Gavrilo Princip being arrested after having murdered Francis Ferdinand

Outbreak of Hostilities

After the First Battle of the Marne, both Entente and German forces began a series of outflanking maneuvers, in the so-called race to the sea. Great Britain and France soon found themselves facing entrenched German forces from Lorraine to Belgium’s Flemish coast. British and French forces sought to take the offensive, while Germany defended the occupied territories. As a result, German trenches were generally much better constructed than those of their enemy. Anglo-French trenches were only intended to be temporary before their forces broke through German defenses. Both sides attempted to break the stalemate using scientific and technological advances. In April 1915 the Germans used chlorine gas for the first time, opening a 6-kilometer gap in the Allied lines when British and French colonial troops retreated. Canadian soldiers closed the breach at the Second Battle of Ypres. At the Third Battle of Ypres, Canadian and ANZAC troops took the village of Passchendaele.

Italy had been tied to the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary since 1982. But as the country had its own interest on Austrian territory in Trentino, Istria, and Dalmatia, Italy had signed a secret pact with France in 1902, thus nullifying its alliance with the former nations. Encouraged by the Allied invasion of Turkey in April 1915, Italy joined the Entente and declared war on Austria-Hungary in May. Fifteen months later, it declared war on Germany.

Although Italy had numerical superiority, this advantage was lost, not only because of the difficult terrain in which fighting took place, but also because of the strategies and tactics employed. Field Marshal Luigi Cadorna, a staunch proponent of the frontal assault, wanted to break into the Slovenian plateau, take Ljubljana, and threaten Vienna. It was a Napoleonic plan, which had no realistic chance of success in an age of barbed wire, machine guns, and indirect artillery fire, combined with hilly and mountainous terrain.

Eleven offensives were ordered by General Luigi Cadorna north-east of Trieste along the Isonzo River, with total disregard for his men’s lives. All eleven offensives were repelled by the Austro-Hungarians who held the higher ground. In the summer of 1916, the Italians captured the town of Gorizia. After this minor victory, the front remained static for over a year, despite several Italian offensives. In the autumn of 1917, thanks to the improving situation on the Eastern front, the Austrians received large numbers of reinforcements, including German Stormtroopers and the elite Alpenkorps. The Central Powers launched a crushing offensive on October 26, 1917, spearheaded by the Germans, attaining a victory at Caporetto.

But the Austro-Hungarians failed to break through in a series of battles on the Asiago Plateau. The front stabalize for a while, then the Italian finally and decisively defeated the Central Powers forces at the Battle of Vittorio Veneto in October of that year. Austria-Hungary surrendered in early November 1918.

Eastern Front

As the Western Front reached stalemate, the war still went on in the East. Initial Russian plans called for simultaneous invasions of Austrian Galicia and German East Prussia. Russia’s initial advance into Galicia was largely successful, but they were thrown back from East Prussia by Hindenburg and Ludendorff at Tannenberg and the Masurian Lakes in August and September 1914. Russia’s less developed industrial base and ineffective military leadership was instrumental in the events that unfolded. By the spring of 1915, the Russians had retreated into Galicia, and in May the Central Powers achieved a remarkable breakthrough on Poland’s southern frontiers. On August 5 they captured Warsaw and forced the Russians to withdraw from Poland. This became known as the "Great Retreat" in Russia and the "Great Advance" in Germany.

In June 1916, there was a successful Russian offensive in eastern Galicia. However, dissatisfaction with the Russian government’s conduct of the war grew. There was reluctance of some Russian generals to commit their forces to support the victory. In March 1917, demonstrations in Petrograd culminated in the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II and the appointment of a weak Provisional Government which shared power with the Petrograd Soviet socialists. This arrangement led to confusion and chaos both at the front and at home, as the army became increasingly ineffective.

The Russian government became more and more unpopular as discontent led to a rise in popularity of the Bolshevik party, led by Vladimir Lenin who promised to pull Russia out of the war and was able to gain power. The triumph of the Bolsheviks in November was followed in December by an armistice and negotiations with Germany. The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, signed on March 3, 1918, took Russia out of the war and ceded vast territories, including Finland, the Baltic provinces, parts of Poland and Ukraine to the Central Powers. This allowed Germany to ship troops from the Eastern Front to the Western Front.

United States Entry Into The War

America’s long standing policy of isolationism left the United States reluctant to get involved with what was popularly perceived among the American people as a European war. But, in 1915, 128 American citizens died when a German U-boat sank the British liner Lusitania; President Woodrow Wilson demanded an ends to attacks on passenger ships. But in January 1917 Germany resumed its policy of unrestricted submarine warfare.

Early in February 1917, the Britishsecret Royal Navy cryptanalytic group, Room 40, broke the German diplomatic code. They intercepted a proposal from Berlin to Mexico to join the war as Germany’s ally against the United States, should the U.S. join. The proposal suggested, if the U.S. were to enter the war, Mexico should declare war on the United States and enlist Japan as an ally. The American press published it on March 1, 1917, and stirred up public indignation. This German secret message, known as the Zimmermann Telegram, plus the unrestricted submarine warfare led to a final break of relations with the Central Powers. After further U-boat attacks on American merchant ships, President Woodrow Wilson finally requested that Congress declare war on Germany. The American Congress declared war on April 6, 1917.

German Spring Offensive of 1918

German General Erick Luderndorff devised plans for a major attack that took place in the Spring of 1918 on the Western Front. This Spring Offensive attempted to divide the British and French armies in a series of maneuvers, assaults on fortifications, and advances. Kaiserschlacht was the German name for the the Spring Offensive, in which there were three separate German attacks, codenamed Michael, Georgette and Blucher-Yorck. The operation began on March 21, 1918 with an attack on British forces near Amiens. The German army advanced 60 kilometers on this first attack.

By this stage of the war, Germany had refined its tactics and developed stormtroopers to infiltrate and bypass enemy front line units, leaving these strong points to be attacked by follow-up waves of friendly infantry troops. The stormtroopers’ objective was to assault and disrupt enemy headquarters, artillery units and supply depots in the rear areas, as well as to rapidly occupy territory. This new infiltration strategy was called Hutier tactics, after General Oskar von Hutier.

The front advanced to within 120 kilometers of Paris. Three heavy Krupp railway guns fired 183 shells on the capital, causing many Parisians to flee. The initial offensive was so successful that Kaiser Wilhelm II declared March 24 a national holiday. Many Germans thought victory was near. After heavy fighting, however, the offensive was halted. Lacking tanks or motorized artillery, the Germans were unable to consolidate their gains. The sudden stop was also a result of the four Australian Imperial divisions that were rushed down to the front, thus doing what no other army had done, stopping the German advance in its tracks. During that time the first Australian division was hurriedly sent north again to stop the second German breakthrough.

Following Operation Michael, Germany launched Operation Georgette against the northern channel ports held by the English. The Allies halted the drive with limited territorial gains for Germany. The German Army to the south then conducted Operations Blücher and Yorck, broadly towards Paris. Operation Marne was launched on July 15, attempting to encircle Reims and beginning the Second Battle of the Marne. The resulting Allied counterattack marked their first successful offensive of the war.

By July 20 the Germans were back at their Kaiserschlacht starting lines. Following this last phase of the war in the West, the German Army never again regained the initiative. German casualties between March and April 1918 were 270,000, including many highly trained stormtroopers. Meanwhile, Germany was falling apart at home. Anti-war marches become frequent as morale in the army fell. Industrial output was at 53% of the 1913 levels. German reserves were inadequate and the German High Command advised their government to give up the war.

Allied Victory

Allied counteroffensive, known as the Hundred Days Offensive, began on August 8, 1918. The Battle of Amiens developed with the Fourth British Army on the left, the First French Army on the right, and the Australian and Canadian Corps spearheading the offensive in the centre through Harbonnieres. 414 tanks of the Mark IV and Mark V type, and 120,000 men were involved in the Battle of Amiens, which signaled the beginning of Germany’s downfall. September saw the Germans continuing to fight strong rear guard actions and launching numerous counter attacks on lost positions. However, towns, villages, heights, trenches, and outposts of the Hindenburg Line continued to fall to the Allies.

The Allied attack on the Hindenburg Line began on September 26, 1918, with 260,000 Americans participating in the military operations. French units broke through in Champagne and closed on the Belgian border. By October, it was evident that Germany could no longer mount a successful defence as they were increasingly outnumbered, with few new recruits. Rations were cut.

Having suffered over 4 million casualties, Germany moved toward peace. Prince Max von Baden took charge of a new government as Chancellor of Germany to negotiate with the Allies. Negotiations with President Wilson began immediately, in the vain hope that better terms would be offered than with the British and French. Instead Wilson demanded the resignation of the Kaiser, who had just abdicated and fled to Holland on November 9, 1918. A republic would be proclaimed in Germany, the Weimar Republic.

The fighting in World War I ended when an armistice took effect at 11:00 hours on November 11, 1918. This armistice treaty between the Allies and Germany was signed in a railway carriage in woods near Compiègne on November 11, 1918, and marked the end of the First World War on the Western Front. Principal signatories were Marshal Ferdinand Foch, Allied Commander-in-chief, and Matthias Erzberger, a representative of the closest thing left that Germany had as a government.

Treaty of Versailles

The Treaty of Versailles ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1919, exactly five years after the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand, one of the events that had triggered the start of the war. Although the armistice signed on 11 November 1918 ended the actual fighting, it took six months of negotiations at the Paris Peace Conference to conclude the peace treaty. Of the many provisions in the treaty, one of the most important and controversial required Germany and its allies to accept full responsibility for causing the war and, under the terms of articles 231-248, to disarm, make substantial territorial concessions and pay reparations to certain countries that had formed the Entente powers.

The Treaty of Versailles was a lengthy document, which was a punitive instrument of peace imposed by the victors, and pertained solely to Germany. To complete the settlement officially ending the war a separate treaty was framed for each of the nations that along with Germany had constituted the Central Powers.

The treaty compelled Germany to assume the responsability of having caused the war. By its provisions Germany was committed to 1) surrender Alsace and Lorraine to France and German border areas to three other surrounding nations; 2) transfer all of its colonies to a mandate system under which they would administered by various Allied powers; 3) reduce its army to 100,000 men; 4) relinquish all warships of substantial size, all military planes, and all heavy guns; 5) make reparations for the entire cost of the war, which was subsequently fixed at approximately $56.5 billion.

Furious protests by German leaders over the treaty provisions brought no modification in them, and on June 28, 1919, representative from Germany in a sullen mood signed the document.

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