WWI: Chronology and Battles

This section gives some very basic information about World War I with emphasis on the perspectives shared throughout British society.

On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary was assassinated by Serbian activists. The War that the Great Powers had been building themselves up to was finally about to commence. Below are options to go to a full chronology of the War, and details of some of the major battles involving the British forces on the Western Front.

Chronology Battles

WWI Chronology

1914	June	28	Assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to throne of Austria-Hungary, and his wife at Sarajevo, Bosnia.
	July	28	Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia.
	July	29	Russian mobilisation ordered.
	August	1	Germany declares war on Russia.
		1	France orders mobilisation.
		2	Germany demands free passage through Belgium.
		3	Germany declares war on France.
		3	Belgium rejects Germany's demand.
		4	Germany at war with Belgium. Troops under Gen. Von Kluck cross border. Halted at Liege.
			Great Britain at war with Germany. Kitchener becomes Secretary of War.
			Rosenberg in Cape Town.
		5	President Wilson tenders good offices of United States ininterests of peace.
		6	Austria Hungary at war with Russia.
		7	French forces invade Alsace. Gen. Joffre in supreme command of French army.
			Montenegro at war with Austria.
			Great Britain's Expeditionary Force lands at Ostend, Calais and Dunkirk.
		8	Serbia at war with Germany.
		12	Great Britain at war with Austria-Hungary.
		12	Montenegro at war with Germany.
		17	Belgian capital removed from Brussels to Antwerp.
		19	Canadian Parliament authorises raising expeditionary force.
		20	Germans occupy Brussels.
		23	Japan at war with Germany. Begins attack on Tsingtau.
		24	Germans enter France near Lille.
		25	Austria at war with Japan.
		26	Viviani becomes premier of France.
		28	Austria declares war on Belgium.
		30	Amiens occupied by Germans.
		31	Russian army of invasion in East Prussia defeated at Tannenberg by Germans under Von Hindenburg.
	September	3	Paris placed in state of siege: Government transferred to Bordeaux.
		6–10	Battle of Marne. Von Kluck is beaten by Gen. Joffre, and the German army retreats from Paris to the Soissons-Rheims line.
		14	French reoccupy Amiens and Rheims.
		29	Antwerp bombardment begins.
	October	2	British Admiralty announces intention to mine North Sea areas.
		9	Antwerp surrenders to Germans. Government removed to Ostend.
		13	British occupy Ypres.
		14	Canadian Expeditionary Force of 32,000 men lands at Plymouth.
		15	Germans occupy Ostend. Belgian government removed to Havre, France.
	November	5	Great Britain and France declare war on Turkey.
	November	5	Cyprus annexed by Great Britain.
	December	8	Off the Falkland Isles, British squadron under command of Rear-Admiral Sturdee, sinks three of the German cruisers which had destroyed the Good Hope and Monmouth on Nov. 1. The Dresden escapes.
	December	16	German squadron bombards Hartlepool, Scarborough and Whitby on east coast of England.
1915	February	10	Prussians defeated by Germans in Battle of Masurian Lakes.
		18	German submarine 'blockade' of British Isles begins.
		25	Allied fleet destroys outer forts of Dardanelles.
	March		Rosenberg returns to England.
		2	Allied troops land at Kum-Kale, on Asiatic side ofDardanelles.
		10	British take Neuve Chapelle in Flanders battle.
		22	Austrian fortress of Przmysl surrenders to Russians.
	April	22	Poison gas first used by Germans in attack on Canadians at Ypres, Belgium.
	May	1	American steamer Gulflight torpedoed off Scilly Isles byGerman submarine; 3 lives lost.
		2	British South Africa troops under General Botha capture Otymbingue, German Southwest Africa.
		7	Germans capture Libau, Russian Baltic port.
		7	Lusitania, Cunard liner, sunk by German submarine off Kinsale Head, Irish coast, with loss of 1152 lives; 102 Americans.
		23	Italy declares war on Austria-Hungary and begins invasion on a 60 mile front.
		31	German Zeppelins bombard suburbs of London.
	June	4–6	German aircraft bomb English towns.
		15	Allied aircraft bombs Karlsruhe, Baden, in retaliation.
		22	Lemberg recaptured by Austrians.
		26	Montenegrins enter Scutari, Albania.
	July	9	German Southwest African surrenders to British South African troops under Gen. Botha.
	August	5	Warsaw captured by Germans.
		6	Gallipoli Peninsula campaign enters a second stage with the debarkation of a new force of British troops in Suvla Bay, on the west of the peninsula.
		8	Russians defeat German fleet of 9 battleships and 12 cruisers at entrance of Gulf of Riga.
		19	Arabic, White Star liner, sunk by submarine off Fastnet; 44 lives lost; 2 Americans.
		25	Brest-Litovsk, Russian fortress, captured by Austro-Germans.
		28	Italians reach Cima Cista, north-east of Trent.
		30	British submarine attacks Constantinople and damages the Galata Bridge.
		31	Lutsk, Russian fortress, captured by Austrians.
	September		Rosenberg starts evening classes.
		6	Czar Nicholas of Russia assumes command of Russian armies. Grand Duke Nicholas is transferred to the Caucasus.
		25	Allies open offensive on Western front and occupy Lens.
	October	5	Franco-British force lands at Salonika and Greek ministry resigns.
		9	Belgrade again occupied by Austro-Germans.
		12	Edith Cavell, English nurse, shot by Germans for aiding British prisoners to escape from Belgium.
		13	London bombarded by Zeppelins; 55 persons killed; 114 injured.
		14	Bulgaria at war with Serbia.
		15	Great Britain declares war on Bulgaria.
		17	France at war with Bulgaria.
		19	Italy and Russia at war with Bulgaria.
		29	Briand becomes premier of France, succeeding Viviani.
		29	Rosenberg enlists. Joins Bantam Battalion of 12th Suffolk Regiment, 40th Division, at Bury St Edmunds.
	November	5	Nish, Serbian war capital, captured by Bulgarians.
	November	24	Serbian government transferred to Scutari, Albania.
	December	4	Henry Ford, with large party of peace advocates, sails for Europe on chartered steamer Oscar II, with the object of ending the war.
		13	Serbia in hands of enemy, Allied forces abandoning last positions and retiring across Greek frontier.
		15	Gen. Sir Douglas Haig succeeds Field Marshal Sir John French as Commander-in-Chief of British forces in France.
		20	Dardanelles expedition ends; British troops begin withdrawal from positions on Suvla Bay and Gallipoli Peninsula.
		22	Henry Ford leaves his peace party at Christiania and returns to the United States.
1916	January	11	Greek island of Corfu occupied by French.
		13	Cettinje, capital of Montenegro, occupied by Austrians.
		16	Rosenberg transferred to 12th South Lancashires.
		29–31	German Zeppelins bomb Paris and towns in England.
	February	10	British conscription law goes into effect.
		19	Kamerun, German colony in Africa, conquered by British forces.
		21	Battle of Verdun begins. Germans take Haumont.
		25	Fort Douaumont falls to Germans in Verdun battle.
	March		Rosenberg transferred to 11th Battalion, King's Own Royal Lancasters Regiment.
		9	Germany declares war on Portugal on the latter's refusal to give up seized ships.
		15	Austria-Hungary at war with Portugal.
		24	Sussex, French cross-channel steamer, with many Americans aboard, sunk by submarine off Dieppe. No Americans lost.
		31	Melancourt taken by Germans in Verdun Battle.
	April	19	President Wilson publicly warns Germany not to pursue submarine policy.
		20	Russian troops landed at Marseilles for service on Frenchfront.
		24	Irish rebellion begins in Dublin. Republic declared. Patrick Pearse announced as first President.
		29	British force of 9000 men, under Gen. Townshend, besieged in Kut-el-Amara, surrenders to Turks.
		30	Irish rebellion ends with unconditional surrender of Pearse and other leaders, who are tried by court-martial and executed.
	May	8	Cymrio, White Star liner, torpedoed off Irish coast.
		14	Italian positions penetrated by Austrians.
		15	Vimy Ridge gained by British.
		26	Bulgarians invade Greece and occupy forts on the Struma.
		31	Jutland naval battle; British and German fleets engaged;heavy losses on both sides.
	June	2	Rosenberg leaves for France.
		3	Rosenberg arrives in France.
		5	Kitchener, British Secretary of War, loses his life when the cruiser Hampshire, on which he was voyaging to Russia, is sunk off the Orkney Islands, Scotland.
		6	Germans capture Fort Vaux in Verdun attack.
		21	Allies demand Greek demobilization.
		27	King Constantine orders demobilization of Greek army.
	July	1	British and French attack north and south of the Somme.
		14	British penetrate German second line, using cavalry.
		15	Longueval captured by British.
		25	Pozieres occupied by British.
		30	British and French advance between Delville Wood and the Somme.
	August	3	French recapture Fleury.
		27	Roumania declares war on Austria-Hungary.
		28	Italy at war with Germany.
		28	Germany at war with Roumania.
		31	Bulgaria at war with Roumania. Turkey at war with Roumania.
		31	Rosenberg sent into trenches.
	September	2	Bulgarian forces invade Roumania along the Dobrudja frontier.
		13	Italians defeat Austrians on the Carso.
		15	British capture Flers, Courcelette, and other Germans positions on Western front, using tanks.
		26	Combles and Thiepval captured by British and French.
		29	Roumanians begin retreat from Transylvania.
	October	24	Fort Douaumont recaptured by French.
	November	2	Fort Vaux evacuated by Germans.
		7	Woodrow Wilson re-elected President of the United States.
		13	British advance along the Ancre.
		21	Britannic, mammoth British hospital ship, sunk by mine in Aegean Sea.
		22	Emperor Franz Josef of Austria-Hungary, dies. Succeeded by Charles I.
		23	German warships bombard English coast.
		25	Rosenberg's 27th birthday.
		28	Roumanian government is transferred to Jassy.
	December	1	Allied troops enter Athens to insist upon surrender of Greek arms and munitions.
		6	Bucharest, capital of Roumania, captured by Austro-Germans.
		7	David Lloyd George succeeds Asquith as Prime Minister.
		15	French complete recapture of ground taken by Germans in Verdun battle.
		18	President Wilson makes peace overtures to belligerents.
		26	Germany replies to President's note and suggests a peace conference.
		30	French government on behalf of Entente Allies replies to President Wilson's note and refuses to discuss peace till Germany agrees to give restitution, reparation and guarantees.
1917	January		Rosenberg reports sick.
		1	Turkey declares its independence of suzerainty of European powers.
		1	Ivernia, Cunard liner, is sunk in Mediterranean.
	February		Rosenberg re-assigned to 40th Division Works Battalion.
		3	United States severs diplomatic relations with Germany. Count Von Bernstorff is handed his passports.
		7	California, Anchor liner, is sunk off Irish coast.
		13	Afric, White Star liner, sunk by submarine.
		17	British troops on the Ancre capture German positions.
		25	Laconia, Cunard liner, sunk off Irish coast.
		26	Kut-el-Amara recaptured from Turks by new British Mesopotamian expedition under command of Gen. Sir Stanley Maude.
		28	United States government makes public a communication from Germans to Mexico proposing an alliance, and offering as a reward the return of Mexico's lost territory in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.
			Submarine campaign of Germans results in the sinking of 134 vessels during
			Rosenberg re-assigned to 229 Field Co, royal Engineers, attached to 11th Battalion, K.O.R.L.
	March	3	British advance on Bapaume.
		3	Mexico denies having received an offer from Germany suggesting an alliance.
		10	Russian Czar suspends sittings of the Duma.
		11	Bagdad captured by British forces under Gen. Maude.
		14	China breaks with Germany.
		15	Czar Nicholas abdicates. Prince Lvoff heads new cabinet.
		17	Bapaume falls to British. Roye and Lassigny occupied by French.
		18	Peronne, Chaulnes, Nesle and Noyon evacuated by Germans, who retire on an 85-mile front.
		18	City of Memphis, Illinois, and Vigilancia, American ships, torpedoed.
		19	Alexander Ribot becomes French premier, succeeding Briand.
		21	Healdton, American ship, bound from Philadelphia to Rotterdam, sunk without warning; 21 men lost.
		26–31	British advance on Cambrai.
	April	1	Aztec, American armed ship, sunk in submarine zone.
		5	Missourian, American steamer, sunk in Mediterranean.
		6	United States declares war on Germany.
		7	Cuba and Panama at war with Germany.
		8	Austria-Hungary breaks with United States.
		9	Germans retreat before British on long front.
		9	Bolivia breaks with Germany.
		13	Vimy, Givenchy, Bailleul and positions about Lens taken by Canadians.
		20	Turkey breaks with United States.
		22	President Wilson suggests to the belligerents a peace without victory.
		31	Germany announces intention of sinking all vessels in war zone around British Isles.
	May	9	Liberia breaks with Germany.
		11	Russian Council of Workmen's and Soldiers' Delegates demands peace conference.
		15	Gen. Petain succeeds Gen. Nivelle as Commander-in-Chief of French armies. Gen. Foch is appointed Chief of Staff.
		16	Bullecourt captured by British in the Arras battles.
		17	Honduras breaks with German.
		18	Conscription bill signed by President Wilson.
		19	Nicaragua breaks with Germany.
		22–26	Italians advance on the Carso.
	June	5	Registration day for new draft army in United States.
		7	Messines-Wytschaete ridge in English hands.
		8	Gen. Pershing, Commander-in-Chief of American expeditionary force, arrives in England en route to France.
		18	Haiti breaks with Germany.
	July	1	Russians begin offensive in Gallicia, Kerensky, Minister of War, leading in person.
		3	American expeditionary force arrives in France.
		6	Canadian House of Commons passes Compulsory Military Service Bill.
		12	King Constantine of Greece abdicates in favor of his secondson, Alexander.
		16–23	Retreat of Russians on a front of 155 miles.
		20	Alexander Kerensky becomes Russian premier, succeeding Lvoff.
		20	Drawing of draft number for American conscript army begins.
		22	Siam at war with Germany and Austria.
		31	Franco-British attack penetrates German lines on a 20-mile front.
	August	1	Pope Benedict XV makes plea for peace on a basis of no annexation, no indemnity.
		7	Liberia at war with Germany.
		8	Canadian Conscription Bill passes its third reading in Senate.
		14	China at war with Germany and Austria-Hungary.
		15	Canadian troops capture Hill 70, dominating Lens.
		19	Italians cross the Isonzo and take Austrian positions.
		28	Pope Benedict's peace plea rejected by President Wilson.
September	3	Riga captured by Germans.
	14	Paul Painleve becomes French premier, succeeding Ribot.
	16	Russia proclaimed a republic by Kerensky.
	16	Rosenberg receives 10 days leave.
	20	Costa Rica breaks with Germany.
	21	Gen. Tasker H. Bliss named Chief of Staff of the United States Army.
	26	Zonnebeke, Polygon Wood and Tower Hamlets, east of Ypres, taken by British.
	26	Rosenberg returns to France.
	29	Turkish Mesopotamian army, under Ahmed Bey, captured by British.
October	6	Peru and Uruguay break with Germany.
	9	Poelcapelle and other German positions captured in Franco- British attack.
	10	Rosenberg reports sick with influenza.
	17	Antilles, American transport, westbound from France, sunk by submarine; 67 lost.
	23	American troops in France fire their first shot in trench warfare.
	23	French advance northeast of Soissons.
	24	Austro-Germans begin great offensive on Italian positions.
	25	Italians retreat across the Isonzo and evacuate the Bainsizza Plateau.
	26	Brazil at war with Germany.
	31	Beersheba, in Palestine, occupied by British.
November	1	Germans abandon position on Chemin des Dames.
	3	Americans in trenches suffer 20 casualties in German attacks.
	6	Passchendaele captured by Canadians.
	6	British Mesopotamian forces reach Tekrit, 100 miles northwest of Bagdad.
	7	The Russian Bolsheviki, led by Lenin and Trotzsky, seize Potrograd and depose Kerensky.
	8	Gen. Diaz succeeds Gen. Cadorna as Commander-in-Chief of Italian armies.
	10	Lenin becomes Premier of Russia, succeeding Kerensky.
	15	Georges Clemenceau becomes Premier of France, succeeding Painlove.
	21	Ribecourt, Flesquieres, Havrincourt, Marcoing and other German positions captured by British.
	23	Italians repulse Germans on the whole front from the Asiago Plateau to the Brenta River.
	24	Cambrai menaced by British, who approach within three miles, capturing Bourlon Wood.
December	1	German East Africa reported completely conquered.
	1	Allies' Supreme War Council, representing the United States, France, Great Britain and Italy, holds first meeting at Versailles.
	3	Russian Bolsheviki arrange armistice with Germans.
	5	British retire from Bourlon Wood, Graincourt and other positions west of Cambrai.
	7	Finland declares independence.
	8	Jerusalem, held by the Turks for 673 years, surrenders to British, under Gen. Allenby.
	10	Panama at war with Austria-Hungary.
	11	United States at war with Austria-Hungary.
	15	Armistice signed between Germany and Russia at Brest-Litovsk.
	17	Coalition government of Sir Robert Borden is returned andconsidered confirmed in Canada.
	17	Rosenberg returns to the trenches.
1918	February	7	Rosenberg transferred to 1st Batalion K.O.R.L., 40th Division
	March	21	Ludendorff launches his series of major offensives, known as the 'Kaiserschlacht' in an effort to gain a decisive victory before the effect of the America entering into the War can be fully realised. Major successes are reported.
		21	Rosenberg recalled to trenches.
		23	German offensive redirects towards Amiens and Paris.
		28	German Operation 'Mars' repulsed at Arras.
	April	1	Rosenberg killed on night patrol.
		4–5	Australians halt German advance at Villers Bretonneux.
		9	German launch 'Georgette' offensive against British at Lys.
		23–24	British attempt to blockade Ostend harbour fails.
	May	27	German offensive 'Blucher' launched.
	May	29	German troops advance to the Marne but are stopped by US Divisions.
	June	15–16	Austrian offensive at Asiago defeated by combined British and French force.
	July	15	Ludendorff launches final offensive.
	August	8	Anglo-French counter-attack at Amiens supported by heavy artillery and 400 tanks achieves major successes. Ludendorff describes it as 'the Black Day' for the German army.
	September	12	American offensive at St Mihiel.
		23	British 15th Cavalry Brigade attacks Haifa.
		26	Allied offensive at Meuse-Argonne.
	October	26	Ludendorff is dismissed.
	October	28	Kiel mutiny by German sailors.
	November	1	Americans breakthrough German defences at Meuse.
		3	German Sailors Soviet take control of Kiel.
		3	Americans cut vital Lille-Metz rail link.
		11	On the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month, the Armistice is signed effectively halting the War. The final Treaty of Versailles, is signed on June 28, 1919.

Major battles

The casualties suffered in the First World War were of a scale never before experienced. Great Britain and her Empire lost over 1,000,000 combatants; France, 1,300,000; Russia, 1,700,000; Germany and its allies, 3,500,000. Losses in life per day of the war exceeded 5,500.

Although each soldier would have been involved in some form of continual conflict whilst serving on the front-line (e.g. trench raids, snipers, shelling), it is possible to distinguish major battles (or pushes) whose names have gone down in history as some of the bloodiest conflicts ever waged. Below are details on four of the main battles involving British troops and their allies.

The Battles of the Marne, 1914, 1918

On September 4, 1914, the rapid advances of the German army through Belgium and northern France caused panic in the French army and troops were rushed from Paris in taxis to halt the advance. Combined with the BEF (British Expeditionary Force) the Germans were eventually halted and the War settled into the familiar defensive series of entrenchments.

Ironically, by the end of May, 1918, the Germans had again reached the Marne after the enormous successes of Ludendorff's offensives of that year. The intervening four years had cost hundreds of thousands of lives and the armies were still, literally, exactly where they had started.

The Battles of Ypres, 1914, 1915, 1917

There were in fact three battles fought around the Ypres salient during the War. The first, in 1914 was an attempt by the BEF to halt the rapid advances made by the Germans. The second, in 1915, was notable for the first use of poison gas by the Germans. However, it is the long-planned offensive of July 31, 1917, that holds the most significance. Here, a combination of over-ambitious aims, appalling weather conditions, and misguided persistence by Haig led to horrific losses. By the time the offensive was called off total casualties for both sides had been approximately 250,000. The horrors of the battle, in which men drowned in liquid mud has become synonymous with the images of the War. One of the central objectives, the village of Passchendale (eventually taken on November 6 by the Canadians), lent its name to the whole conflict.

Dulce et Decorum Est

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame, all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.

Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! - An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime.-
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams before my helpless sight
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,-
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

Wilfred Owen

The Battle of the Somme, 1916

At 0730 hours on the 1st July, 1916, after a week-long artillery bombardment; Haig launched the now infamous "Big Push" attack across the river Somme. With the French Army being hard-pressed to the south at Verdun the British intended to breakthrough the German defences in a matter of hours.

The mistrust that High Command had of the so-called "New Armies" manifested itself in the orders to the troops to keep uniformed lines and to march towards the enemy across no-man's land. This, coupled with the failure of the artillery bombardment to dislodge much of the German wire, or to destroy their machine-gun posts, led to one of the biggest slaughters in military history.

When the attack began the Germans dragged themselves out of their dugouts, manned their posts and destroyed the oncoming waves of British infantry.

After the first day, with a gain of only 1.5km, the British had suffered 57,470 casualties. Despite this, Haig pressed on with the attack until November 19th of the same year. For the meagre achievements, total losses on the British and Imperial side numbered 419,654 with German casualties between 450,000 and 680,000. When the offensive was eventually called off the British were still 3 miles short of Bapaume and Serre, part of their first-day objectives.

Bombardment

Four days the earth was rent and torn
By bursting steel,
The houses fell about us;
Three nights we dared not sleep,
Sweating, and listening for the imminent crash
Which meant our death.

The fourth night every man,
Nerve-tortured, racked to exhaustion,
Slept, muttering and twitching,
While the shells crashed overhead.

The fifth day there came a hush;
We left our holes
And looked above the wreckage of the earth
To where the white clouds moved in silent lines
Across the untroubled blue.

Richard Aldington

The Battle of Cambrai, 1917

On November 20, 1917, the British launched the first full-scale offensive that was designed exclusively to accommodate the British secret weapon, the tank (so-called because when the first shipment came from England they were described as water tanks to maintain secrecy). A surprise artillery barrage started the offensive and 476 tanks, packed tightly for a mass attack moved against the German lines. Supported by infantry the gains were dramatic, breaching the almost impregnable Hindenberg line to depths of 4-5 miles in some places. However, these gains seemed to surprise British High Command equally as much as the Germans, and the following cavalry failed to take advantage. Nevertheless, Cambrai demonstrated how a well-thought out attack, combining tanks en masse with surprise, could be used to break the trench deadlock.

Blighters

The house is crammed: tier beyond tier they grin
And cackle at the Show, while prancing ranks
Of harlots shrill the chorus, drunk with din;
'We're sure the Kaiser loves our dear old Tanks!'

I'd like to see a tank come down the stalls,
Lurching to rag-time tunes, or 'Home, sweet Home'.
And there'd be no more jokes in Music-halls
To mock the riddled corpses round Bapaume.

Siegfried Sassoon

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