Major Battles of War World 1

1. Major Battles of War World 1 By: Daisy Beltran

2. Timeline • August 3, 1914 • Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austro-Hungarian empire • August 23, 1914: • Germany declared war on France • April 22-May 25, 1915: • The first use of poison gas starts the second battle of Ypres • September 15, 1916: • Tanks were first introduced by the British on the Somme battlefield • December 22, 1917: • Russia does a separate peace negotiation with Germany • October 3-4 1918: • Austria and Germany send peace to US President Woodrow Wilson requesting armistice • May 6, 1919: • Peace conference disposes of German colonies

3. Ferdinand’s death was the main cause that started the world’s 1st global war. First battle of Ypres Battle of Vimy Ridge First battle of Tannenberg Battle of Cambrai Battle of the Somme Battle of Jutland

4. Battle of Tannenberg • General Alexander Samsonov was assigned to give commands to the Russian Second Army for the invasion Prussia. General Maximilian Prittwitz commander of the German Eight Army was dismissed for ordering the retreat when faced with the Russian Second Army. General Samsonov attempted to retreat, but now in a German cordon most of his troops were either slaughtered or captured. Only about 10,000 of the 150,000 soldiers managed to escape, the Germans lost 20,00 men in the battle, but were able to take over 92,000 Russian prisoners. In Britain, the new of Russian defeat was kept from the public.

5. First Battle of Ypres • On October 19, 1914 Allied and German forces the first of three battles to take over the city and it’s advantageous position on the north coast of Belgium. After the Germans advanced through Belgium and eastern France a decisive Allied victory in the battle of Marne and then so-called “Race to Sea” had begun. Each army tried to outflank the others on their way and constructing trenches as they went along. The “race’ ended in mid October at Ypres, the Germans prepared to launch the first phase of an offense aimed at the Allied lines and capturing Ypres and other channel ports, therefore controlling the outlets to the North Sea.

6. Battle of Jutland • The battle took place between the British Grand Fleet and the German High Seas Fleet on May 31st of 1916 in the North Sea off the Mainland in Denmark. This was the only major naval battle in World War 1 but it became the largest sea battle ever, this brought the two most powerful naval forces at the time.

7. Battle of the Somme • The battle was planned as an offensive by the British under General Sir Douglas Haig. It’s objective was to release the pressure on the French line further south as a result to German efforts at Verdun, it was hoped that a breakthrough would be achieved with British forces overrunning the German line reaching the “green pastures” in the rear. In this way the frustrating war of “position” would turn back into a war of “movement”. The recipe entailed massive shelling of the opposing side for days on end after which thousands and ten thousands of men would cross No Man’s Land meeting a hail of bullets and artillery shells coming from the other side. The results were catastrophic.

8. Battle of Vimy Ridge • This was one of the greatest war in Canadian history, for the first time in World War 1 all four Canadian divisions fought on the same battlefield. They were led by Sir Arthur William Currie, who was the first Canadian-appointed commander of the Canadian Corps. The Germans consisted of three layers of trenches, barbed wire and deep tunnels. Early in the morning of April 9th 1917, 20,000 soldiers attacked in the first wave.

9. Battle Of Cambrai • Carried out by the 3rd army lead by General Sir Julian Byng in order to relieve pressure on French Front, for the initial attack eight British divisions were launched against three German divisions. When the British attacked by surprise on November 20, their tanks ripped through German defenses in depth and took some 7,500 pioneers at low cost in casualties. Ten days later the Germans counterattacked with twenty divisions, and by December 5th the British had been forced back almost to their original spot. Casualties on both sides were about 45,000 each, despite the British failure to exploit the initial success on their tanks, the battle demonstrated that armour was the key to decision on the Western Front.