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World War I

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Military History and War

   World War I
   Clockwise from top: Trenches on the Western Front; a British Mark IV
   tank crossing a trench; Royal Navy battleship HMS Irresistible sinking
   after striking a mine at the Battle of the Dardanelles; a Vickers
   machine gun crew with gas masks; and a Sopwith Camel biplane

   Date 28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918
   Location Europe, Africa and the Middle East (briefly in China and the
   Pacific Islands)
   Result Allied victory. End of the German Empire, the Russian Empire,
   the Ottoman Empire, and Austria-Hungary. Creation of many new countries
   in Eastern Europe.
   Casus belli Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand (28 June)
   followed by Austrian declaration of war on Serbia (28 July) and Russian
   mobilization against Austria-Hungary (29 July).
   Combatants
   Allied Powers:
   British Empire
   France
   Italy
   Russia
   United States
   et al. Central Powers:
   Austria-Hungary
   Bulgaria
   Germany
   Ottoman Empire
   Commanders
   Ferdinand Foch
   Georges Clemenceau
   Joseph Joffre
   Victor Emmanuel III
   Luigi Cadorna
   Armando Diaz
   Nicholas II
   Aleksei Brusilov
   Herbert Henry Asquith
   Douglas Haig
   John Jellicoe
   Woodrow Wilson
   John Pershing Wilhelm II
   Paul von Hindenburg

   Reinhard Scheer
   Franz Josef I
   Conrad von Hötzendorf
   Ferdinand I
   Mehmed V
   Mustafa Kemal
   İsmail Enver
   Casualties
   Military dead:
   5,520,000
   Military wounded: 12,831,000
   Military missing: 4,121,000
   Military dead:
   4,386,000
   Military wounded: 8,388,000
   Military missing: 3,629,000

   World War I (abbreviated WWI), also known as the First World War, the
   Great War and "The War to End All Wars" was a global military conflict
   that took place mostly in Europe between 1914 and 1918. It was a total
   war which left millions dead and helped to shape the modern world.

   The Allied Powers, led by France, Russia, the British Empire, and later
   Italy and the United States, defeated the Central Powers:
   Austria-Hungary, the German Empire, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire.

   Much of the fighting in World War I took place along the Western Front,
   within a system of opposing manned trenches and fortifications
   (separated by an empty space between the trenches called the " no man's
   land") running from the North Sea to the border of Switzerland. On the
   Eastern Front, the vast eastern plains and limited rail network
   prevented a trench warfare stalemate from developing, although the
   scale of the conflict was just as large. Hostilities also occurred on
   and under the sea and — for the first time — from the air. More than
   nine million soldiers died on the various battlefields, and millions
   more civilians perished.

   The war caused the disintegration of four empires: the
   Austro-Hungarian, German, Ottoman, and Russian. Germany lost its
   overseas empire, and new states such as Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia,
   Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia were created, or recreated, as was
   Poland.

   World War I created a decisive break with the old world order that had
   emerged after the Napoleonic Wars, which was modified by the mid-19th
   century’s nationalistic revolutions. The results of World War I would
   be important factors in the development of World War II 21 years later.

Causes

   On June 28, 1914, Gavrilo Princip shot and killed Archduke Franz
   Ferdinand, the heir to the Austrian throne, and his wife, in Sarajevo.
   Princip was a member of Young Bosnia, a group whose aims included the
   unification of the South Slavs and independence from Austria-Hungary
   (see also: the Black Hand). The assassination in Sarajevo set into
   motion a series of fast-moving events that escalated into a full-scale
   war. However, the causes of the conflict were multiple and complex.

Arms races

   The naval arms race that developed between Britain and Germany was
   intensified by the 1906 launch of HMS Dreadnought, a revolutionary
   warship that rendered all previous battleships obsolete. (Britain
   maintained a large lead over Germany in all categories of warship.)
   Paul Kennedy has pointed out that both nations believed in Alfred
   Thayer Mahan's thesis that command of the sea was vital to a great
   nation.

   David Stevenson described the armaments race as "a self-reinforcing
   cycle of heightened military preparedness", while David Herrman viewed
   the shipbuilding rivalry as part of a general movement towards war.
   However, Niall Ferguson argues that Britain’s ability to maintain an
   overall advantage signifies that change within this realm was
   insignificant and therefore not a factor in the movement towards war.
      The naval strength of the powers in 1914
       Country     Personnel     Large

                             Naval Vessels
                                           Tonnage
   Russia          54,000    4            328,000
   France          68,000    10           731,000
   Britain         209,000   29           2,205,000
   TOTAL           331,000   43           3,264,000
   Germany         79,000    17           1,019,000
   Austria-Hungary 16,000    3            249,000
   TOTAL           95,000    20           1,268,000
   Source: Ferguson 1999 p 85

Plans, distrust and mobilization

   Closely related is the thesis adopted by many political scientists that
   the war plans of Germany, France and Russia automatically escalated the
   conflict. Fritz Fischer and his followers have emphasized the
   inherently aggressive nature of the Schlieffen Plan, which outlined
   German strategy if at war with both France and Russia. Conflict on two
   fronts meant Germany had to eliminate one opponent quickly before
   taking on the other, relying on a strict timetable. It called for a
   strong right flank attack, to seize Belgium and cripple the French army
   by preempting its mobilization.

   After the attack, the German army would then rush to the eastern front
   by railroad and quickly destroy the more slowly mobilizing military of
   Russia.

   In a greater context, France's own Plan XVII called for an offensive
   thrust into Germany’s industrial Ruhr Valley which crippled Germany’s
   ability to wage war.

   Russia’s revised Plan XIX implied a mobilization of its armies against
   both Austria-Hungary and Germany.

   All three created an atmosphere where generals and planning staffs were
   anxious to take the initiative and seize decisive victories. Elaborate
   mobilization plans with precise timetables had been prepared. Once the
   mobilization orders were issued, it was understood by both generals and
   statesmen alike that there was little or no possibility of turning back
   or a key advantage would be sacrificed. Furthermore, the problem of
   communications in 1914 should not be underestimated; all nations still
   used telegraphy and ambassadors as the main form of communication,
   which resulted in delays from hours to even days.

Militarism and autocracy

   President of the United States Woodrow Wilson and other observers
   blamed the war on militarism. The idea was that aristocrats and
   military elites had too much control over Germany, Russia and Austria,
   and the war was a consequence of their desire for military power and
   disdain for democracy. This was a theme that figured prominently in
   anti-German propaganda, which cast Kaiser Wilhelm II and Prussian
   military tradition in a negative light. Consequently, supporters of
   this theory called for the abdication of such rulers, the end of the
   aristocratic system and the end of militarism—all of which justified
   American entry into the war once Czarist Russia dropped out of the
   Allied camp.

   Wilson hoped the League of Nations and universal disarmament would
   secure a lasting peace. He also acknowledged variations of militarism
   that, in his opinion, existed within the British and French political
   systems.

Economic imperialism

   Britain had been the biggest industrial economy in Europe for a very
   long time. By 1914 however, it had been overtaken by Germany. But
   Germany had very few colonies, in contrast to Britain's vast empire.
   For Germany to continue to compete economically, it needed to take over
   some of Britain's colonies, to gain control of raw materials and open
   markets for its products.

   By 1903, Germany planned a rail link to the Persian Gulf through
   Ottoman territories that would have expanded German trade with the
   Middle East, competing with shipping passing through the
   British-controlled Suez Canal. The railroad reflected the peaceful
   economic rivalries of the era, and was not intended as a prelude to
   war. However, Lenin asserted that the worldwide system of imperialism
   was responsible for the war. In this, he drew upon the economic
   theories of Karl Marx and English economist John A. Hobson, who had
   earlier predicted the outcome of economic imperialism, or unlimited
   competition for expanding markets, would lead to a global military
   conflict. This argument proved persuasive in the immediate wake of the
   war and assisted in the rise of Marxism and Communism. Lenin argued
   that large banking interests in the various capitalist-imperialist
   powers had pulled the strings in the various governments and led them
   into the war.

Trade barriers

   Cordell Hull believed that trade barriers were the root cause of both
   World War I and World War II, and designed the Bretton Woods Agreements
   to reduce trade barriers, and thus eliminate what he saw as the root
   cause of the world wars.

   International bond and financial markets entered severe crises in late
   July and early August; this reflected worry about the financial
   consequences of war.

Culmination of European history

   A localized war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia was considered
   inevitable due to Austria-Hungary’s deteriorating world position and
   the Pan-Slavic separatist movement in the Balkans. The expansion of
   such ethnic sentiments coincided with the growth of Serbia and the
   decline of the Ottoman Empire, as the latter had formerly held sway
   over much of the region. Imperial Russia also supported the Pan-Slavic
   movement, motivated by ethnic loyalties, dissatisfaction with Austria
   (dating back to the Crimean War) and a century-old dream of a warm
   water port. For Germany, their location in the centre of Europe led to
   the decision for an active defense, culminating in the Schlieffen Plan.
   Map of the world with the Participants in World War I. The Allies are
   depicted in green, the Central Powers in orange and neutral countries
   in grey.
   Enlarge
   Map of the world with the Participants in World War I. The Allies are
   depicted in green, the Central Powers in orange and neutral countries
   in grey.

Opposition to the war

   The trade union and socialist movements had declared before the war
   their determined opposition to a war which they said could only mean
   workers killing each other in the millions in the interests of their
   bosses. But once the war was declared, the vast majority of the
   socialist and trade union bodies decided to back the government of
   their country and support the war. The few exceptions were the Russian
   bolsheviks, the Italian Socialist Party, Karl Liebknecht, Rosa
   Luxemburg and their followers in Germany, and very small groups in
   Britain and France. Other opposition came from conscientious objectors
   - some socialist, some religious - who refused to fight in the war. In
   Britain 16,000 people asked for conscientious objector status, and many
   suffered years of prison, including solitary confinement and bread and
   water diets, to oppose the war. Even after the war in Britain, many job
   offers were marked "No conscientious objectors need apply".

July crisis and declarations of war

   After the assassination on June 28, Austria-Hungary waited for 3 weeks
   before deciding on a course of action, obtaining first a "blank cheque"
   from Germany that promised support for whatever it decided. It decided
   to end the long-term conflict Serb problem once and for all. On July 23
   Austro-Hungary issued the July Ultimatum to Serbia, demanding that
   Austrian agents be allowed to take part in the investigation of the
   assassination, and that Serbia should take responsibility for it.

   The Serbian government accepted all the terms of the ultimatum, with
   the exception of those relating to the participation of the Austrian
   agents in the inquiry, which Serbia regarded as a violation of its
   sovereignty. Breaking diplomatic relations, the Austro-Hungarian Empire
   declared war on Serbia on July 28 and proceeded to bombard Belgrade
   with artillery on July 29. On July 30, both Austria-Hungary and Russia
   ordered general mobilizations of their armies.

   Having pledged its support to Austria-Hungary, Germany issued Russia an
   ultimatum on July 31, demanding a halt to mobilization within 12 hours.
   On August 1, with the ultimatum expired, the German ambassador to
   Russia formally declared war.

   On August 2, Germany occupied Luxembourg, as a preliminary step to the
   invasion of Belgium and implementation of the Schlieffen Plan (which
   was rapidly going awry, as the Germans had not intended to be at war
   with a mobilised Russia this quickly).

   Yet another ultimatum was delivered to Belgium on August 2, requesting
   free passage for the German army on the way to France. The Belgians
   refused. At the very last moment, the Kaiser Wilhelm II asked Moltke,
   the German Chief of General Staff, to cancel the invasion of France in
   the hope this would keep Britain out of the war. Moltke refused on the
   grounds that it would be impossible to change the rail schedule—“once
   settled, it cannot be altered”.

   On August 3, Germany declared war on France and invaded Belgium on
   August 4. This act violated Belgian neutrality, to which status
   Germany, France, and Britain were all committed. German Chancellor
   Bethmann Hollweg told the Reichstag that the German invasions of
   Belgium and Luxemburg was in violation of international law, but argued
   that Germany was "in a state of necessity, and necessity knows no law."
   Later that same day, in a conversation with the British ambassador Sir
   Edward Goschen, Bethmann expressed astonishment that the British would
   go to war with Germany over the 1839 treaty guaranteeing the neutrality
   of Belgium, referring to the treaty dismissively as a "scrap of paper,"
   a statement that outraged public opinion in Britain and the United
   States. Britain's guarantee to Belgium prompted Britain, which had been
   neutral, to declare war on Germany on August 4. The British government
   expected a limited war, in which it would primarily use its great naval
   strength.

Opening hostilities

   European military alliances in 1914. The Central Powers are depicted in
   puce, the Entente Powers in grey, and neutral countries in yellow
   Enlarge
   European military alliances in 1914. The Central Powers are depicted in
   puce, the Entente Powers in grey, and neutral countries in yellow

Europe

   In Europe, the Central Powers—the German Empire and the
   Austro-Hungarian Empire—suffered from mutual miscommunication and lack
   of intelligence regarding the intentions of each other’s army. Germany
   had originally guaranteed to support Austria-Hungary’s invasion of
   Serbia but practical interpretation of this idea differed.
   Austro-Hungarian leaders believed Germany would cover the northern
   flank against Russia. Germany, however, had planned for Austria-Hungary
   to focus the majority of its troops on Russia while Germany dealt with
   France on the Western Front. This confusion forced the Austro-Hungarian
   army to split its troop concentrations. Somewhat more than half of the
   army went to fight the Russians on their border, and the remainder was
   allocated to invade and conquer Serbia.

Serbian Campaign

   The Serbian army fought a defensive battle against the invading
   Austrian army (called the Battle of Cer) starting on August 12. The
   Serbians occupied defensive positions on the south side of the Drina
   and Sava rivers. Over the next two weeks Austrian attacks were thrown
   back with heavy losses. This marked the first major Allied victory of
   the war. Austrian expectations of a swift victory over Serbia were not
   realized and as a result, Austria had to keep a very sizable force on
   the Serbian front, which weakened their armies facing Russia.
   Haut-Rhin, France, 1917. A complete set of these images can be found at
   World War One Color Photos Enlarge
   Haut-Rhin, France, 1917. A complete set of these images can be found at
   World War One Colour Photos

German forces in Belgium and France

   Initially, the Germans had great successes in the Battle of the
   Frontiers ( August 14– August 24). However, Russia attacked in East
   Prussia and diverted German forces intended for the Western Front.
   Germany defeated Russia in a series of battles collectively known as
   the Second Battle of Tannenberg ( August 17– September 2). This
   diversion exacerbated problems of insufficient speed of advance from
   railheads not allowed for by the German General Staff. Originally, the
   Schlieffen Plan called for the right flank of the German advance to
   pass to the west of Paris. However, the capacity and low speed of
   horse-drawn transport hampered the German supply train, allowing French
   and British forces to finally halt the German advance east of Paris at
   the First Battle of the Marne (September 5–12), thereby denying the
   Central Powers a quick victory over France and forcing them to fight a
   war on two fronts. The German army had fought its way into a good
   defensive position inside France and had permanently incapacitated
   230,000 more French and British troops than it had lost itself in the
   months of August and September. Yet communications problems and
   questionable command decisions (such as Moltke transferring troops from
   the right to protect Sedan) cost Germany the chance for an early
   victory over France with its very ambitious war plan.

Africa and Pacific

   In August 1914, French and British Empire forces invaded the German
   protectorate of Togoland in West Africa. Shortly thereafter, on August
   10, German forces based in South-West Africa attacked South Africa. An
   Anglo-Indian army was raised, which landed in Basra in November 1914.
   New Zealand occupied German Samoa (later Western Samoa) on August 30.
   On September 11, the Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force
   landed on the island of Neu Pommern (later New Britain), which formed
   part of German New Guinea. Japan seized Germany’s Micronesian colonies
   and the German coaling port of Qingdao, in the Chinese Shandong
   peninsula. Within a few months, the Allied forces had seized all the
   German territories in the Pacific. However, sporadic and fierce
   fighting continued in East Africa for the remainder of the war, as
   German forces recruited native soldiers and evaded capture.

Early stages

   In the trenches: Infantry with gas masks, Ypres, 1917.
   Enlarge
   In the trenches: Infantry with gas masks, Ypres, 1917.

Trench warfare begins

   Military tactics in the early part of World War I failed to keep pace
   with advances in military technology. These new technologies allowed
   the construction of formidable static defenses, which obsolete attack
   strategies could not penetrate. Barbed wire was a significant hindrance
   to massed infantry advances; artillery, now vastly more lethal than in
   the 1870s, coupled with machine guns, made crossing open ground a
   nightmarish prospect. Germans introduced poison gas in 1915, at the
   first battle of Ypres, which soon became a weapon used by both sides.
   Poisonous gas never won a battle; however, it's effects were brutally
   horrific, causing slow and painfully greusome deaths which made life
   even more miserable in the trenches. It became one of the most feared
   and longest remembered horrors of the war. Tacticians on both sides
   failed to develop tactics capable of breaking through entrenched
   positions without massive casualties until technology began to yield
   new offensive weapons. The war saw the invention of tanks as another
   attempt to break the trench warfare stalemate. They were primarily used
   by the British and French, though the Germans used captured Allied
   tanks and a small number of their own design.

   After the First Battle of the Marne, both Entente and German forces
   began a series of outflanking maneuvers to try to force the other to
   retreat, in the so-called Race to the Sea. Britain and France soon
   found themselves facing entrenched German positions from Lorraine to
   Belgium’s Flemish coast. Britain and France sought to take the
   offensive, while Germany defended occupied territories. One consequence
   was that German trenches were much better constructed than those of
   their enemy: Anglo-French trenches were only intended to be “temporary”
   before their forces broke through German defenses. Some hoped to break
   the stalemate by utilizing science and technology. In April 1915, the
   Germans used chlorine gas, for the first time, which opened a
   6 kilometer (4 mi) wide hole in the Allied lines when French colonial
   troops retreated before it. This breach was closed by allied soldiers
   at the Second Battle of Ypres (where over 5,000 mainly Canadian
   soldiers were gassed to death) and Third Battle of Ypres, where
   Canadian forces took the village of Passchendaele.

   On July 1, 1916, the first day of the Battle of the Somme, the British
   Army saw the bloodiest day in its history, suffering 57,470 casualties
   and 19,240 dead.

   Neither side proved able to deliver a decisive blow for the next two
   years, though protracted German action at Verdun throughout 1916, and
   the Entente’s failure at the Somme, in the summer of 1916, brought the
   exhausted French army to the brink of collapse. Futile attempts at
   frontal assault—with a rigid adherence to unimaginative maneuver—came
   at a high price for both the British and the French poilu (infantry)
   and led to widespread mutinies especially during the time of the
   Nivelle Offensive in the spring of 1917. News of the Russian Revolution
   gave a new incentive to socialist sentiments among the troops, with its
   seemingly inherent promise of peace. Red flags were hoisted, and the
   Internationale was sung on several occasions. At the height of the
   mutiny, 30,000 to 40,000 French soldiers participated.
   Canadian troops advancing behind a Canadian Mark II tank at the Battle
   of Vimy Ridge.
   Enlarge
   Canadian troops advancing behind a Canadian Mark II tank at the Battle
   of Vimy Ridge.

   Throughout 1915–17, the British Empire and France suffered far more
   casualties than Germany. However, while the Germans only mounted a
   single main offensive at Verdun, each failed attempt by the Entente to
   break through German lines was met with an equally fierce German
   counteroffensive to recapture lost positions. Around 800,000 soldiers
   from the British Empire were on the Western Front at any one time.
   1,000 battalions, each occupying a sector of the line from the North
   Sea to the Orne River, operated on a month-long four-stage rotation
   system, unless an offensive was underway. The front contained over
   9,600 kilometers (6,000 mi) of trenches. Each battalion held its sector
   for about a week before moving back to support lines and then further
   back to the reserve lines before a week out-of-line, often in the
   Poperinge or Amiens areas.

   In the British-led Battle of Arras during the 1917 campaign, the only
   military success was the capture of Vimy Ridge by the Canadian forces
   under Sir Arthur Currie and Julian Byng. It provided the British allies
   with great military advantage that had a lasting impact on the war and
   is considered by many historians as the founding myth of Canada.

Naval War

   At the start of the war, the German Empire had cruisers scattered
   across the globe that they subsequently used to attack Allied merchant
   shipping. The British Royal Navy thereafter systematically hunted them
   down: at the Battle of the Falkland Islands in December 1914, for
   example, Germany lost a fleet of 2 armoured cruisers, 2 light cruisers,
   and 2 transports.

   Soon after the war began, Britain initiated a Naval Blockade of
   Germany, preventing supply ships from reaching German ports. This
   strategy proved extremely effective, cutting off vital supplies from
   the German army and devastating Germany's economy in the homefront,
   leading to mass famine and starvation across the country. Furthermore,
   due to Britain's control of the sea, they were able to carry out their
   blockade often without firing a shot by simply boarding the ships,
   confiscating their cargo, and then letting the ship go afterwards. This
   strategy minimized casualties from ships belonging to nations not
   involved in the war. As a result, none of the neutral nations ever made
   a serious demand to end the blockade.

   The 1916 Battle of Jutland (German: Skagerrakschlacht, or "Battle of
   the Skagerrak") developed into the largest naval battle of the war, and
   - remarkably - the only full-scale clash of battleships between the two
   sides. The Battle of Jutland was fought on May 31– June 1, 1916, in the
   North Sea off Jutland, the mainland of Denmark. The combatants were the
   Kaiserliche Marine's High Seas Fleet commanded by Vice Admiral Reinhard
   Scheer and the Royal Navy's Grand Fleet commanded by Admiral Sir John
   Jellicoe. The battle was a standoff as the Germans, outmaneuvered by
   the larger British fleet, managed to escape to base. Strategically, the
   British demonstrated their control of the seas, and the German navy
   thereafter remained largely confined to port, where disgruntled sailors
   eventually mutinied in October 1918.

   German U-boats threatened to cut the supply lines between North America
   and Britain. Due to the need to maintain positional secrecy, attacks
   came without warning, giving the crews of the targeted ships little
   chance to escape. The United States protested, and Germany modified its
   rules of engagement and - after the infamous sinking of the passenger
   ship RMS Lusitania in 1915 - it promised not to sink passenger liners.
   Britain armed its merchant ships. Finally, in early 1917 Germany
   decided on a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare, realising the
   Americans would enter the war. Germany gambled that it would be able to
   strangle the Allied supply line before the Americans could train and
   transport a large army.

   The U-boat threat was solved in 1917 by herding merchants ships into
   convoys escorted by destroyers. This tactic made it much harder for
   U-boats to find targets, and the destroyers made it likely the slower
   submarines would be sunk by a highly effective new weapon, the depth
   charge. The losses to submarine attacks became quite small, but the
   convoy system slowed the flow of supplies, because the convoy travelled
   at the speed of the slowest ship, and ships had to wait to be assembled
   and wait again to be unloaded. The solution to the delays was a massive
   program of building new freighters. Troop ships were too fast for the
   submarines and did not travel the North Atlantic in convoys.

   The First World War also saw the first use of aircraft carriers in
   combat, with HMS Furious launching Sopwith Camels in a successful raid
   against the Zeppelin hangars at Tondern in July 1918.

Southern theatres

Ottoman Empire

   The Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers in October and November
   1914, because of the secret Ottoman-German Alliance, by three Pashas,
   which was signed in August 1914. It threatened Russia’s Caucasian
   territories and Britain’s communications with India and the East via
   the Suez canal. The British and French opened another front in the
   South with the Gallipoli (1915) and Mesopotamian campaigns. In
   Gallipoli, the Turks were successful in repelling the British, French,
   and Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZACs) and forced their
   eventual withdrawal and evacuation. In Mesopotamia, by contrast, after
   the disastrous Siege of Kut (1915–16), British Empire forces
   reorganized and captured Baghdad in March 1917. Further to the west in
   the Sinai and Palestine Campaign, initial British failures were
   overcome when Jerusalem was captured in December 1917, and the Egyptian
   Expeditionary Force, under Field Marshal Edmund Allenby, broke the
   Ottoman forces at the Battle of Megiddo in September 1918.

   Russian armies generally had the best of it in the Caucasus.
   Vice-Generalissimo Enver Pasha, supreme commander of the Turkish armed
   forces, was a very ambitious man with a dream to conquer central Asia.
   He was not, however, a practical soldier. He launched an offensive with
   100,000 troops against the Russians in the Caucasus in December of
   1914. Insisting on a frontal attack against Russian positions in the
   mountains in the heart of winter, Enver lost 86% of his force at the
   Battle of Sarikamis.

   The Russian commander from 1915 to 1916, General Yudenich, with a
   string of victories over the Ottoman forces, drove the Turks out of
   much of the southern Caucasus.

   In 1917, Russian Grand Duke Nicholas assumed senior control over the
   Caucasus front. Nicholas tried to have a railway built from Russian
   Georgia to the conquered territories with a view to bringing up more
   supplies for a new offensive in 1917. But, in March of 1917 (February
   in the pre-revolutionary Russian calendar), the Czar was overthrown in
   the February Revolution and the Russian army began to slowly fall
   apart.

Italian participation

   Italy had been allied to the German and Austro-Hungarian Empires since
   1882. However, Italy had its own designs against Austrian territory in
   the Trentino, Istria and Dalmatia, and maintained a secret 1902
   understanding with France, which effectively nullified its alliance
   commitments. Italy refused to join Germany and Austria-Hungary at the
   beginning of the war because their alliance (the " Triple Alliance")
   was defensive, while Austria-Hungary was the attacker. The Austrian
   government started negotiations to obtain Italian neutrality in
   exchange for French territories (Tunisia), but Italy joined the Entente
   by signing the London Pact in April and declaring war on
   Austria-Hungary in May 1915; it declared war against Germany fifteen
   months later.

   In general, the Italians had numerical superiority but this advantage
   was squandered (along with the later increase in the size and quality
   of artillery which by 1917 rivalled the British and French gun parks)
   by the obstinacy with which Italian Generalissimo Luigi Cadorna
   insisted on attacking the Isonzo Front. Cadorna, a staunch proponent of
   the frontal assault, had dreams of breaking into the Slovenian plateau,
   taking Ljubljana and then threatening Vienna itself; it was a
   Napoleonic plan which had no realistic chance in the age of barbed wire
   and machine guns. Cadorna unleashed 11 offensives ( Isonzo Battles)
   with total disregard for his men's lives. The Italians went on the
   offensive to relieve pressure on the other Allied fronts and achieve
   their territorial goals. In the Trentino front, the Austro-Hungarian
   defense took advantage of the elevation of their bases in the mostly
   mountainous terrain, which was not suitable for military offensives.
   After an initial Austro-Hungaric strategic retreat to better positions,
   the front remained mostly unchanged, while Austrian Kaiserschützen and
   Standschützen and Italian Alpini fought bitter close combat battles
   during summer and tried to survive during winter in the high mountains.
   The Austro-Hungarians counterattacked in the Altopiano of Asiago
   towards Verona and Padua in the spring of 1916 (Strafexpedition), but
   they also made little progress.

   Beginning in 1915, the Italians mounted 11 major offensives along the
   Isonzo River north of Trieste, known collectively as the Battle of the
   Isonzo. These eleven battles were repelled by the Austro-Hungarians who
   had the higher ground. In the summer of 1916, the Italians captured the
   town of Gorizia. After this minor victory, the front remained
   practically stable for over a year, despite several Italian offensives.
   In the fall of 1917, thanks to the improving situation on the Eastern
   front, the Austrians received large reinforcements, including German
   assault troops. The Central Powers launched a crushing offensive on
   October 26 that was spearheaded by German troops and supported by the
   Austrians and Hungarians. The attack resulted in the victory at
   Caporetto: the Italian army was routed, but after retreating more than
   100 km, it was able to reorganise and hold at the Piave River. In 1918,
   the Austrians repeatedly failed to break the Italian line in battles
   such as the battle on the Asiago Plateau and, decisively defeated in
   the Battle of Vittorio Veneto, surrendered to the Entente powers in
   November.

War in the Balkans

   Faced with the Russian threat, Austria-Hungary could spare only one
   third of its army for Serbia. After suffering tremendous losses, the
   Austrians briefly captured the Serbian capital, but Serb counterattacks
   succeeded in expelling the invaders from the country by the end of
   1914. For the first 10 months of 1915, Austria used most of its spare
   armies to fight Italy. However, German and Austrian diplomats scored a
   great coup by convincing Bulgaria to join in a new attack on Serbia.

   The conquest of Serbia was finally accomplished in a little more than a
   month, starting on October 7, when the Austrians and Germans attacked
   from the north. Four days later the Bulgarians attacked from the east.
   The Serbian army, attacked from two directions and facing certain
   defeat, retreated east and south into Albania, stopping only once to
   make a stand against the Bulgarians, near modern day Gjilan, Kosovo,
   where they again suffered defeat. From Albania they went by ship to
   Greece.

   In late 1915, a Franco-British force landed at Salonica in Greece to
   offer assistance and to pressure the Greek government into war against
   the Central Powers. Unfortunately for the Allies, the pro-Allied Greek
   government of Eleftherios Venizelos was dismissed, by the pro-German
   King Constantine I, before the allied expeditionary force had even
   arrived.

   The Salonica Front proved entirely immobile, so much so that it was
   joked that Salonica was the largest German prisoner of war camp. Only
   at the very end of the war were the Entente powers able to make a
   breakthrough, which was after most of the German and Austro-Hungarian
   troops had been removed, leaving the Front held by the Bulgarians
   alone. This led to Bulgaria’s signing an armistice on September 29,
   1918.

Eastern Front

Initial actions

   While the Western Front had reached stalemate in the trenches, the war
   continued in the east. The Russian initial plans for war had called for
   simultaneous invasions of Austrian Galicia and German East Prussia.
   Although Russia’s initial advance into Galicia was largely successful,
   they were driven back from East Prussia by the victories of the German
   generals Hindenburg and Ludendorff at Tannenberg and the Masurian Lakes
   in August and September 1914. Russia’s less developed industrial base
   and ineffective military leadership was instrumental in the events that
   unfolded. By the spring of 1915, the Russians were driven back in
   Galicia, and in May, the Central Powers achieved a remarkable
   breakthrough on Poland’s southern fringes, capturing Warsaw on August 5
   and forcing the Russians to withdraw from all of Poland. This became
   known as the “Great Retreat” by the Russian Empire and the “Great
   Advance” by Germany.

Russian Revolution

   Dissatisfaction with the Russian government’s conduct of the war grew
   despite the success of the June 1916 Brusilov offensive in eastern
   Galicia against the Austrians. The Russian success was undermined by
   the reluctance of other generals to commit their forces in support of
   the victorious sector commander. Allied and Russian forces revived only
   temporarily with Romania’s entry into the war on August 27: German
   forces came to the aid of embattled Austrian units in Transylvania, and
   Bucharest fell to the Central Powers on December 6. Meanwhile, internal
   unrest grew in Russia as the Tsar remained out of touch at the front.
   Empress Alexandra’s increasingly incompetent rule drew protests from
   all segments of Russian political life and resulted in the murder of
   Alexandra’s favorite Rasputin by conservative noblemen at the end of
   1916.
   Vladimir Lenin
   Enlarge
   Vladimir Lenin

   In March 1917, demonstrations in St. Petersburg culminated in the
   abdication of Tsar Nicholas II and the appointment of a weak
   Provisional Government, which shared power with the socialists of the
   Petrograd Soviet. This division of power led to confusion and chaos
   both on the front and at home, and the army became increasingly
   ineffective.

   The war, and the government, became more and more unpopular, and the
   discontent led to a rise in popularity of the Bolshevik party, led by
   Vladimir Lenin, who promised pulling Russia out of the war and were
   able to gain power. The triumph of the Bolsheviks in November was
   followed in December by an armistice and negotiations with Germany. At
   first, the Bolsheviks refused to agree to the harsh German terms, but
   when Germany resumed the war and marched with impunity across Ukraine,
   the new government acceded to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on March 3,
   1918, which took Russia out of the war and ceded vast territories,
   including Finland, the Baltic provinces, parts of Poland and Ukraine to
   the Central Powers.

   The publication by the new Bolshevik government of the secret treaties
   signed by the tsar was hailed across the world either as a great step
   forward for the respect of the will of the people, or as a dreadful
   catastrophe which could destabilize the world. The existence of a new
   type of government in Russia led to the reinforcement in many countries
   of Communist parties.

   After the Russians dropped out of the war, the Entente no longer
   existed. The Allied powers led a small-scale invasion of Russia. The
   invasion was made with intent primarily to stop Germany from exploiting
   Russian resources and, to a lesser extent, to support the Whites in the
   Russian Revolution. Troops landed in Archangel (see North Russia
   Campaign) and in Vladivostok.

1917–18

   In the trenches: Royal Irish Rifles in a communications trench on the
   first day on the Somme, 1916-07-01
   Enlarge
   In the trenches: Royal Irish Rifles in a communications trench on the
   first day on the Somme, 1916- 07-01

   Events of 1917 would prove decisive in ending the war, although their
   effects would not be fully felt until 1918. The British naval blockade
   of Germany began to have a serious impact on morale and productivity on
   the German home front. In response, in February 1917, the German
   General Staff ( OHL) was able to convince Chancellor Theobald von
   Bethmann-Hollweg to declare unrestricted submarine warfare with the
   goal of starving Britain out of the war. Tonnage sunk rose above
   500,000 tons per month from February until July, peaking at 860,000
   tons in April. After July, the reintroduced convoy system was extremely
   effective in neutralizing the U-boat threat. Britain was safe from the
   threat of starvation, and the German war industry remained deprived
   materially.

   The decisive victory of Austria-Hungary and Germany at the Battle of
   Caporetto led to the Allied decision at the Rapallo Conference to form
   the Supreme Allied Council at Versailles to coordinate plans and
   action. Previously British and French armies had operated under
   separate command systems.

   In December, the Central Powers signed an armistice with Russia,
   thereby releasing troops from the eastern front for use in the west.
   Ironically, German troop transfers could have been greater if their
   territorial acquisitions had not been so dramatic. With both German
   reinforcements and new American troops pouring into the Western Front,
   the final outcome of the war was to be decided in that front. The
   Central Powers knew that they could not win a protracted war now that
   American forces were certain to be arriving in increasing numbers, but
   they held high hopes for a rapid offensive in the West using their
   reinforced troops and new infantry tactics. Furthermore, the rulers of
   both the Central Powers and the Allies became more fearful of the
   threat first raised by Ivan Bloch in 1899, that protracted
   industrialized war threatened social collapse and revolution throughout
   Europe. Both sides urgently sought a decisive, rapid victory on the
   Western Front because they were both fearful of collapse or stalemate.

Entry of the United States

   President Wilson before Congress, announcing the break in official
   relations with Germany on February 3, 1917.
   Enlarge
   President Wilson before Congress, announcing the break in official
   relations with Germany on February 3, 1917.

   America’s policy of insisting on neutral rights while also trying to
   broker a peace resulted in tensions with both Berlin and London. When a
   German U-boat sank the Lusitania in 1915, a large passenger liner with
   128 Americans aboard, Wilson vowed "America was too proud to fight,"
   and demanded an end to attacks on passenger ships. Germany complied.
   Wilson tried to mediate a compromise settlement; yet no compromise was
   discovered. Wilson also repeatedly warned that America would not
   tolerate unrestricted submarine warfare because it violated America's
   rights. Wilson was under great pressure from former president Teddy
   Roosevelt, who denounced German "piracy" and Wilson's cowardice. In
   January 1917 the Germans announced they would resume unrestricted
   submarine warfare. Berlin's proposal to Mexico to join the war as
   Germany's ally against the U.S. was exposed in February, angering
   American opinion. (see Zimmermann Telegram). After German submarines
   attacked several American merchant ships, sinking three, Wilson
   requested that Congress declare war on Germany, which it did on April
   6, 1917. The U.S. House of Representatives approved the war resolution
   373-50, the U.S. Senate 82-6, with opposition coming especially from
   German American districts such as Wisconsin. The U.S. declared war on
   Austria-Hungary in December 1917.

   The United States was never formally a member of the Allies but an
   “Associated Power”. Significant numbers of fresh American troops
   arrived in Europe in the summer of 1918, and they started arriving at
   10,000 per day. Germany miscalculated that it would be many more months
   before large numbers of American troops could be sent to Europe, and
   that, in any event, the U-boat offensive would prevent their arrival.
   In fact, not a single American infantryman lost his life due to German
   U-boat activity.

   The United States Navy sent a battleship group to Scapa Flow to join
   with the British Grand Fleet, several destroyers to Queenstown,
   Ireland, and several submarines to the Azores and to Bantry Bay,
   Ireland, to help guard convoys. Several regiments of U.S. Marines were
   also dispatched to France. However, it would be some time before the
   United States would be able to contribute significant personnel to the
   Western and Italian fronts.

   The British and French wanted the United States to send its infantry to
   reinforce their troops already on the battlelines, and not use scarce
   shipping to bring over supplies. Thus the Americans primarily used
   British and French artillery, aircraft and tanks. However, General John
   J. Pershing, American Expeditionary Force (AEF) commander, refused to
   break up American units to be used as reinforcements for British Empire
   and French units (though he did allow African American combat units to
   be used by the French). Pershing ordered the use of frontal assaults,
   which had been discarded by that time by British Empire and French
   commanders because of the large loss of life sustained throughout the
   war.

German Spring Offensive of 1918

   For most of World War I, Allied forces were stalled at trenches on the
   Western Front
   Enlarge
   For most of World War I, Allied forces were stalled at trenches on the
   Western Front

   German General Erich Ludendorff drew up plans ( codenamed Operation
   Michael) for a 1918 general offensive along the Western Front. This
   Spring Offensive sought to divide the British and French armies in a
   series of feints and advances. The German leadership hoped to strike a
   decisive blow against the enemy before significant United States forces
   could be deployed. Before the offensive even began, Ludendorff made
   what may have been a fatal mistake by leaving the elite Eighth Army in
   Russia and sending over only a small portion of the German forces from
   the east to aid the offensive in the west.

   Operation Michael opened on March 21, 1918, with an attack against
   British forces near the rail junction at Amiens. Ludendorff’s intention
   was to split the British and French armies at this point. German forces
   achieved an unprecedented advance of 60 kilometers (40 mi). For the
   first time since 1914, maneuvering was achieved on the battlefield.

   British and French trenches were defeated using novel infiltration
   tactics, also called Hutier tactics after General Oskar von Hutier. Up
   to this time, attacks had been characterized by long artillery
   bombardments and continuous-front mass assaults. However, in the Spring
   Offensive, the German Army used artillery briefly and infiltrated small
   groups of infantry at weak points, attacking command and logistics
   areas and surrounding points of serious resistance. These isolated
   positions were then destroyed by more heavily armed infantry. German
   success relied greatly on this tactic.

   The front line had now moved to within 120 kilometers (75 mi) of Paris.
   Three super-heavy Krupp railway guns advanced and fired 183 shells on
   Paris, which caused many Parisians to flee the city. The initial stages
   of the offensive were so successful that German Kaiser Wilhelm II
   declared March 24 a national holiday. Many Germans thought victory was
   close; however, after heavy fighting, the German offensive was halted.
   Infiltration tactics had worked very well, but the Germans, lacking
   tanks or motorized artillery, were unable to consolidate their
   positions. The British and French learned that if they fell back a few
   miles, the Germans would be disorganized and vulnerable to
   counterattack.

   American divisions, which Pershing had sought to field as an
   independent force, were assigned to the depleted French and British
   Empire commands on March 28. A supreme command of Allied forces was
   created at the Doullens Conference, in which British Field Marshal
   Douglas Haig handed control of his forces over to Ferdinand Foch.

   Following Operation Michael, Germany launched Operation Georgette to
   the north against the Channel ports. This was halted by the Allies with
   less significant territorial gains to Germany. Operations Blücher and
   Yorck were then conducted by the German Army to the south, broadly
   towards Paris. Next, Operation Marne was launched on July 15 as an
   attempt to encircle Reims, beginning the Second Battle of the Marne.
   The resulting Allied counterattack marked their first successful
   offensive of the war. By July 20, the Germans were back at their
   Kaiserschlacht starting lines, having achieved nothing. Following this
   last phase of the ground war in the West, the German Army never again
   held the initiative. German casualties between March and April 1918
   were 270,000, including many of the highly trained stormtroopers. Their
   best soldiers were gone just as the Americans started arriving.

   Meanwhile, Germany was crumbling internally as well. Anti-war marches
   were a frequent occurrence and morale within the army was at low
   levels. Industrial output had fallen 53% from 1913.

Allied victory: summer and autumn 1918

   American engineers returning from the front during the Battle of
   Saint-Mihiel in September 1918
   Enlarge
   American engineers returning from the front during the Battle of
   Saint-Mihiel in September 1918

   The Allied counteroffensive, known as the Hundred Days Offensive began
   on August 8, 1918. The Battle of Amiens developed with III Corps Fourth
   British Army on the left, the First French Army on the right, and the
   Canadian and Australian Corps spearheading the offensive in the centre.
   It involved 414 tanks of the Mark IV and Mark V type, and 120,000 men.
   They advanced as far as 12 kilometers (7 mi) into German-held territory
   in just seven hours. Erich Ludendorff referred to this day as “the
   Black Day of the German army”.

   The offensive slowed and lost momentum due to supply problems. British
   units had encountered problems with all but seven tanks and trucks
   running out of fuel. On August 15, General Haig called a halt and began
   planning a new offensive in Albert. This Second Battle of the Somme
   began on August 21. Some 130,000 United States troops were involved,
   along with soldiers from Third and Fourth British Armies. It was an
   overwhelming success for the Allies. The Second German Army was pushed
   back over a 55 kilometer (34 mi) front, and by September 2, the Germans
   were back to the Hindenburg Line, which was their starting point in
   1914.

   The Allied attempt to take the Hindenburg Line (the Meuse-Argonne
   Offensive) began September 26, as 260,000 American soldiers went “over
   the top”. All divisions were successful in capturing their initial
   objectives, except the U.S. 79th Infantry Division, which met stiff
   resistance at Montfaucon and took an extra day to capture the
   objective. Then the US Army stalled because of supply problems as its
   inexperienced headquarters had to cope with large units and the
   difficult landscape (hilly and forested, with few roads).

   At the same time, French units broke through Champagne and closed on
   the Belgian frontier. The most significant advance came from
   Commonwealth units as they entered Belgium (liberation of Ghent). The
   German army had to shorten its front so used the Dutch frontier as an
   anchor and chose to fight rear-guard actions. This probably saved the
   army from disintegration but was devastating for morale.

   By the start of October, it was evident that Germany could no longer
   mount a successful defense, let alone a counterattack. Numerically on
   the frontline they were increasingly outnumbered, with the few new
   recruits too young or too old to be of much help. Rations were cut for
   men and horses because the food supply was critical. Ludendorff had
   decided, by October 1, that Germany had two ways out of the War—total
   annihilation or an armistice. He recommended the latter to senior
   German officials at a summit on that very same day. During October, the
   Allied pressure did not let up until the end of the war.

   Meanwhile, news of Germany’s impending military defeat had spread
   throughout the German Armed forces. The threat of general mutiny was
   rife. Naval commander Admiral Reinhard Scheer and Ludendorff decided to
   launch a last ditch attempt to restore the “valor” of the German Navy.
   Knowing any such action would be vetoed by the government of Max von
   Baden, Ludendorff decided not to inform him. Nonetheless, word of the
   impending assault reached sailors at Kiel. Many rebelled and were
   arrested, refusing to be part of a naval offensive which they believed
   to be nothing more than a suicide bid. It was Ludendorff who took the
   blame for this—the Kaiser dismissed him on October 26. The collapse of
   the Balkans meant that Germany was about to lose its main supplies of
   oil and food. The reserves had been used up, but the Americans kept
   arriving at the rate of 10,000 a day.

   With power coming into the hands of new men in Berlin, further fighting
   became impossible. With 6 million German casualties, Germany moved
   toward peace. Prince Max von Baden took charge of the new German
   government. Negotiations with President Wilson began immediately, in
   the vain hope that he would offer better terms than the British and
   French. Instead Wilson insisted on his Fourteen Points and demanded the
   abdication of the Kaiser. German soldiers were despondent. The civilian
   leadership was stunned to discover that Ludendorff had deluded them all
   along and there was no hope whatever for military success or even
   stalemate. Thus there was no resistance when the social democrat
   Philipp Scheidemann on November 9 declared Germany to be a republic.
   Von Baden then announced that the Kaiser was to abdicate, along with
   all other princes in the Reich. Imperial Germany was dead; a new
   Germany had been born: the Weimar Republic.

End of war

   Front page of the New York Times on Armistice Day, November 11, 1918.
   Enlarge
   Front page of the New York Times on Armistice Day, November 11, 1918.

   The collapse of the Central Powers came swiftly. Bulgaria was the first
   to sign an armistice on September 29, 1918. On October 30, the Ottoman
   Empire capitulated.

   On October 24 the Italians began a push which rapidly recovered their
   territory a year after they lost it during the Battle of Caporetto.
   This push culminated in the Battle of Vittorio Veneto, which heralded
   the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Army as an effective fighting
   force. The push also triggered the disintegration of Austria-Hungary:
   during the last week of October declarations were made in Budapest,
   Prague and Zagreb, proclaiming the independence of their respective
   parts of the old empire. On October 29 the imperial authorities asked
   Italy for an armistice, but the Italians continued advancing reaching
   Trento, Udine and Trieste. On November 3 Austria-Hungary sent a flag of
   truce to the Italian Commander to ask again for an Armistice and terms
   of peace. The terms were arranged by telegraph with the Allied
   Authorities in Paris, were communicated to the Austrian Commander, and
   were accepted. The Armistice with Austria was signed in the Villa
   Giusti, near Padua, on November 3, and it was granted to take effect on
   November 4, at three o’clock in the afternoon. Austria and Hungary
   signed separate armistices following the overthrow of the Habsburg
   monarchy and the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

   Following the outbreak of the German Revolution, a republic was
   proclaimed on November 9, marking the end of the monarchy. The Kaiser
   fled the next day to the neutral Netherlands, which granted him
   political asylum (see Weimar Republic for details). On November 11, an
   armistice with Germany was signed in a railroad carriage at Compiègne
   in France where Germans had previously dictated terms to France, ending
   the Franco-Prussian War in 1871. At 11:00am on November 11, 1918 — the
   eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month — a ceasefire
   came into effect and the opposing armies on the Western Front began to
   withdraw from their positions. Canadian George Lawrence Price is
   traditionally regarded as the last soldier killed in the Great War: he
   was shot by a German sniper and died at 10:58.

   A formal state of war between the two sides persisted for another seven
   months until it was finally ended by the signing of the Treaty of
   Versailles on June 28, 1919 with Germany, and the following treaties
   with Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria and The Ottoman Empire signed at St.
   Germain, Trianon, Neuilly and Sèvres. However, the latter treaty with
   the Ottoman Empire was followed by strife (the Turkish Independence
   War) and a final peace treaty was signed between the Allied Powers and
   the country that would shortly become the Republic of Turkey, at
   Lausanne on July 24, 1923.

   Some war memorials date the end of the war as being when the Versailles
   treaty was signed in 1919; by contrast, most commemorations of the
   war’s end concentrate on the armistice of November 11, 1918. Legally
   the last formal peace treaties were not signed until 1923. Some also
   treat the Versailles treaty as the prelude to World War 2.

Economics and manpower issues

   Gross Domestic Product (GDP) increased for three Allies (Britain,
   Italy, and U.S.), but decreased in France and Russia, in neutral
   Netherlands, and in the main three Central Powers. The shrinkage in GDP
   in Austria, Russia, France, and the Ottoman Empire reached 30 to 40%.
   In Austria, for example, most of the pigs were slaughtered and, at
   war’s end, there was no meat.

   All nations had increases in the government’s share of GDP, surpassing
   fifty percent in both Germany and France and nearly reaching fifty
   percent in Britain. To pay for purchases in the United States, Britain
   cashed in its massive investments in American railroads and then began
   borrowing heavily on Wall Street. President Wilson was on the verge of
   cutting off the loans in late 1916, but with war imminent with Germany,
   he allowed a massive increase in U.S. government lending to the Allies.
   After 1919, the U.S. demanded repayment of these loans, which, in part,
   were funded by German reparations, which, in turn, were supported by
   American loans to Germany. This circular system collapsed in 1931 and
   the loans were never repaid.

   One of the most dramatic effects was the expansion of governmental
   powers and responsibilities in Britain, France, the United States, and
   the Dominions of the British Empire. In order to harness all the power
   of their societies, new government ministries and powers were created.
   New taxes were levied and laws enacted, all of which were designed to
   bolster the war effort; many of which have lasted to this day.

   At the same time, the war strained the abilities of the formerly large
   and bureaucratized governments such as in Austria-Hungary and Germany.
   Here, however, the long term effects were clouded by the defeat of
   these governments.

   Families were altered by the departure of many men. With the death or
   absence of the primary wage earner, women were forced into the
   workforce in unprecedented numbers. At the same time, industry needed
   to replace the lost laborers sent to war. This aided the struggle for
   voting rights for women.

   As the war slowly turned into a war of attrition, conscription was
   implemented in some countries. This issue was particularly explosive in
   Canada and opened a political gap between the French-Canadians—who
   claimed their true loyalty was to Canada and not the British Empire—and
   the English-speaking majority who saw the war as a duty to both Britain
   and Canada, and a way of demonstrating leadership and high contribution
   to the British Empire. Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden pushed through
   a Military Service Act that caused the Conscription Crisis of 1917.

   In Britain, rationing was finally imposed in early 1918 and was limited
   to meat, sugar and fats (butter and oleo), but not bread. The new
   system worked smoothly. From 1914 to 1918 trade union membership
   doubled, from a little over four million to a little over eight
   million. Work stoppages and strikes became frequent in 1917-18 as the
   unions expressed grievances regarding prices, liquor control, pay
   disputes, “dilution”, fatigue from overtime and from Sunday work, and
   inadequate housing. Conscription put into uniform nearly every
   physically fit man, six million out of ten million eligible in Britain.
   Of these, about 750,000 lost their lives and 1,700,000 were wounded.
   Most deaths were to young unmarried men; however, 160,000 wives lost
   husbands and 300,000 children lost fathers. [Havighurst p 134–5]

Technology

   French Nieuport 17 C.1 fighter, 1917
   Enlarge
   French Nieuport 17 C.1 fighter, 1917

   The First World War began as a clash of 20th-century technology with
   19th-century tactics and the inevitable appalling casualties. By the
   end of 1917, however, the major armies — now numbering millions of men
   — had modernized significantly and were making use of such technology
   as wireless communication, armored cars, tanks, and tactical aircraft.
   The infantry was reorganized such that 100-man companies were no longer
   the main unit of manoeuver, in favour of the squad of 10 or so men
   under the command of a junior NCO. Artillery also had undergone a
   revolution; in 1914, cannons were positioned on the front lines and
   fired using open sights directly at their targets; by 1917, indirect
   fire with guns (as well as mortars and even machine guns) was
   responsible for the majority of casualties inflicted, and
   counter-battery artillery missions became commonplace, using new
   techniques for spotting and ranging enemy artillery.

   Much of the war’s combat involved trench warfare, where hundreds often
   died for each yard of land gained. Many of the deadliest battles in
   history occurred during the First World War. Such battles include
   Ypres, Vimy Ridge, Marne, Cambrai, Somme, Verdun, and Gallipoli. During
   the war, the Haber process of nitrogen fixation was employed to provide
   the German forces with a continuing supply of powder for the ongoing
   conflict in the face of British naval control over the trade routes for
   naturally occurring nitrates. Artillery was responsible for the largest
   number of casualties during the First World War, which consumed vast
   quantities of explosives. The large number of headwounds caused by
   exploding shells and shrapnel forced the combatant nations to develop
   the modern steel helmet. This effort was led by the French, who
   introduced the Adrian helmet in 1915. It was quickly followed by the
   Brodie helmet, worn by British and American troops, and in 1916 by the
   German Stahlhelm, the distinctive steel helmet that with improvements
   continued in use throughout World War II.

   There was chemical warfare and aerial bombardment, both of which had
   been outlawed under the 1907 Hague Convention, and both of which had
   extremely limited effects in tactical terms.

   Chemical warfare was a major distinguishing factor of the war. Gases
   used included chlorine, mustard gas, and phosgene. Only a small
   proportion of total war casualties were caused by gas, but it achieved
   harassment and psychological effects by masking speech and slowing
   movement. Effective countermeasures to gas were quickly created in gas
   masks. Even as the use of gas increased, its effectiveness in creating
   casualties was quite limited.

   The most powerful land weapons of the Great War were naval guns
   weighing hundreds of tons apiece (nicknamed Big Berthas by the
   British); they could be moved on land only by railroad. The largest
   U.S., British, and French rail guns were severely outranged by the
   German Krupp, Max E, and Paris Guns.

   Fixed-wing aircraft were first used militarily during the First World
   War. Initial uses consisted of reconnaissance and ground attack. To
   shoot down enemy planes, anti-aircraft machine guns were used, and,
   more effectively, fast fighter aircraft. Strategic bombing aircraft
   were created principally by the Germans and British, though the former
   used Zeppelins to this end as well.

   Towards the end of the war, aircraft carriers were used in combat for
   the first time, with HMS Furious launching Sopwith Camels in a raid
   against the Zepplin hangars at Tondern in 1918.

   German U-boats ( submarines) were used in combat shortly after the war
   began. Alternating between restricted and unrestricted submarine
   warfare during the First Battle of the Atlantic, they were employed by
   the Kaiserliche Marine in a strategy of defeating the British Empire
   through a tonnage war. The deaths of British merchantmen and the
   invulnerability of U-boats led to the development of several
   countermeasures: depth charges (1916), hydrophones (passive sonar,
   1917), blimps, hunter-killer submarines (HMS R-1, 1917), ahead-throwing
   weapons, and dipping hydrophones (both abandoned in 1918). To extend
   their operations, the Germans proposed supply submarines (1916). Most
   of these would be forgotten in the interwar period until World War II
   revived the need.

   Trenches, the machine gun, air reconnaissance, barbed wire, and modern
   artillery with fragmentation shells helped bring the battle lines of
   World War I to a stalemate by making massed infantry attacks deadly for
   the attacker. The infantry was armed mostly with bolt-action magazine
   rifles, but the machine gun, with the ability to fire hundreds of
   rounds per minute, blunted infantry attacks as an offensive doctrine.
   The British sought a solution and created the tank, and with it
   mechanized warfare. The first tanks were used during the Battle of the
   Somme on September 15, 1916; mechanical reliability issues hampered
   their mobility, but the experiment proved its worth as protection
   against enemy weapons, particularly the machine gun. Within a year, the
   British were fielding tanks by the hundreds and showed their potential
   during the Battle of Cambrai in November 1917 by breaking the
   Hindenburg Line, while combined arms teams captured 8000 enemy soldiers
   and 100 guns. Light automatic weapons also were introduced, such as the
   Lewis Gun and Browning automatic rifle, combining the firepower of the
   machine gun with the portability of the rifle.

   Manned observation balloons floating high above the trenches were used
   as stationary reconnaissance points on the front lines, reporting enemy
   troop positions and directing artillery fire. Balloons commonly had a
   crew of two personnel equipped with parachutes; upon an enemy air
   attack on the flammable balloon, the balloon crew would parachute to
   safety. At the time, parachutes were too bulky to be used by pilots in
   aircraft, and smaller versions would not be developed until the end of
   the war. Recognized for their value as observer platforms, observation
   balloons were important targets of enemy aircraft. To defend against
   air attack, they were heavily protected by large concentrations
   antiaircraft guns and patrolled by friendly aircraft. Blimps and
   balloons helped contribute to the stalemate of trench warfare in World
   War I, and the balloons contributed to air-to-air combat among aircraft
   defending the skies and maintaining air superiority because of the
   balloons' significant reconnaissance value. The Germans conducted air
   raids on England and London during 1915 and 1916 using airships
   intending to damage British morale and will to fight, and to cause
   aircraft to be reassigned away from the front lines.

   Another new weapon sprayed jets of burning fuel: flamethrowers. First
   used in war by the German army, and later adopted by other powers
   during WWI (it was invented prior to this, and simple models have
   existed since ancient times). Although not of high tactical value, they
   were a powerful, demoralizing weapon and caused much terror on the
   battlefield. It was a dangerous weapon to wield as their heavy weight
   made operators vulnerable targets, and the fuel on their backs was
   highly flammable.

Aftermath

   The direct consequences of World War I brought many old regimes
   crashing to the ground, and ultimately, would lead to the end of 300
   years of European hegemony in the world.
   The Newfoundland Memorial at Beaumont Hamel.
   Enlarge
   The Newfoundland Memorial at Beaumont Hamel.

   No other war had changed the map of Europe so dramatically—four empires
   disappeared: the German, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman and the Russian.
   Four defunct dynasties, the Hohenzollerns, the Habsburg, Romanovs and
   the Ottomans together with all their ancillary aristocracies, all fell
   during the war. France was badly damaged, with 1.4 million soldiers
   dead, not counting other casualties. In addition, a major flu epidemic
   that started in Western Europe in the latter months of the war killed
   millions of people in Europe and then spread elsewhere around the
   world.

Treaty of Versailles

   Immediately after the war, the victors met in Paris and negotiated the
   Versailles Treaty. Germany was kept under a food blockade until it
   signed the treaty, which declared that Germany (and Austria) were
   guilty of starting the war and therefore had to pay all its costs. The
   treaty required Germany to pay enormous annual cash reparations, based
   on factors including the value of a soldier's life, which it did by
   borrowing from the United States, until reparations were suspended in
   1931. The “ Guilt Thesis” became controversial in Britain and the
   United States. It caused enormous bitterness in Germany, which
   nationalist movements, especially the Nazis, exploited in the 1920s.
   (See Dolchstosslegende).

New national identities

   Poland reemerged as an independent country, after more than a century.
   Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia were entirely new creations. Russia
   became the Soviet Union and lost several regions such as Finland,
   Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia which became independent countries. The
   old Ottoman Empire was soon replaced by Turkey and several other
   countries in the following years in the Middle East.

   In the British Empire the war unleashed new forms of nationalism. In
   Australian and New Zealand popular minds, the First World War became
   known as the nations' “Baptism of Fire”, as it was the first major war
   in which the newly established countries fought, and it is one of the
   first cases in which Australian troops fought as Australians, not just
   subjects of the British Crown. Anzac Day commemorating the Australia
   New Zealand Army Corps is a defining moment.

   Similarly, Anglo-Canadians believe that they proved they were their own
   country and not just subjects of the British Empire. Indeed, many
   Canadians refer to their country as a nation “forged from fire,” as
   Canadians were respected internationally as an independent nation from
   the conflagrations of war and bravery. Canadians commemorate the war
   dead on Remembrance Day. However the French Canadians did not see it
   that way, creating a permanent chasm that continues to split the
   country. See Conscription Crisis of 1917 for more details.

Social trauma

   The experiences of the war led to a sort of collective national trauma
   afterwards for all the participating countries. The optimism of the
   1900s was entirely gone, and those who fought in the war became what is
   known as “the Lost Generation” because they never fully recovered from
   their experiences. For the next few years, much of Europe began its
   mourning; memorials were erected in thousands of villages and towns.
   The soldiers returning home from World War I suffered greatly, since
   the horrors witnessed in that war had never been seen before in
   history. Although it was then commonly called shell shock, it is now
   known that many returning soldiers suffered from Post Traumatic Stress
   Disorder.

   This social trauma manifested itself in many different ways. Some
   people were revolted by nationalism and what it had supposedly caused
   and began to work toward a more internationalist world, supporting
   organizations such as the League of Nations. Pacifism became
   increasingly popular. Others had the opposite reaction, feeling that
   only strength and military might could be relied upon for protection in
   a chaotic and inhumane world that did not respect hypothetical notions
   of civilization. “ Anti-modernist” views were a reaction against the
   many changes taking place within society. The rise of Nazism and
   fascism included a revival of the nationalistic spirit of the prewar
   years and, on principle, a rejection of many postwar changes.
   Similarly, the popularity of the Dolchstosslegende was a testament to
   the psychological state of the defeated, as acceptance of the scapegoat
   mythos signified a rejection of the “lessons” of the war and therefore,
   a rejection of its popular resulting perspective. Certainly a sense of
   disillusionment and cynicism became pronounced, with nihilism growing
   in popularity. This disillusionment towards humanity found a cultural
   climax with the Dadaist artistic movement. Many people believed that
   the war heralded the end of the world as they had known it, including
   the collapse of capitalism and imperialism. Communist and socialist
   movements around the world drew strength from this theory and enjoyed a
   level of popularity they had never known before. These feelings were
   most pronounced in areas directly or particularly harshly affected by
   the war, especially within Europe.
   Canadian Lt. Col. John McCrae, who wrote the poem In Flanders Fields,
   died in 1918 of pneumonia.
   Enlarge
   Canadian Lt. Col. John McCrae, who wrote the poem In Flanders Fields,
   died in 1918 of pneumonia.

   In 1915, John McCrae, (a lieutenant colonel from the Canadian army),
   wrote the memorable In Flanders Fields as a salute to those who
   perished in the Great War. Its song is still played today, especially
   on Remembrance and Memorial Day.

Other names

   World War I has also been called “The Great War” (a title previously
   used to refer to the Napoleonic Wars) or sometimes “the war to end all
   wars” until World War II. “War of the Nations” and “War in Europe” were
   commonly employed as descriptions during the war itself and in the
   1920s. In France and Belgium it was also sometimes referred to as La
   Guerre du Droit ('the War for Justice') or La Guerre Pour la
   Civilisation / de Oorlog tot de Beschaving ("the War to Preserve
   Civilisation"), especially on medals and commemorative monuments. The
   term used by official histories of the war in Britain and Canada is
   First World War, while American histories use the term World War I.

   In many European countries, it appears that the current usage is
   tending back towards calling it "the Great War" / la Grande Guerre / de
   Grote Oorlog / der Grosse Krieg, due to the growing historical
   awareness that, of the two 20th-century world wars, the 1914-1918
   conflict was the more momentous in causing social and political change
   and upheaval, as well as being prime cause of the Second World War.

Movies, novels, poetry, etc.

Poetry and songs

     * On Receiving News of the War, (1914) poem by Isaac Rosenberg
     * In Flanders Fields, (1915) poem by John McCrae
     * Anthem for Doomed Youth, (1917) poem by Wilfred Owen
     * Dulce et Decorum Est,(1917) poem by Wilfred Owen
     * Disabled,(1917) poem by Wilfred Owen
     * Base details,(1918) poem by Siegfried Sassoon
     * They, (1918) poem by Siegfried Sassoon
     * And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda, (1972) song by Eric Bogle
     * Over There, (1917) theme song of the war by George M. Cohan

Books and novels

     * Le Feu (Under Fire), (1916) novel by Henri Barbusse
     * Storm of Steel, autobiography of Ernst Jünger. First published 1920
       and revised several times through 1961
     * Rilla of Ingleside (1920), novel by L.M. Montgomery, an account of
       the war as experienced by Canadian women of the time.
     * Three Soldiers (1921) novel by John Dos Passos
     * Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1922) by T. E. Lawrence
     * The Good Soldier Švejk (1923) satirical novel by Jaroslav Hašek
     * All Quiet on the Western Front (1929), novel written by Erich Maria
       Remarque
     * Death of a Hero (1929) novel by Richard Aldington
     * A Farewell to Arms, (1929) novel by Ernest Hemingway
     * Goodbye to All That, (1929) autobiography of Robert Graves
     * Memoirs of an Infantry Officer,(1930) novel by Siegfried Sassoon
     * Testament of Youth, (1933) memoir by Vera Brittain
     * Johnny Got His Gun, (1939) novel by Dalton Trumbo
     * Joe's War: Memoirs of a Doughboy (1983), autobiography by Joseph N.
       Rizzi
     * Regeneration, (1991), The Eye in the Door, 1993; The Ghost Road
       novels by Pat Barker
     * The Great Gatsby Fitzgerald
     * Birdsong (1993), novel by Sebastian Faulks
     * No Graves As Yet, (2003), first volume of a trilogy of novels by
       Anne Perry
     * Deafening (2003), book written by Francis Itani
     * A Long, Long Way (2005), novel by Sebastian Barry
     * To the Last Man (2005), novel by Jeff Shaara
     * Turn Right at Istanbul novel by Tony Wright
     * A World Undone (2006), novel by G. J. Meyer

Films, plays, television series and mini-series

     * The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921), movie directed by Rex
       Ingram, based on a novel by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez
     * Mare Nostrum (1926), movie directed by Rex Ingram, based on a novel
       by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez
     * Wings (1927), directed by William A. Wellman tells the story about
       two fighter pilots, only silent movie to win the Academy Oscar.
     * Journey's End (1928), play written by R. C. Sherriff
     * All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), movie directed by Lewis
       Milestone, based on the novel by Erich Maria Remarque (1929)
     * Hell's Angels (1930), movie directed by Howard Hughes
     * Grand Illusion (1937), directed by Jean Renoir
     * Sergeant York (1941), movie directed by Howard Hawks
     * Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), directed by Michael Curtiz
     * Paths of Glory (1957), movie directed by Stanley Kubrick, based on
       the novel by Humphrey Cobb (1935)
     * Marš na Drinu (1961), Serbian war film about a Serbian artillery
       battalion in the Battle of Cer
     * Lawrence of Arabia (1962), movie covering events surrounding T. E.
       Lawrence in the pan-Arabian Theatre, starring Peter O'Toole, Alec
       Guinness, Anthony Quinn, and Omar Sharif and directed by David Lean
     * World War I (1964), CBS News documentary narrated by Robert Ryan
     * The Great War (1964) TV series by Correlli Barnett and others of
       BBC
     * Doctor Zhivago (1965), movie by David Lean, based on the novel by
       Boris Pasternak, deals with Russia's involvement in the war and how
       it led to that country's Revolution.
     * The Blue Max (1966), movie directed by John Guillermin, titled
       after the Prussian military award, or Pour le Mérite
     * Oh! What a Lovely War(1969), movie directed by Richard
       Attenborough, from the 1963 musical play by Joan Littlewood
     * Johnny Got His Gun (1971), movie directed by Dalton Trumbo
     * Gallipoli (1981), movie directed by Peter Weir
     * Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme, (1985), play
       by Frank McGuinness
     * Blackadder Goes Forth (1989), TV series by Richard Curtis and Ben
       Elton
     * Regeneration (1997), movie directed by Gillies MacKinnon, based on
       the novel by Pat Barker (1991)
     * The Lost Battalion (2001), movie and screenplay directed by Russell
       Mulcahy
     * A Very Long Engagement (2004), movie directed by Jean-Pierre
       Jeunet, based on the novel by Sebastien Japrisot (1991)
     * Joyeux Noël (2005), Based on the 1914 Christmas truce.
     * Passchendaele (2006), movie directed by and starring Paul Gross
     * Flyboys (2006), Movie directed by Tony Bill, tells the story of
       American pilots who volunteered for the French military before
       America entered World War I.

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