Download World War I GENERAL 1914 A global war centered in Europe that

WORLD WAR I
GENERAL
1914
A global war centered in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11
November 1918. More than 9 million combatants and 7 million civilians died as a
result of the war.
Triple Entente was the alliance linking the Russian Empire, the French Third
Republic, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland after the signing of
the Anglo-Russian Entente on 31 August 1907.
The Triple Alliance was a military alliance between Germany, Austria–Hungary,
and Italy, opposing the Triple Entente. Germany and Austria–Hungary were also
known as the Central Powers.
Although Italy was officially a member of the Triple Alliance it did not join the
Central Powers, as Austria-Hungary had taken the offensive against the terms of
the alliance.
The alliances were reorganised and expanded as more nations entered the war:
Italy, Japan and the United States joined the Allies, and the Ottoman Empire and
Bulgaria the Central Powers.
28 June: Franz Ferdinand, the nephew of Emperor Franz Joseph was
assassinated by Gavrilo Princip together with his wife Sophie, Duchess of
Hohenberg in Sarajevo. The event prompted the Austrian action against Serbia
that led to World War I.
Princip was a Serb member of the Young Bosnia secret society (and had
connections to the Black Hand secret society).
28 July: In the Kaiservilla in Bad Ischl Franz Joseph signed the declaration of war
against the Kingdom of Serbia, signaling the start of World War I. He left Bad
Ischl on the following day and never returned.
28 July: Russia mobilizes.
“Blank cheque” – used to describe how Kaiser Wilhelm II told Austria-Hungary
officials that they could deal with Serbia however they wanted.
Edward Grey, British Foreign Secretary – ‘the lamps are going out all over
Europe’.
1 August: Germany declares war on Russia.
3 August: Germany declared war on France. Belgium declares neutrality.
4 August: Britain declared war on Germany after Germany invades Belgium to
outflank the French army.
6 August: Austria-Hungary declares war on Russia. Serbia declares war on
Germany.
11 August: France declares war on Austria-Hungary.
12 August: Britain declares war on Austria-Hungary.
22 August: Austria-Hungary declares war on Belgium.
23 August: Japan declares war on Germany.
25 August: Japan declares war on Austria-Hungary.
1 November: Russia declares war on the Ottoman Empire.
5 November: France and Britain declare war on the Ottoman Empire.
11November: Sultan Mehmed V declares Jihad on the Allies.
1915
25 April: London Pact between the Entente and Italy.
23 May: Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary.
14 October: Bulgaria declares war on Serbia.
15 October: Britain declares war on Bulgaria.
16 October: France declares war on Bulgaria.
1916
27 January: Conscription introduced in the UK by the Military Service Act.
9 March: Germany declares war on Portugal. Portugal officially enters the war.
24-29 April: Easter Rising by Irish rebels for independence from UK.
27 August: Italy declares war on Germany.
21 November: Francis Joseph I, Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary, dies
and is succeeded by Charles I.
5-7 December: Prime Minister H. H. Asquith resigns and is succeeded by David
Lloyd George.
29 December: Grigori Rasputin is assassinated.
1917
16 January: Zimmermann Telegram: German Foreign Secretary Arthur
Zimmermann sends a telegram to his ambassador in Mexico, instructing him to
propose to the Mexican government an alliance against the United States.
Revelation of the telegram angered Americans and led in part to a United States
declaration of war on Germany.
A coded telegram dispatched by the German Foreign Secretary, Arthur
Zimmermann, sent to the German ambassador for Mexico, Heinrich von Eckardt.
The telegram was sent in anticipation of the resumption of unrestricted
submarine warfare by Germany on 1 February, an act which the German
government presumed would almost certainly lead to war with the United States.
The telegram instructed Eckardt that if the U.S. appeared certain to enter the
war, he was to approach the Mexican Government with a proposal for military
alliance, with funding from Germany. As part of the alliance, Germany would
assist Mexico to reconquer Texas and the Southwest.
15 March: Czar Nicholas II abdicates. A provisional government is appointed, in
the beginning under Prince Georgy Lvov and from 21 July under Alexander
Kerensky.
6 April: United States declares war on Germany.
12 June: King Constantine I of Greece abdicates.
30 June: Greece declares war on the Central powers.
20 July: Corfu Declaration about the future Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
8 September: Russia: General Kornilov's coup attempt fails.
30 October: Vittorio Emanuele Orlando succeeds Paolo Boselli as Prime Minister
of Italy.
2 November: Balfour Declaration: the British government supports plans for a
Jewish "national home" in Palestine.
5 November: Allies agree to establish a Supreme War Council at Versailles.
7 November: The October Revolution begins in Russia. The Bolsheviks seize
power.
13 November: Paul Painlevé is replaced by Georges Clemenceau as Prime
Minister of France.
7 December: The United States declares war on Austria-Hungary.
1918
8 January: Woodrow Wilson outlines his Fourteen Points.
9 February: The Central Powers signed an exclusive protectorate treaty with the
Ukrainian People's Republic as part of the negotiations that took place in BrestLitovsk.
3 March: Leon Trotsky signs the peace treaty with Germany at Brest-Litovsk.
26 March: French Marshall Ferdinand Foch is appointed Supreme Commander
of all Allied forces.
17 July: Tsar Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra and their five children Olga, Tatiana,
Maria, Anastasia, and Alexei are shot in Yekaterinburg.
30 September: Bulgaria signs an armistice with the Allies.
29 October: Wilhelm Groener replaces Erich Ludendorff as Hindenburg's deputy.
30 October: Ottoman Empire signs the Armistice of Mudros.
3 November: Austria-Hungary signs the armistice with Italy at Villa Giusti,
effective 4 November.
9 November: Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicates; republic proclaimed. The abdication
was announced by the Chancellor, Prince Max of Baden. Wilhelm spent the rest
of his life in Holland where he died in Doorn in 1941.
10 November: Kaiser Charles I abdicates.
11 November: at 6 am, Germany signs the Armistice of Compiègne, in a railway
carriage. End of fighting at 11 a.m.
11 November: Poland proclaimed.
12 November: Austria proclaimed a republic.
14 November: Czechoslovakia proclaimed a republic.
1 December: Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes proclaimed.
1919
18 January: Treaty of Versailles between the Allies and Germany: the Peace
Conference opens in Paris.
The Big Four (aka Council of Four) refers to the top Allied leaders who met at the
Paris Peace Conference. It was composed of Woodrow Wilson of the United
States, David Lloyd George of Britain, Vittorio Orlando of Italy, and Georges
Clemenceau of France.
25 January: Proposal to create the League of Nations accepted.
28 June: Treaty of Versailles signed.
8 July: Germany ratifies the Treaty of Versailles.
21 July: UK ratifies the Treaty of Versailles.
A formal state of war between the two sides persisted for another seven months,
until signing of the Treaty of Versailles with Germany at the Paris Peace
Conference on 28 June 1919. Germany was made to pay £6.6 million
reparations. As part of the treaty, the League of Nations was formed, without
American support
Russia did not sign Treaty of Versailles because it had negotiated a separate
peace with Germany in 1918
11November: the first Armistice Day was held on the Grounds of Buckingham
Palace.
1920
10 January: First meeting of the League of Nations held in London. This marks
the official end of World War I.
10 January: Free City of Danzig established.
21 January: The Paris Peace Conference ends.
4 June: Treaty of Trianon between the Allies and Hungary.
10 August: Treaty of Sèvres between the Allies and the Ottoman Empire. The
treaty is not recognized by the Turkish national movement, which considers the
Istanbul government illegitimate.
1 November: League of Nations headquarters moved to Geneva.
15 November: The League of Nations holds its first general assembly.
1922
6 February: Washington Naval Treaty, limiting naval tonnage, signed by
France, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.
10 April-19 May: Genoa Conference. Representatives of 34 countries discuss
economics in the wake of the Great War.
16 April: Treaty of Rapallo between Germany and Bolshevik Russia to
normalise diplomatic relations.
1923
24 July: Treaty of Lausanne between the Allies and Turkey, the successor State
to the Ottoman Empire. It supersedes the Treaty of Sèvres.
MILITARY HISTORY OF WWI
THE WESTERN FRONT
1914
Schlieffen Plan – German plan of attack in WWI, drawn up in 1905 and put into
operation in August 1914. The plan assumed that Germany would have to go on
the offensive to win a quick war in the West before dealing with Russia. It
originally entailed all of the German army being deployed on the German–
Belgian border, so it could launch an offensive into France, through the southern
Dutch province of Limburg, Belgium, and Luxembourg.
Plan XVII – French plan of mobilisation and attack Germany primarily through
Alsace and Lorraine and regain the provinces lost after the Franco-Prussian War
of 1870-1871 whilst the Russian simultaneously attacked Germany in the East.
So as the German “hook” moved through Luxembourg, Belgium and into
Northern France, the French were attacking Germany through Lorraine with five
initiatives, now collectively known as the Battle of the Frontiers:
Battle of the Frontiers:
7–10 August: Battle of Mulhouse.
14–25 August: Battle of Lorraine.
21–23 August: Battle of the Ardennes.
21 August: Battle of Charleroi.
23–24 August: Battle of Mons. The first battle fought by the British Army in
World War I. The British were eventually forced to withdraw due to being
outnumbered by the Germans and the sudden retreat of the French Fifth Army,
which exposed the British right flank.
British Expeditionary Force (BEF) originated when the British Army was sent to
the Western Front in France and Belgium on the outbreak of World War I. The
BEF was established by Secretary of State for War Richard Haldane following
the Second Boer War, in what became known as the Haldane reforms. It
originally consisted of just 4 infantry divisions and a single cavalry division.
Kaiser Wilhelm, who was famously dismissive of the BEF, issued an order in
1914 to "exterminate...the treacherous English and walk over General French's
contemptible little army". Hence, in later years, the survivors of the regular army
dubbed themselves ‘The Old Contemptibles’.
BEF was commanded by Field Marshall Sir John French until December 1915,
when he was replaced by General Sir Douglas Haig.
24 August – 7 September: Germans besiege and capture the Maubeuge
Fortress.
24 August – 28 September: Allied retreat to the River Marne (the “Great
Retreat”). The British retreat from Mons lasted for two weeks, and BEF
commander Sir John French began to make contingency plans for a full retreat to
the ports on the English Channel followed by an immediate British evacuation.
On 1 September Lord Kitchener, the British Secretary of State for War, met with
French and ordered him not to withdraw to the Channel. The BEF retreated to
the outskirts of Paris, before it counter-attacked in concert with the French, in the
Battle of the Marne.
26 August: Battle of Le Cateau was part of the Allied fighting withdrawal against
the German advance.
5-12 September: First Battle of the Marne. The German advance on Paris is
halted, marking the failure of the Schlieffen Plan.
"My centre is yielding. My right is retreating. Situation excellent. I am attacking." –
Ferdinand Foch at the Battle of the Marne.
The German attack outran its supply lines and Joffre was able to use French
internal rail-lines to move his retreating forces and re-group them behind the river
Marne and within 'Fortress Paris' faster than the Germans could pursue them.
9–13 September: German retreat which marked the abandonment of the
Schlieffen Plan. Moltke is said to have reported to the Kaiser: "Your Majesty, we
have lost the war”.
13-28 September: The First Battle of the Aisne ends in a draw. The “Race to the
Sea” begins.
14 September: Erich von Falkenhayn replaces Helmuth von Moltke as German
Chief of Staff.
28 September–10 October: Germans besiege and capture Antwerp.
16–31 October: Battle of Yser. A large Belgian force succeeded in halting the
German advance, though only after heavy losses. After two months of defeats
and retreats, this battle finally halted the invasion that gave Germans control of
over 95% of Belgian territory.
19 October–22 November: First Battle of Ypres ends the “Race to the Sea”.
The Germans are prevented from reaching Calais and Dunkirk.
24-25 December: in some sectors of the Western Front, an unofficial Christmas
truce is observed between German and British forces. “Christmas Truce”?
1915
10-13 March: Battle of Neuve Chapelle. The first deliberately planned British
offensive and showed the form which position warfare took for the rest of the war
on the Western Front. Tactical surprise and a break-through were achieved but
the Germans had time to receive reinforcements and dig a new line. After an
initial success the British offensive was halted having regained just over a mile of
ground.
22 April-25 May: Second Battle of Ypres, which ends in a stalemate. This was
the first German use of poison gas (chlorine) on the Western Front. The
Germans claim that the Hague treaty had only banned chemical shells, rather
than the use of gas projectors.
9 May–18 June: Second Battle of Artois.
15 September– 4 November: Third Battle of Artois.
25-28 September: Battle of Loos, a major British offensive, fails. The first use of
gas by the British but the attempt was a disaster. This was the first mass
engagement of New Army (aka Kitchener's Army) units.
25 September–6 November: Second Battle of Champagne.
Phosgene gas was prepared by a group of French chemists led by Victor
Grignard and first used by France in 1915.
6-8 December: The Chantilly Conference was an Allied military planning
conference involving military representatives from all Allied powers to formulate a
coordinated strategy for the upcoming year.
19 December: Douglas Haig replaces John French as commander of the British
Expeditionary Force.
1916
21 February: Battle of Verdun begins. It will continue until 18 December. The
French troops are led by Petain – “They shall not pass”. A very costly battle of
attrition for both armies (although less costly to both sides than the war of
movement in 1914).
1 July: Battle of the Somme begins.
Battle of the Somme: British forces led by Haig. 19,240 British soldiers died on
the first day, out of 57,000 casualties making it the worst day in the history of the
British Army. In total there were 420,000 British casualties. Battle of the Somme
was conceived by Henry Rawlinson.
Mine under the Hawthorn Ridge Redoubt detonated at seven-twenty a.m. on the
first of July. This allowed the Germans ten minutes in which to get into position
before the British went over the top.
First Newfoundland regiment was virtually wiped out on the first morning of the
battle with more than six-hundred and eighty casualties suffered from eight
hundred combatants.
Captain W P ‘Billy’ Nevill of the Eighth East Surreys give footballs to some of his
men before they went over the top on the first morning of the Somme in order to
encourage them to cross ‘No-Man’s Land’.
The 20th Deccan Horse and the 7th Dragoon Guards took part in the assault on
High Wood on 14 July. It was the only cavalry action of the Somme battles.
Known to his troops as “Inky-Bill”, Major-General E C Ingouville-Williams was
killed by a shell on the 22 July. He was the highest-ranked British casualty of the
July Somme battles.
Raymond Asquith, eldest son of prime minister HH Asquith, was killed at the
Somme.
Creeping barrage: a new combined artillery and infantry tactic whereby the
infantry followed closely behind a curtain of shelling up to the enemy trenches
was tried with some limited success on the Somme from August 1916.
29 August: Paul von Hindenburg replaces Erich von Falkenhayn as German
Chief of Staff.
15-22 September: Battle of Flers-Courcelette (last offensive of the Battle of the
Somme). The British use armoured tanks for the first time in history.
24 October: The French recapture Fort Douaumont near Verdun.
13-18 November: Battle of the Ancre (closing phase of the Battle of the Somme).
18 November: 100 mainly Scottish troops barricade themselves on the
eighteenth of November in Frankfurt Trench and succeed in repelling attempts to
dislodge them for several days. This was the final action of the Battle of the
Somme.
18 November: Battle of the Somme ends with enormous casualties and no
winner.
13 December: Robert Nivelle replaces Joseph Joffre as Commander-in-Chief of
the French Army.
1917
23 February- 5 April: Germans withdraw to the Hindenburg Line - a vast system
of defenses in northeastern France. It was constructed by the Germans during
the winter of 1916–17 and stretched nearly 160 km from Lens near Arras to the
Aisne River near Soissons.
9 April–17 May: Second Battle of Arras. A diversionary attack for the French
Nivelle Offensive. The British attack a heavily fortified German line without
obtaining any strategic breakthrough.
9-12 April: The Canadians obtain a significant victory in the Battle of Vimy
Ridge. Supported by a creeping barrage, the Canadian captured most of the
ridge during the first day of the attack. The final objective, a fortified knoll located
outside the town of Givenchy-en-Gohelle, fell on 12 April. The German forces
then retreated to the Oppy–Méricourt line.
16 April- 9 May: Second Battle of the Aisne (aka Nivelle Offensive) ends in
disaster for both the French army and its commander Robert Nivelle.
29 April-20 May: Series of mutinies in the French army.
15 May: Philippe Pétain replaces Robert Nivelle as Commander-in-Chief of the
French Army.
7-14 June: Second Battle of Messines, the British blow 19 deep mines and
recapture Messines Ridge. The British Second Army under the command of
General Herbert Plumer launched an offensive near the village of Mesen
(Messines) in West Flanders. One of the key features of the battle was the
detonation of 19 mines immediately prior to the infantry assault, a tactic which
disrupted German defences and allowed the advancing troops to secure their
objectives in rapid fashion. The attack was a prelude to the much larger Third
Battle of Ypres, known as Passchendaele.
25 June: First American troops land in France.
31 July: The Third Battle of Ypres (aka Battle of Passchendaele) begins.
Fray Bentos: nickname of a tank that got bogged down in the Passchendaele
offensive and resisted the Germans for three days.
20-26 August: Second Offensive Battle of Verdun.
23 October–10 November: Battle of La Malmaison, delayed French attack on the
Chemin des Dames.
26 October-10 November: Second Battle of Passchendaele, the closing phase of
the Third Battle of Ypres.
10 November: Third Battle of Ypres (aka Battle of Passchendaele) ends in a
stalemate. The resistance of the German 4th Army, unusually wet weather, the
onset of winter and the diversion of British and French resources to Italy,
following the Austro-German victory at the Battle of Caporetto (see Italian Front
below) enabled the Germans to avoid a general withdrawal. The campaign
ended in November, when the Canadians captured Passchendaele.
20 November-3 December: First Battle of Cambrai. A British attack fails and the
battle results in a stalemate. The battle is sometimes described as the first use of
large numbers of tanks in combat, or even as the first use of tanks at all.
Although it was the first successful combined arms operation on a large scale,
the first use of tanks was in September 1916 (see above).
1918
Haig, Foch, and Pershing – allied commanders in 1918
Field Marshal Douglas Haig, 1st Earl Haig, was senior commander (Field
Marshal) during World War I. He was commander of the British Expeditionary
Force during the Battle of the Somme and the 3rd Battle of Ypres.
Ferdinand Foch served as general in the French Army during World War I and
was made Marshal of France in 1918. Shortly after the start of the Spring
Offensive, Germany's final attempt to win the war, Foch was chosen as supreme
commander of the allied armies, a position that he held until 11 November 1918,
when he accepted the German Surrender.
John ‘Black Jack’ Pershing led the American Expeditionary Force in World War I.
Ludendorff – planned and organized Germany's final offensive in 1918, known as
Operation Michael.
Erich Ludendorff was a German Army officer, Quartermaster General during
World War I, victor of Liege, and, with Paul von Hindenburg, one of the victors of
the battle of Tannenberg. After the war, he briefly supported Adolf Hitler and the
Nazi Party. He was acquitted of criminal charges for his role in the Nazis'
unsuccessful Beer Hall Putsch.
Spring Offensive (aka Kaiserschlacht (Kaiser's Battle) or Ludendorff Offensive) a series of German attacks along the Western Front during the First World War,
beginning on 21 March 1918. The Germans realised they had to defeat the Allies
before the resources of the United States could be fully deployed. They also had
the temporary advantage in numbers afforded by the nearly 50 divisions freed by
the Russian surrender (see Eastern Front below).
There were four German offensives, codenamed Michael, Georgette, BlücherYorck and Gneisenau.
21 March–5 April: First phase of the Spring Offensive, Operation Michael (aka
Second Battle of the Somme). This was a major offensive against the British Fifth
Army, and the right wing of the British Third Army. By the end of the first day, the
British had lost nearly 20,000 dead and 35,000 wounded, and the Germans had
broken through at several points. After a few days, the German advance began
to falter, and after fruitless attempts to capture Amiens, Ludendorff called off
Operation Michael on 5 April. The Germans had obtained a Pyrrhic victory.
21-23 March: The Battle of St. Quentin, first phase of Operation Michael and of
the Spring Offensive.
21 March-7 August: Artillery bombardment of Paris.
7-29 April: Second phase of the Spring Offensive, Operation Georgette (aka
Battle of the Lys). The Germans gained early success against the Portuguese
Expeditionary Force and it was feared that the Germans could advance to the
coast within a week. Haig issued an "Order of the Day" on 11 April stating, "With
our backs to the wall and believing in the justice of our cause, each one of us
must fight on to the end." However, the German advance faltered again and the
result is more disappoinment for the Germans.
24-27 April: Second Battle of Villers-Bretonneux. During the battle, the first tankversus-tank battle in history occurred when a group of three advancing German
A7V tanks met and engaged three British Mark IV tanks.
27 May-6 June: Third Battle of the Aisne (aka Operation Blücher-Yorck, third
phase of the Spring Offensive). Despite French and British resistance on the
flanks, German troops advanced to the Marne River and Paris seemed a realistic
objective. Losses were much the same on each side: 137,000 Allied and 130,000
German casualties but German losses were again mainly from difficult-to-replace
assault divisions. Once again after initial gains, the German advance is halted.
9-12 June: Fourth phase of the Spring Offensive, Operation Gneisenau (aka
Battle of Matz).
The French had been warned of this attack by information from German
prisoners but the German advance along the Matz River was impressive,
resulting in an advance of 9 miles. At Compiègne on 11 June a French counter-
attack caught the Germans by surprise and halted their advance. Gneisenau was
called off the following day. Despite substantial territorial gains, the Germans do
not achieve their strategic goals.
15 July-6 August: Second Battle of the Marne and last German offensive on the
Western Front, which fails when the Germans are counterattacked by the
French.
15-17 July: Champagne-Marne Offensive (consisting of the Fourth Battle of
Champagne and the Battle of the Mountain of Reims), a phase of the Second
Battle of the Marne. This was the last phase of the Spring Offensive and last
German offensive of World War I.
8 August-11 November: Hundred Days Offensive, last offensive on Western
Front.
The Hundred Days Offensive was the final period of the First World War, during
which the Allies launched a series of offensives against the Central Powers on
the Western Front. The offensive pushed the Germans out of France, forcing
them to retreat beyond the Hindenburg Line, and was followed by an armistice.
8-12 August: Battle of Amiens, first phase of the Hundred Days Offensive that
ultimately led to the end of World War I. Allied forces advanced over seven miles
on the first day. The British Fourth Army was led by Henry Rawlinson. Foch was
in control of French forces.
18 September-17 October: Battle of the Hindenburg Line, a phase of the
Hundred Days Offensive. The Allies break through the German lines.
26 September-11 November: Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the final phase of the
Hundred Days Offensive and of World War I.
6-11 November: Advance to the Meuse.
22 November: Germans evacuate Luxembourg.
27 November: Germans evacuate Belgium.
THE EASTERN FRONT
1914
17 August: Russian army enters East Prussia. Battle of Stalluponen - despite
more than fivefold numerical superiority (84,000 Russians against 16,000
Germans), the Russian army was defeated.
Paul von Hindenburg – Commander in Chief of German forces on Eastern front
in 1914.
Concentrating on the Western Front and the Schlieffen Plan, the Germans left
only the 10 divisions of the German Eighth Army under General Maximilian von
Prittwitz in East Prussia whereas the Russians had been able to mobilize the
First Army, under General Paul von Rennenkampf and the Second Army, under
General Alexander Samsonov.
20 August: Germans attack the Russians in East Prussia, the Battle of
Gumbinnen. The attack is a failure in addition to being a deviation from the
Schlieffen Plan.
22 August: Prittwitz was replaced with Paul von Hindenburg (brought out of
retirement) along with his Chief of Staff, Erich Ludendorff.
23-30 August: Battle of Tannenberg: the Russian army suffers a heavy defeat
by the Germans. The battle resulted in the almost complete destruction of the
Russian Second Army and Samsonov committing suicide.
23 August-11 September: Battle of Lemberg. The Russians capture Lviv.
23-25 August: Battle of Kraśnik, a phase of the Battle of Lemberg. The AustroHungarian First Army defeats the Russian Fourth Army.
2-11 September: Austro-Hungarian defeat at the Battle of Rava Russka.
7-14 September: First Battle of the Masurian Lakes. The Russian Army of the
Neman withdraws from East Prussia with heavy casualties. The Germans
pushed the Russian First Army back across its entire front, eventually ejecting it
from Germany in disarray.
Although the invasion was a disastrous failure for the Russians, the crisis caused
in the German High Command by the unexpected Russian advance forced the
sending of 2 corps and a cavalry division from the Western Front as part of the
new 9th Army in order to support the attack on the Russians. Had these forces
entered France as originally planned they may have swung things in the
Germans favour.
24 September-22 March 1915: Siege of Przemyśl begins. This was the longest
siege of the First World War and a crushing defeat for Austria-Hungary against
the Russian attackers. The investment of Przemyśl began on 24 September
1914 and was briefly suspended on 11October due to an Austro-Hungarian
offensive. The siege resumed again on 9 November and the Austro-Hungarian
garrison surrendered on 22 March 1915, after holding out for a total of 133 days.
29 September-31 October: Battle of the Vistula River, aka Battle of Warsaw.
11 November-6 December: Battle of Lodz between Germany and Russia. The
results were inconclusive.
1-13 December: Battle of Limanowa between the Austro-Hungarian Army and
the Russian Army led to stalling of Russian offensive.
1915
31 January: Battle of Bolimov. This was the first instance of the large-scale use
of gas as a weapon. Germany fired 18,000 artillery shells containing liquid xylyl
bromide tear gas on Russian positions but instead of vaporizing the chemical
froze and failed to have the desired effect.
7-22 February: Second Battle of the Masurian Lakes. The Russian X Army is
defeated but the German advance into Russia was checked.
22 March: Siege of Przemyśl ends. The Russians capture the fortress.
1 May: The Gorlice-Tarnów Offensive begins: the German troops under General
Mackensen break through the Russian lines in Galicia with the result being an
advance far into Russia.
10 May: Hungarians rout the Russians at Jarosław. Lviv recaptured by Austrians
22 June: Germans break through the Russian lines in the Lviv area.
June–September: Russians retreat from Poland and Galicia (“Great Retreat”).
5 August: Germans occupy Warsaw.
8 September: Nicholas II removes Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolayevich as
Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Army and personally takes control.
19 September: Germans occupy Vilnius. The Gorlice-Tarnów Offensive ends.
1916
18 March- 14 April: Lake Naroch Offensive. Despite having tenfold Russian
numerical superiority, the battle ended as a German victory with heavy losses of
the Russian army.
4 June: Brusilov Offensive (aka June Offensive) begins. Aleksei Brusilov was a
Russian general most noted for the development of new offensive tactics used in
the 1916 offensive which would come to bear his name.
Took place in what is today the Ukraine (as at March 2015), in the general
vicinity of the towns of Lviv, Kovel, and Lutsk. The initial attack was successful
and the Austro-Hungarian lines were broken. Brusilov used shock troops to
attack weak points along the Austrian lines to affect a breakthrough, which the
main Russian army could then exploit. Brusilov's tactical innovations laid the
foundation for the German infiltration tactics used later in the Western and Italian
Fronts.
20 September: Brusilov Offensive ends with a substantial Russian success
although Russian casualties were considerable, numbering up to one million. It is
listed among the most lethal offensives in world history.
23-29 December: Christmas Battles - offensive operations of the Russian army in
the area of Jelgava, Latvia.
1917
1-19 July: Kerensky Offensive (aka July Offensive) fails. It is the last Russian
initiative in the war.
The decision to go onto the offensive was ill-timed, because, following the
February Revolution, there were strong popular demands for peace, especially
within the army, whose fighting capabilities were quickly deteriorating.
After initial success against the Austro-Hungarians, the Russian advance faltered
against German troops and collapsed altogether by 16 July. On 19 July, the
Germans and Austro-Hungarians counterattacked, meeting little resistance and
advancing through Galicia and Ukraine as far as the Zbruch River. By 23 July the
Russians had retreated about 150 miles.
16 December: Russia signs a preliminary armistice with Germany.
1918
15-16 February: Battle of Rarańcza was fought between Polish Legionnaires,
and Austria-Hungary and ended with a Polish victory.
18 February-3 March: Operation Faustschlag (aka Fist punch or the Eleven
Days War) was the last major action on the Eastern Front.
21 February: Germans capture Minsk.
24 February: Germans capture Zhytomyr.
25 February: German troops capture Estonia.
28 February: Germans capture Pskov and Narva.
2 March: Germans capture Kiev.
3 March: Peace Treaty of Brest-Litovsk signed at Brest-Litovsk (now Brest,
Belarus) between Russia and the Central Powers, headed by Germany, marking
Russia's exit from World War I. Trotsky negotiated the treaty on behalf of Russia.
BALKAN FRONT
1914
15-24 August: Serb victory over the Austro-Hungarians at the Battle of Cer. The
first Allied victory over the Central Powers in the war and the first aerial dogfight
of the war took place during the battle.
6 September-4 October: Battle of Drina fought between Serbia and AustroHungary. The Serbian Army was forced to retreat in early October.
9 October–1 November: Central powers control Belgrade.
16 November-15 December: Battle of Kolubara, Austro-Hungarians forced out of
Serbia by a surprise counter-attack.
1915
7 October-4 December: Serbia is invaded by Germany, Austria-Hungary, and
Bulgaria.
14 October: Bulgaria declares war on Serbia.
14 October-15 November: Morava and Ovche Pole Offensives. Bulgarians break
through Serbian lines.
15 October: United Kingdom declares war on Bulgaria.
16 October: France declares war on Bulgaria.
17 October-21 November: Battle of Krivolak, start of the set up of the Salonika
Front (aka Macedonian Front).
A stable front was eventually established, running from the Albanian Adriatic
coast to the Struma River. The Macedonian Front remained quite stable from
1915 until the Allied offensive in September 1918, which resulted in the
capitulation of Bulgaria and the liberation of Serbia.
19 October: Italy and Russia declare war on Bulgaria.
27 October: French army lands in Salonika and, with the help of British and
Italian troops, sets up a Balkan Front.
10 November-4 December: Kosovo Offensive. Serbians pushed into Albania.
27 November: Serbian army collapses. It will retreat to the Adriatic Sea and
eventually be evacuated by the Italian and French Navies to Corfu.
6-12 December: Battle of Kosturino. British were forced to retreat to Salonika.
1916
5-17 January: Austro-Hungarian offensive against Montenegro, which
capitulates.
11 January: Corfu occupied by the Allies.
27 August: Romania enters the war on the Entente's side. Her army is defeated
in a few weeks.
27 August–6 December: Conquest of Romania by Central Powers.
12 September-11 December: Monastir Offensive, set up of the Salonika Front.
25 November-3 December: Battle of Bucharest.
28 November: Prunaru Charge - Romanian cavalry desperately charge into
enemy lines outside Bucharest.
6 December: Germans occupy Bucharest. The capital of Romania moved to Iaşi.
1917
5-15 May: Allied Spring offensive on the Salonika Front.
1918
29-31 May: Battle of Skra-di-Legen - first large-scale employment of Greek
troops on the front which resulted in the capture of a heavily fortified Bulgarian
position.
14-29 September: Vardar Offensive, final offensive on the Balkan Front.
15 September: Allies (French and Serbs) break through the Bulgarian lines at
Dobro Polje.
18-19 September: Third Battle of Doiran. Bulgarians halt the British and Greek
advance.
The multinational Allied Army of the East broke through the enemy lines in the
Battle of Dobro Polje and after this victory it began to liberate southern Serbia.
21-29 September: Demir Kapija, Prilep, Kruševo, Veles and Skopje all liberated.
The offensive forced the capitulation of Bulgaria.
CAUCASUS FRONT
The Caucasus Campaign extended from the Caucasus to the Eastern Asia Minor
region, reaching as far as Trabzon, Bitlis, Muş and Van. The land warfare was
accompanied by the Russian navy in the Black Sea.
1914
2-16 November: Bergmann Offensive, first military engagement in the
Caucuses. General Georgy Bergmann took the initiative against the Ottoman
Empire but his forces were threatened by an enveloping movement on both
sides. Russian losses were up to 40% and their morale was shaken. Enver
Pasha put into operation his plan to attack at Sarıkamışh.
22 December-2 January 1915: Battle of Sarikamish fought between the Russian
and Ottoman empires. The outcome was a Russian victory with the Ottoman
troops, ill-prepared for winter conditions, suffering major casualties in the
Allahüekber Mountains.
1915
19 April-17 May: Ottomans besiege the Armenian city of Van. Jevdet Bey
demanded that the city of Van immediately furnish him 4,000 soldiers under the
pretext of conscription but the Armenian population feared that his goal was to
massacre the able-bodied men of Van. The Armenians offered five hundred
soldiers and exemption money for the rest. Ottomans accused the Armenians of
"rebellion". The siege was eventually raised by the Russians.
10-26 July: Battle of Manzikert. Russians retreated north and the Turks retook
Manzikert.
5-8 August: Battle of Kara Killisse. Turks following up on victory at Manzikert
were defeated.
1916
10 January-16 February: Battle of Erzurum - major winter offensive by the
Russian Army that led to the capture of the strategic city of Erzurum.
5 February-15 April: Trebizond Campaign. Russians capture Trebizond/Trabzon.
2 March-4 August: Battle of Bitlis - series of engagements for the last
stronghold of the Ottoman Empire to prevent the Russians from entering Anatolia
and Mesopotamia. After their defeat, the Ottoman Army gave Mustafa Kemal the
organization of the defense of the region but the entire region fell to the Russians
and Armenian volunteers.
1917
5 December: Armistice of Erzincan signed between the Russians and Ottomans
ended the armed conflicts in the Caucasus Campaign.
1918
8 June–October: Germany send expedition to the Caucuses to try and secure oil
supplies.
THE ITALIAN FRONT
1915
23 June-7 July: First Battle of the Isonzo. The town of Gorizia was an objective of
the Italians but was not captured until the sixth battle in August 1916.
Soca or Isonzo is a river that flows through western Slovenia and northeastern
Italy. The Soca valley was the stage of major military operations including the
twelve battles of the Isonzo on the Italian front in World War I between 1915 and
1917, in which over 300,000 Austro-Hungarian and Italian soldiers lost their lives.
The twelfth battle is also known as Caporetto.
18 July-3 August: Second Battle of the Isonzo.
25 July: Italians capture Cappuccio Wood.
18 October-4 November: Third Battle of the Isonzo.
10 November-2 December: Fourth Battle of the Isonzo.
1916
1-15 March: Fifth Battle of the Isonzo.
15 May-10 June: Austro-Hungarian Strafexpedition (Punishment Expedition) in
Trentino. Broke through and briefly captured Asiago and Arsiero.
6-17 August: Sixth Battle of the Isonzo. The Italians capture Gorizia (9 August).
14-17 September: Seventh Battle of the Isonzo.
9-12 October: Eighth Battle of the Isonzo.
1-4 November: Ninth Battle of the Isonzo.
13 December: “White Friday” – avalanches cause the deaths of up to ten
thousand soldiers, both Italians and Austro-Hungarians, fighting in the Dolomites.
1917
12 May-6 June: Tenth Battle of the Isonzo.
23 May: Battle of Mount Hermada in the Karst.
10-29 June: Battle of Mount Ortigara.
18-28 August: Eleventh Battle of the Isonzo.
Arturo Toscanini was awarded a silver medal for valour for leading a military
band during the assault on Monte Santo in August 1917 during the Eleventh
Battle of the Isonzo?
24 October-4 November: Battle of Caporetto. Austro-Hungarians and Germans
break through the Italian lines. The Italian army is defeated and falls back on the
Piave River.
26 October: Lieutenant Erwin Rommel of the Württemberg Mountain Battalion
leads a detachment to capture Mount Matajur, capturing thousands of Italians in
the process. He received the Pour le Mérite [the “Blue Max”] for his actions.
8 November: Armando Diaz replaces Luigi Cadorna as Commander-in-Chief of
the Italian Army.
9 November-28 December: First Battle of the Piave. Austro-Hungarians and
Germans try unsuccessfully to cross the river.
11 November-23 December: First Battle of Monte Grappa. Austro-Hungarian
offensive halted.
1918
13-23 June: Second Battle of the Piave. Austro-Hungarian offensive is repelled.
13 August-3 September: Battle of San Matteo. This was the highest battle in
history at that time and the last Austro-Hungarian victory of the war. In the
summer of 2004 the ice-encased bodies of three Kaiserschützen were found at
3400m, near the peak.
24 October-4 November: Battle of Vittorio Veneto. Austro-Hungarian army is
routed. The Italians enter Trent and land at Trieste.
3 November: The Armistice of Villa Giusti, concluded which ended the Alpine
War on 4 November at 1500 h.
Austrians fought Italians in Tyrol. First war fought on skis.
GALLIPOLI CAMPAIGN
Battle of Gallipoli: fought between British and Anzac troops and forces of the
Ottoman Empire. It took place on the Gallipoli peninsula between 25 April 1915
and 9 January 1916. The peninsula forms the northern bank of the Dardanelles.
Churchill was First Lord of the Admiralty who sent British and Commonwealth
troops to Gallipoli. Mustafa Kemal first rose to prominence as a commander at
Gallipoli.
A naval attack was repelled and, after eight months' fighting, with many
casualties on both sides, the land campaign also failed and the invasion force
was withdrawn to Egypt.
The campaign is often considered as marking the birth of national consciousness
in Australia and New Zealand and the date of the landing, 25 April, is known as
"Anzac Day".
1914
5 August: Ottoman Empire closes the Dardanelles.
1915
19 February: British and French naval attack on the Dardanelles. The Gallipoli
Campaign begins.
Churchill was First Lord of the Admiralty who sent troops to Gallipoli in 1915
25 April: Allied forces land on Gallipoli, landing at Anzac Cove and Cape Helles.
28 April: First Battle of Krithia. The Allied advance is repelled.
1 May: Battle of Eski Hissarlik.
3 May: Troops withdraw from Anzac Cove.
6-8 May: Second Battle of Krithia. The Allied attempts at advancing are thwarted
again.
11 May: Armistice called at Gallipoli to bury the dead.
4 June: Third Battle of Krithia is another Allied failure.
28 June-5 July: British win the Battle of Gully Ravine.
6-29 August: August Offensive includes battles of Lone Pine, Krithia Vineyard,
the Nek, Chunuk Bair, Scimitar Hill and Hill 60.
6-15 August: Allies land at Suvla Bay.
6-21 August: Battle of Sari Bair. Last and unsuccessful attempt by the British to
seize the Gallipoli peninsula.
1916
9 January: Gallipoli Campaign ends in an Allied defeat and an Ottoman victory.
AFRICAN FRONT
East African Campaign was a series of battles and guerrilla actions which started
in German East Africa and ultimately affected portions of Mozambique, Northern
Rhodesia, British East Africa, Uganda, and the Belgian Congo. The campaign
was effectively ended in November 1917.
Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck commanded the Imperial German Army forces in the
German East Africa campaign. For four years, with a force that never exceeded
about 14,000 (3,000 Germans and 11,000 Africans), he held in check a much
larger force of 300,000 British, Belgian, and Portuguese troops. Essentially
undefeated in the field, Lettow-Vorbeck was the only German commander to
successfully invade imperial British soil during the First World War.
1914
9 August: The Togoland Campaign begins.
26 August: British and French forces conquer Togoland, a German protectorate
in West Africa.
13 September: Troops from South Africa begin invading German South-West
Africa.
20 September: Battle of Zanzibar. German cruiser SMS Königsberg sinks British
cruiser HMS Pegasus
October 1914–July 1915: Battle of Rufiji Delta. This was a series of attempts to
sink SMS Königsberg. It was eventually destroyed on 11 July 1915.
3-5 November: Von Lettow-Vorbeck's German colonial forces defeat the British
at the Battle of Tanga, German East Africa.
1915
24-26 January: Chilembwe uprising led by John Chilembwe in Nyasaland.
12 May: Windhoek, capital of German South-West Africa, is occupied by South
African troops.
21-23 June: Battle of Bukoba was the first victory for Entente forces in German
East Africa, coming after the disastrous battles of Tanga and Jassin.
9 July: German forces in South-West Africa surrender.
December 1915–July 1916: Battle of Lake Tanganyika – a series of naval
engagements that took place between elements of the Royal Navy, Force
Publique and the Kaiserliche Marine. The intention was to secure control of the
strategically important Lake Tanganyika.
1916
12 February: Battle of Salaita Hill was the first large-scale engagement of the
East African Campaign of the First World War to involve British, Indian,
Rhodesian and South African troops. It was part of the three-pronged offensive
into German East Africa launched by General Jan Smuts, who had been given
overall command of the Allied forces in the region.
26 February: Battle of Agagia. The Senussi rebellion was suppressed by the
British.
28 February: German Kamerun (Cameroon) surrenders.
18 March: Battle of Kahe was the last action between German and Entente
forces before the German retreat from the Kilimanjaro area.
27 December: Togoland is divided into British and French administrative zones.
1917
25 November: Battle of Ngomano. The Germans invade Portuguese East Africa
to gain supplies.
1918
14 November: 3 days after the armistice, fighting ends in the East African theatre
when General von Lettow-Vorbeck agrees a cease-fire on hearing of Germany's
surrender.
25 November: General von Lettow-Vorbeck formally surrenders his undefeated
army at Abercorn in present-day Zambia.
MIDDLE EASTERN FRONT
1914
6 November: British and Indians besiege the fortress at Fao.
11-21 November: Battle of Basra – British capture the city, securing the Persian
oil fields.
1915
28 January- 3 February: Ottomans fail to capture the Suez Canal. Sinai and
Palestine Campaign began in January 1915, when a German led Ottoman force
invaded the Sinai Peninsula and attacked the Suez Canal. During 1916 the Sinai
Peninsula was recaptured by the Anzac Mounted Division.
22-25 November: Battle of Ctesiphon. Ottoman forces halt the British advance.
7 December: First Siege of Kut by the Ottomans begins. An 8000 strong BritishIndian garrison in the town of Kut was besieged by the Ottoman Army. Garrison
surrendered in April 1916.
1916
8 March: Battle of Dujaila: a British attempt to relieve Kut failed.
29 April: British forces under siege at Kut surrender to the Ottomans, first siege
of Kut ends.
Some 23,000 British and Indian soldiers died in the attempts to retake Kut,
probably the worst loss of life for the British away from the European theatre.
Near the end of the siege, T. E. Lawrence and Aubrey Herbert of British
Intelligence unsuccessfully tried to bribe Khalil Pasha to allow the troops to
escape.
5 June: The Arab Revolt in Hejaz begins. Initiated by the Sherif Hussein bin Ali
with the aim of securing independence from the ruling Ottoman Turks and
creating a single unified Arab state spanning from Aleppo in Syria to Aden in
Yemen.
10 June-4 July: Battle of Mecca, Arabs capture the city.
10 June: Siege of Medina begins. Sherif Hussein bin Ali occupied Mecca and
besieged Medina. It was one of the longest sieges in history that lasted two years
and seven months. The defense of the city was led by its Governor Fahreddin
Pasha who was called "the Lion of the Desert" by the British.
3-5 August: Battle of Romani. Ottoman attack on the British in the Sinai
Peninsula fails. It was the last ground attack by the Central Powers on the Suez
Canal at the beginning of the Sinai and Palestine Campaign.
Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916 was a secret agreement between the
governments of the UK and France, with the assent of Imperial Russia, defining
their respective spheres of influence and control in Western Asia after the
expected downfall of the Ottoman Empire during World War I. It was largely a
trade agreement with a large area set aside for indirect control through an Arab
state or a confederation of Arab states
1917
9 January: Battle of Rafa. The British drive the Ottomans out of Sinai.
23 February: Second Battle of Kut. The British recapture the city.
8-11 March: British capture Baghdad.
13 March-23 April: Samarrah Offensive, British capture much of Mesopotamia
including the Samarrah railroad.
26 March: First Battle of Gaza. The British attempt to capture the city fails.
April–October: Stalemate in Southern Palestine.
19 April: Second Battle of Gaza. The Ottoman lines resist a British attack.
6 July: Battle of Aqaba. Arab rebels led by Auda ibu Tayi and Lawrence of
Arabia seize the Jordanian port of Aqaba. Its seizure allowed for the transport of
an Arab army further north and also relieved pressure on British forces in
Palestine. It effectively isolated the Turkish forces in Medina.
31 October-7 November: Third Battle of Gaza. The British break through the
Ottoman lines and finally capture the city. The battle came after the Egyptian
Expeditionary Force (EEF) victory at the Battle of Beersheba had ended the
stalemate in Southern Palestine.
8 November: Charge at Huj by units of the 5th Mounted Brigade, against a
rearguard position of German, Austrian and Turkish artillery and infantry armed
with machine guns. The charge is claimed to be one of the last British cavalry
charges and was immortalised in a watercolour painting by Lady Butler.
13 November: Battle of Mughar Ridge. British and allies cut the Jaffa to
Jerusalem railway.
17 November-30 December: Battle of Jerusalem. Enabled the Allies to
establish a strategically strong defensive line which remained in place until mid
September 1918 when the advance to Damascus and Aleppo took place.
11 December: The British enter Jerusalem with General Edmund Allenby
entering the Old City on foot through the Jaffa Gate instead of horse or vehicles
to show respect for the holy city. He was the first Christian in many centuries to
control Jerusalem. David Lloyd George described the capture as "a Christmas
present for the British people".
1918
February to September: Allied forces occupy the Jordan Rift Valley.
19-21 February: British assault and capture Jericho.
21 March- 2 April: First Transjordan attack on Amman.
19-25 September: Battle of Megiddo (aka Battle of Armageddon or Rout of
Nablus).
22 September: British capture Jisr ed Damieh in the Battle of Sharon.
20 September: Capture of Jenin, Afulah and Beisan.
25 September: British capture Tiberias during the Battle of Sharon.
26 September-1 October: British enter Damascus.
This was the final Allied offensive of the Sinai and Palestine Campaign and
resulted in many miles of territory being captured by the Allies together with a
number of cities including Damascus.
23-30 October: Battle of Sharqat was the final battle of the Mesopotamian
Campaign.
30 October: Armistice of Mudros. This ended hostilities, at noon the next day, in
the Middle Eastern theatre between the Ottoman Empire and the Allies.
1919
10 January: Fakhri Pasha surrenders at Medina.
ASIAN FRONT
1914
5 August: First shot fired by Allied troops – German Steamer SS Pfalz surrenders
after being fired on by Fort Nepean, south of Melbourne, Australia.
27 August–7 November: Battle of Tsingtao. British and Japanese forces
capture the German-controlled port of Tsingtao in China.
30 August: New Zealand occupies German Samoa (later Western Samoa).
11 September: Australian forces occupy German New Guinea.
22 September: Bombardment of Papeete. The German armoured cruisers SMS
Scharnhorst and Gneisenau entered the port of Papeete on the island of Tahiti
and sank the French gunboat Zélée and freighter Walkure before bombarding the
town's fortifications.
22 September: German Light Cruiser Emden attacks Madras.
No further action.
THE WAR AT SEA
1914
28 August: Royal Navy wins the First Battle of Heligoland Bight, North Sea.
13 September: SMS Hela – German cruiser was torpedoed and sunk by the
British submarine HMS E9. She was the first German ship sunk by a British
submarine in the war.
22 September: Bombardment of Papeete. The German armoured cruisers SMS
Scharnhorst and Gneisenau entered the port of Papeete on the island of Tahiti
and sank the French gunboat Zélée and freighter Walkure before bombarding the
town's fortifications.
22 September: German Light Cruiser Emden attacks Madras.
31 October: HMS Hermes a cruiser converted into an experimental seaplane
tender in 1913 was sunk by a U-27 in the Straits of Dover.
1 November: Battle of Coronel off the coast of central Chile. Von Spee's
German cruiser squadron defeats a Royal Navy squadron under Christopher
Cradock.
2 November: United Kingdom begins the naval blockade of Germany.
9 November: Battle of Cocos, northeast Indian Ocean. The Australian cruiser
Sydney destroys the German cruiser Emden.
8 December: Battle of the Falklands. Von Spee's German cruiser squadron is
defeated by the Royal Navy. The British, embarrassed by a defeat at the Battle of
Coronel, sent a large force to track down and destroy the German cruiser
squadron responsible. Admiral von Spee went down with his flagship, the
Scharnhorst, along with all hands.
SS Great Britain: built by Brunel in 1843. Involved in the Battle of the Falklands in
1914
16 December: German fleet shells Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby.
HMS Hermes was a Highflyer-class cruiser launched in 1898, converted into the
first experimental seaplane tender in 1913 and sunk by a German U-boat in
1914.
1915
24 January: Battle of Dogger Bank between squadrons of the British Grand
Fleet (commanded by David Beatty) and the German High Seas Fleet.
4 February: Germany begins unrestricted submarine warfare against merchant
vessels.
14 March: Battle of Más a Tierra. Fought near the Chilean island of Más a Tierra,
the battle saw the last remnant of the German East Asia Squadron destroyed,
when SMS Dresden was sunk.
7 May: British liner Lusitania, owned by Cunard, is sunk by German submarine
U-20 8 miles off the Old Head of Kinsale, Ireland (in the Fastnet shipping region)
in 1915. It was heading from New York to Liverpool with 1,959 people on board
under the command of Captain Turner. It was known as ‘the Greyhound of the
sea’. American outrage forced Germany to withdraw its ‘sink on sight’ policy (until
1917).
15 May: John Fisher, the First Sea Lord resigned amidst bitter arguments with
the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, over Gallipoli, causing
Churchill's resignation too.
1 September: Germany suspends unrestricted submarine warfare.
1916
24 January: Reinhard Scheer is appointed commander of Germany's High Seas
Fleet.
1 February: Zeppelin L 19 crashed in North Sea while returning from her first
bombing raid on the UK. Her crew survived the crash, but drowned after the crew
of the British fishing vessel King Stephen refused to rescue them. At the time this
was a widely reported and notorious incident.
1 March: Germany resumes unrestricted submarine warfare.
10 May: Germany suspends unrestricted submarine warfare.
31 May-1 June: Battle of Jutland between Britain's Grand Fleet and Germany's
High Seas Fleet. It was the largest naval battle and the only full-scale clash of
battleships in the war.
The Grand Fleet was commanded by British Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, and the
High Seas Fleet by German Vice-Admiral Reinhard Scheer.
The High Seas Fleet's intention was to lure out, trap and destroy a portion of the
Grand Fleet, as the German naval force was insufficient to openly engage the
entire British fleet.
On 31 May, Sir David Beatty encountered Franz Hipper's battlecruiser force and
Hipper successfully drew the British vanguard into the path of the High Seas
Fleet. Beatty sighted the larger force and turned back towards the British main
fleet but lost two battlecruisers (Queen Mary and Indefatigable). As Beatty
withdrew he in turn drew the German fleet in pursuit towards the main British
positions.
The two fleets – totalling 250 ships between them – directly engaged twice.
Fourteen British and eleven German ships were sunk, with considerable loss of
life (British lost 6,094 seamen; the Germans 2,551). Under the cover of darkness
Scheer broke through the British light forces forming the rearguard of the Grand
Fleet and returned to port. Both sides claimed victory. The battlecruiser Invincible
was lost in the second phase of the battle. Germans lost one battlecruiser –
Lutzow.
Ship losses at Jutland:
British
113,300 tons sunk:
Battlecruisers Indefatigable, Queen Mary, Invincible
Armoured cruisers Black Prince, Warrior, Defence
Flotilla leaders Tipperary
Destroyers Shark, Sparrowhawk, Turbulent, Ardent, Fortune, Nomad, Nestor
German
62,300 tons sunk:
Battlecruiser Lützow
Pre-Dreadnought Pommern
Light cruisers Frauenlob, Elbing, Rostock, Wiesbaden
Destroyers (Heavy torpedo-boats) V48, S35, V27, V4, V29
The High seas Fleet curtails expeditions into the North Sea and mainly
concentrates on Baltic operations.
5 June: HMS Hampshire is sunk off the Orkney Islands; Lord Kitchener dies on
his way to Russia.
21 November: HMHS Britannic (sister ship of RMS Olympic and RMS Titanic)
sinks after hitting a German mine.
25 November: David Beatty replaces John Jellicoe as commander of the Grand
Fleet. Jellicoe becomes First Lord of the Sea.
1917
1 February: Germany resumes unrestricted submarine warfare
17 November: Second Battle of Heligoland Bight. An inconclusive action
following British attack on German minesweepers.
6 December: SS Mont-Blanc was a French freighter which exploded while
carrying ammunition in Halifax Harbour causing the Halifax Explosion which
killed 2000 people. The explosion was caused by a collision with the Norwegian
ship SS Imo.
1918
April: Dover Patrol raids Zeebrugge, to sink blockships in the canal entrance to
trap U-Boats, which closed the canal for a short time.
20 October: Germany suspends submarine warfare.
29 October: Germany's High Seas Fleet mutinies.
9 November: HMS Britannia torpedoed and sunk.
14 November: German U-boats interned.
21 November: Germany's High Seas Fleet surrendered to the United Kingdom.
1919
21 June: German High Seas Fleet (53 ships) scuttled in Scapa Flow with nine
deaths, the last casualties of the war.
General:
Kiel was the base for the German imperial fleet.
Scapa Flow was the main base for British fleet.
Dover barrage: mines to stop U boats entering the Atlantic.
Q-ships, also known as Q-boats, Decoy Vessels, Special Service Ships or
Mystery Ships, were heavily armed merchant ships with concealed weaponry,
designed to lure submarines into making surface attacks.
Convoy system dramatically cut losses of shipping by U boats.
THE WAR IN THE AIR
1914
5 August: Zeppelin VI bombed Liège.
24/25 August: Zeppelin IX bombed Antwerp, killing five people.
1915
19 January: First Zeppelin raid on Great Britain. Two Zeppelins, L 3 and L 4,
intended to attack Humberside but, diverted by strong winds, eventually dropped
their bombs on Great Yarmouth, Sheringham, King's Lynn and the surrounding
villages, killing four.
20 March: Two Zeppelins bombed Paris, killing one and wounding eight.
31 May: LZ 38 on the first raid against London. In total some 120 bombs were
dropped on a line stretching from Stoke Newington south to Stepney and then
north toward Leytonstone. Seven people were killed and 35 injured.
6–7 June: LZ 37 was intercepted in the air by R. A. J. Warneford, who dropped
six bombs on the airship, setting it on fire. All but one of the crew died. Warneford
was awarded the Victoria Cross for his achievement.
13 October: a five-Zeppelin raid was launched by the German Navy which
became know as the "Theatreland Raid”. L 15 began bombing over Charing
Cross, the first bombs striking the Lyceum Theatre and the corner of Exeter and
Wellington Streets, killing 17 and injuring 20. None of the other Zeppelins
reached central London: bombs fell on Woolwich, Guildford, Tonbridge, Croydon,
Hertford and an army camp near Folkestone. A total of 71 people were killed and
128 injured.
1916
There were 23 airship raids on Britain in 1916, in which 125 tons of bombs were
dropped, killing 293 people and injuring 691.
29 January: Another Zeppelin raid on Paris. LZ 79 killed 23 and injured another
30.
1 February: Zeppelin L 19 crashed in North Sea while returning from her first
bombing raid on the UK. Her crew survived the crash, but drowned after the crew
of the British fishing vessel King Stephen refused to rescue them. At the time this
was a widely reported and notorious incident.
1917
April: “Bloody April” - name given to the (largely successful) British air support
operations during the Battle of Arras, during which particularly heavy casualties
were suffered by the Royal Flying Corps at the hands of the German
Luftstreitkräfte.
13 June: First successful heavy bomber raid on London done by the Gotha G.IV.
1918
1 April: Royal Air Force founded by combining the Royal Flying Corps and the
Royal Naval Air Service
1919
23 June: a week before the Treaty of Versailles was signed, many Zeppelin
crews destroyed their airships in their halls in order to prevent delivery, following
the example of the German fleet which had been scuttled two days before in
Scapa Flow.
General:
Zeppelins were known as ‘the baby killers’
Top flying aces
Name
Country
Victories
Little, Robert A.†
Australia
47
Bishop, Billy
Canada
72
Fonck, René
France
75
Germany
80
UK
61
von Richthofen, Manfred†
Mannock, Edward†
A total of 84 Zeppelins were built during the war. Over 60 were lost, roughly
evenly divided between accident and enemy action. 51 raids had been made on
England alone, in which 5,806 bombs were dropped, killing 557 people and
injuring 1,358 while causing damage estimated at £1.5 million.
THE BRITISH HOME FRONT
1916
Military Service Act 1916 was the first time that legislation had been passed in
British military history introducing conscription.
1917
The Silvertown explosion occurred at a munitions factory when 50 tons of TNT
exploded killing 73 people.
1917
1 July: a substantial part of the National Shell Filling Factory at Chilwell in
Nottinghamshire was destroyed in an explosion of eight tons of TNT. In all 134
people were killed.
Munitions factory at Gretna employed 30,000
(also see The War in the Air above)
MISCELLANEOUS
Georges Clemenceau – leader of France during WWI, known as ‘the tiger’.
German Empire was abolished following the nation's defeat in WWI.
15 million people died in WWI.
USA sold Liberty Bonds in WWI to pay for the war.
Denmark, Norway and Sweden were neutral in WWI.
Noel Pemberton Billing was known during the First World War for his
homophobic conspiracy theories. He was responsible for the foundation of the
firm that became Supermarine.
Big Bertha was named after Bertha Krupp, heiress and owner of the Krupp
industrial empire.
Young women handed out white feathers to able-bodied young men not in
uniform.
During World War I, Wadhurst in East Sussex lost 149 men, out of a total village
population of 3500.
Private Harry Farr was a British soldier who was executed during World War I for
cowardice at age 25. He was granted a pardon in 2006.
Spartacus League was a Marxist revolutionary movement organized in Germany
during World War I.
Poilu – an informal term for a French infantryman, meaning, literally, ‘hairy one’.
Doughboy – an informal term for a member of the United States Army or Marine
Corps, especially members of the American Expeditionary Forces.
Alvin York (known as ‘Seargeant York’): 1918 war hero who was awarded the
Medal of Honour for leading an attack on a German machine gun nest.