Schlieffen Plan

• attack plan by General Schlieffen

• Germany quickly went through neutral Belgium to get to Paris and fight France

• was initially successful, but later failed

• Belgium had a small army but put up more resistance than expected.

Battle of the Frontiers (August 1914)

• fought along France

• Belgium border

• France used Plan XVII and counteroffensives on German 6th and 7th armies and took Mulhouse and was headed for Lorraine

• Germany found them out and exploited gaps in the French army and defeated them and Sombre and Ardennes

Plan XVII

• French plan of attack to regain Alsace-Lorraine

• relied on elan vitale and intense nationalism to fight

• did NOT work, went out of fashion after Battle of the Frontiers

• designed in response to the Schlieffen Plan.

The Battle of the Marne (September 5-12, 1914)

• fought in northeastern France

• massive French casualties after Plan XVII failed

• brief BEF defense at Mons before the Great Retreat

• Schlieffen Plan was working

• benefited the Anglo-French due to their shorter supply and comm lines, diminishing power of the offensive, and Belgian resistance

• German supply and comm lines were lengthening

• French aviator warned Entente of Germany coming so Joffre asked BEF to attack opening between 1st and 2nd Army.

• Schlieffen Plan failed

• cautious General Moltke moved back and fought

Trench warfare

• Anglo-French army and German army were trying to outflank each other

• defensive more powerful than offensive

• no other choice but to move through the other army

• mines were holes with explosives in them

Second Battle of Ypres (1915)

• Germans abandoned the 1st one

• Germans used chlorine gas with Canada giving the 2nd dose

• successful to get north and east high ground

• Entente get the city and some land but faced twice the casualties Germany did

• trench warfare

The Battle of Verdun (February - October 1916)

• Germany Gen. Falkenhayn wanted to "bleed the French dry"

• Gen Petain active defense

• Germany rained artillery on French

• French cautiously advance to kill as many as possible, making it harder to move guns and let Germany claim the single road directly to Verdun

• Falkenhayn drew forward and Germany drew itself into a battle of attrition and ended up bleeding itself white

Operation Judgement

• General von Falkenhayn stockpiled resources in the Battle of Verdun to "bleed the French white"

Battle of the Somme (July - November 1916)

• epitome of Allied offensive strategy in massive artillery, infantry and cavalry

• ideally in Verdun in Champagne and Picardy to Amiens

• Kaiser created the New Army after wasteful 1915 operations and the war's predicted end in 1916

• massive week-long artillery assaults, land mines, offensve infantry across a no-mans land

• hopeful creeping barrage of British soldiers against Germany crept too quickly and many died in the first wave

• bombardment jumbling wires

• resumed till November

• General Haig want British soldiers while General Rawlinson want modest defense & neither happened

Battle of Passchendaele (1917)

• Allies except Britain exhausted after 1916 bloody battles

• same strategy but more expectations and barrage intensity in no man's land

• Germany counter-attack and torrential rain slowed progress General Haig continued in September with Australia and New Zealand to no avail because Germany reclaimed lands (stalemate in a stalemate)

• Canada got now-nonexistent Passchendaele

• high casualties

No Man's Land

• the dangerous territory between rival trenches that was claimed by none of them

The Battle Of Amiens (8th Aug - 11th Aug 1918)

• weakened Germany sent Storm Troopers

• US had entered the war and sent lots of troops for Allies

• Allies decisively defeat Germany during the Hundred Days

Hundred Days

• the part of the Battle of Amiens where Allies completely defeated Germany

Battle of Gumbinnen/Tannenberg (20 Aug 1914)

• Gen. Hindenburg took advantage of Generals Rennenkampf and Samsonov's rivalry to defeat them both

• Hindenburg surrounded Samsonov's 2nd Army and defeated them

• Samsonov committed suicide so that he would not have to report the 30,000 casualties

Battle of Masurian Lakes

• Part II of Hindenburg taking advantage of the split in the Russian army

• Hindenburg defeated the First Army a week after he defeated the second

• the Russians fled before they could be encircled Battle of Gallipoli

• Allies plan to attack Ottoman Empire because the French stalemate was becoming more and more intractable

• Britain and France older ships through Dardanelles and ANZAC helped them get some lands

• stopped by Mustapha Kemal (later Kemal Ataturk) decisive action and surrounding British at Suvla Bay

• bad intelligence, terrain, and navigation slowed down Allies

• one of Britain's best evacuations

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (1918)

• Russia exited the war because they were dealing with intense internal social and economic pressures with the Bolshevik Revolution

Battle of Jutland (1916)

• only full scale naval battle of WWI between Britain and Germany.

• despite the naval race, the British Royal Fleet still had a numerical advantage over the German High Seas Fleet

• Germany used a hit-and-run approach before the Grand Fleet came in

• new Admiral Rheinhard Sheer new plan with better comms, ammo, and propellant storage

• Britain found out about the sortie and attacked and those German advantages did more damage

• both sides claimed victory

Battles of Heligoland Blight and Dogger Bank

• Germany used a hit-and-run approach before the full Royal Fleet came in

• could hit British ports and merchant ships but they'd have to do it through the British

• controlled English Channel or North Sea

total war

• each nation devotes all their resources to the war

• however, civilians also end up becoming a target

• British blockades lead to German starvation

• government take over economy to devote profit to the war

• food and consumer goods are rationed to give as much resources to the war as possible.