Events That Led To The War
28 June 1914 - The assassination of Archduke
Franz Ferdinand of Austria took place in in Sarajevo, the capital of the
Austro-Hungarian province of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The assassination was
perpetrated by a Serbian terrorist group, called The Black Hand and the man who
shot Franz Ferdinand and his wife was a Bosnian revolutionary called Gavrilo
Princip
•July 28,1914: Austria-Hungary declared war on
Serbia and WW1 begins
•July 31,1914: Russia announced mobilization of their
army and called upon the French to mobilize
•August 1, 1914: Germany declared war on
Russia
•August 3,1914: Germany declared war on France. Germany invaded
Belgium and the British foreign secretary, Sir Edward Grey, sent an ultimatum to
Germany demanding their withdrawal from the neutral Belgium
Franz Ferdinand of Austria took place in in Sarajevo, the capital of the
Austro-Hungarian province of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The assassination was
perpetrated by a Serbian terrorist group, called The Black Hand and the man who
shot Franz Ferdinand and his wife was a Bosnian revolutionary called Gavrilo
Princip
•July 28,1914: Austria-Hungary declared war on
Serbia and WW1 begins
•July 31,1914: Russia announced mobilization of their
army and called upon the French to mobilize
•August 1, 1914: Germany declared war on
Russia
•August 3,1914: Germany declared war on France. Germany invaded
Belgium and the British foreign secretary, Sir Edward Grey, sent an ultimatum to
Germany demanding their withdrawal from the neutral Belgium
Stalemate and Trench Warfare
Once the warefare had begun it quickly fell into a stalemate because of technological advancements that reinforced the structure of defensive tactics. Barbwire, Machinegun Turrets which were first used by American troops whene combined with trenches allowed for the stalemate to continue until military advancement was improved on the German's part, and they introduced poisonous gas on January 1915, which among other new born weapons or methods helped destroy the stalemate and leave stacks of bodies piling up, wether it was in Trenches; which were wet and reeked of foul a oddor because of rotting flesh, or "no man's land". Life of soldiers who partook in trench warfare was actualy quite awful as soldiers were stationed in trenches that did not onlly have latrines that had over flowed, but also did not have very high quality food.
Quotes From Soldiers Involved in Trench Warfare
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)
“The water in the trenches through which we waded was alive with a
multitude of swimming frogs. Red slugs crawled up the side of the trenches and
strange beetles with dangerous looking horns wriggled along dry ledges and
invaded the dugouts, in search of the lice that infested them.”
(unknown journalist)
“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 – a nurse on the front line)
Battle of Liege
This battle took place in Liege, Belgium was a process led by General's Emmich and Bullows fighting for the Germans whith 350,000 men, while General Lemman had 70,000 men along with 12 armed forts that protected the city of Liege. After a failed sneek attack under the cover of night by the Germans they called in Zeppelins to raid Liege with bombs and after introducing the Hotwizers and the Big Bertha Gun to reinforce to German assault whene they found a path between the forts were the Belgians had planned to dig rifle trenches but did not actualy get to do so causeing the garison to surrender. This war was the first war to be fought on ground following the Sniffel Plan to invade France and lasted 12 days from 5-16 August 1914.
Battle of Larreine
This battle was fought to retake the towns of Sarrebourg and Morhange by French's 1st and 2nd Army led by Aguste Dubail and Noel de Castelnau whi the Crown Prince Duprrecht was in charge of defending them as he had control of the German 6th and 7th armies. The Germans drew the French army into his fortifications and then met them with heavy artilery and machinegun fire pushing them back to France. Here they fell into a stalemate until after the end of August in Trench Warfare.
Weapons Introduced During WW1
The first weapon that had a main effect on the war's ressults was the American Heavy Machinegun which had belt tyed amonution which could last much more than the 6 bullets rifles and regular pistols. It had so much amonution that soldiers did not necessarilly had to aim much to inflict damage on the opposing side of the battlefield which whent well with the barb wire that was set in no-mans-land which although was only wire set up across the battle fields, whene combined with artilery made charging strikes literaly imposible. Weapons developed by the Central Powers included an array of gases that included poison gas and mustard gas which was actualy a liquid agent that whene exposed to air turned into gas and took about 12 hours to show symptoms, and showed symptoms such as rotting the body. After it was blistering the skin and damaging the eyes it moved to the bronchial tubes. More weapons included the howitzer and the big bertha gun which were both heavy long range artilery weapons.