The First World War in Photographs / World War I in Photos
Alan Taylor series in 10 parts

In 1914, the German army sought to achieve a quick and decisive victory over France by attempting to invade from the north. The plan failed, leading the war to a years-long, bloody stalemate as millions of soldiers braved appalling conditions to fight for every yard of territory.

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From the author (Alan Taylor). When we think of the First World War, the first images that usually come to mind are the blood and mud of the Western Front. The faces of frightened young people standing knee-deep in trench mud, waiting for the command to “attack” - against machine guns, barbed wire, mortars, bayonets, bayonets and much more. We also imagine the disappointments of the participants in that war: it would seem that such a simple, but for unknown reasons, such a difficult goal to simply move forward, and such a staggering number of people killed. The stalemate on the Western Front continued for four years, forcing the development of new technologies of war, draining the warring nations' resources and destroying the surrounding terrain.

For this 100th anniversary, I've pulled together photographs of the Great War from dozens of collections, some digitized for the first time, to try to tell the story of the conflict and all those caught up in it, and how it all affected the world. Today's article is the 2nd of 10 parts about the First World War. It focuses on the first years of the war on the Western Front. The continuation will be devoted to the last year of trench warfare in this direction of the theaters of WWII.

Looking at the battlefield from the bunker at Ansatz, near the Belgian city of Ypres in West Flanders, 1917. When German forces met stiff resistance in Northern France in 1914 and then retreated to the sea, a front line stretched between France and Germany from Switzerland to the North Sea. The Allies and Central Powers literally dug into thousands of miles of defensive moats and desperately tried to break through to the other side for many years, expending incredibly large numbers of forces. [Editor's note: Photographer James Francis Hurley is known to have been responsible for a number of First World War images that were composed of multiple photographs, and this composition may also be a composite] / (James Francis Hurley/State Library of New South Wales)

2.

The bombing of the cathedral in Reims, France, in September 1914, when German incendiary bombs hit the towers and apse, during the German invasion of northern France. / (AP Photo)

3.

French soldiers on horseback, in front of the airship "DUPUY DE LOME", ca. 1914. / (Library of Congress)

4.

A French pilot makes an emergency landing on friendly territory after an unsuccessful attempt to attack a German Zeppelin hangar near Brussels, Belgium, 1915. Soldiers climb up the tree to help. / (National Archief)

5.

German officers are discussing on the Western Front. (2nd from the right, wearing a fur collar, possibly Kaiser Wilhelm, no signature). The German war plan was for a quick, decisive victory in France. The long-term, slow-moving strategy received little or no planning attention. / (AP Photo)

6.

French soldiers charge with a bayonet up a steep slope in the Argonne Forest, 1915. The Second Battle of Champagne pitted 450,000 French troops against 220,000 Germans, enabling the capture of small areas which the Germans then recaptured within weeks. In this battle, the total casualties on both sides amounted to more than 215,000 people. / (Agence de presse Meurisse)

7.

Allied soldiers, probably from Australia, tow a downed German twin-engine bomber down the street, France. / (National Library of Scotland)

8.

Six German soldiers pose in a trench with a machine gun, just 40 meters from the British line (according to the caption on the original photo). The machine gun, apparently Maschinengewehr 08 or MG 08, has a rate of fire of 450-500 rounds per minute. A large casing around the barrel is filled with water to cool the metal during rapid fire. The soldier on the right, wearing a gas mask over his shoulder, peers through the periscope to get a glimpse of enemy activity. A soldier in the background, wearing a steel helmet, swings a Model 24 grenade. / (Library of Congress)

9.

A dog sled used by the British Army to transport a machine gun and ammunition, 1914. The load could weigh up to 150 pounds. / (Bibliotheque nationale de France)

10.

German balloon on a tether, Equancourt, France, September 22, 1916. Observation balloons were used by both sides to gain a reconnaissance advantage through height on relatively flat ground. Observers ascended in a small gondola suspended beneath hydrogen-filled balloons. During the war, several hundred of them were shot down. / (CC BY SA Benjamin Hirschfeld)

11.

French U.S. Army reservists were part of a force of two million that fought in September 1914 at the Battle of the Marne. The First Battle of the Marne was decisive in a week-long battle that stopped the initial German advance into France, the push towards Paris, and led to the German withdrawal to the coast. / (Underwood & Underwood)

12.

Soldiers drag a heavy weapon through the mud. The barrel is located on a frame made to fit the width of the narrow gauge railway, which serves as a guide for the platform. Some of the men are walking along a ditch next to the road, the rest are on the road itself. Improvised tracks are mounted on the cannon's wheels to make it easier to move through mud. / (National Library of Scotland)

13.

Members of the New Zealand (Maori) Engineer Battalion perform the ritual Haka dance for New Zealand Prime Minister William Massey and his Deputy Sir Joseph Ward, near Bois-de Warnimont, France, during the First World War, 30 June 1918. / (Henry Armytage Sanders/National Library of New Zealand)

14.

In France, British machine gun crew. The gun, apparently a Vickers, was mounted on the front sidecar of a motorcycle. / (National Library of Scotland)

15.

A wounded and dirty German prisoner of war and a British soldier helping him walk along a railway track. The man behind them, possibly in a French military uniform, carries a camera and tripod on his shoulder, approx. 1916. / (National Library of Scotland)

16.

Three dead German soldiers at their bunker, near Zonnebeke, Belgium. / (National Library of Scotland)

17.

Dead horses are buried in a trench after the Battle of Haelen, which took place between German and Belgian forces on August 12, 1914, near Haelen, Belgium. Horses were used everywhere by troops in the First World War and were often transferred from agricultural needs to military purposes, which led to millions of deaths. / (Library of Congress)

18.

Ruins of Gommecourt Chateau, France. The small community of Gommecourt was on the front line for many years, changed hands many times and was completely destroyed by the end of the war. / (National Library of Scotland)

19.

British soldiers stand in slush on French lines, ca. 1917. / (National Library of Scotland)

20.

German soldiers carry out reconnaissance while hiding behind large haystacks, southwest Belgium, ca. 1915 / (Library of Congress)

21.

A wagon train bound for Cassel Ypres Hoad at Steenvorde, Belgium, September 1917. This image was produced using the Paget process, early in the experimentation with color photography. / (James Francis Hurley/State Library of New South Wales)

22.

Mountains of shell casings on the side of the road not far from the front line, the shells of which were spent on German positions. / (Tom Aitken/National Library of Scotland)

23.

A French soldier smokes a cigarette while standing next to the bodies of soldiers, apparently German, at Souain, France, c. 1915. / (Bibliotheque nationale de France Francois-Mitterrand)

24.

Battlefield of the Marne, between Souain and Perthes, 1915. / (Bibliotheque nationale de France)

25.

Soldiers in the trenches write letters home. Life in the trenches was described by a phrase that later became an aphorism: “Months of boredom are interrupted by moments of utter horror.” / (Netherlands Nationaal Archief)

26.

At Cambrai, German soldiers load a captured British Mark I tank onto a railway platform in November 1917. Tanks were first used in combat during the First World War, in September 1916, when 49 British Mark I tanks were used during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette. / (Deutsches Bundesarchiv)

27.

From a height of 150 meters above the battlefield, a French photographer managed to capture the French troops at the Somme front during the attack on the Germans, ca. 1916. The smoke may have been placed deliberately to camouflage the attack. / (NARA/U.S. War Dept.)

28.

British soldiers at Vimy Ridge, 1917. British and Canadian forces pushed back German defenses at the Battle of Vimy Ridge in April 1917, advancing up to six miles over three days, recapturing the heights and town of Thelus while suffering about 4,000 killed. / (Bibliotheque nationale de France)

29.

An explosion in front of trenches dug near Fort de la Pompelle, near Reims, France. / (San Diego Air and Space Museum)

30.

Bodies of Allied soldiers after being bombed on "no man's land" in front of Canadian positions at Courcelette, 1916, during the Battle of the Somme. / (National Archief)

31.

Canadian soldiers inspect a German killed on the battlefield at the Battle of Vimy Ridge, 1917. / (CC BY 2.0 Wellcome Library, London)

32.

French soldiers conduct gas and flamethrower attacks on German trenches in Flanders, Belgium, January 1, 1917. Both sides used various gases as weapons during the war for asphyxiating and irritating effects, often with devastating effect. / (National Archives)

33.

French soldiers wearing gas masks in a trench, 1917. Gas mask technology advanced successfully during the war, ultimately making it a powerful defense that weakened the effectiveness of gas attacks in later years. / (Bibliotheque nationale de France)

34.

Gas poisoned patients being treated at the 326th Field Hospital near Royaumeix, France, August 8, 1918. The hospital did not have enough space to accommodate a large number of patients. / (CC BY Otis Historical Archives)

35.

French soldier in a gas mask, 1916. / (Bibliotheque nationale de France)

36.

British soldiers and Highlanders with German prisoners walk past ruins and a dead horse after the Battle of Menin Road Ridge, an episode of the Third Battle of Ypres in September 1917. A sign next to the train tracks reads (possibly): "There are no trains. To transport the wounded to Chateau by truck." / (Bibliotheque nationale de France)

37.

Huge crater, 75 meters in circumference, Ypres, Belgium, October 1917. / (Australian official photographs/State Library of New South Wales)

38.

A horse is restrained during treatment at a veterinary clinic, 1916. / (Bibliotheque nationale de France)

39.

Analysis of trophies in the German trenches, in St. Pierre Divion. In the foreground, a group of British soldiers are sorting through equipment left behind by the Germans when St. Pierre Divion was captured. One of the soldiers has three rifles on his shoulder, the other has two. Others are considering a machine gun and ammunition. Photographer John Warwick Brooke must have set his focus to a greater depth, because many of the other soldiers in the background are clearly visible. / (National Library of Scotland)

40.

Transporting Canadian wounded to a field dressing station, Vimy Ridge, in April 1917. German prisoners of war help pull a railway cart. / (CC BY 2.0 Wellcome Library, London)

41.

On the British front, Christmas dinner in a shell hole next to a grave, 1916. / (Bibliotheque nationale de France)

42.

British MkIV "Bear" tank destroyed at the Battle of Inverness Grove, 22 August 1917. / (Brett Butterworth)

43.

A tunnel dug under German front line positions, near Vosges, October 19, 1916. The sappers worked at a depth of about 17 meters until they reached the desired location under the enemy positions, where they planted large stocks of explosives to then blow up the enemy. / (Der Weltkrieg im Bild/Upper Austrian Federal State Library)

44.

The wounded from the Battle of Ypres, 20 September 1917, are taken along the Menin road to the treatment station. Captured Germans help carry the stretcher. / (Captain G. Wilkins/State Library of Victoria)

45.

Comrades spy on a sleeping soldier from the far corner of a trench, near Thievpal, France. The trenches are made very deep and narrow, the walls are completely lined with sandbags. / (National Library of Scotland)

Page 14 of 50

Western Front in 1914

In August 1914, the weaknesses of French strategic planning were quickly revealed. The French attack in the Ardennes region did not bring the desired results. Here the Germans quickly built defensive structures and used machine guns - a terrible weapon of the First World War. During the 4-day battle at the border, 140 thousand French died, but they never broke into the deep German borders. Among other things, the French army did not meet the main forces of the Germans where they expected. The main idea of ​​the French strategic plan burst.

The Liege fortress stood in the way of the German army in Belgium. Its forts turned out to be impregnable for frontal attacks by German infantry, and the deadline for von Kluck's 1st Army to gain operational space had already been postponed from August 10 to August 13. Without waiting for the fortress to capitulate, the Germans turned to heavy artillery, to one of Germany's best-kept secrets - the 420-mm Krupp cannon, produced in 1909. Transportation presented difficulties in handling it: the giant monster, disassembled into two parts, was difficult to transport by rail. It could only be replaced by a 305-mm Austrian gun from Skoda. Both guns fired an armor-piercing projectile with a delayed action fuse.

From the Krupp capital - the city of Essen - two black siege mortars were loaded onto railway platforms on August 9 and set off for Belgium the next day.
Liege was 18 kilometers away when a destroyed tunnel forced German artillerymen to carry their guns along the highway. This unforeseen movement of monsters continued for two days. But on August 12, one of the guns was aimed at Fort Pontisse and the surrounding world shook with a terrifying roar (the gunners were 300 meters from the gun). Spotters directed artillery fire from balloons and bell towers. 60 seconds after the shot, a shell fell from a height of 1200 meters onto the concrete of the Belgian fortress. A column of smoke rose from the fort. Ceilings and galleries collapsed; fire, smoke and a deafening roar filled the casemates, the soldiers went hysterical, maddened by the terrible feeling of waiting for the next shot. After 45 shots, Fort Pontiss fell on 13 August. The next day, other forts faced the same fate. Liege fell on August 16, and Kluck's army moved forward to the north. Foreign observers thought that the Germans had missed their schedule by two weeks.
In fact, the “Schlieffen Plan” received a delay of only two days.

On August 16, the German general headquarters moved from Berlin to the Rhine, to Koblenz, which is 130 kilometers from the center of the German front. Schlieffen dreamed that his plan would be implemented by his heir, the German commander, from a spacious house, where a telephone, telegraph and radio would be at hand, and near him - a whole fleet of cars and motorcycles awaiting orders. Here, in a comfortable chair, at a large table, a modern commander-in-chief would watch the progress of the battle on a map. From here he would convey inspiring words by telephone, and here he would receive reports from army and corps commanders, as well as information from balloons and airships observing enemy maneuvers. Here Moltke came to the conclusion that the French were concentrating their main forces for an offensive through Lorraine between Metz and the Vosges. This suited him. And on August 17, he did not consider the concentration of French forces in Lorraine threatening. The Schlieffen Plan again became the main strategic scheme.

German troops marched while singing soldiers' songs. This roar of tired soldiers sounded terrifying in the ears of the Belgians. The French were let down by intelligence at this stage. They estimated the German forces west of the Meuse at 17 divisions, while in fact there were 30. And in the first clashes between the French and the Germans, the former did not know how powerful the fist was coming down on them. Even worse, the offensive-minded French were slow to learn to defend. They did not yet know how to do what military necessity and the art of survival would soon teach them: to dig in, put up wire fences, push out machine-gun nests.

On August 22, the Germans rushed towards Mons, crossing the canal, accelerating their movement north. On August 23, the French 5th Army, opposing the Germans on the Meuse, retreated. In front of the Germans (160 thousand) stood the British Expeditionary Force (70 thousand). The Germans were quite tired - 240 kilometers in 11 days - and their forces were stretched along Belgian roads. As a result, the first day of the British army's participation in hostilities showed the determination of the British, but it also demonstrated the physical superiority of the Germans. The nine-hour battle delayed the German advance for a day.

By this time, the French army had lost 140 thousand soldiers out of a total of 1250 thousand in senseless offensives in Lorraine - and elsewhere on the Western Front.
On August 24, it became clear that the French army was no longer capable of an offensive impulse and was “doomed to defensive actions.” Other prominent supporters of offensive war also had to learn the art of defense. And the Germans felt a huge surge of self-confidence. In the north they finally entered French territory. Faith in the “Schlieffen Plan” has never been more absolute. Both attacking armies flanked the main French forces along a 120-kilometer front - the million-strong invasion force broke into Northern France and began moving from the north to Paris, which was under direct attack. It was then that the Western allies called on Petrograd to change the agreed dates and speed up the departure of Russian troops as much as possible.

The British Expeditionary Force, consisting of one cavalry and four infantry divisions, began landing at Le Havre, Boulogne and Rouen on 12 August. Eleven days later, they, led by General Sir John French, already occupied a front of more than thirty kilometers. Actually, it was the only purely professional army in Europe.
And the only one who had direct combat experience. This experience dictated to her two absolutely necessary truths: the more cartridges in the magazine, the better; The deeper a soldier digs a trench, the greater the chance of survival. The British succeeded in both respects.
Their Lee-Enfield rifle, containing ten rounds in the magazine, was better than the German Mauser; their trenches taught the French and Belgians how to survive this war.

The original order - to contain the Germans in Belgium - no longer made sense: the Germans broke into France from the north. On the Western Front, everything was determined by the speed of action. On August 25, Joffre achieved victory at the Battle of the Marne (1914) and issued General Order No. 2 in an attempt to rationalize his options after the border defeat. The newly created 6th Army was supposed to, together with the 4th and 5th armies, create a barrier in the path of the German hammer falling on France from the north. Over the next twelve days, the scales of world history swung. The French blew up bridges across rivers. More importantly, they stopped talking about the offensive as the only form of warfare and diligently learned to dig trenches. The government was close to panic. There have been significant changes in it. A sanguine man became the Minister of War Millerand(Alexandre Millerand (1859-1943), French socialist. Joined the cabinet in 1899. Expelled from the French Socialist Party in 1904.
In 1920-1924. - President of France), Minister of Foreign Affairs - Delcasse (Delcasse Théophile (1852-1923), French Minister of Colonies in 1894-1895, Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1898-1905, 1914-1915, Minister of the Navy in 1911-1913. Sought the creation of the Entente and the strengthening of the French- Russian Union).

Seventy French and five British divisions tried to stop the German flow from the north. German troops marched from twenty to forty kilometers a day, spending the night on the roadsides, losing contact with the rear. Reacting to the fatigue of the troops, the German command “forgot” Schlieffen’s will. The Germans weakened their right wing, tightening the noose intended to envelop the French army.

The main thing that happened: the Germans defeated the French, but did not break the fighting strength of their army. In the person of Marshal Joffre they found a man of extraordinary fortitude. Unlike Ludendorff, Prittwitz, Samsonov and Moltke, he did not panic under the most unfavorable conditions. On August 29, a 30-kilometer zone around Paris was created, and barricades blocked the approaches to the city.

On September 2, President Poincaré experienced, as he later wrote, “the saddest moment of my life.” It was decided to move the government to Bordeaux. At night, in order to avoid becoming a target of ridicule from Parisians, the ministers rushed to a special train.

On September 3, the Germans stretched their forces. The German army rushed after the French troops, bypassing Paris and exposing its right flank. French intelligence captured the briefcase of army officer Kluck, where all the main goals of the Germans were described. It became clear that the German army was not going to storm Paris and was moving southeast.

The Battle of the Marne, already mentioned, lasted four days. About 1.3 million Germans, a million French and 125 thousand British took part in it. Having “shortened” the arc, the German troops turned south and exposed their flank to the troops of the Paris region. On September 6, 1914, the French attacked this flank. The military governor of the French capital, Galieni, placed two regiments of Tunisian Zouaves on Parisian taxis and sent them to assist the flank counterattack. In the famous Battle of the Marne, where more than 2 million people came into contact, Field Marshal Kluck was forced to retreat and dig in.

The course and outcome of the battle was influenced by a circumstance assessed by Russia’s allies. As hostilities on the Western Front entered the decisive phase, the nerves of the German General Staff definitely trembled. The Chief of the German General Staff, von Moltke (nephew of the French victor in 1870), deviated from the plan, acting more cautiously than von Schlieffen had bequeathed. He sent 20% fewer troops to northern France than required by the Schlieffen Plan, and, accordingly, increased the number of troops stationed on the eastern German borders by 20%. It is possible that this change was fatal to the German offensive.

The “miracle on the Marne” happened, albeit at a great cost - more than 200 thousand Frenchmen alone died.

One of the main areas where the most significant and bloody battles of the First World War took place, in short, was the Western Front. Stretching from the Scheldt to the Swiss border in length and from the Rhine to Calais in depth, it passed through the Belgian, Luxenburg, Alsatian, Lorraine territories, covering several German provinces located along the banks of the Rhine, and northeastern French lands.

Start of hostilities

The offensive of the German army in this direction began with an invasion of the territories of Belgium and Luxembourg. After this, the German command intended, through quick and rapid maneuvers, to defeat the French army in a short time and force France to capitulate, accepting all the conditions of Germany. In their plan, the attackers focused on capturing the enemy's most important industrial regions. The Germans were opposed on this front by the French, Belgians and British.
Having captured Belgian and Luxembourg fortresses and territories without much difficulty, the Germans approached the borders of France.
As a result of several military operations and a series of battles, German troops gradually began to advance towards Paris.
One of the largest battles of the first war year on this front was the Marne.
The result of this seven-day battle was the final failure of the German command's plans to quickly capture France. Both opposing armies practically stopped maneuvers and consolidated their positions.

Trench warfare

The events of the second war year on the Western Front of the First World War, in short, boiled down to small defensive clashes. There were no major battles in this direction during this period, as the main forces of the German army were concentrated on the Eastern Front against the Russian army.
However, it was during this period that the famous Battle of Ypres took place, during which German troops used poison gases on a large scale in battle for the first time in history.
The gas attack was carried out on April 22. As a result, several thousand people died. Two days later, the Germans decided to carry out another similar operation. However, the second time the damage was not so significant, since the opponents used personal protective equipment (including gas masks).
Also in this year, the French pilot used a machine gun for the first time for an air attack, placing it behind the leading propeller of his aircraft.

Battle of Verdun and troop attrition

The year 1916 went down in the history of the Western Front as the bloodiest and most difficult year. The largest military operation of this period was the Battle of Verdun, also called the “Verdun Meat Grinder”. It lasted 11 months and killed more than half a million people. Huge losses with rather modest successes of both armies did not bring any significant results other than the weakening of the troops.
Another significant battle was the Battle of the Somme, in which tanks were used for the first time by the British military.

Entente offensive, defeat of Germany

According to a carefully developed plan, in 1917 allied Franco-British troops, with the support of American soldiers who arrived at the front after the US entered the war, began an offensive operation. Swift attacks, followed by equally fast and massive counterattacks, led to the fact that by the end of the year the opponents remained in almost the same positions.
However, Germany, which initially did not count on a protracted war, found itself in a rather difficult situation.
As a result of the withdrawal of the Russian side from hostilities and the cessation of fighting on the Eastern Front, the German command, having transferred all its forces to the West, decided to once again try to seize the initiative into its own hands.
In March 1918, Germany launched an offensive again, but was quickly defeated. After this, several more attempts were made, but each time they ended very unsuccessfully for the German army.
Since August, the Allied forces of the Entente went on the offensive, and their operations were successful. Briefly describing the events of those days, it can be noted that the last major battle on the Western Front of the First World War was the Battle of the Marne River, as a result of which German troops finally lost all their positions and began to retreat.

Western Front- one of the fronts of the First World War.

This front covered the territory of Belgium, Luxembourg, Alsace, Lorraine, the Rhineland provinces of Germany, as well as northeastern France. The length of the front from the Scheldt River to the Swiss border was 480 km, in depth - 500 km, from the Rhine to Calais. The western part of the theater of military operations was a plain with an extensive road network, convenient for the operations of large military formations; the eastern part is predominantly mountainous (Ardennes, Argonne, Vosges) limited the freedom of maneuver of troops. A special feature of the Western Front was its industrial importance (coal mines, iron ore, developed manufacturing industry).

The German command took the French fortifications on the Franco-German border very seriously; back in 1905, Schlieffen wrote:

France should be considered as a great fortress. In the outer belt of fortifications, the Belfort - Verdun section is almost impregnable...

Belgian fortresses were also of great strategic importance: Liege, Namur, Antwerp.

With the beginning of mobilization, the parties began to transfer troops to deployment areas. The German command deployed 7 armies and 4 cavalry corps, up to 5,000 guns, against France; in total, the group of German troops numbered 1,600,000 people. The German command planned to deliver a crushing blow to France through Belgian territory. However, despite the fact that the main attention of the German command was focused on the invasion of Belgium, the Germans took all measures to prevent the French army, advancing in Alsace-Lorraine, from capturing this region.

German troops were opposed by French, Belgian and British troops. The French army was deployed in five armies and one cavalry corps, with 4,000 guns. The number of French troops was 1,300,000 people. In connection with the advance of the German army through Belgium to Paris, the French command had to abandon the “Plan No. 17” envisaged before the war, which involved the capture of Alsace and Lorraine. In this regard, the final locations of the French armies and their composition at the end of August differed significantly from those planned by mobilization “Plan No. 17”.

The Belgian army was deployed in six infantry and one cavalry divisions, with 312 guns. The number of Belgian troops was 117 thousand people.

British troops landed at French ports consisting of two infantry corps and one cavalry division. Only by August 20 did British troops numbering 87 thousand people, with 328 guns, concentrate in the Maubeuge, Le Cateau area. It is worth noting that the allied forces did not have a single command, which had the most negative impact on the actions of the Entente troops.

By the end of the deployment, the forces of the sides were approximately equal in number (1,600,000 German troops versus 1,562,000 Allied troops). However, the strategic initiative was on the side of the Germans. Their deployed troops represented an almost closed concentrated force. The Allied troops had an unfortunate location. The front line of the French troops curved from Verdun to the northwest along the French-Belgian border and ended at Irson. British troops were deployed in the Maubeuge area, the Belgian army had its own deployment area.

Balance of forces before the start of the war

Allied armies:

1914 Campaign: German invasion of Belgium and France

Map of the 1914 campaign

In August 1914, the implementation of the adjusted Schlieffen plan began, which envisaged a quick attack on France through Belgian territory, bypassing the French army from the north and encircling it at the border with Germany. On August 2, Luxembourg was occupied without resistance. On August 4, German generals Alexander von Kluck and Karl von Bülow launched an invasion of Belgium, which rejected the demand for German troops to pass through its territory.

The pre-war French "Plan No. 17" called for the capture of Alsace and Lorraine. On August 7, the 1st and 2nd Armies launched an offensive against Saarburg in Lorraine and Mulhouse in Alsace, but on August 14 the troops retreated due to the German advance through Belgium.

Border battle

After the capture of Belgium and Luxembourg, German troops (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th armies) entered French territory in the second decade of August, where they met the French (3rd, 4th and 5th) and the British army.

In the Ardennes operation, the 3rd and 4th armies were defeated by the 5th and 4th German armies, in the Sambro-Meuse operation, the 5th French army was defeated by the 2nd and 3rd German armies, in the operation at Mons 1 -The German army drove back the British army. On August 20-22, the 1st and 2nd French armies, which launched an offensive in Lorraine on August 14, were defeated by the 6th and 7th German armies.

German troops continued their attack on Paris, winning victories at Le Cateau (August 26), Nelles and Prouillard (August -29), Saint-Quentin and Giza (August 29-30), and reached the Marne River by September 5. Meanwhile, the French formed the 6th and 9th armies, strengthening their troops in this direction, and the Germans in August transferred two corps to East Prussia against the strengthened and mobilized Russian army.

Battle of the Marne

"Running to the Sea"

A positional front was formed from the Swiss border to the Oise River, but in the west there remained free territory to the North Sea. On September 16, three operations of the Anglo-French and German troops began, called “Run to the Sea”: -September 28, an attempt by the 2nd French Army between the Oise and Somme rivers; September 29 - October 9 attempt by the French 10th Army on the Scarpe River; -15 October attempt by the British army on the River Lys. During the operations, both sides tried to bypass the enemy's flanks, but after stubborn battles they went on the defensive.

In February-March, the French organized an attack in Champagne, but advanced only 460 meters, losing 50 thousand people.

Air battles

Main article: Aviation in the First World War

Aircraft production grew at a high rate: if at the beginning of the war England and France had 186 aircraft, Germany and Austria-Hungary - 297, then by the end of the war the parties had, respectively, 5079 and 3352 aircraft (27 and 11 times more).

Further military actions

Ruins of Carenci after being taken by the French

Masking the machine gun position. 1915

The last Allied attack in the spring of 1915 was the Battle of Artois to capture the Vimy Ridge. The French 10th Army, after a six-day bombardment, launched an offensive on May 9 and advanced 5 km. However, the troops retreated after the Germans used artillery. By May 15, the offensive was stopped.

In September, the Allies launched a major offensive (Third Battle of Artois): French troops in Champagne and British troops in Los. The French spent the summer preparing for a future offensive. On September 22, the bombing of targets began, the location of which was determined using aerial photography. The main offensive began on September 25 and developed successfully, despite the presence of wire obstacles and machine gun points. However, the Germans, anticipating this attack, strengthened their defense lines and were able to repel the attack, which lasted until November.

1916 Campaign: Bleeding the Troops

According to the plan of the Chief of the General Staff, Erich von Falkenhayn, Germany was to conduct the main military operations in 1916 with France, forcing it to capitulate.

Two strategies were adopted. The first provided for the unlimited use of the submarine fleet to cut off foreign supplies. The goal of the second strategy was to launch a targeted strike against enemy ground forces instead of a large-scale breakthrough of the front. To inflict maximum losses, it was planned to organize an attack on important strategic positions. The target of the main attack was the Verdun ledge, which was the support of the French front, located near the border with Germany and threatened German communications. The operation was planned with the expectation that the French, out of a sense of patriotism, would defend the city to the last soldier.

Battle of Verdun

To carry out the operation, Germany concentrated 6.5 divisions on a 15-kilometer section of the front against 2 French divisions. The operation began on February 21. During the offensive, the French lost almost all of their forts by February 25, but there was no breakthrough of the front. The Naroch operation of Russian troops on the Eastern Front eased the position of the French troops; the “sacred road” Bar-le-Duc - Verdun was organized to supply the troops.

Since March, the German troops transferred the main blow to the left bank of the river, but by May they had advanced only 6-7 km. A counterattack by French forces in May was unsuccessful.

The actions of Russian troops in the east and the Allied operation on the Somme River allowed French troops to launch an offensive in October, and by the end of December the situation had been largely restored. Both sides suffered huge losses in the Battle of Verdun (about 300 thousand people each), the German command’s plan to break through the French front was not realized.

Battle of the Somme

In the spring of 1916, heavy losses of French troops began to cause concern among the Allies, and therefore the original plan for the Somme operation was changed: British troops were to play the main role in the operation. The operation was supposed to help French and Russian troops.

Having analyzed the air battles over Verdun, the Allies in the battles on the Somme began to adhere to new tactics, the goal of which was complete air superiority over the enemy. The skies over the Somme were cleared of German air power, and the Allied success led to a reorganization of German air power, with both sides using large air force units instead of individual pilots.

British infantry advance near Zhenshi

The battle continued through July and August with some success for the British, despite the strengthening of the German defense line. By August, the British command had decided to move from front-breaking tactics to a series of operations carried out by small military units to straighten the front line in preparation for a massive bombardment.

"Unlimited Submarine Warfare"

Back in 1915, Germany began “unlimited submarine warfare,” but after the sinking of the Lusitania and Arabic ships, there was a danger of the United States entering the war, and submarine warfare began to be waged only against warships. In 1917, according to the plans of the German command, the ground forces were to go on the defensive, and at sea it was decided to start an “unlimited war” again (announced on February 1). Its goal was an economic blockade of Great Britain and, as a consequence, its exit from the war within six months, while US troops could play a significant role on the Western Front only after a year.

By mid-1917, the actions of German submarines caused serious economic damage to Great Britain, but the creation of an anti-submarine defense system reduced the losses of the merchant fleet, and the “unrestricted war” did not bring the desired result.

Nivelle's offensive

By April, the Allies had concentrated significant military resources to carry out the offensive operation: 110 divisions, over 11 thousand guns, 200 tanks, about 1 thousand aircraft. The total number of Allied troops on the Western Front was about 3.9 million against 2.5 million German troops.

Despite the German withdrawal beyond the Hindenburg Line, a large-scale Allied offensive began in April according to Nivelle’s plan. On April 9, British troops went on the offensive in the Arras area (see: Battle of Arras (1917)), on April 12 - near Saint-Quentin, on April 16 - French troops in the Reims area, the offensive continued until the end of April - beginning of May. After taking two lines of defense, the offensive was stopped, the Allied losses amounted to over 200 thousand people, of which 120 thousand were in French troops. The unsuccessful offensive undermined the morale of the French troops, in which mutinies began, involving 54 divisions, and 20 thousand people deserted. The soldiers heeded calls for patriotism and a sense of civic duty and returned to defensive positions, but they refused to go on the attack. In France itself, a wave of public indignation arose, and on May 15, Nivelle was replaced as commander-in-chief by Henri Pétain.

In the winter of 1916-1917, Germany's tactics for conducting air battles changed significantly, a training school was opened in Valenciennes, and new aircraft models entered the troops. The result was German superiority over the Allies in air combat, especially against the poorly trained British, who used outdated aircraft. During an air battle over Arras, the British fought in a month that would go down in history as “Bloody April.” "Bloody April"), lost 245 aircraft and 316 pilots, the Germans lost 66 aircraft and 114 pilots.

Further hostilities

However, as a result of the rapid attack, the infantry fell behind, and the tanks advanced far ahead, suffering serious losses. On November 30, the 2nd German Army launched a surprise counterattack, pushing the Allied forces back to their original lines. Despite repelling the attack, tanks proved their effectiveness in battle, and the battle itself marked the beginning of the widespread use of tanks and the development of anti-tank defense.

Although the Allies did not achieve a breakthrough at the front, the result of the 1917 campaign was the collapse of the German command’s plans to achieve victory through “unlimited submarine warfare” and its transition to strategic defense. The Allied troops took the offensive initiative.

1918 Campaign: Defeat of Germany

Map of the 1918 campaign

German offensive

The first German offensive began on March 21. Superiority in forces (62 divisions, 6824 guns and about 1000 aircraft against 32 divisions, about 3000 guns and about 500 aircraft from the British) allowed the German troops to advance 60 km in the first 8 days of fighting. In response, the Allies brought reserve troops into battle and by April 4 drove back the German troops, inflicting 230 thousand casualties on them.

On April 14, Ferdinand Foch was appointed Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, which allowed for better coordination of the actions of the British and French armies.

German troops also carried out offensives in the area of ​​the Lys River (April 9 - May 1), the Aisne River (May 27 - June 13), between Montdidier and Noyon (June -13). Each time, the initially successful development of attacks by German troops ended in failure: having advanced several tens of kilometers, they could not overcome the Allied defenses.

On July 15, the last great offensive of German troops began on the Marne River (see: Battle of the Marne (1918)). The troops of the 1st and 3rd armies crossed the river, but were able to advance only 6 km. At the same time, troops of the 7th Army unsuccessfully attacked the 6th French Army at Reims. On July 17, the Allied forces stopped the advance of the German armies and on July 18 launched a counteroffensive, pushing the Germans back to their original positions by August 4.

Allied counter-offensive

Belgian machine gunner on the front line in 1918

-On August 13, the Allies, with the forces of the 4th British, 1st and 3rd French armies, carried out the Amiens operation, during which the Amiens ledge, occupied by the 2nd and 18th German armies, was eliminated.

The operation began suddenly, without artillery preparation; With the support of artillery, Allied infantry and tanks advanced 11 km during the first day of the offensive. Ludendorff called August 8 “the black day of the German army.” Over the next five days of the operation, the front line was moved back another 8-9 km.

-September 15, American troops successfully carried out their first major operation - an attack on the Saint-Mihiel salient. In the summer of 1918, 300 thousand American soldiers arrived in Europe every month. By September, their number reached 1.2 million people, and by the end of the war - 2.1 million, which made it possible to eliminate Germany's advantage in manpower, which transferred additional formations from the east.

On September 26, having an advantage over German troops (202 divisions versus 187), the Allies launched a general offensive along the entire front from Verdun to the North Sea. Exhausted by the four-year war, German troops began to surrender. Ludendorff was replaced in October