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WWI saw the first use of tanks on the battlefield which made some significant breakthroughs. It also the use of flamethrowers, aircraft carriers, chemical warfare, gas masks and steel helmets.

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World War I, an international conflict that in 1914-18 embroiled most of the nations of Europe along with Russia, the United States, the Middle East, and other regions. The war pitted the Central Powers-mainly Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey-against the Allies-mainly France, Great Britain, Russia, Italy, Japan, and, from 1917, the United States. It ended with the defeat of the Central Powers. The war was virtually unprecedented in the slaughter, carnage, and destruction it caused.

World War I was one of the great watersheds of 20th-century geopolitical history. It led to the fall of four great imperial dynasties (in Germany, Russia, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey), resulted in the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, and, in its destabilization of European society, laid the groundwork for World War II.

The last surviving veterans of World War I were American serviceman Frank Buckles (died in February 2011), British-born Australian serviceman Claude Choules (died in May 2011), and British servicewoman Florence Green (died in February 2012), the last surviving veteran of the war.

The outbreak of war

With Serbia already much aggrandized by the two Balkan Wars (1912-13, 1913), Serbian nationalists turned their attention back to the idea of "liberating" the South Slavs of Austria-Hungary. Colonel Dragutin Dimitrijević, head of Serbia's military intelligence, was also, under the alias "Apis," head of the secret society Union or Death, pledged to the pursuit of this pan-Serbian ambition. Believing that the Serbs' cause would be served by the death of the Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir presumptive to the Austrian emperor Franz Joseph, and learning that the Archduke was about to visit Bosnia on a tour of military inspection, Apis plotted his assassination. Nikola Pašić, the Serbian prime minister and an enemy of Apis, heard of the plot and warned the Austrian government of it, but his message was too cautiously worded to be understood.

At 11:15 am on June 28, 1914, in the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo, Franz Ferdinand and his morganatic wife, Sophie, duchess of Hohenberg, were shot dead by a Bosnian Serb, Gavrilo Princip. The chief of the Austro-Hungarian general staff, Franz, Graf (count) Conrad von Hötzendorf, and the foreign minister, Leopold, Graf von Berchtold, saw the crime as the occasion for measures to humiliate Serbia and so to enhance Austria-Hungary's prestige in the Balkans. Conrad had already (October 1913) been assured by William II of Germany's support if Austria-Hungary should start a preventive war against Serbia. This assurance was confirmed in the week following the assassination, before William, on July 6, set off upon his annual cruise to the North Cape, off Norway.

The Austrians decided to present an unacceptable ultimatum to Serbia and then to declare war, relying on Germany to deter Russia from intervention. Though the terms of the ultimatum were finally approved on July 19, its delivery was postponed to the evening of July 23, since by that time the French president, Raymond Poincaré, and his premier, René Viviani, who had set off on a state visit to Russia on July 15, would be on their way home and therefore unable to concert an immediate reaction with their Russian allies. When the delivery was announced, on July 24, Russia declared that Austria-Hungary must not be allowed to crush Serbia.

Serbia replied to the ultimatum on July 25, accepting most of its demands but protesting against two of them-namely, that Serbian officials (unnamed) should be dismissed at Austria-Hungary's behest and that Austro-Hungarian officials should take part, on Serbian soil, in proceedings against organizations hostile to Austria-Hungary. Though Serbia offered to submit the issue to international arbitration, Austria-Hungary promptly severed diplomatic relations and ordered partial mobilization.

Home from his cruise on July 27, William learned on July 28 how Serbia had replied to the ultimatum. At once he instructed the German Foreign Office to tell Austria-Hungary that there was no longer any justification for war and that it should content itself with a temporary occupation of Belgrade. But, meanwhile, the German Foreign Office had been giving such encouragement to Berchtold that already on July 27 he had persuaded Franz Joseph to authorize war against Serbia. War was in fact declared on July 28, and Austro-Hungarian artillery began to bombard Belgrade the next day. Russia then ordered partial mobilization against Austria-Hungary, and on July 30, when Austria-Hungary was riposting conventionally with an order of mobilization on its Russian frontier, Russia ordered general mobilization. Germany, which since July 28 had still been hoping, in disregard of earlier warning hints from Great Britain, that Austria-Hungary's war against Serbia could be "localized" to the Balkans, was now disillusioned insofar as eastern Europe was concerned. On July 31 Germany sent a 24-hour ultimatum requiring Russia to halt its mobilization and an 18-hour ultimatum requiring France to promise neutrality in the event of war between Russia and Germany.

Both Russia and France predictably ignored these demands. On August 1 Germany ordered general mobilization and declared war against Russia, and France likewise ordered general mobilization. The next day Germany sent troops into Luxembourg and demanded from Belgium free passage for German troops across its neutral territory. On August 3 Germany declared war against France.

In the night of August 3-4 German forces invaded Belgium. Thereupon, Great Britain, which had no concern with Serbia and no express obligation to fight either for Russia or for France but was expressly committed to defend Belgium, on August 4 declared war against Germany.

Austria-Hungary declared war against Russia on August 5; Serbia against Germany on August 6; Montenegro against Austria-Hungary on August 7 and against Germany on August 12; France and Great Britain against Austria-Hungary on August 10 and on August 12, respectively; Japan against Germany on August 23; Austria-Hungary against Japan on August 25 and against Belgium on August 28.

Romania had renewed its secret anti-Russian alliance of 1883 with the Central Powers on February 26, 1914, but now chose to remain neutral. Italy had confirmed the Triple Alliance on December 7, 1912, but could now propound formal arguments for disregarding it: first, Italy was not obliged to support its allies in a war of aggression; second, the original treaty of 1882 had stated expressly that the alliance was not against England.

On September 5, 1914, Russia, France, and Great Britain concluded the Treaty of London, each promising not to make a separate peace with the Central Powers. Thenceforth, they could be called the Allied, or Entente, powers, or simply the Allies.

The outbreak of war in August 1914 was generally greeted with confidence and jubilation by the peoples of Europe, among whom it inspired a wave of patriotic feeling and celebration. Few people imagined how long or how disastrous a war between the great nations of Europe could be, and most believed that their country's side would be victorious within a matter of months. The war was welcomed either patriotically, as a defensive one imposed by national necessity, or idealistically, as one for upholding right against might, the sanctity of treaties, and international morality.

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World War I | History, Summary, Causes, Combatants, Casualties, Map, & Facts

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World War I, international conflict that in 1914-18 embroiled most of the nations of Europe along with Russia, the U.S., the Middle East, and other regions. It led to the fall of four great imperial dynasties and, in its destabilization of European society, laid the groundwork for World War II.

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What was life like in the trenches of World War I?

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There is a gathering consensus among historians that the introduction of the "landship" on World War 1 battlefields was an answer to the trench warfare stalemate. This meant adding greater mobility on the battlefield. Troops could rise out of their trenches and follow behind the metal giants that would lead the way through enemy barbed wire and shield the infantry from withering machine gun fire.

However, ten years prior to the war there were inventive minds that envisioned a motorized, armoured vehicle as an assault weapon, a mobile artillery platform, and not only as a tool for the infantry. In 1904, motorized cars were still a rarity, but engineers in Britain envisioned a larger engine to power a vehicle with mounted guns that could traverse inhospitable terrain. Essentially, a moving fort. The farm tractor was an ideal starting point. Their tracks operated against their built-in climbing face. The earliest tractor models were steam driven and useful in agriculture for threshing.

Converting the tractor for military use had a bumpy start. There were several demonstrations in 1907, 1908 and 1910 presented to the British Mechanical Transport Committee. King Edward attended one such event in 1908 and viewed a tractor in operation with a mock-up of a mounted gun. There was some interest in the concept, but the Royal Artillery officers were unimpressed and their negative appraisal won the day.

By 1915, a year into the war and the forces of both sides were so static that there were conversations between the opposing trenches. The battlefields were severely cratered by opposing bombardments from the large guns, but those guns could not be moved to forward positions because of the deep depressions and muddy ground conditions. That would rule out wheeled vehicles. The British sought tractors to pull the guns. However, the British owner of the patent, discouraged, had sold his rights to the American Holt Company---predecessor of the current, giant Caterpillar Inc. whose named was first coined by British soldiers. The British ordered the tractors from the Americans and this engendered a second look at the possibilities of the tank.

World War 1 Tanks

Winston Churchill, first Lord of the Admiralty, surprisingly presenting a war plan for the army, formed the Landship Committee to conduct trials for the development of "Little Willie". This was a line of Mark vehicles l through V that were forerunners of the tank. The "Little Willie" was ready for tests in 1915 with emphasis on its ability to pull loads on the scarred battle fields. The major setback was its poor ability to cross trenches. Engineers would solve that problem with the next generations of "Big Willies" and ultimately in the Mark IV line.

World War 1 Tanks World War 1 Tanks

The secrecy around the trials led to calling the vehicle a "tank" a term never before used. The first order rolled off the assembly line of Foster & Company, an agricultural equipment manufacturer, in February 1916.The Mark I was built low to the ground, and the 28 ton, armoured body was spread over a 26 foot length. There was a female (no side cannon) model that carried a crew of eight that manned 4 Vickers machine guns and one 8 mm Hotchkiss machine gun. The male model (side cannon) had a compartment on each side of the tank . Each housed a 6 pounder cannon. The fire power also included 3 additional Hotchkiss guns.

World War 1 Tanks

Although Great Britain and France were closely allied, and operated with integrated forces, there does not appear to have been cooperation between them in the development of the tank. However, France also was proceeding with tank development. Their vision was to use the tank as "assault artillery" to clear the field ahead as the infantry would advance behind its bulk.

The French referred to the tank as a "land battleship" (cuirrasse terreste). They and their allies made every effort to produce a viable armored weapon to support their infantry. Not so for the Germans and their Triple Alliance allies. The Germans built some tanks, but their focus was on anti-tank guns.

France was conducting experiments to create their "Land Battleship". In 1914, a farsighted Colonel Jean Baptiste Estienne noted:

"Victory in this war will belong to the belligerent who is the first to put a cannon on a vehicle capable of moving on all kinds of terrain". The French understood the need for mobility in a modern war. They had drafted 10,000 conscripts with transport for about 4,000 men. Problem solved: Six thousand were sent to the front in Parisian taxis made by Renault. That company would introduce the best tank of the war.

By the spring of 1915, they produced a battleship. The Frot-Laffley was a giant armoured vehicle that was so immobile that it had no battle field utility except as a barbed wire cutter. In the same year, they had to abandon their electrically powered vehicle that required an electric supply cable. This led them to an internal powers supply and a tractor base.

World War 1 Tanks World War 1 Tanks

The French had finally understood that the tank required continuous tracks--tank treads. Late in December 1915, they began using the Holt tractor base concept. Within months they ordered the production of 400 tanks from their domestic Schneider & Co. factories. They produced the CA1 and in quick succession the quite modern St.Chamont. Ultimately. they would outproduce the British.

World War 1 Tanks World War 1 Tanks

The Germans were on the cutting edge of military technology but made a poor attempt to produce a workable battle tank . Their efforts were aimed at anti tank warfare and a trench weapon capable of penetrating the enemy tank. ( Mauser guns)

Their singular effort in 1918 was the A7V with a speed of 3 mph. The behemoth carried a complement of 18 and a 57mm cannon. The Germans built only 20 and added to that small force some 50 tanks captured from the British. In contrast, the British Mark IV was manned by an 8 man crew.

World War 1 Tanks

Battle of Cambrai

November 21-December7 1917

In 1917, British General Alexander Haig concluded that tanks were best utilized en mass rather operating in small isolated group as at the battle of the Somme. At Cambrai, 400 tanks gathered for an attack in groups of 120 in teams of three. The Mark IV was the featured tank. British planes flew overhead to muffle the sounds of the gathering tank corps. It was now considered an independent arm of warfare. Below are German soldiers with captured Mark IV.

When the United States army reached Europe, they had no American made tanks. The commanding general of the American Expeditionary Force (AEF), John Pershing witnessed a successful tank assault at Cambrai, and was impressed with its potential. He assigned a young Lt. Col. George S. Patton to form a tank corps. Patton rapidly formed training schools in England and France. They were battle ready by September 1918. The American tank crews were now operating the light (8 tons)French Renaults with a 2 man crew and a small number of the British Mark V. Three tank brigades were organized.

Not only were the potential strengths for utilizing tanks noted at Cambrai, their weaknesses were also disclosed. A major problem was the light armor that exposed the tank to enemy artillery and rifle fire. World War 1 Tanks

The British may have noted the superior mobility of the lighter tank, and in 1917 introduced the Mark A Whippet. This tank could move at 10MPH and carried a weight of about 14 tons. It required a three man crew along with 3 Hotchkiss machine guns.

World War 1 Tanks

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The first independent AEF action of the war, under American command of John Pershing, was fought in September 1918 at St. Mihiel south of Verdun. In addition to the U.S. infantry, Patton led the tank assault on the retreating German forces. The western front was finally cracking and U.S. troops were on their way to the famous Argonne Forest battle. Patton, with tank lessons learned, would again confront the Germans in World War II.

Click to enlarge

In this final year of the war, the French used 480 Renault tanks at the battle of Soissons and aided in halting a German drive on Paris.The Renault participated in over 4,000 actions with a loss of 736 tanks.

World War 1 Tanks World War 1 Tanks

In March 1918, the Germans began their spring offensive. Their major target was Amiens, a key supply point for the allies on the western front. The Germans were driving against the village of Villers-Bretonneux ( April 23) to gain the road just east of Amiens. Within a day, the town fell.

A nearby squad of 3 Mark IV tanks were ordered to halt the advance of the German infantry. The tanks were hidden in a forested area, but were spotted by German air observers. They immediately started to take artillery fire. The tanks were forced to maneuver which prevented the male from using its cannon effectively. The 3 tanks, all with disabled crews, began to move forward against the enemy infantry. They immediately met 3 huge German A7Vs. Lt Frank Mitchell noted that his female tank partners had been hit and were withdrawing. When the firing began, inexplicably two of of the A7Vs began to withdraw.

Mark IV

Mitchell halted his tank in order to provide his gunner an opportunity for a clean shot. One of its shells upended the A7V forcing its crew to abandon their tank. A German plane dropped bombs which missed but forced his tank to stall. Their tank was now attacked by the German infantry and their armor piercing bullets were hitting home. The tank restarted but his crew were now at the mercy of the advancing infantry.

Suddenly, 7 Mark A Whippets raced to the rescue and tore into the infantry with heavy machine gun fire. Mitchell kept advancing until he was engaged by another A7V and they began a fire fight. An artillery shell ended the day for the Mitchell tank.

The Germans that escaped the Whippet force were exceedingly fortunate. On the night of April 24, Australian forces reoccupied Villers-Bretonneux and Amiens remained in French hands. Frank Mitchell was awarded the military cross for bravery.

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References and Sources:

American Military History, John W, Chambers. Ed., Oxford University Press.New York 1999. 1999. Department of Air ForceWilliamson Murray, "Armored Warfare: The British, French, and German Experiences," in Murray, Williamson; Millet, Allan R, eds.
Complete Encyclopedia of Arms & Weapons, Leonid Tarassuk and Charles Blair.SimonSchuster,NewYork
Heyman, Neil M. World War 1,Greenwood Press, Westport, Ct 1997.
Imperial War Museum Military Innovation in the Interwar Period. New York: Cambridge University Press 1996.
World Almanac, David R. Woodward, Facts on File New York 2009.
YouTube
Library of Congress
National Archives
Neiberg, Michael Fighting the Great War, President and fellow of Harvard College, 2005.
Reilly, Ralph. Reiley's @ world net.att. net
The Dictionary of the First World War, Stephen Pope and Elizabeth-Anne Wheal, St. Martin's Press, New York 1995.
The Encyclopedia of World War I, Spencer I. Tucker Ed. ABC-CLIO 2005
U.S. Air Service
Wikipedia

History of American Wars | Causes of World War 1 | World War 1 Tanks

Top of World War 1 Tanks See World War 1 Weapons

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There is a gathering consensus among historians that the introduction of the "landship" on World War 1 battlefields was an answer to the trench warfare stalemate. This meant adding greater mobility on the battlefield. Troops could rise out of their trenches and follow behind the metal giants that would lead the way through enemy barbed wire and shield the infantry from withering machine gun fire.

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The Battle of the Somme is one of the most famous battles of the First World War were somewhat around 60,000 British soldiers died on the first day and 420,000 casualties total and the Germans had 500,000. Another famous one was the Battle of Passchendaele which left 16,000 Canadian casualties and these were among the 275,000 British casualties while the Germans had 220,000.

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Animated Map Shows How World War I Changed Europe's Borders

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Many people believe WWI started when a Serbian nationalist named Gavrilo Princip shot the Austrian-Hungary Archduke  Franz Ferdinand but there were a variety of factors that led up to that point

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Featured

For four years, from 1914 to 1918, World War I raged across Europe's western and eastern fronts after growing tensions and then the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria ignited the war. Trench warfare and the early use of tanks, submarines and airplanes meant the war's battles were devastatingly bloody, claiming an estimated 40 [...]
Read more Read more about World War I Battles: Timeline

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World War I: Causes and Timeline | HISTORY

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World War I was fought from 1914 to 1918. Learn more about World War I combatants, battles and generals, and what caused World War I.

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First World War tech: Chlorine Gas & Gas Masks

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Archduke Franz Ferdinand

Tensions had been brewing throughout Europe-especially in the troubled Balkan region of southeast Europe-for years before World War I actually broke out.

A number of alliances involving European powers, the Ottoman Empire, Russia and other parties had existed for years, but political instability in the Balkans (particularly Bosnia, Serbia and Herzegovina) threatened to destroy these agreements.

The spark that ignited World War I was struck in Sarajevo, Bosnia, where Archduke Franz Ferdinand -heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire-was shot to death along with his wife, Sophie, by the Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip on June 28, 1914. Princip and other nationalists were struggling to end Austro-Hungarian rule over Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The assassination of Franz Ferdinand set off a rapidly escalating chain of events: Austria-Hungary, like many countries around the world, blamed the Serbian government for the attack and hoped to use the incident as justification for settling the question of Serbian nationalism once and for all.

Kaiser Wilhelm II

Because mighty Russia supported Serbia, Austria-Hungary waited to declare war until its leaders received assurance from German leader Kaiser Wilhelm II that Germany would support their cause. Austro-Hungarian leaders feared that a Russian intervention would involve Russia's ally, France, and possibly Great Britain as well.

On July 5, Kaiser Wilhelm secretly pledged his support, giving Austria-Hungary a so-called carte blanche, or "blank check" assurance of Germany's backing in the case of war. The Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary then sent an ultimatum to Serbia, with such harsh terms as to make it almost impossible to accept.

World War I Begins

Convinced that Austria-Hungary was readying for war, the Serbian government ordered the Serbian army to mobilize and appealed to Russia for assistance. On July 28, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, and the tenuous peace between Europe's great powers quickly collapsed.

Within a week, Russia, Belgium, France, Great Britain and Serbia had lined up against Austria-Hungary and Germany, and World War I had begun.

The Western Front

According to an aggressive military strategy known as the Schlieffen Plan (named for its mastermind, German Field Marshal Alfred von Schlieffen), Germany began fighting World War I on two fronts, invading France through neutral Belgium in the west and confronting Russia in the east.

On August 4, 1914, German troops crossed the border into Belgium. In the first battle of World War I, the Germans assaulted the heavily fortified city of Liege, using the most powerful weapons in their arsenal-enormous siege cannons-to capture the city by August 15. The Germans left death and destruction in their wake as they advanced through Belgium toward France, shooting civilians and executing a Belgian priest they had accused of inciting civilian resistance.

First Battle of the Marne

In the First Battle of the Marne, fought from September 6-9, 1914, French and British forces confronted the invading German army, which had by then penetrated deep into northeastern France, within 30 miles of Paris. The Allied troops checked the German advance and mounted a successful counterattack, driving the Germans back to the north of the Aisne River.

The defeat meant the end of German plans for a quick victory in France. Both sides dug into trenches, and the Western Front was the setting for a hellish war of attrition that would last more than three years.

Particularly long and costly battles in this campaign were fought at Verdun (February-December 1916) and the Battle of the Somme (July-November 1916). German and French troops suffered close to a million casualties in the Battle of Verdun alone.

World War I Books and Art

The bloodshed on the battlefields of the Western Front, and the difficulties its soldiers had for years after the fighting had ended, inspired such works of art as " All Quiet on the Western Front" by Erich Maria Remarque and " In Flanders Fields"by Canadian doctor Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae. In the latter poem, McCrae writes from the perspective of the fallen soldiers:

Published in 1915, the poem inspired the use of the poppy as a symbol of remembrance.

Visual artists like Otto Dix of Germany and British painters Wyndham Lewis, Paul Nash and David Bomberg used their firsthand experience as soldiers in World War I to create their art, capturing the anguish of trench warfare and exploring the themes of technology, violence and landscapes decimated by war.

The Eastern Front

On the Eastern Front of World War I, Russian forces invaded the German-held regions of East Prussia and Poland but were stopped short by German and Austrian forces at the Battle of Tannenberg in late August 1914.

Despite that victory, Russia's assault forced Germany to move two corps from the Western Front to the Eastern, contributing to the German loss in the Battle of the Marne.

Combined with the fierce Allied resistance in France, the ability of Russia's huge war machine to mobilize relatively quickly in the east ensured a longer, more grueling conflict instead of the quick victory Germany had hoped to win under the Schlieffen Plan.

Russian Revolution

From 1914 to 1916, Russia's army mounted several offensives on World War I's Eastern Front but was unable to break through German lines.

Defeat on the battlefield, combined with economic instability and the scarcity of food and other essentials, led to mounting discontent among the bulk of Russia's population, especially the poverty-stricken workers and peasants. This increased hostility was directed toward the imperial regime of Czar Nicholas II and his unpopular German-born wife, Alexandra.

Russia's simmering instability exploded in the Russian Revolution of 1917, spearheaded by Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks, which ended czarist rule and brought a halt to Russian participation in World War I.

Russia reached an armistice with the Central Powers in early December 1917, freeing German troops to face the remaining Allies on the Western Front.

America Enters World War I

At the outbreak of fighting in 1914, the United States remained on the sidelines of World War I, adopting the policy of neutrality favored by President Woodrow Wilson while continuing to engage in commerce and shipping with European countries on both sides of the conflict.

Neutrality, however, it was increasingly difficult to maintain in the face of Germany's unchecked submarine aggression against neutral ships, including those carrying passengers. In 1915, Germany declared the waters surrounding the British Isles to be a war zone, and German U-boats sunk several commercial and passenger vessels, including some U.S. ships.

Widespread protest over the sinking by U-boat of the British ocean liner Lusitania-traveling from New York to Liverpool, England with hundreds of American passengers onboard-in May 1915 helped turn the tide of American public opinion against Germany. In February 1917, Congress passed a $250 million arms appropriations bill intended to make the United States ready for war.

Germany sunk four more U.S. merchant ships the following month, and on April 2 Woodrow Wilson appeared before Congress and called for a declaration of war against Germany.

Gallipoli Campaign

With World War I having effectively settled into a stalemate in Europe, the Allies attempted to score a victory against the Ottoman Empire, which entered the conflict on the side of the Central Powers in late 1914.

After a failed attack on the Dardanelles (the strait linking the Sea of Marmara with the Aegean Sea), Allied forces led by Britain launched a large-scale land invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula in April 1915. The invasion also proved a dismal failure, and in January 1916 Allied forces staged a full retreat from the shores of the peninsula after suffering 250,000 casualties.

Did you know? The young Winston Churchill, then first lord of the British Admiralty, resigned his command after the failed Gallipoli campaign in 1916, accepting a commission with an infantry battalion in France.

British-led forces also combated the Ottoman Turks in Egypt and Mesopotamia, while in northern Italy, Austrian and Italian troops faced off in a series of 12 battles along the Isonzo River, located at the border between the two nations.

Battle of the Isonzo

The First Battle of the Isonzo took place in the late spring of 1915, soon after Italy's entrance into the war on the Allied side. In the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo, also known as the Battle of Caporetto (October 1917), German reinforcements helped Austria-Hungary win a decisive victory.

After Caporetto, Italy's allies jumped in to offer increased assistance. British and French-and later, American-troops arrived in the region, and the Allies began to take back the Italian Front.

World War I at Sea

In the years before World War I, the superiority of Britain's Royal Navy was unchallenged by any other nation's fleet, but the Imperial German Navy had made substantial strides in closing the gap between the two naval powers. Germany's strength on the high seas was also aided by its lethal fleet of U-boat submarines.

After the Battle of Dogger Bank in January 1915, in which the British mounted a surprise attack on German ships in the North Sea, the German navy chose not to confront Britain's mighty Royal Navy in a major battle for more than a year, preferring to rest the bulk of its naval strategy on its U-boats.

The biggest naval engagement of World War I, the Battle of Jutland (May 1916) left British naval superiority on the North Sea intact, and Germany would make no further attempts to break an Allied naval blockade for the remainder of the war.

World War I Planes

World War I was the first major conflict to harness the power of planes. Though not as impactful as the British Royal Navy or Germany's U-boats, the use of planes in World War I presaged their later, pivotal role in military conflicts around the globe.

At the dawn of World War I, aviation was a relatively new field; the Wright brothers took their first sustained flight just eleven years before, in 1903. Aircraft were initially used primarily for reconnaissance missions. During the First Battle of the Marne, information passed from pilots allowed the allies to exploit weak spots in the German lines, helping the Allies to push Germany out of France.

The first machine guns were successfully mounted on planes in June of 1912 in the United States, but were imperfect; if timed incorrectly, a bullet could easily destroy the propeller of the plane it came from. The Morane-Saulnier L, a French plane, provided a solution: The propeller was armored with deflector wedges that prevented bullets from hitting it. The Morane-Saulnier Type L was used by the French, the British Royal Flying Corps (part of the Army), the British Royal Navy Air Service and the Imperial Russian Air Service. The British Bristol Type 22 was another popular model used for both reconnaissance work and as a fighter plane.

Dutch inventor Anthony Fokker improved upon the French deflector system in 1915. His "interrupter" synchronized the firing of the guns with the plane's propeller to avoid collisions. Though his most popular plane during WWI was the single-seat Fokker Eindecker, Fokker created over 40 kinds of airplanes for the Germans.

The Allies debuted the Handley-Page HP O/400, the first two-engine bomber, in 1915. As aerial technology progressed, long-range heavy bombers like Germany's Gotha G.V. (first introduced in 1917) were used to strike cities like London. Their speed and maneuverability proved to be far deadlier than Germany's earlier Zeppelin raids.

By the war's end, the Allies were producing five times more aircraft than the Germans. On April 1, 1918, the British created the Royal Air Force, or RAF, the first air force to be a separate military branch independent from the navy or army.

Second Battle of the Marne

With Germany able to build up its strength on the Western Front after the armistice with Russia, Allied troops struggled to hold off another German offensive until promised reinforcements from the United States were able to arrive.

On July 15, 1918, German troops launched what would become the last German offensive of the war, attacking French forces (joined by 85,000 American troops as well as some of the British Expeditionary Force) in the Second Battle of the Marne. The Allies successfully pushed back the German offensive and launched their own counteroffensive just three days later.

After suffering massive casualties, Germany was forced to call off a planned offensive further north, in the Flanders region stretching between France and Belgium, which was envisioned as Germany's best hope of victory.

The Second Battle of the Marne turned the tide of war decisively towards the Allies, who were able to regain much of France and Belgium in the months that followed.

The Harlem Hellfighters and Other All-Black Regiments

By the time World War I began, there were four all-Black regiments in the U.S. military: the 24th and 25th Infantry and the 9th and 10th Cavalry. All four regiments comprised of celebrated soldiers who fought in the Spanish-American War and American-Indian Wars, and served in the American territories. But they were not deployed for overseas combat in World War I.

Blacks serving alongside white soldiers on the front lines in Europe was inconceivable to the U.S. military. Instead, the first African American troops sent overseas served in segregated labor battalions, restricted to menial roles in the Army and Navy, and shutout of the Marines, entirely. Their duties mostly included unloading ships, transporting materials from train depots, bases and ports, digging trenches, cooking and maintenance, removing barbed wire and inoperable equipment, and burying soldiers.

Facing criticism from the Black community and civil rights organizations for its quotas and treatment of African American soldiers in the war effort, the military formed two Black combat units in 1917, the 92nd and 93rd Divisions. Trained separately and inadequately in the United States, the divisions fared differently in the war. The 92nd faced criticism for their performance in the Meuse-Argonne campaign in September 1918. The 93rd Division, however, had more success.

With dwindling armies, France asked America for reinforcements, and General John Pershing, commander of the American Expeditionary Forces, sent regiments in the 93 Division to over, since France had experience fighting alongside Black soldiers from their Senegalese French Colonial army. The 93 Division's 369 regiment, nicknamed the Harlem Hellfighters, fought so gallantly, with a total of 191 days on the front lines, longer than any AEF regiment, that France awarded them the Croix de Guerre for their heroism. More than 350,000 African American soldiers would serve in World War I in various capacities.

Toward Armistice

By the fall of 1918, the Central Powers were unraveling on all fronts.

Despite the Turkish victory at Gallipoli, later defeats by invading forces and an Arab revolt that destroyed the Ottoman economy and devastated its land, and the Turks signed a treaty with the Allies in late October 1918.

Austria-Hungary, dissolving from within due to growing nationalist movements among its diverse population, reached an armistice on November 4. Facing dwindling resources on the battlefield, discontent on the homefront and the surrender of its allies, Germany was finally forced to seek an armistice on November 11, 1918, ending World War I.

Treaty of Versailles

At the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, Allied leaders stated their desire to build a post-war world that would safeguard itself against future conflicts of such a devastating scale.

Some hopeful participants had even begun calling World War I "the War to End All Wars." But the Treaty of Versailles, signed on June 28, 1919, would not achieve that lofty goal.

Saddled with war guilt, heavy reparations and denied entrance into the League of Nations, Germany felt tricked into signing the treaty, having believed any peace would be a "peace without victory," as put forward by President Wilson in his famous Fourteen Points speech of January 1918.

As the years passed, hatred of the Versailles treaty and its authors settled into a smoldering resentment in Germany that would, two decades later, be counted among the causes of World War II.

World War I Casualties

World War I took the lives of more than 9 million soldiers; 21 million more were wounded. Civilian casualties numbered close to 10 million. The two nations most affected were Germany and France, each of which sent some 80 percent of their male populations between the ages of 15 and 49 into battle.

The political disruption surrounding World War I also contributed to the fall of four venerable imperial dynasties: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia and Turkey.

Legacy of World War I

World War I brought about massive social upheaval, as millions of women entered the workforce to replace men who went to war and those who never came back. The first global war also helped to spread one of the world's deadliest global pandemics, the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918, which killed an estimated 20 to 50 million people.

World War I has also been referred to as "the first modern war." Many of the technologies now associated with military conflict-machine guns, tanks, aerial combat and radio communications-were introduced on a massive scale during World War I.

The severe effects that chemical weapons such as mustard gas and phosgene had on soldiers and civilians during World War I galvanized public and military attitudes against their continued use. The Geneva Convention agreements, signed in 1925, restricted the use of chemical and biological agents in warfare and remain in effect today.

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World War I: Summary, Causes & Facts | HISTORY

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World War I began in 1914, after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and lasted until 1918. During the conflict, Germany, Austria‑Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire (the Central Powers) fought against Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Japan and the United States (the Allied Powers).

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The Battle of Verdun - They Shall Not Pass I THE GREAT WAR - Week 83