In 1914, the tensions generated by international rivalries exploded into general war. The spark that led to the explosion occurred in the Bosnian town of Sarajevo where Serb terrorists assassinated Austrian crowned prince Franz Ferdinand. Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. And an intricate chain of alliances began to draw the great powers into the war. Two sides formed the Allies and the Central Powers. Russia was first to mobilized its army coming to the aid of Serbia and provoking a German declaration of war.
Downed by a treaty with Russia, France mobilized too and when Germany violated the neutrality of Belgium, Britain declared war. Other European powers were soon drawn into the conflict and eventually it turned into a global war with the United States joining the Allies in 1970 combat again on August 4th.
When the German Task Force cross the Belgium border and soon overrun the country eight days later Austria invaded Serbia. Russia attacked Germany enhancing into East Prussia and also striking at Galicia in Austria-Hungary. After achieving a major breakthrough in France, the German offensive began to stall just 15 miles from Paris.
On the eastern front, the Germans met the Russians at Tannenberg and flip it on them a crushing defeat. On the western front, the Allies counter attacked at the Marne driving the Germans back and at the eve they fought off the German drive to capture the vital channel ports with both sides racing to the sea in an effort to outline the other. By Christmas in 1914, the western front was stabilized and the solid lines stretched from the English Channel to Switzerland.
On the eastern front, the Russians withdrew from East Prussia when the Germans attacked on November. In the caucus of this region, the Turk seized Russian and Persian territory but were driven back in January 1958. On the eastern front, Germany and Austria prepared for a new offensive. Launch in May it advanced the frontline 300 miles and resulted in 200 million Russian casualties.
New Allied offensives in France achieved little and at it the Germans initiated and used of poison gas with horrifying consequences. Italy entered the war in May, but in the series of fruitless drives at Austria and lost 280,000 men in six months. In an attempt to knock Turkey out of the war, the Allies launch an invasion at Gallipoli but badly organized and were abandoned in 1916. In the Balkans, armies from Austria, Germany and Bulgaria finally overwhelmed all Serbia in resistance. The Germans renew their western offensive in 1916 attacking Verdun with the deliberate intention of meeting white to French army. The defensive Verdun left over half a million French casualties.
The Allies began their own counter offensive that the sum with the British used tanks for the first time but the attacks achieved little more than horrendous casualties. From the east, the Russians began the Brusilov Offensive across 300 mile wide front. It was finally checked from German reinforcements were rushed in from Verdun encourage by early Russian successors remaining a joint in the offensive but the country was eventually occupied by Austria-German forces.
The one major naval engagement of the war, the Battle of Jutland fought in May 1916 between the main British and German at least ended in the indecisively. Elsewhere, Allied Forces captured some Albanian territory but lost ground in Greece while Russia advanced in Turkey. The British also advanced in Mesopotamia and Colonel T.E. Lawrence soon to gain worldwide fame as Lawrence of Arabia helped organized an Arab revolt against the Turkish Empire. Anticipating a new Allied offensive in the spring of 1970, the Germans withdrew to the Hindenburg line and the attacks that followed French casualties were so heavy that soldiers resorted to mutiny.
Before the Germans could take advantage of the French setbacks, the British began a new offensive. They suffered 240,000 casualties of the third battle of eve. The Italians renew their attacks at Isonzo achieving some success at first but German troops were rushed to the front and driven back in catastropic retreat, Italy lost 275 men as prisoners.
The Allies suffered the worst setback when revolution toppled the czar. As the Russian army disintegrated, the Germans recaptured lost ground and in December the Bolshevik government signed a truce with Germany effectively ending Russian participation in the war. In the Middle East, the British took Baghdad and breaking through Turkish defenses in Palestine entered Jerusalem.
By 1918, fresh American troops began to reach the western front in increasing numbers. The Germans planned the final assault before American men power could influence the outcome. Shifting forces from the Russian front, they began a series of thrust at the Allied lines and eventually reach the Marne again.
Newly arrived American troops staunched to one German offensive and in the counter attack seized Belleau Wood. The Germans renewed their efforts but with American troops arriving at the rate of 300,000 a month Allied countered attacks were repulse staunch. Having suffered half a million casualties in five months the German army was spent and the Allies took the initiative. The Americans attack St. Mihiel and also spearhead at the Meuse Argonne offensive. Although the Central Powers occupied huge areas of Russia their war effort was collapsing. The Allies advanced in Italy in the Balkans and in the Middle East and continue their offensive on the western front. With it forces in retreat Germany asked for armistice.
On November 11, 1918 the fighting stops. The Paris Peace Conference of 1919 imposed deep reparation on the Central Powers, withdrew the map of Europe in the Middle East and so deceives for a second world conflict that would erupt 20 years later.
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services