World War I was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from July 28, 1914 to November 11, 1918. More than 70 million military personnel participated, making it one of the largest wars in history.
The major world leaders of World War I were all cousins. Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, King George V of England, and Czar Nicholas II of Russia. Their grandmother was Queen Victoria.
An estimated nine million combatants and seven million civilians died as a direct result of the war with losses exacerbated by technological developments and the tactical stalemate caused by trench warfare.
On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austrian throne, was assassinated at Sarajevo by a Serb. World War I started exactly a month later on July 28, when Austria declared war on Serbia. The first shots were fired the following day at 01.00 by the Austro-Hungarian river monitor SMS Bodrog on Serbian defenses near Belgrade.
The major world leaders of World War I were all cousins. Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, King George V of England, and Czar Nicholas II of Russia. Their grandmother was Queen Victoria.
An estimated nine million combatants and seven million civilians died as a direct result of the war with losses exacerbated by technological developments and the tactical stalemate caused by trench warfare.
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| Royal Irish Rifles in a communications trench, first day on the Somme, 1916 |
OPENING HOSTILITIES
On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austrian throne, was assassinated at Sarajevo by a Serb. World War I started exactly a month later on July 28, when Austria declared war on Serbia. The first shots were fired the following day at 01.00 by the Austro-Hungarian river monitor SMS Bodrog on Serbian defenses near Belgrade.
Russia felt it necessary to back Serbia and as Russia mobilized, Germany declared war on Russia in support of Austria-Hungary. France ordered full mobilisation in support of Russia on August 2.
Germany wanted to take a shortcut to France through Belgium. When this was refused, German forces invaded Belgium. Adhering to the terms in the 1839 Treaty of London, the United Kingdom declared war on Germany on August 4, 1914, in response to the latter's invasion of Belgium.
The first battle of World War 1 took place on August 16, 1914, just twelve days after Germany’s unsatisfactory reply to Britain’s 1914 ultimatum over Belgium. It consisted of a British steamer, HMS Gwendolen, firing a single shot at its German rival, the Hermann Von Wissmann, on Lake Nyasa (now Lake Malawi) in Africa, and taking the captain "prisoner." The two captains had been drinking buddies for years, and weren't about to let the war ruin it.
On August 22, 1914, a British cavalryman fired in anger during combat, the first time that had happened on mainland Europe since the Battle of Waterloo 99 years earlier.
The German advance reached within a few miles of Paris but an allied counterattack at Marne drove them back to the River Aisne; the opposing lines then settled to trench warfare. The World War 1 Western Front stalemate had began.
In the East, the Russians had attacked the Germans. The Russians at first pushed back the Germans, but then the Germans defeated the Russians at the Battle of Tannenberg, which was fought between August 17 and September 2, 1914. The battle ended with the almost complete destruction of the Russian Second Army.
By September 16, 1914, the Allied Powers had made significant gains in the German African colonies. Togo and Cameroon were both in Allied hands, and German Southwest Africa (Namibia) was under siege. German East Africa (Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi) was the only German African colony that was not under Allied control.
The first bombing expedition took place in early October 1914 when British planes, taking off from Dunkirk, bombed Cologne railway station and destroyed Germany's latest Zeppelin in its shed at Düsseldorf.
The Germans disguised one of their ocean liners as the British ship, the RMS Carmania and sent the disguised ship to ambush the British ones. Unluckily, the first ship it encountered on September 14, 1914 was the real RMS Carmania, which promptly sank them.
By the end of 1914, the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, marked by a long series of trench lines that changed little until 1917 (the Eastern Front, by contrast, was marked by much greater exchanges of territory).
Encouraged by the Allied invasion of Turkey in April 1915, Italy joined the Allies and declared war on Austria-Hungary on May 23, 1915. Fifteen months later, Italy declared war on Germany.
World War I was the first major war in which airplanes, submarines or (U-boats) and tanks were important weapons.
German fighter pilot Kurt Wintgens became the first person to shoot down another plane in aerial combat in 1915.
Germany built 360 U-boats during the First World War, which destroyed more than 11,000,000 tons of Allied shipping.
The first tanks were made by the British Royal Navy and French motor manufacturers during World War I as a way of attacking enemy trenches The use of tanks in a surprise attack in the Battle of the Somme by the British caused fear among the German soldiers but their small numbers and poor reliability prevented them from making much difference.
The Battle of the Somme commenced on July 1, 1916, and ended on November 18, 1916. The battle was named after the French River Somme where it was fought.
During the Battle of the Somme, a German corporal named Adolf Hitler was wounded in the left thigh when a shell exploded in the dispatch runners' dugout. He returned to the front at the beginning of March 1917.
Overall, more than 1.5 million people either died, were wounded or went missing during the Battle of the Somme. It was the bloodiest battle in World War I, especially from the point of view of Britain.
The Battle of Verdun was the longest battle of World War I. It started on February 21, 1916 and ended on December 18, 1916 when the French defeated German forces around the city of Verdun-sur-Meuse in northeast France. With a duration of 303 days it was the longest battle in human history.
During World War I, opposing sides sat in trenches for years on end, blasting each other to oblivion. After a horse ran loose into No Man's Land and got shot, French soldiers had the idea of replacing it with a fake papier-mache horse with a sniper inside. He also had a telephone wire so he could message back to the trenches on enemy movement. The ploy was discovered after three days.
Germany wanted to take a shortcut to France through Belgium. When this was refused, German forces invaded Belgium. Adhering to the terms in the 1839 Treaty of London, the United Kingdom declared war on Germany on August 4, 1914, in response to the latter's invasion of Belgium.
The first battle of World War 1 took place on August 16, 1914, just twelve days after Germany’s unsatisfactory reply to Britain’s 1914 ultimatum over Belgium. It consisted of a British steamer, HMS Gwendolen, firing a single shot at its German rival, the Hermann Von Wissmann, on Lake Nyasa (now Lake Malawi) in Africa, and taking the captain "prisoner." The two captains had been drinking buddies for years, and weren't about to let the war ruin it.
On August 22, 1914, a British cavalryman fired in anger during combat, the first time that had happened on mainland Europe since the Battle of Waterloo 99 years earlier.
The German advance reached within a few miles of Paris but an allied counterattack at Marne drove them back to the River Aisne; the opposing lines then settled to trench warfare. The World War 1 Western Front stalemate had began.
In the East, the Russians had attacked the Germans. The Russians at first pushed back the Germans, but then the Germans defeated the Russians at the Battle of Tannenberg, which was fought between August 17 and September 2, 1914. The battle ended with the almost complete destruction of the Russian Second Army.
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| German infantry during the battle of Tannenberg By Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-R36715 |
By September 16, 1914, the Allied Powers had made significant gains in the German African colonies. Togo and Cameroon were both in Allied hands, and German Southwest Africa (Namibia) was under siege. German East Africa (Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi) was the only German African colony that was not under Allied control.
The first bombing expedition took place in early October 1914 when British planes, taking off from Dunkirk, bombed Cologne railway station and destroyed Germany's latest Zeppelin in its shed at Düsseldorf.
On November 1, 1914, The Ottoman Empire entered World War I on the side of the Central Powers, which included Germany and Austria-Hungary. This opened up the Middle East front, as The Ottoman Empire controlled much of the region at the time.
The Ottoman entry into the war had a major impact on the Middle East. British and French forces were forced to divert troops away from the Western Front to fight in the Middle East. This helped to prolong the war and led to millions of casualties.
The Germans disguised one of their ocean liners as the British ship, the RMS Carmania and sent the disguised ship to ambush the British ones. Unluckily, the first ship it encountered on September 14, 1914 was the real RMS Carmania, which promptly sank them.
1915 -1917
By the end of 1914, the Western Front settled into a battle of attrition, marked by a long series of trench lines that changed little until 1917 (the Eastern Front, by contrast, was marked by much greater exchanges of territory).
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| Trenches of the 11th Cheshire Regiment at Ovillers-la-Boisselle, on the Somme, July 1916 |
Encouraged by the Allied invasion of Turkey in April 1915, Italy joined the Allies and declared war on Austria-Hungary on May 23, 1915. Fifteen months later, Italy declared war on Germany.
World War I was the first major war in which airplanes, submarines or (U-boats) and tanks were important weapons.
German fighter pilot Kurt Wintgens became the first person to shoot down another plane in aerial combat in 1915.
Germany built 360 U-boats during the First World War, which destroyed more than 11,000,000 tons of Allied shipping.
The first tanks were made by the British Royal Navy and French motor manufacturers during World War I as a way of attacking enemy trenches The use of tanks in a surprise attack in the Battle of the Somme by the British caused fear among the German soldiers but their small numbers and poor reliability prevented them from making much difference.
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| British Mark I male tank near Thiepval, 25 September 1916 |
The Battle of the Somme commenced on July 1, 1916, and ended on November 18, 1916. The battle was named after the French River Somme where it was fought.
During the Battle of the Somme, a German corporal named Adolf Hitler was wounded in the left thigh when a shell exploded in the dispatch runners' dugout. He returned to the front at the beginning of March 1917.
Overall, more than 1.5 million people either died, were wounded or went missing during the Battle of the Somme. It was the bloodiest battle in World War I, especially from the point of view of Britain.
The Battle of Verdun was the longest battle of World War I. It started on February 21, 1916 and ended on December 18, 1916 when the French defeated German forces around the city of Verdun-sur-Meuse in northeast France. With a duration of 303 days it was the longest battle in human history.
During World War I, opposing sides sat in trenches for years on end, blasting each other to oblivion. After a horse ran loose into No Man's Land and got shot, French soldiers had the idea of replacing it with a fake papier-mache horse with a sniper inside. He also had a telephone wire so he could message back to the trenches on enemy movement. The ploy was discovered after three days.
The British fired giant stink bombs at the German trenches, which smelled terrible but were harmless. This was done to compel the Germans to put on gas masks, which made them less effective fighters, prior to an assault.
After the sinking of seven US merchant ships by submarines, the American President, Woodrow Wilson, called for war on Germany on April 2, 1917, which the US Congress declared four days later
Continuing discontent with the cost of the war led to the creation of the Soviet Socialist Republic, and Russia's signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany on March 3, 1918, ending Russia's involvement in the war.
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk allowed the transfer of large numbers of German troops from the East to the Western Front, resulting in the German March 1918 Offensive. The operation commenced on March 21, 1918 with an attack on British forces near Saint-Quentin. German forces achieved an unprecedented advance of 60 kilometres (37 miles).
The Allies appointed Ferdinand Foch Supreme commander the following month, but by June the Allies had lost all gains since 1915 and Germans were on the Marne.
By mid-1918 trained American forces had begun arriving at the front in large numbers; ultimately the American Expeditionary Force would reach some two million troops.
The Allied counteroffensive, known as the Hundred Days Offensive, began on August 8, 1918, with the Battle of Amiens. By now the American Expeditionary Force was present in France in large numbers and invigorated the Allied armies. The Allies pushed the German troops back after their gains from the Spring Offensive. The Germans eventually retreated to the Hindenburg Line.
In Italy, at Vittorio Veneto, the British and Italians finally defeated the Austrians on November 3, 1918. Their victory marked the end of the war on the Italian Front and secured the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
German captivation began with naval mutinies at Kiel, followed by uprising in major cities. Kaiser Wilhelm abdicated, and on November 11, 1918 the Armistice was signed.
English soldiers were nicknamed "Tommies" during World War I because the example name on the forms soldiers were required to fill out was Thomas Atkins, the U.S. equivalent of John Smith.
Conditions on the Eastern Front got so bad that wolves would start attacking groups of soldiers. This led to a temporary truce between Germans and Russians so they could deal with the wolves attacking them.
The first and the last British soldiers to die in World War I are coincidentally buried only 5 meters apart.
Mikhail Krichevsky was the longest-living veteran of World War I. When he died in 2008 at age 111, he was the last surviving veteran of the Tsar's army.
By 1918, British food stocks were dangerously low because of German submarine attacks. To deal with the shortage of meat, the government ordered restaurants to have two meatless days per week.
Meanwhile back in the US, because of food shortages, the food administrator, Herbert Hoover called for one meatless, two wheat-less and two pork-less days each week. Americans planted gardens and developed new recipes for cakes containing no eggs or butter and served wheat-free and meat-free meals.
Towards the end of World War I a short haircut for women, called the bob, was considered scandalous but gained popularity because of its practicality for women working outside the home.
The war was a contributory factor in the 1918 influenza epidemic, which caused between 50 and 100 million deaths worldwide.
One out of every three British males between the ages of 17 and 35 was killed in World War I.
World War I had an overall casualty rate of 57.5%. The Russian, French, and Romanian Armies had casualty rates of over 70%.
The armistice between the German Empire and the Allies was signed at 5 am in a railway carriage in the Forest of Compiègne of France on November 11, 1918. It came into force "at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month."
On November 11, 1918 on the last day of World War I , General Pershing sent American troops to fight the Germans to "teach them a lesson" even though he knew an armistice was signed. Over 3,000 Americans were killed, wounded, or captured.
The last French casualty of World War I, Augustin Trébuchon, was killed 15 minutes before the ceasefire at 11 o'clock when he attempted to tell his fellow soldiers that hot soup would be served after the armistice took effect.
The last soldier to be killed during World War 1 was at 10.59am on November 11, 1918 when American Henry Gunther charged a German road black. Knowing of the closeness of the ceasefire, the Germans tried to wave him away, but he went on firing, so the Germans shot him.
At 4:50 a.m. French Army clerk Henri Deledicq finished typing the peace treaty that would end World War I. He had put the carbon paper in backwards. Ten minutes later, in a railroad car in France, military leaders signed copies of an armistice that were completely unreadable.
The German High Seas Fleet surrendered to the Royal Navy on November 21, 1918, ten days after World War I had ended. 70 German warships met well over 100 allied warships and sailed into captivity. It was the largest gathering of warships in close company in history.
After four years of blood and carnage with numerous pointless losses of life, the First World War ended in 1918. The ordeal of war accelerated disbelief among men and in Britain, church and chapel would never regain the hold they had before 1914.
Liberal thinking, which emphasized the progression of man, took a battering as well. The many atrocities and barbarous acts revealed that man is at heart a depraved, sinful creature who without God's grace would be lost.
In 1919 Karl Barth (1886-1968), a young Swiss Theologian, began working through the problems posed by the World War and the failure of liberal theology to account for such a dark episode in human history. The outcome of this was The Epistle to the Romans, which opened the way for a revival of orthodox Protestantism based on the Bible.
The Treaty of Versailles, which formally ended the First World War, was signed in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles Palace on June 28, 1919. Germany surrendered Alsace-Lorraine to France, large area in the east to Poland, and made similar cessions to Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Denmark and Lithuania.
Germany also agreed to pay a huge amount of reparations for war damage. The English economist John Maynard Keynes thought it was a great mistake to force such harsh measures on the German people, but his advice was ignored. After the war, Germany set up the Weimar Republic, which suffered an economic collapse, with the hyperinflation of its currency. Later, when Adolf Hitler became Chancellor he overruled the treaty.
Germany finally finished paying off debts from reparations required in the post-World War I Treaty of Versailles in 2010 - 92 years after the end of the war.
The Treaty of Lausanne was signed in 1923 to settle the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire, establishing the boundaries of modern Turkey.
Australian journalist Edward George Honey first proposed the idea of a moment of silence to commemorate The Armistice of World War I in a letter to a London newspaper in May 1919, As a result in the United Kingdom and other countries within the Commonwealth, a two-minute silence is observed as part of Remembrance Day to remember those who lost their lives. In the United States the memorial day was called Armistice Day and is now Veterans Day.
Unresolved rivalries at the end of the conflict contributed to the outbreak of World War II about twenty years later.
After the sinking of seven US merchant ships by submarines, the American President, Woodrow Wilson, called for war on Germany on April 2, 1917, which the US Congress declared four days later
1918
Continuing discontent with the cost of the war led to the creation of the Soviet Socialist Republic, and Russia's signing of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany on March 3, 1918, ending Russia's involvement in the war.
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk allowed the transfer of large numbers of German troops from the East to the Western Front, resulting in the German March 1918 Offensive. The operation commenced on March 21, 1918 with an attack on British forces near Saint-Quentin. German forces achieved an unprecedented advance of 60 kilometres (37 miles).
The Allies appointed Ferdinand Foch Supreme commander the following month, but by June the Allies had lost all gains since 1915 and Germans were on the Marne.
By mid-1918 trained American forces had begun arriving at the front in large numbers; ultimately the American Expeditionary Force would reach some two million troops.
 |
| Two American soldiers run towards a bunker. |
The Allied counteroffensive, known as the Hundred Days Offensive, began on August 8, 1918, with the Battle of Amiens. By now the American Expeditionary Force was present in France in large numbers and invigorated the Allied armies. The Allies pushed the German troops back after their gains from the Spring Offensive. The Germans eventually retreated to the Hindenburg Line.
In Italy, at Vittorio Veneto, the British and Italians finally defeated the Austrians on November 3, 1918. Their victory marked the end of the war on the Italian Front and secured the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
 |
| Italian cavalry reaches Trento on 3 November 1918 |
German captivation began with naval mutinies at Kiel, followed by uprising in major cities. Kaiser Wilhelm abdicated, and on November 11, 1918 the Armistice was signed.
SOLDIER'S EXPERIENCES
English soldiers were nicknamed "Tommies" during World War I because the example name on the forms soldiers were required to fill out was Thomas Atkins, the U.S. equivalent of John Smith.
Conditions on the Eastern Front got so bad that wolves would start attacking groups of soldiers. This led to a temporary truce between Germans and Russians so they could deal with the wolves attacking them.
The first and the last British soldiers to die in World War I are coincidentally buried only 5 meters apart.
Mikhail Krichevsky was the longest-living veteran of World War I. When he died in 2008 at age 111, he was the last surviving veteran of the Tsar's army.
CIVILIAN LIFE
By 1918, British food stocks were dangerously low because of German submarine attacks. To deal with the shortage of meat, the government ordered restaurants to have two meatless days per week.
Meanwhile back in the US, because of food shortages, the food administrator, Herbert Hoover called for one meatless, two wheat-less and two pork-less days each week. Americans planted gardens and developed new recipes for cakes containing no eggs or butter and served wheat-free and meat-free meals.
Towards the end of World War I a short haircut for women, called the bob, was considered scandalous but gained popularity because of its practicality for women working outside the home.
The war was a contributory factor in the 1918 influenza epidemic, which caused between 50 and 100 million deaths worldwide.
STATISTICS
One out of every three British males between the ages of 17 and 35 was killed in World War I.
World War I had an overall casualty rate of 57.5%. The Russian, French, and Romanian Armies had casualty rates of over 70%.
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| World War I: Mobilized forces per total population (in %). By Radom1967 |
THE ARMISTICE
The armistice between the German Empire and the Allies was signed at 5 am in a railway carriage in the Forest of Compiègne of France on November 11, 1918. It came into force "at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month."
On November 11, 1918 on the last day of World War I , General Pershing sent American troops to fight the Germans to "teach them a lesson" even though he knew an armistice was signed. Over 3,000 Americans were killed, wounded, or captured.
The last French casualty of World War I, Augustin Trébuchon, was killed 15 minutes before the ceasefire at 11 o'clock when he attempted to tell his fellow soldiers that hot soup would be served after the armistice took effect.
The last soldier to be killed during World War 1 was at 10.59am on November 11, 1918 when American Henry Gunther charged a German road black. Knowing of the closeness of the ceasefire, the Germans tried to wave him away, but he went on firing, so the Germans shot him.
At 4:50 a.m. French Army clerk Henri Deledicq finished typing the peace treaty that would end World War I. He had put the carbon paper in backwards. Ten minutes later, in a railroad car in France, military leaders signed copies of an armistice that were completely unreadable.
The German High Seas Fleet surrendered to the Royal Navy on November 21, 1918, ten days after World War I had ended. 70 German warships met well over 100 allied warships and sailed into captivity. It was the largest gathering of warships in close company in history.
AFTERMATH
After four years of blood and carnage with numerous pointless losses of life, the First World War ended in 1918. The ordeal of war accelerated disbelief among men and in Britain, church and chapel would never regain the hold they had before 1914.
Liberal thinking, which emphasized the progression of man, took a battering as well. The many atrocities and barbarous acts revealed that man is at heart a depraved, sinful creature who without God's grace would be lost.
In 1919 Karl Barth (1886-1968), a young Swiss Theologian, began working through the problems posed by the World War and the failure of liberal theology to account for such a dark episode in human history. The outcome of this was The Epistle to the Romans, which opened the way for a revival of orthodox Protestantism based on the Bible.
The Treaty of Versailles, which formally ended the First World War, was signed in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles Palace on June 28, 1919. Germany surrendered Alsace-Lorraine to France, large area in the east to Poland, and made similar cessions to Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Denmark and Lithuania.
Germany also agreed to pay a huge amount of reparations for war damage. The English economist John Maynard Keynes thought it was a great mistake to force such harsh measures on the German people, but his advice was ignored. After the war, Germany set up the Weimar Republic, which suffered an economic collapse, with the hyperinflation of its currency. Later, when Adolf Hitler became Chancellor he overruled the treaty.
Germany finally finished paying off debts from reparations required in the post-World War I Treaty of Versailles in 2010 - 92 years after the end of the war.
The Treaty of Lausanne was signed in 1923 to settle the partitioning of the Ottoman Empire, establishing the boundaries of modern Turkey.
Australian journalist Edward George Honey first proposed the idea of a moment of silence to commemorate The Armistice of World War I in a letter to a London newspaper in May 1919, As a result in the United Kingdom and other countries within the Commonwealth, a two-minute silence is observed as part of Remembrance Day to remember those who lost their lives. In the United States the memorial day was called Armistice Day and is now Veterans Day.
Unresolved rivalries at the end of the conflict contributed to the outbreak of World War II about twenty years later.
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