The War Begins
World War I began on June 28, 1914 when Franz Ferdinand was assassinated. This caused many conflicts to up rise between countries and led to the beginnings of a war that would soon come to involve almost the whole Northern hemisphere of the globe.
A Timeline of Events
June 28: Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria is assassinated
July 5: Germany assures Austria-Hungary of their support for a war with Serbia
July 23: Austria-Hungary gives Serbia an ultimatum
July 28: Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia
August 1: Germany signs secret alliance with Ottoman Empire and declares war on Russia
August 2: Germany invades Luxembourg
August 3: Germany declares war on France
A Timeline of Events
June 28: Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria is assassinated
July 5: Germany assures Austria-Hungary of their support for a war with Serbia
July 23: Austria-Hungary gives Serbia an ultimatum
July 28: Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia
August 1: Germany signs secret alliance with Ottoman Empire and declares war on Russia
August 2: Germany invades Luxembourg
August 3: Germany declares war on France
Checkmate or Stalemate?
This war was not over quickly, and soon after it began it reached a stalemate. Both sides of armies who fought were lacking in proper military technologies, which made fighting battles that were further away much more difficult.
Trench Warfare
Trench Warfare was invented when armies realized that they did not have proper technology to fight. They built these trenches underground where they would fight from. This gave them protection and the ability to perform sneak attacks on the enemies. Trenches were a horrific place to be in because of how unsanitary they were. Most armies came to the same conclusion that almost all arm or leg injuries resulted in death because of the infections lurking all around them.
“Whilst asleep during the night, we were frequently awakened by rats running over us. When this happened too often for my liking, I would lie on my back and wait for a rat to linger on my legs; then violently heave my legs upwards, throwing the rat into the air. Occasionally, I would hear a grunt when the rat landed on a fellow victim.” -R L Venables
“If you have never had trench foot described to you, I will explain. Your feet swell to two to three times their normal size and go completely dead. You can stick a bayonet into them and not feel a thing. If you are lucky enough not to lose your feet and the swelling starts to go down, it is then that the most indescribable agony begins. I have heard men cry and scream with pain and many have had to have their feet and legs amputated. I was one of the lucky ones, but one more day in that trench and it may have been too late.” -Harry Roberts
"We must looked out for our bread. The rats have become much more numerous lately because the trenches are no longer in good condition. The rats here are particularly repulsive, they are so fat - the kind we call corpse-rats. They have shocking, evil, naked faces, and it is nauseating to see their long, nude tails." -Erich Maria Remarque
“To get a ‘cushy’ one is all the old hands think about. A bloke in the Camerons wanted a ‘cushy’ bad! Fed up and far from home he was. He puts his finger over the top and gets his trigger finger taken off and two more besides. “I’m off to bonny Scotland!” he says laughing. But on the way down to the dressing station, he forgets to stoop low where an old sniper is working. He gets it through the head.” -Robert Graves
“We slept in our clothes and cut our hair short so that it would tuck inside our caps. Dressing simply meant putting on our boots. There were times when we had to scrape the lice off with the blunt edge of a knife and our underclothes stuck to us. “ -Elizabeth de T'Serclaes (Nurse on the front line)
Battle of Mulhouse
Place: Mulhouse, France
Time: August 7, 1914- August 10, 1914 Outcome: The French withdrew after continuous German attacks. |
First Battle of Champagne
Place: Champagne region of France
Time: December 20, 1914- March 17, 1915 Outcome: Germany gained territory from France, and both Germany and France lost around 90,000 lives. |
New Weapons
Grenades
These new inventions were used as mini bombs. You would pull the ring which would activate the grenade, and throw it at your enemies. This was very common in trench warfare, and also very dangerous. If a grenade landed in the trench, almost everyone near it was sure to die.
Machine Guns
With the invention of the machine gun death rates shot up tremendously. These guns had the ability to shoot nonstop without having to reload the gun after every shot. They allowed for more constant attacks with the additional bonus of killing more people, quicker.
Tanks
Tanks were originally conceived by Great Britain. They did large amounts of destruction in little time. Though very useful they were also dangerous to operate. They were very hot and generated fumes which made the operators of them very sick.