Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
MAIN EVENTS OF THE WAR - Coggle Diagram
MAIN EVENTS OF THE WAR
-
The war of movement, 1914 – the battle for the frontiers (pag 1-2)
-
The war expands – Turkey, the Far East and Africa (pag 3)
Japan took advantage of the defensive alliance it had signed with Britain against Russia in 1902 to declare war on Germany, and to overrun German colonies in the Pacific and the German port of Kiaochow in China.
The development of a long, fortified front line, with both sides putting large numbers of troops in trenches and erecting barbed-wire defences, was not something military planners had anticipated, and it resulted in a totally new form of warfare.
Though traditionally pro-British, Turkey’s new reforming government leaned towards Germany, which had trained its armed forces and seemed more likely to help Turkey resist Russia.
Driven back, the Russian armies had to regroup and defend, and the conflict on the Eastern Front, like that in the West, became one of trench warfare.
Turkey joined when British naval forces chased two German warships, the Goeben and the Breslau, into Constantinople.
The overseas empires of the European powers were now involved in the war, and campaigns began in Africa as attacks were made on German colonies in 1915.
Italy was persuaded to join France and Britain by promises of gaining Italian-speaking areas under Austrian control and extending its empire.
The Russian failure to exploit its initial successes was the greatest lost opportunity of the war and cost Russia dear.
-
A key example – the Battle of the Somme, July 1916 (pag 4-6)
The Allies were anxious to break through to relieve the pressure on France, which was being attacked by the Germans at Verdun, and to support a major Russian attack.
For the first time, Britain had amassed a large army and its industries had supplied great amounts of heavy artillery.
British and some French forces faced well-established German positions on the River Somme in France.
The attack was focused on 13 km (8 miles) of front, and millions of shells were fired on to the German line in what was probably the greatest artillery bombardment in history.
Enemy troops in these areas had not been forewarned by heavy bombardment, so the generals maintained the element of surprise and gained their objectives.
The Germans knew that when the bombardment stopped an attack would begin, so they were ready to deploy their defenders and use their own long-range artillery behind the lines to pour fire on the attackers.
The resources produced by the great industrial powers were too much to be overcome by bravery alone, but technology had not yet produced the key weapons that might have broken the deadlock – military aircraft, tanks with heavy armour and powerful cannon, and modern communications.
Planning had been intense – attacks were made in both the north and south, intended to divert the Germans.
The actual attack – a rush towards a broken and demoralised enemy – had seemed easy in theory, but in practice it was more difficult.
There were several reasons for this: The artillery bombardment was terrifying and did destroy a lot of the front- line positions, but the defences were deep and they extended to the rear.
Shelling had also caused barbed wire to be distributed throughout ‘No Man’s Land’, forcing troops to bunch together rather than being spread out.
The view was that keen, but essentially amateur, troops needed to stay together and effect a concentrated attack.
Forces in areas that met heavy resistance, therefore, did not stop attacking and shift to areas where resistance was light.
-
Yet these attacks did not achieve a decisive breakthrough any more than those made in 1915 or the German attacks at Verdun in February 1916.
Elsewhere, little was achieved but heavy losses – 60,000 dead, wounded and missing on the first day on the British side.
-Samuel Mancera, Pablo Hoyos, Tomas Alvarez