eastern Front Warsaw for just such an offensive. In the second week of October, of numbers but were short of ri\ufb02es, in August 1914. approaching Warsaw, Ludendorff bullets, and artillery shells, as well as The German General Staff decided became aware that Russians were food and clothing. Their forces were to create a new Ninth Army in Silesia, preparing to cross the Vistula behind overstretched, since they were under the command of generals him, threatening to encircle his forces. attempting to sustain offensive Hindenburg and Ludendorff, the The German advance was reversed, operations over a vast area, from the victors of Tannenberg. Most of the turning into a \ufb01ghting retreat, Vistula in the north to the Carpathians troops for the Ninth Army came accompanied by the destruction of in the south. Nonetheless, through early November Russian forces pressed \u201c We run around in thin the Austro-Hungarians back toward topcoats. There is not much Krak\u00f3w and to the Carpathian to eat\u2026 Perhaps we\u2019d be mountain passes, through which better off dead.\u201d General Aleksei Brusilov\u2019s Eighth Army hoped to capture Budapest. LETTER FROM A RUSSIAN SOLDIER, 1914 Warfare on a vast scale As the Russians attempted their offensive on the Vistula, Ludendorff sent the Ninth Army around their northern \ufb02ank by rail to Posen and Thorn. Under the command of General August von Mackensen, the Germans attacked on November 11, initiating the Battle of Lodz. This was warfare on a vast scale, with more than 600,000 German epaulettes These epaulettes were worn by a German conscript in a transport battalion during World War I. The efficient transportation of troops by rail was essential to German military operations. 70","THE BATTLE FOR POLAND troops engaged in combat. The weather received reinforcements from the fortress at Przemysl remained under AFTER was freezing, daytime temperatures dropping to 9\u00b0F (-13\u00b0C). Ludendorff Western Front, while launching frontal Russian siege. This was not enough The situation in late 1914 provoked was in effect attempting to repeat the a bitter debate between German encirclement of Tannenberg, but assaults in an attempt to take the city. to restore German faith in Austro- commanders over priorities while Russian commanders had learned their \ufb01ghting continued through winter. lesson. They canceled the advance on By December 6, the men were near Hungarian Chief of Staff Conrad, but Silesia and pulled back at high speed THE BATTLE RESUMES through forced marches\u2014some units exhaustion. The Russians decided upon a it enabled him to \ufb01ght off a German Generals Hindenburg and Ludendorff were covered as much as 60 miles (100 km) convinced that they could defeat in two days. strategic withdrawal toward Warsaw and bid to place all the forces of the Central Russia. German Chief of the General Staff Erich von Falkenhayn was not prepared to Mackensen smashed through the left Lodz to the Germans. Within a week, Powers on the Eastern Front under focus exclusively on the Eastern Front, but did Russian \ufb02ank but then found his army support major German operations there in caught by a \ufb02anking attack from the the \ufb01ghting wound uni\ufb01ed command. 1915. Meanwhile, Austria-Hungary faced Russian Fifth Army. By the time the down, as both sides successful resistance by Serbia. In Germans extricated themselves, the dug in for the rest 1.5 MILLION The number The human impact of March 1915, the besieged Austrian fortress at Russians had entrenched in front of Russian casualties. the \ufb01ghting had been Przemysl fell to the Russians, entailing the surrender of 120,000 men. of Lodz. Ludendorff of the winter in 1 MILLION The number immense, with more than demanded and trench lines. of Austro-Hungarian two million troops killed, The \ufb01ghting losses on all fronts by the wounded, or taken of 1914 had end of 1914. prisoner. The fate of an unexpected civilians in the territory conclusion in Galicia. In the \ufb01rst week was dismal. Cholera and typhus, the of December, Austria-Hungary traditional companions of war, had achieved a successful offensive at made their appearance. No end to the Limonova, south of Krak\u00f3w. The war between the three empires was in Russians were forced into a withdrawal sight. that ended the threat to the Carpathian passes, Entrenched and ready for action although the German troops with MG 08 machine guns and Mauser rifles wait for the enemy in a hastily dug trench on the Eastern Front. Their combined firepower could repel almost any infantry assault. AUSTRIAN ARMY TAG","NOT OVER BY CHRISTMAS 1914 Cavalry \u201c The ri\ufb02e\u2026 cannot replace the effect Italian carbine produced by the speed of the horse\u2026 Cavalry were mostly issued and the terror of cold steel.\u201d carbines such as this Carcano, a shorter-barreled but less accurate version of BRITISH ARMY CAVALRY TRAINING MANUAL, 1907 the Italian infantry rifle. B efore 1914, cavalry formed a reconnaissance, direct frontal charges cover\u2014but cavalry had adapted to cuirassiers donned shiny breastplates social elite in all European to overrun enemy infantry (foot the \ufb01repower revolution of the period, and plumed helmets. Many regiments armies, their colorful uniforms soldiers) and capture guns, the pursuit equipping their formations with carried lances decorated with brightly and dashing appearance a striking of retreating troops, and rapid advance machine guns and \ufb01eld artillery. colored pennons. In contrast, the feature of military parades and state through undefended territory. British, with recent experience of ceremonies. They were also an There were undeniably archaic \ufb01ghting in the Boer War, wore khaki. essential element in \ufb01ghting wars. In Army commanders were well aware aspects to European cavalry. Most the absence of motor vehicles, still in of the problems that cavalry faced uniforms were designed for show Armies differed in the extent to their infancy, cavalry offered speed of when confronted with modern rather than camou\ufb02age\u2014German and which their cavalry were trained to movement. Their roles included \ufb01repower\u2014a man on a horse was a Austrian Uhlans, for example, wore \ufb01ght dismounted with their carbines large target and could not easily exploit unusually tall headgear, while French or ri\ufb02es. The need for this was widely acknowledged, but the tradition of the charge, with drawn sword, still held its grip on the military imagination. World War I was in many ways a disappointment for cavalry. Even in the mobile campaigns of 1914, aircraft proved superior at reconnaissance. On the Eastern Front, the Russians, Cossack cavalry A column of Russian Cossack horsemen rides toward battle in their traditional fur hats. Feared for their raiding tactics, they also knew how to form a dismounted firing line when defense was needed. 72","CAVALRY TIMELINE deploying some 30 cavalry divisions, \u201cIn order to shorten the \u25a0 August 1914 All European armies start the sent masses of horsemen charging war\u2026 we must make use of war with large bodies of cavalry, constituting across Galicia. On the Western Front, the mobility of the cavalry.\u201d between 10 and 30 percent of their German cavalry swept across northern total forces. The advance of Russian France during the \u201cRace to the Sea.\u201d GENERAL DOUGLAS HAIG, JUNE 1916 Cossacks into East Prussia and But problems quickly grew. Cavalry Galicia provokes panic among strained supply systems, because of the the populations of Germany horses\u2019 need for fodder. Losses were and Austria. heavy from the start. Mostly obliged to dismount to \ufb01ght, cavalrymen often \u25a0 August\u2013September proved second-rate infantry, their carbines less accurate than ri\ufb02es and 1914 French and their shooting inferior. in the German trench lines opened up However, cavalry did have something British cavalry Cavalry and the trenches by infantry and artillery, their cavalry to offer in World War I. Even on the could turn a defeat into a rout, but it Western Front, cavalry occasionally fight fierce In the trench warfare of the Western did not work. Advancing on horseback carried out successful charges against Front from 1915, there were no spaces under machine gun and artillery \ufb01re, entrenched infantry and machine gun rearguard actions in which cavalry could operate. The across terrain made treacherous by posts. Away from the main European British, in particular, continued to mud, shell holes, trenches, and barbed theaters, especially in Russian against the believe that by charging through a gap wire, was simply too dif\ufb01cult. operations in the Caucasus and British campaigns in Palestine, Germans during In all European armies, the ratio well-handled cavalry forces were of cavalry to infantry declined sharply frequently decisive. the Great Retreat. over the course of the war, and many cavalrymen ended up serving their General Edmund Allenby, \u25a0 September 1914 GERMAN turn in the trenches as infantry. commanding on the Palestine front Six German cavalry UHLAN HAT from 1917, had an army with more than 20 percent cavalry. The Desert divisions take the offensive around Lille in Mounted Corps, including Light Horse regiments from India, Australia, and northern France, probably the largest body New Zealand, and the Territorials of the British Yeomanry, carried out of horsemen ever to fight in Western Europe. sweeping maneuvers and successful cavalry charges against entrenched \u25a0 October 1914 Dismounted to form a firing Turkish infantry and artillery. line, the British Cavalry Corps fights a famous action to defend Messines Ridge during the First Battle of Ypres. \u25a0 1915 Large numbers of cavalrymen, especially on the Western Front, are made to serve as infantry in trench warfare. \u25a0 March\u2013May 1915 South African cavalry carry out a successful campaign to occupy German Southwest Africa (now Namibia). Last charge \u25a0 January\u2013April 1916 On the Caucasus front, Russian General Nikolai Yudenich captures By 1918, in the crucial European Erzurum and Trebizond (now Trabzon) from theaters of operations, cavalry was Turkey, making bold use of massed cavalry. no longer a potentially decisive arm. The Russian Civil War, from 1918\u201321, \u25a0 July 1916 Ordered to attack German positions was the last major con\ufb02ict in which at High Wood during the Battle of the Somme, cavalry played a prominent role. The an Indian cavalry division fails to exploit a brief growth of motorized forces in the opportunity for a breakthrough. 1920s and \u201930s \ufb01nally spelled the end of the long tradition of the mounted \u25a0 April 1917 At Monchy-le-Preux, during the warrior in Europe. Battle of Arras on the Western Front, British cavalry suffer heavy losses attempting to exploit a gap in the German line created by the advance of tanks and infantry. \u25a0 October 1917 At Beersheba in Palestine, Australian cavalry execute a successful charge against Turkish defensive lines that contributes decisively to a British victory. \u25a0 November 1917 At the Battle of Cambrai on the Western Front, a Canadian cavalry brigade advances 8 miles (13 km) and captures 100 German machine guns in one of the most ambitious of the failed breakthrough attempts. \u25a0 October 1918 Australian Light Horse Regiment, serving with the British Desert Mounted Corps, occupies Damascus in Syria toward the end of the campaign against Ottoman Turkey. Horse gas mask \u25a0 1918\u201321 All armies engaged in the Russian Gas masks were designed for horses as well as for Civil War and the Russo-Polish War make their riders. The mask protected the animals against extensive use of cavalry. The Battle of poison gases such as chlorine and phosgene. Komarow, fought between Polish and Soviet horsemen, in August 1920, is often considered the last significant cavalry battle. 73","NOT OVER BY CHRISTMAS 1914 BEFORE Turkey Enters the War For over a century before World War I, The decision of Ottoman Turkey to go to war as an ally of the Central Powers was a crucial the Turkish-ruled Ottoman Empire was in decline. Attempts at reform failed to restore its military strength. DIMINISHING EMPIRE moment in modern history. It not only shaped the course of World War I but also profoundly Ottoman military weakness was revealed by influenced the future of the entire region, including Iraq, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. the Italo-Turkish War of 1911\u201312, which D esperate to restore Turkey\u2019s Enver Pasha enabled Italy to seize Libya, and the Balkan status as a military power, Turkey\u2019s war minister, Enver Pasha, played a leading Wars of 1912\u201313, which deprived Turkey of Turkish governments before role in bringing Turkey into World War I on the side almost all its remaining territory in Europe. The Ottoman Empire lost a third of its World War I sought foreign expertise of Germany. Also commander of the Ottoman forces, area \u276e\u276e 18\u201319 in the years leading up to and investment, without tying Enver was virtually a military dictator during the war. World War I. themselves to the European alliance system. The Turkish army established British naval advisers were asked THE YOUNG TURKS close links with Germany, which sent to leave, and German rear admiral A revolt by \u201cYoung Turk\u201d military a military mission under General Wilhelm Souchon took command officers deposed Ottoman Sultan Liman von Sanders to modernize of Turkish naval operations. Abdulhamid II in 1909 and replaced him Turkish land forces. The Turkish navy, Shelling Russian ports with Mehmed V. Attempts at constitutional on the other hand, traditionally looked government were undermined by the strains of to Britain for ships and advisers. On October 29, sailing aboard Goeben, defeat in war. By 1914, the government was As the war crisis erupted in Europe in renamed Yavuz Sultan Selim, Souchon dominated by Interior Minister Talaat Pasha July\u2013August 1914, pro-German \ufb01gures enemy of the Ottoman Empire. took his \ufb02eet and bombarded Russian and War Minister Enver Pasha. in the Turkish government signed a Meanwhile, the Turkish people were Black Sea ports, including Odessa and secret treaty with Germany aimed eagerly awaiting delivery of two Sebastopol. Russia responded by speci\ufb01cally against Russia, the historic dreadnoughts, Reshadieh and Sultan declaring war on Turkey, followed Osman I, paid for by public subscription in the \ufb01rst week of November by and being built at shipyards in Britain. France and Britain. Possession of such warships was the The Ottoman Sultan, Mehmed ROMANIA RUSSIAN EMPIRE mark of great-power status. V, was also the caliph\u2014the At the start of August, the British head of the worldwide SERBIA Black Sea Caspian Sea Admiralty, facing war with Germany, Turkish troops on the march So\ufb01a seized the dreadnoughts for the Royal BULGARIA ALB. Arm en Constantinople n s Navy. In response, a wave of anti- Although Turkish forces fought with Kars British feeling swept through Turkey. determination, they were often let Gallipoli Trebizond i a GREECE Angora On August 10, the German warships down by the misjudgments of OTTOMAN Goeben and Breslau sailed through the their senior commanders. At the Athens Smyrna Kurds Tabriz Dardanelles and were handed to the Battle of Sarikamish, only ATOLIA Turks. With this action, Turkish 18,000 out of an intial force A N EMPIRE Tigris commitment to Germany was sealed. of 95,000 survived. Aleppo under Mosul Berlin-Baghdad construction Railway Medite CYPRUS MEEupShrOatePs P E R S I A LIBYA r (1878 British protectorate) Baghdad AMIA r a n e a Damascus O T Jerusalem n Sea Amman Arabs Basra (1912 ceded Port Said KUWAIT Persian Gulf to Italy) (1899 British Cairo Suez protectorate) Suez Canal EGYPT (1882 occupied by Britain) Nile Hejaz Railway NEJD Medina d MeccaHEJAZ e R S The Ottoman Empire e By 1914, Ottoman Turkey had lost almost all its a HADHRAMAUT territory in Europe but was still of formidable extent. It YEMEN controlled modern-day Iraq, Syria, Israel, and Palestine. ERITREA Aden KEY 0 (1839 British Base) Major railroad 0 600 km 74 600 miles","TURKEY ENTERS THE WAR community of Islam. On November 11, the jihad against British occupation KEY MOMENT he declared a jihad (holy war), calling of their country. Britain responded by on Muslims in the British, French, and declaring Egypt a British protectorate PURSUIT OF THE GOEBEN AND BRESLAU Russian Empires to rise in revolt. This and deposed Abbas Hilmi in favor of raised German hopes of the collapse of his uncle, Hussein Kamil. At the start of August 1914, Germany had Constantinople. The German force British India, but its effect was muted. two warships in the Mediterranean, was brie\ufb02y engaged by the British Britain also formally annexed Cyprus, the battle cruiser Goeben and the light cruiser Gloucester, but then, through Arab unrest a protectorate since 1878. In the Gulf, cruiser Breslau, commanded Britain\u2019s priority was to defend oil by Rear Admiral misunderstandings, was In Arab lands under Turkish rule, \ufb01elds in southern Persia (Iran), Wilhelm Souchon. allowed to sail unmolested the appeal to Islamic solidarity was bordering on Ottoman Mesopotamia Outclassed by to the Dardenelles. The overtaken by Arab nationalism. Britain Allied naval forces, Royal Navy\u2019s blunder MESOPOTAMIA An area between the Souchon decided moved swiftly to protect its Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, mainly to steam to neutral caused a scandal in Britain. imperial interests. Khedive Abbas comprising modern-day Iraq. Hilmi II was nominally the ruler (Iraq). To preempt a Turkish attack, of Egypt, itself still part of the British Indian troops occupied the port Ottoman Empire. From of Basra in late November. the safety of his residence in Turkey, he called on For Russia, war with Turkey opened Egyptians to join up the possibility of controlling Constantinople (Istanbul) and gaining access to the Mediterranean from Enver went in person to the Caucasian Egypt that had been planned in Berlin. the Black Sea. For Young Turks such front in December, planning a bold Supplied by the Germans with pontoon as War Minister Enver Pasha, war offensive. Poorly supplied Turkish bridges, an Ottoman army traveled forces advanced through mountain across the Sinai desert to the Suez was a chance to liberate terrain in bitterly cold weather, some Canal in February 1915. The army\u2019s the Muslims of the dying of frostbite. When the Russians approach was detected by French Caucasus, conquered counterattacked at Sarikamish, near aircraft and repulsed by British by Russia in the Kars, the Turks were routed. resistance at the canal. The expectation 19th century. of an Egyptian uprising against British Attack on Egypt rule failed to materialize. Instead, the Ottoman Empire faced the beginnings This inauspicious start for Turkish of an Arab revolt against Turkish rule forces was mirrored far to the south, in Syria and the Hejaz (Saudi Arabia). where they mounted an attack on \u201c Of those who go to jihad\u2026 the rank of those who depart to the next world is martyr.\u201d SHEIKH AL-ISLAM, RELIGIOUS LEADER OF TURKEY, NOVEMBER 14, 1914 AFTER In the course of 1915, the Turks were able to display skill and resolution in defensive campaigns that frustrated Allied ambitions. TRIUMPHS AND REPRISALS In early 1915, Turkish plans for offensive action were in tatters. However, the Allied attempt to break through the Dardanelles and the subsequent landings at Gallipoli were defeated 110\u201313 \u276f\u276f. Later that year, the British extended their invasion of Mesopotamia (Iraq) and were defeated by Turkish forces at Kut 122\u201323 \u276f\u276f. Meanwhile, the Turks, believing Armenian nationalists to be supporting Russia, embarked upon the deportation and massacre of Turkey\u2019s Armenians 116\u201317 \u276f\u276f. 75","NOT OVER BY CHRISTMAS 1914 BEFORE African Diversions In 1914, all of Africa except Ethiopia Military campaigns in Africa were particularly arduous because of disease and and Liberia was directly or indirectly difficult terrain with few roads or railroads. Cut off from Europe by British naval ruled by Europeans. The colonial power, German colonial forces were forced onto the defensive. powers were Britain, Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, Belgium, and Germany. G iven the scale of the war in transmitter at Swakopmund. In the The defense of the German colony Europe, the fate of the THE SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA combatant powers\u2019 overseas same month, Douala, the principal port was in the hands of Lieutenant Colonel Germany acquired its African colonies in the colonies was a low priority. It was, 1880s. These were German East Africa however, of major importance for the and radio station in Kamerun, fell. Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, with about (now Tanzania, Burundi, and Rwanda), British. By taking control of the coasts German South West Africa (now of Germany\u2019s African colonies, Britain 1,000 Schutztruppe (colonial soldiers) Namibia), and Kamerun and Togoland in West would deny coaling and radio stations Africa (parts of modern-day Cameroon and to German warships, thus countering British setbacks under his command. The Indian Togo). In the Union of South Africa, the Afrikaners, descended from Dutch and threats posed by the German An attack on German East Africa did expeditionary force was low on morale German settlers, were defeated by Britain in navy to maritime trade. the Second Boer War of 1899\u20131902. not run so smoothly. A German light and short of training and leadership. In August 1914, an invasion BOER MAUSER of German Togoland from the cruiser, the SMS K\u00f6nigsberg, had been Its slow approach gave Lettow-Vorbeck PISTOL British Gold Coast (now Ghana) seized a vital radio station. In September, operating off the East African coast suf\ufb01cient warning to move his troops British and South African naval forces attacked the coast of German South since the start of to Tanga by train. West Africa, occupying the port of L\u00fcderitz and destroying the radio the war. Seeing ASKARI The standard term A confused battle ensued this as a threat, used for black African troops on November 4, and the Britain decided serving in colonial armies in shaken Anglo-Indian to mount an East and Central Africa. troops \ufb02ed back to their invasion of East ships, leaving most of Africa by troops from India. On their equipment behind. November 2, an 8,000-strong Anglo- Lettow-Vorbeck pursued a prolonged Indian expeditionary force landed near defensive campaign designed to absorb the East African port of Tanga. maximum British resources. East African soldiers Locally recruited troops in British-ruled East Africa, called the King\u2019s African Rifles, fought in the protracted campaigns against German colonial forces led by Lettow-Vorbeck.","AFRICAN DIVERSIONS SOUTH AFRICAN GENERAL (1870\u20131950) JAN SMUTS German slouch hat a series of operations that defeated the Born into a family of Afrikaner farmers in process, they uncovered evidence of A gray felt slouch hat with blue trim was the regulation rebel forces by January 1915. The Cape Colony, South Africa, Jan Smuts German massacres of the Herero and headwear of officers in the Schutztruppe, the German rebels were on the whole treated fought the British in the Second Boer War. Hottentot populations carried out in colonial armed forces. The officers of German colonial leniently, with widespread amnesties. As a minister in the \ufb01rst government of the the decade before the war. They took armies were always white. Opponents of the government returned Union of South Africa from 1910, however, the capital, Windhoek, in May and the to political channels of dissent, and he staunchly upheld the dominion\u2019s link Germans surrendered the colony seven While the British were organizing their South African troops became available with Britain. In 1916, after campaigning in weeks later. response to this humiliation on land, for British operations. German South West Africa, he was given the K\u00f6nigsberg was pursued by Royal command of British imperial forces in East South African forces were then Navy warships into the mangrove The fall of Windhoek Africa. His success in that role was mixed, transferred to East Africa, where they swamps of the Ru\ufb01ji delta. but the following year he was made a spearheaded the campaign to hunt The South Africans\u2019 \ufb01rst task was the member of the Imperial War Cabinet in down Lettow-Vorbeck, who was still Although it could not escape the conquest of German South West Africa. London. He remained a prominent \ufb01gure at large. The South African mounted Royal Navy\u2019s blockade, the K\u00f6nigsberg After the initial British attacks on the in South African politics and was also columns proved far less effective in held out until July 1915. Even after the colony\u2019s ports, the Germans had in\ufb02uential throughout World War II. East Africa, however. The tsetse \ufb02y cruiser was bombarded by British river took an enormous toll on their horses, monitors (\ufb02at-bottomed gunboats) and withdrawn to the interior. From while malaria debilitated the troops. had to be abandoned, its sailors February to July 1915, Botha and continued to \ufb01ght, joining Lettow- Smuts, commanding South African AFTER Vorbeck\u2019s army and bringing their mounted troops, penetrated South ship\u2019s heavy naval guns with them. West Africa from the coast, the Namib Allied campaigns against German Desert or from South Africa. In the colonial forces continued until 1916 in Kamerun and up to the end of the war \u201cSwamps and jungles\u2026 what in East Africa. a dismal prospect there is in CONTINUED RESISTANCE The Maritz Rebellion front of me.\u201d In Kamerun, the German colonial authorities withdrew to the northern Britain had a potentially valuable highlands where they defied operations mounted by both British and French source of troops in South Africa. JAN SMUTS, SOUTH AFRICAN GENERAL, COMMANDING IN EAST AFRICA, 1916 colonial forces until February 1916. In East Africa, Lettow-Vorbeck sustained his mobile Although the dominion\u2019s prime campaign in the face of ever-increasing numbers of British imperial forces. minister, Louis Botha, was an Afrikaner AFRICAN CONTRIBUTION who had fought the British in the Most white South African troops were withdrawn from East Africa by the end Second Boer War, he wholeheartedly PORTUGAL SPAIN ITALY GREECE OTTOMAN of 1916, defeated by disease. They were supported the war against Germany. EMPIRE replaced by black African troops, such as the King\u2019s African Ri\ufb02es. About 30,000 white But not all Afrikaners were of the MOROCCO TUNISIA PERSIA South Africans fought in the British Army same mind. Making contact from in Europe, but Britain did not utilize the manpower of its black African colonies on neighboring German South West European battle\ufb01elds. Large numbers of black troops from West Africa served Africa, the Germans encouraged RIO DE ALGERIA LIBYA EGYPT in the French army in Europe 118\u201319 \u276f\u276f. discontent among the Afrikaners to ORO \ufb02are into open revolt. In early PORT. ARABIAN October, Solomon Maritz, a PENINSULA colonel in the South African GUINEA FRENCH WEST AFRICA FRENCH EQUATORIAL Defence Force, and Boer War ANGLO- ERITREA ADEN AFRICA EGYPTIAN FR. SOMALILAND hero Christiaan de Wet declared a rebellion. They sought to make SUDAN BR. SOMALILAND South Africa an independent republic. ABYSSINIA SIERRA NIGERIA LEONE Kamina LIBERIA But Botha and his defense minister, GOLD TOGO Douala BRITISH IT. SOMALILAND Jan Smuts, handled the situation with CAMEROON EAST AFRICA COAST RIO MUNI FRENCH skill. Using loyal troops, they mounted 1 Aug 6\u20138, 1914 (Spanish) CONGO BELGIAN INDIAN CONGO OCEAN French and British forces invade. GERMAN EAST Dar es Salaam Germans capitulate on Aug 26. AFRICA War in Africa, 1914\u20131916 3 Sept 1914 The German colonies in Africa were scattered and of Allies capture Douala, the capital. A lenghty ANGOLA PORTUGUESE less strategic and economic value than British, French, campaign follows. Allies\u2019 converging N. RHODESIA EAST and Belgian colonies. Defending them depended more offensives lead to eventual German AFRICA surrender on Feb 18, 1916. on exploiting difficult terrain than on military force. GERMAN S. RHODESIA SOUTH WEST AFRICA BECHUANALAND MADAGASCAR ATLANTIC Windhoek KEY O C E A N British Empire Italian possessions 2 Sept 1914 UNION OF 4 1914\u201318 French possessions Portuguese possessions German forces withdraw to capital, SOUTH A protracted campaign. German German possessions Ottoman Empire AFRICA forces extend campaign to Belgian possessions Area of conflict Windhoek. South African forces Portuguese East Africa. capture Windhoek on May 20, 1915, and Germans surrender on July 9. 77","NOT OVER BY CHRISTMAS 1914 Confrontation at Sea In 1914, there had been no major naval conflict between European powers for a century. When war began, the public in Germany and Britain expected a great battle between the rival fleets, but naval commanders took a more cautious approach. BEFORE A t the start of the war, the British naval forces were suf\ufb01ciently and French navies successfully weakened to be defeated in a In the period before World War I, ful\ufb01lled their \ufb01rst essential culminating battle. large warships were the world\u2019s most prestigious and expensive task\u2014to protect the transportation of The British offered the German navy military hardware. Possession of such ships was the mark of a world power. troops to the European battle\ufb01eld a suitable opportunity in late August Contact mine Attached to the seabed by a chain, contact mines NAVAL ARMS RACE across the English Channel from Britain 1914. Commanders at the British naval detonated when a ship struck one of their spikes. Britain was the world\u2019s dominant naval German mines sank a greater tonnage of British power and considered its navy essential to and across the Mediterranean from base at the North Sea port of Harwich warships than any other weapon. the defense of Britain against seaborne invasion and the maintenance North Africa. The planned an The Royal Navy could claim a clear of overseas trade. Germany engaged in victory. Yet the British were beginning rapid naval expansion \u276e\u276e 18\u201319 from Allies also set about 29 The number of submarines in operation off the to sustain worrying losses to mines and around 1900, but the growth of its \ufb02eet was clearing the oceans the German U-boat fleet at German coast at submarines. On September 22, a single more than matched by Britain. In 1914, German submarine, the U-9, sank three Britain\u2019s Royal Navy had 29 modern of German and the start of the war; they sank five Heligoland. British British cruisers patrolling off the Dutch battleships, compared with Germany\u2019s 17. coast, killing almost 1,500 sailors. Austro-Hungarian British cruisers in the first 10 weeks. submarines were THE FRENCH NAVY Even worse for Jellicoe, in October Leaving the Royal Navy to defend the merchant shipping deployed as bait the super-dreadnought HMS Audacious, English Channel and Atlantic coasts, France was able to concentrate its smaller and roaming warships. Meanwhile, to lure German patrol boats under the one of Britain\u2019s most powerful navy in the Mediterranean, where it had warships, was sunk by a overwhelming local superiority over the navy the British Grand Fleet and the guns of a force of destroyers and light of Austria-Hungary, which was based 160 in (4 m) gun in the Adriatic. German High Seas Fleet faced each cruisers, but once German cruisers other across the North Sea. Naval strategies arrived at the scene the Royal Navy ships took Admiral John Jellicoe, commander a battering. They were saved by of the Grand Fleet, was intensely a squadron of British battle cruisers, conscious that his warships were commanded by Vice Admiral David Britain\u2019s only defense against a possible Beatty, which emerged from the German invasion and must at all costs mist to outgun all the other vessels. be preserved. Three German light cruisers were sunk in the confrontation. The High Seas Fleet, commanded at the start of the war by Admiral Friedrich von Ingenohl, was too inferior in size to challenge the British to a battle. Ingenohl\u2019s strategy was to wear down the Royal Navy in piecemeal engagements until British Battle of Heligoland Bight British sailors watch as fire rages on board the stricken German light cruiser Mainz on August 28, 1914. Fought in German home waters, the battle was a clear-cut victory for Britain\u2019s Royal Navy.","CONFRONTATION AT SEA TECHNOLOGY would go to sea without destroyers vessels in an enemy\u2019s \ufb02eet, but destroyers AFTER to defend them against submarine were often highly effective in other DESTROYERS attacks. Later in the war, they defended ways, such as attacking with torpedoes. Rapid advances in technology merchant convoys. Destroyer commanders earned a transformed naval warfare at the The workhorses of every navy, destroyers reputation for acting with bold aggression end of 1914. were built in large numbers in 1914\u201318. Destroyers\u2019 guns were too light to and independence. Small, fast, and versatile, they ful\ufb01lled a exchange salvos with the heaviest NEW DEVELOPMENTS wide range of functions from coastal The German navy deployed airships for defense to minelaying and antisubmarine reconnaissance and the Royal Navy used warfare. No battleships or battle cruisers float aircraft, winched over the side of a ship to take off from the sea. The \ufb01rst raid contact mine off the coast of Ireland. It the English Channel and the passage Fleet failed to intercept Hipper\u2019s by seaplanes on a shore target was the Royal was clear that the Royal Navy was not between Scotland and Norway. These raiders. The bombardment caused Naval Air Service\u2019s attack on airship sheds equipped to deal with minesweeping or distant blockades, however, allowed more than 700 casualties, including at the German port of Cuxhaven on antisubmarine warfare. the German \ufb02eet to attempt surprise 137 people killed, mostly civilians. In Christmas Day 1914. Meanwhile, another sortie sorties into the North Sea. Britain, it aroused public indignation by German battle cruisers led to the Battle of British blockades against German brutality, but also Dogger Bank 124\u201325 \u276f\u276f in early 1915. On December 16, a German outrage at the failure of the Royal The threat posed to his most important battle cruiser squadron under Rear Navy to defend the country. U-BOAT ATTACKS warships by mines and submarines Admiral Franz von Hipper bombarded In February 1915, Germany initiated its \ufb01rst phase forced Jellicoe to curtail operations in the English east coast towns of By the end of 1914, it was clear that of unrestricted submarine warfare, the North Sea. He could still impose a Scarborough, Whitby, and Hartlepool. naval enthusiasts, especially British leading to the sinking of the cruise liner naval blockade on Germany from a British naval intelligence had given ones, were not going to have the war Lusitania 126\u201327 \u276f\u276f the following May, distance by controlling the entrance to warning of the sortie but the Grand they had expected. antagonizing the United States. Recoil cylinder Sighting Gun shield telescope Elevation and tracking mechanism Pedestal gun platform AMERICAN NAVY RECRUITMENT POSTER, 1917 Shell loading tray British quick-firing naval gun The 100 mm Mark IV, introduced in 1911, armed most Royal Navy destroyers in World War I. On November 5, 1914, this Mark IV gun mounted on HMS Lance fired Britain\u2019s first shot in the war, aimed at a German minelayer. 79","Queen of the Royal Navy The HMS Queen Elizabeth was one of Britain\u2019s first super-dreadnoughts. Entering service in 1915, it was fueled by oil instead of coal and armed with eight 15 in (381 mm) guns, which could hit an enemy ship at a range of 16 miles (25 km).","","NOT OVER BY CHRISTMAS 1914 Coronel and the Falklands In the early months of the war, the Allies faced a potential threat to seaborne trade from enemy cruisers. It was defused, but only after serious setbacks and through the deployment of large-scale naval forces to track down and destroy German warships. A lmost half the world\u2019s merchant world\u2019s oceans was the East Asiatic Gun damage shipping was owned by Britain Cruiser Squadron, commanded by Emden\u2019s bell shows the effects of the and its dominions. Britain Admiral Graf Maximilian von Spee. bombardment from Sydney\u2019s guns. depended on seaborne imports for The squadron consisted of the powerful Emden\u2019s captain beached the ship to 60 percent of its food, as well as armored cruisers SMS Scharnhorst and avoid sinking, but its sailors suffered essential strategic goods such as rubber Gneisenau and the light cruisers SMS almost 200 casualties. and oil. Worldwide sea lanes were Emden, Leipzig, and N\u00fcrnberg. Its base potentially hard to defend, and attacks was at Tsingtao in China, but when on them by German warships posed war broke out the cruisers were a serious threat to Britain\u2019s ability scattered across the Paci\ufb01c. to wage war. The only signi\ufb01cant force Assembling his ships in the of German warships at large on the German-ruled Mariana Islands, Spee decided to head east Australian cap towards South America, away This cap was worn by stoker John Robb of the from the Japanese navy, Royal Australian Navy. Robb was one of the crew of the Britain\u2019s ally. The Emden, HMAS Sydney when it captured the German cruiser commanded by Captain Emden at the Cocos Islands on November 9, 1914. Karl von M\u00fcller, was sent to the Indian Ocean. The unexpected appearance of the Emden in an ocean rich in Allied merchant shipping caused mayhem. Operating with scrupulous respect for the rules of war, M\u00fcller stopped and sank 16 British merchant BEFORE Britain was well aware that its \u201c Enemy cruisers cannot live in dominant position in world commerce the ocean for any length of time.\u201d and its heavy dependence on imports made its merchant ships a target WINSTON CHURCHILL, FIRST LORD OF THE ADMIRALTY, 1914 for Germany. ROYAL NAVY BLOCKADES The German navy faced problems in mounting a commerce-raiding campaign. The Royal Navy established a blockade of the English Channel and North Sea \u276e\u276e 78\u201379 from the \ufb01rst day of the war. German ships at large elsewhere had dif\ufb01culty obtaining coal, which was readily available to Britain and France through their empires. GERMAN THREATS Britain had already been threatened by two German light cruisers. In the Indian Ocean, the SMS K\u00f6nigsberg had been troublesome until it was trapped by the Royal Navy in the East African Ru\ufb01ji delta in late October 1914 \u276e\u276e 76\u201377. In the Caribbean, the SMS Karlsruhe had sunk 16 merchant ships. German hopes for the Karlsruhe were dashed, however, when it suffered a catastrophic internal explosion off Barbados on November 4. 82","CORONEL AND THE FALKLANDS ships and a dozen vessels from other nations, each time allowing the crew and passengers to disembark and ensuring their safety. M\u00fcller also carried out a number of daring raids against signi\ufb01cant Allied shore targets, such as destroying oil-storage facilities at Madras in India and sinking a Russian light cruiser and a French destroyer in an attack on the port of Penang in British Malaya (now Malaysia). With 60 Allied warships scouring the ocean, the raider\u2019s career could not continue inde\ufb01nitely. On November 9, 1914, the Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney, commanded by Captain John Glossop, encountered Emden at 100,000 The approximate tonnage of shipping sunk by the German raider Emden in the Indian Ocean. Direction Island in the Cocos Islands. \u201cAll round... were \ufb02oating German warships take flight Sydney\u2019s 152 mm guns outranged bodies... terribly mangled.\u201d Admiral Graf von Spee\u2019s cruiser squadron flees from Emden\u2019s lighter armament and M\u00fcller British pursuit in the South Atlantic during the Battle was battered into submission. A.D. DUCKWORTH, ASSISTANT PAYMASTER, HMS INVINCIBLE of the Falklands. More than 1,800 German sailors lost their lives in the battle, in which two armored cruisers By the time M\u00fcller surrendered, 130 Desperate for vengeance, the British in the Falkland Islands, where he and two light cruisers were sunk. of his crew had been killed and many Admiralty responded by sending the stopped to take on coal. Meanwhile, others injured. This was a famous \ufb01rst battle cruisers HMS Invincible and Spee had rounded Cape Horn into AFTER victory for the recently established In\ufb02exible, commanded by Vice Admiral the South Atlantic. He headed for the Royal Australian Navy. Frederick Sturdee, to join the hunt for Falklands, intending to raid its wireless In the course of 1915, scattered Spee. Gathering up the \ufb01ve cruisers of station and coal stocks. German surface raiders were put The impact of Emden\u2019s solo operation the South Atlantic Squadron along the out of action, while submarines suggests that Spee\u2019s other cruisers might way, Sturdee steamed to Port Stanley The Battle of the Falklands took over the role of attacking have caused havoc had they dispersed. merchant shipping. Instead, Spee kept them together, a Victor of the Falklands On December 8, Spee\u2019s leading ships decision that seemed justi\ufb01ed when Sir Frederick Sturdee commanded the British ships approached Port Stanley and, to their GERMAN CHANGE OF TACTICS he encountered the British at Coronel, that won the Battle of the Falklands against Spee\u2019s surprise, were \ufb01red upon. Realizing The light cruiser Dresden, which had escaped off the coast of Chile. cruisers in December 1914. Sturdee\u2019s ships had much the harbor was full of unidenti\ufb01ed destruction at the Battle of the Falklands, greater firepower. warships, Spee \ufb02ed out to sea. remained at sea until March 1915, when it Catastrophe off Chile was captured by British ships at an The encounter was as much a island off the Chilean coast. In April 1915, The Battle of Coronel, on November 1, surprise to the British as the Germans, the SS Kronprinz Wilhelm, an ocean liner was a disaster for the Royal Navy. Rear but once Sturdee reached the sea the converted into an auxiliary cruiser at the Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock had outcome was never in doubt. The outbreak of war, sought refuge in the been ordered to sail from the South British battle cruisers were faster than neutral United States after running short of Atlantic into the Paci\ufb01c to search for the German ships and had superior coal and other supplies. Meanwhile, German the German cruisers, although none guns and armor. The Scharnhorst and submarines around the British Isles Gneisenau fought a gallant delaying and in the Mediterranean of his squadron of four ships was action, attempting to cover the escape proved more effective a match for the Scharnhorst or of the light cruisers, but both were than surface raiders Gneisenau. The German cruiser sunk. The Scharnhorst went down with in threatening squadron had been augmented all hands, including Spee. Some 200 seaborne by the light cruiser Dresden, crew were rescued from the Gneisenau. trade. until then in the Caribbean. Only one German ship, the Dresden, Despite facing superior escaped the British pursuit. COAL, THE MAIN forces, Cradock felt it was FUEL FOR SHIPS his duty to attack. The The Battle of the Falklands was a Germans sank the powerful assertion of the Royal Navy\u2019s armored cruisers Good dominance, and ended any serious Hope and Monmouth threat to Allied merchant shipping with relentless from German surface vessels for the accuracy. The crews, duration of the war. who were mostly reservists or young boys, went down with their ships, as did Admiral Cradock. The other two British vessels escaped, although the light cruiser Glasgow was badly damaged. 83","NOT OVER BY CHRISTMAS 1914 BEFORE War in the East Before World War I, China and The European states that went to war in 1914 were imperialist powers with global the Paci\ufb01c were areas in which the interests, and their conflict had worldwide impact. Military operations spread to imperialist ambitions of the European China and islands in the Pacific as outposts of the German Empire were overrun. powers, the U.S., and Japan clashed. B ritish concerns about German Japan was an expansionist power to join the Japanese force. However, DESIGNS ON CHINA naval power were the factor that engaged in long-term empire-building the German East Asiatic Squadron had From the mid-19th century, the Chinese state \ufb01rst brought East Asia into the and only too ready for a chance to decided not to defend Tsingtao and was riven by political factionalism. Taking war. The German navy\u2019s East Asiatic extend its in\ufb02uence in China and the embarked on a far-\ufb02ung naval advantage of this, the foreign powers obtained Squadron was based at Tsingtao (now Paci\ufb01c. By the time Japan declared war campaign in the South Atlantic. \u201cconcessions\u201d in China\u2014territory over Qingdao) on China\u2019s Shantung on Germany on August 23, it was which they exercised effective control. This peninsula, a German-ruled concession. already planning a seaborne expedition The Japanese \ufb01rst landed at Lungkow process was accelerated by joint foreign Worried about the threat this posed to to capture Tsingtao. Britain assembled Bay, 80 miles (130 km) north of military intervention in China in 1900, in its merchant shipping, Britain looked a token force of 1,500 soldiers from its Tsingtao, where they set up a supply response to the Boxer Rebellion against to its Japanese ally for support. concession at Tientsin (now Tianjin) base. Their main landing followed at Western imperialism. A revolution in 1911 Laoshan Bay, 18 miles (25 km) east of led to the end of Qing imperial rule and the founding of a highly unstable republic. \u201cIt would shame me more to surrender Tsingtao to the Japanese than Berlin JAPANESE AMBITIONS to the Russians.\u201d Japan had emerged as an aggressive regional power in the late 19th century. Its military KAISER WILHELM II, SEPTEMBER 1914 victories over China in 1894\u201395 and Russia in 1904\u201305 whetted its ambitions to become a world power. In 1902, Japan signed an alliance with Britain, based at the time on mutual hostility toward Russia. Japanese soldiers at Tsingtao, China The crew of a Japanese siege howitzer waits for instructions during the attack on German-controlled Tsingtao in November 1914. Tsingtao held out for only a week after the big guns started firing.","WAR IN THE EAST the port, on September 18. These AFTER landings on Chinese territory violated Chinese neutrality, but foreign powers World War I had a profound impact on were too accustomed to trampling over East Asia, despite the region\u2019s limited China for this to worry them. involvement in the \ufb01ghting. Tsingtao falls to the Allies Japan\u2019s objective was not so much to German New Guinea POSTWAR REPERCUSSIONS contribute to the defeat of Germany Local troops trained by a few German reservists were At the Paris Peace Conference While Japanese warships blockaded as to develop its interests in China. the only forces available to defend Kaiser Wilhelmsland. 334\u201335 \u276f\u276f after the war, it was revealed that Tsingtao, land forces made slow In January 1915, Japan presented They were unable to mount any real resistance to an the Allies had promised the Japanese Tsingtao progress in adverse weather. It was the Chinese government with the Australian occupation force. in return for naval aid in the Mediterranean. October 31 before the port was fully 21 Demands, chie\ufb02y designed to The news triggered mass protests in under siege. The German defense of extend its in\ufb02uence in Manchuria and Although not combatants, about 2,000 China beginning on May 4, 1919. The May Tsingtao was led by its governor, Alfred Inner Mongolia. The Japanese also died laboring on the Western Front, the Fourth Movement became a radical new Meyer-Waldeck. He had only 4,000 intended to keep hold of Tsingtao. victims of enemy action, accidents, or departure in Chinese politics, leading to the soldiers and marines at his disposal but disease. The Chinese eventually growth of the Chinese Communist Party. had some powerful guns, originally Carving up the Paci\ufb01c declared war on Germany in August intended to repel an attack by sea. 1917\u2014a politically controversial THWARTED JAPAN Japan was now able to seize German overseas commitment unprecedented Japan was also discontented with the result The Japanese bombarded the city for possessions in the Paci\ufb01c. In the in Chinese history. Although China of the war. Although Japan kept the Paci\ufb01c a week and then mounted an infantry absence of the German East Asia had nothing militarily to offer the islands it had gained, it assault that penetrated the German Squadron, which had left for the South Allies, Japan was able to send was forced to hand back defenses. On November 7, short of Atlantic, the Mariana, Marshall, and destroyers to help the Allied navies Tsingtao to China in ammunition, Meyer-Waldeck asked for Caroline Islands were easily occupied. \ufb01ght U-boats in the Mediterranean. 1922. Also, Japan\u2019s a cease-\ufb01re so that surrender terms proposal to make racial could be negotiated. The Germans had For the governments of Australia and equality a founding lost about 500 men, compared to New Zealand, Japanese expansion principle of the League of some 240 Japanese dead and a across the Paci\ufb01c was highly Nations was rejected by its dozen British. The Germans who unwelcome. These British dominions white allies. surrendered were held as prisoners feared Japan and harbored their own in Japan until 1920. colonial ambitions. Despite agreeing to JAPANESE MEDAL, 7TH CLASS, send troops to aid Britain\u2018s war effort, ORDER OF THE RISING SUN they found the resources to seize RUSSIAN CANADA 96,000 The number of EMPIRE Alaska Chinese laborers working for the Allies in France at MONGOLIA the end of the war. CHINA 2 Sept 2, 1914 defenseless German possessions south Japanese forces land at Lungkow for attack of the equator, with New Zealand TIBET Tsingtao JAPAN on Tsingtao, fortress protecting German taking Samoa at the end of August. PACIFIC colony of Kiachow. All-out siege begins on Oct 31. Tsingtao surrenders on Nov 7. The following month, an Australian occupation of Kaiser Wilhelmsland INDIA (now part of Papua New Guinea) led to the surrender of the Bismarck OCEAN Archipelago and the Solomon Islands. Phosphate-rich Nauru was seized by SIAM Philippine Is. Mariana Is. 4 Oct 7, 1914 the Australians in mid-November. FRENCH (U.S.) Beginning of occupation by Japanese forces. Eastern agendas Guam 5 Nov 14, 1914 By the end of 1914, the war in East MALAYA INDOCHINA Yap Marshall Is. Nauru occupied by Asia and the Paci\ufb01c was over. China Caroline Is. Australian forces. and Japan, however, sought advantage INDIAN from further participation in the OCEAN Kaiser Wilhelmsland European con\ufb02ict. The Chinese hoped cooperation with the Allies might end DUTCH Nauru reparation payments imposed after the EAST INDIES Bismarck Archipelago anti-imperialist Boxer Rebellion and lead to the return of Tsingtao. 3 Sept 11, 1914 PAPUA German Samoa Occupation of Kaiser Wilhelmsland AUSTRALIA (Western) From 1916, Chinese workers were by Australian forces begins. German recruited by Britain and France on a 1 Aug 30, 1914 large scale and sent to Europe. capitulation on Sept 17. German Samoa occupied by New Zealand forces. NEW ZEALAND War in the Pacific KEY In August 1914, Germany\u2019s possessions in the German possessions Pacific consisted of a naval base at Tsingtao, part British Empire of New Guinea, and a scattering of islands. These Russian Empire quickly fell to superior Allied forces after Japan Japan and possessions entered the war. U.S. and possessions French possessions Major siege 85","","3 STALEMATE 1915 While the combatant states mobilized resources for a long conflict, the trench lines of the Western Front became a symbol of the military deadlock. New weapons such as airships, submarines, and poison gas added to the horror of war but did nothing to end it.","STALEMATE 1915 STALEMATE Chlorine gas is used Statues of an \u201ciron by the Germans during warrior,\u201d as depicted in this the Second Battle of propaganda poster, are erected Ypres in April 1915. It in towns in Germany to raise is the first large-scale funds for the war. People are combat use of poison allowed to drive nails into the gas in the war, but statue in return for a donation. chemical warfare is soon employed by both sides. During the Battle of Dogger Bank in January, the British sink the German warship SMS Bl\u00fccher, Y resulting in the loss of more than 700 men. The rest of the German fleet makes it safely home. A N NORW SWEDE EUROPE N O R W AY BRITAIN SWEDEN FAEROE ISLANDS GERMANY (Denmark) tic Sea AT L A N T I C AUSTRIA- RUSSIAN EMPIRE FRANCE HUNGARY OCEAN I TA LY Black Sea Caspian Sea North PORTUGAL S PA I N TUNISIA OTTOMAN N Sea DENMARK Bal SPANISH MOROCCO EMPIRE P E R S I A AFGHANISTA MOROCCO CYPRUS TIBET (autonomous) BRITAIN NETH. G E R M A N Y RUSSIAN ALGERIA LIBYA KUWAIT BAHRAIN NEPAL EMPIRE RIO DE ORO EGYPT QATAR INDIA BEL. LUX. HEJAZ NEJD TRUCIAL ANGLO- (Saudi) OMAN EGYPTIAN OMAN FRANCE AUSTRIA- FRENCH WEST AFRICA SUDAN HADHRAMAUT HUNGARY SWITZ. GAMBIA TOGO FRENCH (British mandate) ADEN PROTECTORATE PORTUGUESE GUINEA FRENCH SOMALILAND EQUATORIAL ERITREA BRITISH SIERRA LEONE NIGERIA AFRICA ABYSSINIA CEYLON SERBIA ROMANIA LIBERIA GOLD CAMEROON SOMALILAND COAST IT BULGARIA B l a c k S e a ITALIAN ALY MONT. BRITISH EAST SOMALILAND PORTUGAL SPAIN ALB. RIO MUNI FRENCH BELGIAN AFRICA (Spain) CONGO CONGO GERMAN EAST OTTOMAN AFRICA INDIAN Me diterr GREECE EMPIRE ean Se NORTHERN ANGOLA OCEAN ALGERIA TUNISIA DODECANESE (France) (France) a n (Italy) RHODESIA MOROCCO a CYPRUS SOUTHERN MADAGASCAR RHODESIA GERMAN (France) (Britain) SOUTH WEST BECHUANA- PORTUGUESE AFRICA LAND EAST LIBYA AFRICA (Italy) EGYPT (Britain) UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA Serbia is stabbed in the back Armenian refugees flee by Bulgaria while defending from Turkey. The country\u2019s itself against Germany and Austria-Hungary. This is a Armenian minority is broadly accurate caricature of subjected to attacks and the situation in the Balkans in forced deportation that October 1915. result in deaths on a massive scale. T he failure of either side to achieve a victory in 1914 left the Only Serbia was decisively beaten, attacked in overwhelming force by combatants facing a long war. On the Western Front, in Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Bulgaria. The search for an alternative France and Belgium, armies were immobilized in trench lines. to the deadlock in the trenches led Britain to initiate an attack on Offensives consistently failed in the face of overwhelming defensive Turkey at the Dardanelles. But when Allied troops, including firepower. On the Eastern Front, Germany and Austria-Hungary Australians and New Zealanders, landed at Gallipoli they found inflicted defeats on Russia in a war of large-scale maneuvers, but the themselves bogged down in trench warfare just as frustrating and Russians sacrificed territory in strategic withdrawals and kept fighting. destructive as that on the Western Front. The entry of Italy into the 88","STALEMATE 1915 1915 John McCrae, a field surgeon with the Canadian Expeditionary Force, writes his well-known poem \u201cIn Flanders Fields,\u201d based on First Ypres in October 1914. CANADA CHINA JAPANESE UNITED STATES The transatlantic liner Lusitania EMPIRE OF AMERICA sails from New York in May 1915. The ship is sunk by a German U-boat off Ireland, killing 1,198 people, including 128 American citizens, outraging U.S. public opinion. BRITISH HONDURAS MEXICO CUBA DOMINICAN REPUBLIC AT L A N T I C HAITI VIRGIN ISLANDS Mariana Hawaiian PACIFIC LEEWARD ISLANDS Islands Islands OCEAN WINDWARD ISLANDS SIAM FRENCH PHILIPPINE HONDURAS OCEAN INDOCHINA ISLANDS GUAM Marshall GUATEMALA NICARAGUA BARBADOS EL SALVADOR BRITISH Islands TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO NORTH BORNEO COSTA RICA GERMAN PACIFIC TERRITORIES VENEZUELA BRITISH GUIANA BRUNEI CANAL ZONE PANAMA DUTCH GUIANA SARAWAK Caroline Islands Christmas COLOMBIA FRENCH GUIANA MALAYA Island Gilbert DUTCH Bismarck Nauru Islands Cook ECUADOR Archipelago Islands KAISER Ellice EAST INDIES 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 Muslim Indian soldiers are URUGUAY THE WORLD IN executed after a mutiny against ARGENTINA DECEMBER 1915 the British in Singapore in FALKLAND The Central Powers February 1915. Most Indian ISLANDS troops serve loyally, ignoring calls Central Powers conquests from nationalists for a revolt to Dec 1915 against the imperial power. Allied states Allied conquests to Dec 1915 Neutral states Frontiers, Jul 1914 war on the Allied side opened a new front at which the same The combatant countries strove to mobilize their economies and stalemate prevailed. The Germans hoped to achieve a decisive industries for total war and achieved dramatic growth in output breakthrough by the use of poison gas, but this proved indecisive. of munitions. But more cannons, shells, machine guns, and bullets The war expanded into the air and under the sea. German airships translated into higher death tolls at the front. The death toll among raided London and Paris, and German U-boats attacked Allied civilians also mounted, notably in the expulsion and massacre merchant shipping, the sinking of the liner Lusitania bringing sharp of Armenians in Turkey and the sufferings of the conquered Serbs protests from the U.S. government. in the final months of 1915. 89","STALEMATE 1915 TIMELINE 1915 Trench stalemate in the West \u25a0 Liner Lusitania sunk \u25a0 Poison gas used \u25a0 Zeppelin bombings begin \u25a0 Italy and Bulgaria enter the war \u25a0 Allied landings at Gallipoli \u25a0 Russian retreat in Poland \u25a0 Serbia defeated JANUARY FEBRUARY MARCH APRIL MAY JUNE JANUARY 3 FEBRUARY 3 MARCH 10 APRIL 22 MAY 2 A downed Zeppelin In Belgium, Cardinal British forces in Egypt British launch an German offensive starts Germany and Austria- Mercier is arrested for defeat a Turkish attack offensive at Neuve the Second Battle of Hungary launch the JUNE 7 protesting against the on the Suez Canal. Chapelle, but it is called Ypres. The Germans use Gorlice-Tarnow Offensive A British aircraft shoots German occupation. off after three days. chlorine gas in an attempt in Poland. down a German FEBRUARY 4 The failure is blamed to achieve a breakthrough. Zeppelin airship over JANUARY 8 Germany announces on a shortage of shells. MAY 7 Belgium. On the Western Front, a submarine campaign Australian A German U-boat sinks the French attack at against merchant MARCH 18 recruitment poster the liner Lusitania, killing JUNE 9 Soissons but are shipping in British British and French 1,200 people including U.S. secretary of state repelled by a German waters in response to warships fail to force APRIL 24 U.S. citizens. William Jennings Bryan, counteroffensive. British naval blockade. a passage through Turkish government opposed to President JANUARY 14 the Dardanelles to begins widespread MAY 25 Wilson\u2019s policy on South African forces FEBRUARY 7 Constantinople, arrests of Armenians Coalition government is Germany, resigns. occupy Swakopmund Russian and German resulting in the loss after Armenian rebels formed in Britain. David JUNE 22 in German South forces clash in the Second of three battleships. seize the city of Van. Lloyd George is made Austria-Hungary retakes West Africa. Battle of the Masurian minister of munitions. the city of Lemberg Lakes, which continues APRIL 25 (Lvov) as the Russians JANUARY 18 until February 21. Allied troops land on retreat in Galicia. In East Africa, the Gallipoli peninsula, JUNE 23 Schutztruppe led by FEBRUARY 15 seeking to win control Fighting begins between Colonel Lettow- British Indian troops in of the Dardanelles. Italy and Austria- Vorbeck defeat the Singapore stage a mutiny. Hungary at the First British at Jassin. APRIL 26 Battle of the Isonzo. JANUARY 19 By signing the Treaty JUNE 28 The first Zeppelin raid of London, Italy Allied troops at Gallipoli is carried out against agrees to join the war launch a failed attack the British mainland. on the Allied side. on Turkish defenses at Achi Baba. JANUARY 24 Life preserver from British naval victory at the RMS Lusitania the Battle of Dogger Bank, but the Germans Engine room of a German avoid serious loss. U-boat JANUARY 31 Germans make FEBRUARY 17 MARCH 22 Italy enters the war experimental use of Austria-Hungary The Austro-Hungarian poison gas at Bolimov launches an offensive fortress of Przemysl MAY 29 in Galicia. against the Russians in surrenders to the Turkish authorities the Carpathians. Russians after a siege begin mass deportation 90 lasting 133 days. of Armenians. FEBRUARY 19 Zeppelins carry out British and French their first bombing MAY 31 warships bombard Turkish raid on Paris. First German Zeppelin forts at the entrance to raid on London. the Dardanelles. FEBRUARY 22 German artillery bombardment causes heavy damage to historic Reims cathedral.","TIMELINE 1915 \u201cThe horrible part\u2026 is the slow lingering death of those who are gassed. I saw some hundred poor fellows\u2026 slowly drowning with water in their lungs\u2026\u201d GENERAL JOHN CHARTERIS, WRITING AFTER THE FIRST USE OF CHLORINE GAS, APRIL 28, 1915 JULY AUGUST SEPTEMBER OCTOBER NOVEMBER DECEMBER JULY 9 AUGUST 1 SEPTEMBER 1 OCTOBER 6 NOVEMBER 5 German forces in South Start of the \u201cFokker In response to U.S. German and The Central Powers West Africa surrender. Scourge\u201d\u2014German pressure, Germany Austro-Hungarian capture Nis in Serbia, monoplanes halts unrestricted forces launch an establishing a direct rail JULY 22 dominating the skies submarine warfare. invasion of Serbia, connection between Russian forces begin over the Western Front. taking Belgrade. Germany and Turkey. a full-scale retreat SEPTEMBER 6 from Poland. AUGUST 5 Bulgaria agrees to join OCTOBER 11 German forces capture the war on the side Bulgarian forces invade Warsaw. of the Central Powers. Serbia from the east. SEPTEMBER 8 NOVEMBER 6 The Kaiser\u2019s epaulettes Tsar Nicholas II takes The French call a halt direct command of to their autumn DECEMBER 6 the Russian army. Champagne Offensive. Allied conference at Chantilly agrees to SEPTEMBER 19 NOVEMBER 24 mount offensives on German offensive Blocked by the Turks all fronts in 1916. in Lithuania at Ctesiphon, the captures Vilnius. British Indian army in Mesopotamia begins a SEPTEMBER 25 retreat to Kut al-Amara. Allies launch the costly Austro-Hungarian Champagne and Schwarzlose machine gun Artois-Loos Offensives. Soldiers in a German trench AUGUST 6 In the Gallipoli Campaign, fresh landings are made British munitions factory NOVEMBER 25 DECEMBER 7 at Suvla Bay as part of a The defeated Serbian army is Start of the evacuation renewed Allied offensive. OCTOBER 12 ordered to retreat through of Allied forces In Belgium, British from Gallipoli. AUGUST 21 nurse Edith Cavell Albania and Montenegro Defeat at the Battle is executed by a to the Adriatic. of Scimitar Hill ends German firing squad. Allied chances of success at Gallipoli. AUGUST 29 Brest-Litovsk in Russia falls to the Germans. JULY 24 OCTOBER 14 DECEMBER 19 British Indian forces The British abandon General Douglas Haig is in Mesopotamia their offensive at Loos appointed commander- advancing along the on the Western Front. in-chief of British forces Tigris River take Nasiriya on the Western Front. from Turkish forces. OCTOBER 27 An Anglo-French force American ambulance service lands at Salonika in Greece. German gas shell 91","Munitions production Women work alongside men to manufacture shells in a British munitions factory. Combatant states achieved a massive expansion in output by intervening to direct businesses and labor.","MOBILIZING RESOURCES Mobilizing Resources By the start of 1915, illusions of a quick victory had evaporated. Combatant powers faced a prolonged conflict that would consume vast resources\u2014states that failed to meet the demands of total war would not survive. G overnments on all sides had This facilitated the development of abandoned enrolling to increase production in key synthetic substitutes for materials that volunteers indiscriminately, industries if they were to could no longer be imported. Crucially, and had launched a national registry to establish which sustain mass armies in the \ufb01eld. They the nitrates required for making high men should be reserved for vital industrial jobs. largely relied on private businesses to explosives were synthesized through The employment of supply the goods, inducing them to the work of scientist Fritz Haber. women in traditionally male jobs was essential to cooperate through government control war production. Munitions factories took hundreds of of raw materials, labor, and contracts. Maximizing production thousands of women, who performed dangerous tasks For the Central Powers, Britain\u2019s At the opposite extreme from such as \ufb01lling shells with explosives. Women who naval blockade presented a particular Germany, less industrialized Russia had been shop workers or in domestic service now problem. By preventing the import of was slow to respond to problems in drove buses and streetcars. key raw materials, supplying its army. Many women also found employment as of\ufb01ce the blockade 55 PERCENT The proportion The setting up of workers in the expanding government threatened the ability of the German a War Industries bureaucracies\u2014Britain\u2019s Ministry of Munitions had a workforce of 650,000 of German and industrial workforce made Committee improved by the war\u2019s end. The number of British women employed in commerce Austro-Hungarian up of women in 1918. Russia\u2019s supply and industry increased from 3 million to 5 million during the war. By 1918, war industries to situation during women made up more than half of Germany\u2019s industrial workforce. continue functioning. The German 1915\u2014most soldiers had ri\ufb02es, and Money to \ufb01nance the war effort was War Ministry set up a War Materials guns had shells\u2014but the armies still found through increased taxes and government borrowing on a massive Department under businessman depended on voluntary contributions scale. Patriotic appeals brought in loans Women at work from the public in the form of war A Russian wartime poster shows a woman engaged Walther Rathenau to ensure that organized by zemstvos (Russian bonds. As governments pumped in skilled industrial work. Shortages of labor forced money into their economies to countries to employ women in factory jobs from which industries ful\ufb01lling military orders provincial governments) for most of promote industry, they struggled to they had previously been excluded, as well as in areas hold down the consequent in\ufb02ation. such as transportation and administration. received the necessary supplies. The their clothing and medical supplies. The inequalities of war AFTER resources of occupied Belgium and Britain and France had access to raw Some people were de\ufb01nitely better The combatant countries achieved northern France, including coal mines materials and industrial imports from off in the war, including industrialists extraordinary growth in war who secured lucrative armament production, but at mounting and factories, were fully exploited. across the world, as long as sea lanes contracts and working-class women \ufb01nancial and social cost. who found better-paying jobs, while Germany was also fortunate in could be kept open. Nevertheless, in others suffered hardship. In 1915, WEAPONS INDUSTRY Britain raised its production of having strong links between industry 1915 their armies suffered from social solidarity still explosives from 24,000 tons in 1915 to held, but discontent almost 186,000 tons in 1917. Its output and scienti\ufb01c research and the world\u2019s shortages of munitions and equipment. surfaced in accusations of machine guns over the same period of pro\ufb01teering by rose from 6,100 to almost 80,000. Before the most developed chemical industry. In Britain, a scandal over shell businessmen and war, an aircraft industry barely existed, but in demands for fairness in 1915 French factories manufactured shortages, luridly worked up in the the sharing of sacri\ufb01ce. 7,000 aircraft engines, rising to 17,000 in 1916\u2014all for military use. Germany had BEFORE press, led to Conservative and Labour Chemical warrior produced 43,200 rifles in 1914; in 1916 it politicians entering a coalition German scientist Fritz Haber made 3 million. German production of (right) epitomized the explosives multiplied tenfold between government with the Liberals in spring contribution of science to the war, 1914 and 1917. creating synthetic substitutes for 1915. The Liberal politician David strategic materials and poison COUNTING THE COST gas for the battlefield. The \ufb01nancial cost of the war effort was At the onset of war, military Lloyd George was appointed to head staggering. In Germany, Britain, and France, government expenditure rose around authorities and governments in all a new Ministry of Munitions. His 500 percent between 1914 and 1917. Devoting vast resources to the war also had an combatant countries took sweeping vigorous interventionism achieved impact on food production, reducing the labor available for farm work and creating powers to suspend basic civil rights. a striking increase in output. shortages of tools, fertilizers, and horses. All combatant countries were EMERGENCY MEASURES hard-pressed to meet the con\ufb02icting In France, Germany, and Austria-Hungary, labor demands of army, industry, siege regulations were invoked, giving the and agriculture. France was soon army powers to requisition property, censor obliged to transfer skilled workers back the press, and try civilians in military courts. In from the military front to the factories. Britain, the Defence of the Realm Act By the end of 1915, Britain had (DORA) licensed the government to commandeer economic resources and suppress opposition to the war. Everywhere, horses were requisitioned and railways taken out of private control. Despite draconian powers, combatant countries were ill-prepared to run a long war. The \ufb01rst four months of \ufb01ghting exhausted their stocks of munitions. Russia was running out of artillery shells by September 1914, and by the end of the year all combatants found operations limited by shell shortages. 93","STALEMATE 1915 Trench Warfare \u201c It is a wild scene\u2026 Filth and rubbish everywhere, graves built into the defenses\u2026 troops of enormous rats\u2026\u201d WINSTON CHURCHILL, LETTER FROM THE TRENCHES AT LAVENTIE, FRANCE, NOVEMBER 23, 1915 B y 1914, trenches were a common necessary measure. Eventually, German entrenching tool aspect of warfare, re\ufb02ecting the some of them became home for In trench warfare, the short-handled entrenching straightforward need for soldiers thousands of troops for years. spade became as important a piece of military on the front line to protect themselves equipment as the rifle. Soldiers of all armies against enemy \ufb01re. Standard military The essentials of any trench were spent long hours of backbreaking labor digging, manuals provided instructions for simple. It had to be deep enough for repairing, and extending trench systems. digging trenches, and armies had a man to stand, without his head equipment for doing so. But there was presenting a target for enemy bunkers to protect troops against no precedent for the scale and duration snipers. It also had to be narrow so shell \ufb01re. In some places, however, of the trench warfare that was such a that it was not an easy target for an defenses never progressed beyond feature of World War I. enemy shell or mortar. It was better a single trench fronted by a few if it wasn\u2019t straight. Frequent kinks, strands of barbed wire. By the end of 1915, there was a more which the British called \u201ctraverses,\u201d or less continuous line of trenches stopped blast, shrapnel, or \ufb01re from Trench systems of formidable stretching 460 miles (740 km) across sweeping the entire length of the complexity developed over time. Europe, from the Belgian coast to trench. It needed a \ufb01re step, a raised Saps (short trenches) were dug Switzerland, and a somewhat less platform, in its front wall, so that continuous line in the east extending soldiers could step up to forward into no man\u2019s land for 800 miles (1,300 km) from the shoot over the top if the between the opposing Baltic to the Carpathians. All the enemy attacked. trenches. Parallel lines other fronts in the war\u2014in northern of support and reserve Italy, Gallipoli in Turkey, Palestine, Trench systems trenches were dug behind and the Caucasus\u2014had their own the front line, and a maze trench systems. At \ufb01rst, trenches Where the ground was of communication trenches were considered to be a temporary, sodden, as it regularly was in linked the front line to parts of Flanders in Belgium, the rear. On the Western Over the top at Gallipoli trenches had to be shallow to Front, the Germans Allied soldiers advance during the Dardanelles prevent \ufb02ooding, with a campaign in 1915\u201316. The terrain at Gallipoli made parapet of earth and sandbags built up eventually constructed entrenchment difficult and troops suffered from in front. Where the ground was dry and complex defensive systems 9 miles diseases in the unsanitary conditions. \ufb01rm, as at the Somme, trenches could (15 km) across, with a series of be provided with deep underground trenches, disguised machine gun emplacements, and cunningly sited strongpoints that were reinforced with concrete forti\ufb01cations. Life in the trenches Conditions on the front varied. French trenches provided notoriously poor living conditions. The Germans, by contrast, built dry and warm concrete bunkers and even installed electric lighting for some troops. Life in the trenches could range from tolerable to almost unbearable. On a quiet sector of the front, daily routines might carry a man through months of the war with only limited danger. Enemies separated by no more than 100\u2013200 yd (100\u2013200 m) of no man\u2019s land adopted a system of live-and-let- live as the path to mutual survival. A day typically began with \u201cstand to\u201d at 94","TRENCH WARFARE dawn, often the occasion for a TIMELINE ritualistic exchange of \ufb01re expected to hurt no one. Then rations were \u25a0 September 1914 German Chief of the brought up from the rear. Tasks such General Staff General Helmuth von Moltke as cleaning weapons and maintaining orders forces retreating from the Marne to or extending trenches \ufb01lled the day \u201cfortify and defend\u201d a line at the Aisne River. until \u201cstand down\u201d at dusk. Night was Entrenched German troops halt the advance a time for repairing barbed wire or of British and French forces, who dig their own moving troops and equipment. improvised trenches. On an active front, commanders \u25a0 December 1914 With armies entrenched insisted on constant harassment of across the Western Front, there is widespread the enemy. Front line units suffered fraternization between German and Allied troops on Christmas Day. 5,000 The average number of British casualties \u25a0 January 1915 German Chief of the General per month in the trenches of the Staff General Erich von Falkenhayn orders Ypres salient in 1916, when no troops on the Western Front to make their major battle was fought. trench lines defensible against superior forces, leading to stalemate. a grinding attrition of casualties from sniper \ufb01re, mortars, and artillery. At \u25a0 April 1915 The Germans introduce poison night, patrols were sent out into no gas during the Second Battle of Ypres. Gas man\u2019s land or raids were mounted becomes a fixed feature of trench warfare on against enemy trenches, producing the Western Front. heavy casualties for both sides. \u25a0 April 1915 Allied troops landing at Gallipoli, Few soldiers went \u201cover the top\u201d Turkey, find themselves forced to entrench in a major offensive more than once under unfavorable conditions. They are unable or twice. When they did, it was an to make significant progress against Turkish experience they would never forget. defensive positions. Observation of the enemy, either through periscopes or at advanced listening posts thrust forward into no man\u2019s land, was a 24-hour-a-day task, and any soldier who fell asleep on sentry duty was severely punished. Soldiers on the Western Front would typically spend less than a week on the front line, before being rotated to the reserve line or the rear, where they labored on exhausting tasks such as carrying ammunition to the front line. Lice, rats, and \u201dtrench foot\u201c BISCUIT RATIONS TURNED INTO A FRAME Infestation with lice was almost \u25a0 June 1916 Russian General Alexei Brusilov universal in the trenches, which drives Austro-Hungarian forces out of their also swarmed with well-fed rats. trench lines and advances 50 miles (80 km). Sometimes corpses and body parts became embedded in trench walls, as \u25a0 July 1916 German troops in concrete bunkers it was often too dangerous to retrieve survive a prolonged Allied bombardment to them. Latrine facilities could be emerge and cut down attacking soldiers on primitive. On the Western Front, troops the first day of the Somme offensive. were usually adequately clothed and fed, but such was not the case on other \u25a0 February\u2013March 1917 German forces on the fronts. Extreme weather could turn the Western Front between Arras and Soissons trench experience into a nightmare. In withdraw to newly prepared defensive the summer heat at Gallipoli, troops positions (the Hindenburg Line). were tortured by thirst and racked by disease. In Flanders, heavy rain \u25a0 September 1917 A German offensive against \ufb02ooded trenches, turning the battle the Russians at Riga shows the effectiveness of area into a quagmire; troops standing using specialized assault troops to penetrate for days in deep water suffered from trench systems in depth. \u201ctrench foot,\u201d which could lead to gangrene and amputation. \u25a0 November 1917 A British offensive at Cambrai uses massed tanks to overcome German trench soldiers in German trenches, but without This trench has been dug into soft earth, so the decisive effect. walls are \u201crevetted\u201d with wattle to hold them firm. A duckboard of wooden slats has been laid to provide \u25a0 March 1918 The German Spring Offensive a mud-free walkway. ends the stalemate on the Western Front. \u25a0 September\u2013October 1918 Allied forces break through the Hindenburg Line. 95","EYEWITNESS 1915 Life in the Trenches Life in the trenches varied according to sectors, fronts, the time of year, and local weather conditions. It was, however, far from pleasant. Soldiers on all sides lived under the threat of death from either snipers or shells. Vermin, such as rats and lice, were numerous; trenches would flood in wet weather; and men suffered frostbite in the freezing cold. Those serving also had to contend with the extreme tedium of trench warfare, which was largely static. \u201cI am still stuck in this trench and so far as I know not likely to be relieved for some days, as I\u2019ve had a week of it and the regulation dose is four days\u2026 I haven\u2019t washed or had my clothes off at all, and my average sleep has been two and a half hours in the twenty-four. I don\u2019 think I\u2019ve started to crawl yet, but I don\u2019t suppose I should notice if I had\u2026 My men are awfully cheery; they are the best souls in the world\u2026 although I\u2019ve lost a good many lately\u2026 But there are points in the life that appeal to me vastly, the contrast for instance: the long, lazy, hot days, when no work is done, and any part of the body that protrudes above the trench is most swiftly blown off; the uncanny, shrieking, hard- fought nights with their bizarre and beastly experiences, their constant crack and thunder, their stealthy seeking for advantage, and regardless seizure of it, and in the middle of it all perhaps a song sang round a brazier, a joke or two yelled against the noise \u201dof shells and rifles until the sentries\u2019 warning. CAPTAIN EDWIN GERALD YENNING, ROYAL SUSSEX REGIMENT, LETTER TO HIS SISTER, JUNE 20, 1915 \u201cThere is something inexpressibly sad and full of renunciation in this stationary warfare. Life would be so easy if we could march, as they do in Russia, march along into the blue distance in the morning light\u2026 But here we burrow deep into the earth. There is a candle burning even now in our dug-out, though it is bright daylight outside. Close by, the lads are filling sandbags with which tonight they will stop in our parapets. Everything is quiet just now. The enemy is waiting for nightfall; because he knows that then we shall be working at our farthest-forward position. So there is no \u201dreal activity except in the dark. LETTER FROM ALFRED VAETH, SEPTEMBER 12, 1915 The tedium of the trenches German soldiers read and write letters in a trench in June 1915. Stalemate on the Western Front meant there were often long lulls in the fighting, and soldiers frequently complained of boredom. 96","","STALEMATE 1915 BEFORE Failure on the Western Front The \ufb01ghting of 1914 left the opposing armies on the Western In early 1915, Allied operations\u2014the First Champagne Offensive and the Battle Front entrenched from the north of Neuve Chapelle\u2014revealed the problems generals would face in trench warfare coast of Belgium to the Swiss border. on the Western Front. Taking the offensive resulted in heavy losses but minimal gains. LINES ARE DRAWN The Allied side of the line was manned along most of its length by the French. A sector in Flanders and northern France was held by British troops. The British First Army was opposite Neuve Chapelle and the Second Army was at Ypres \u276e\u276e 60\u201361. KING ALBERT I OF BELGIUM B y the end of 1914, a new phase as the First Champagne Offensive, Joffre was already planning an had opened on the Western it lasted into March 1915. German offensive in Artois while the \ufb01ghting Belgian and French forces held the sector Front\u2014the stalemate of the trench lines were primitive compared in Champagne raged on. Artois was nearest to the coast. The French and trenches. But that is not how it to what they would later become. the junction between the French Belgian desire to liberate their territories appeared to French commander Usually, a single, narrow frontline and British sectors, and British in\ufb02uenced the Allies in favor of an General Joseph Joffre at the time. trench was packed with troops under commander Field Marshal Sir John offensive strategy. Joffre was still planning strategic orders to hold their position at all costs. French, eager to shake his troops out maneuvers. He envisioned the German If the trench was lost, German reserves of the morale-sapping routines of the armies, which were pushed forward in counterattacked with ferocity to retake trenches, agreed to a joint offensive. a great arc between Verdun and Lille, the position. Conditions were ripe: The Germans being forced to withdraw by Allied had begun moving large numbers of advances from Champagne to the In almost continuous \ufb01ghting at their best troops to the Eastern Front south and Artois in the north. Champagne, the French army suffered for an attempt at a decisive blow He planned for his armies to break about 90,000 casualties. German losses against Russia. through into Belgium, threatening were probably similar. In the small the Germans with encirclement. strips of ground that were fought However, Britain had also begun to and refought over, villages were think there might be better military Joffre began the campaign against shelled to obliteration. The French opportunities elsewhere. In mid- German trenches on the Champagne advance gained a maximum 2 miles February, British troops intended for front in late December 1914. Known (3 km) of territory. France were diverted to the attack on Turkey at Gallipoli. Joffre had been English Channel 5 April 22 Antwerp The Western Front in 1915 promised that British forces would take Dunkerque German 4th Army launches an A line of trenches snaked across Belgium and northeast over French responsibilities along the Ostend offensive around Ypres. Poison France. The key battles of 1915 occurred in Flanders line from Ypres north to the coast. Now 3 Mar 10 gas attacks and heavy siege and Artois in the north and Champagne further south, that this offer was withdrawn, Joffre British launch surprise attack on artillery force the British 2nd Army with the French and British mostly on the offensive. canceled the joint operation at Artois. Neuve Chapelle. They break open to withdraw to a new line of Perhaps eager to show his Allies what the German front, but are unable resistance by May 4. Key he could do on his own, French Western Front 1915 decided to go ahead with a limited to exploit their positions. Schelde Ghent British attacks British attack at Neuve Chapelle. French attacks 7 May 15 FLANDERS Brussels German attacks The Battle of Neuve Chapelle British offensive at Ypres Major battle Festubert (Aubers Ridge) BELGIUM Well-planned and prepared, the Neuve makes minimal gains,with Lille Chapelle operation\u2019s aim was to Neuve Chapelle capture Aubers Ridge, a modest high casualties. Festubert eminence in mostly \ufb02at country that Loos ARTOIS gave a distinct advantage to the side 8 Sept 25 Souchez British launch In the initial attack at Neuve Abbeville offensive at Loos. Vimy Douai Chapelle, British and Indian forces Cambrai outnumbered the opposing German Somme troops by five to one. Bapaume Amiens that held it. The route to the ridge St. Quentin Oise Mezieres Neufchateau LUXEMBOURG passed through the ruined village of 6 May 9 Neuve Chapelle. The attack was French attack on Vimy Ridge Ardennes entrusted to the First Army under makes initial gains toward town Forest General Douglas Haig, a rising star of Souchez. Follow-up attacks who had performed well as a corps meet heavy German resistance FR ANC E Luxembourg Saar commander in the First Battle of Ypres. and gain little. Noyon Craonne Meuse The British made innovative use of Argonne aerial photography to map the German Oise Soissons Aisne GERMANY defenses, which were thinly manned and poorly constructed\u2014the wet 1 Jan 8 Verdun Metz ground had forced both sides to build French attack near Soissons parapets upward rather than dig Marne C H A M P A G N E Forest LOR RAI downward for shelter. followed by successful Aire Seine German counterattack. Ch\u00e2teau Epernay Chalons Thierry PARIS 2 Feb\u2013Mar St. Mihiel NE French continue winter 9 Sept 25 Major attack by French offensive with attacks in in Champagne. Initial 0 60 km Champagne. Small gains are success is followed by 4 April Luneville made, with high casualties. \ufb01rm resistance. French offensive 0 60 miles around St. Mihiel fails. 98"]
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