August 4-25, 1914: German invasion of Belgium

German troops captured most of Belgium, including the fortress of Liège, with the Belgians losing 30,000 men and the Germans just 2,000.

August 7-25, 1914: Battle of the Frontiers

The French Plan XVII called for an offensive to recapture Alsace and Lorraine, but the Germans drew them into a trap and inflicted huge casualties.

August 16-19, 1914: Cer Mountain

An invading Austrian army, surprised by Serbian forces, was forced to retreat. By August 24, all Austrian troops had left Serbian territory.

August 20, 1914: Gumbinnen

A Russian advanced guard repulsed an attack by two German corps near the East Prussian border, inflicting 8,000 casualties on a force of just 30,000.

August 23, 1914: Mons

Having advanced into Belgium with the French, the BEF fought a holding action on the Mons-Condé canal against a German force three times its size.

August 26, 1914: Le Cateau

A rearguard action by BEF’s II Corps, at a cost of 7,800 casualties, delayed the advance of the German First Army and allowed the British retreat to continue.

August 28, 1914: Heligoland Bight

An ill-coordinated raid by British naval forces on the entrance to Germany’s North Sea bases ended in the sinking of three German light cruisers.

August 26-30, 1914 Tannenberg

The German Eighth Army encircled the Russian Second Army in thick forests in East Prussia, capturing 92,000 prisoners and nearly 400 guns.

August 26-30, 1914: Gnila Lipa

Sept 2-Nov 7, 1914: Tsingtao

A tiny 4,000-strong German garrison in the Chinese treaty port of Tsingtao surrendered to a besieging force of 25,000 Japanese and 1,500 British.

German plans for a rapid victory are foiled on the Marne; a setback for the Royal Navy at Coronel and heavy casualties for the Allies at Gallipoli.

September 5-12, 1914: First (Miracle of the) Marne

The French and British counter-attacked on the Marne and the Germans withdrew to the Aisne. The German plan for a rapid victory had failed.

Oct 19-Nov 22, 1914: First Ypres

Heroic British, French and Belgian resistance thwarted a German attempt to reach the Channel ports by launching a huge attack on the Ypres salient in Belgium.

November 1, 1914: Coronel

First major setback for the Royal Navy when armoured cruisers Monmouth and Good Hope were sunk off Chile by von Spee’s German East Asiatic squadron.

November 4, 1914: Tanga

A disastrous British attack on the East African port of Tanga, when 8,000 men of the Indian Army were repulsed by a 1,000-strong German force, mostly African askaris.

December 8, 1914: Falklands

In the most decisive naval engagement of the war, the Royal Navy sank most of von Spee’s ships, including the armoured cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau.

January 24, 1915: Dogger

Bank Intercepted signals allowed the Royal Navy’s battlecruisers to intercept a German scouting group and sink the armoured cruiser Blücher.

January 31, 1915: Bolimov

An inconclusive battle west of Warsaw in Russian Poland in which an initial attack by the German Ninth Army was repulsed by the Russian Second Army.

March 10-13, 1915: Neuve Chapelle

The British made an early gain by taking the village of Neuve Chapelle in Artois but reserves were slow to move forward and a breakthrough was thwarted.

April 22-May 25, 1915: Second Ypres

Using chlorine gas for the first time, the Germans drove the Allies back to the outskirts of Ypres but lacked reserves and the town remained in British hands.

April 25, 1915-Jan 9, 1916: Gallipoli

British and Empire troops landed at Cape Helles, Anzac Cove and Suvla Bay. Stout Turkish defence prevented a breakthrough and the Allies suffered 140,000 casualties.

A lack of shells at Aubers Ridge brings down the government; humiliation for Townshend’s Anglo-Indian force at the siege of Kut-al-Amara.

May 2-June 22, 1915: Gorlice-Tarnów

A short preliminary bombardment helped Austro-German troops rout the Russians in Galicia and retake Przemsyl fortress and the Carpathian passes.

May 9, 1915: Aubers Ridge

A failed attack by Haig’s First Army, a setback blamed in the press on the lack of high-explosive shells. The “shell crisis” brought down the government.

May 15-27, 1915: Festubert

The first night attack of the war by the British First Army on German positions south of Neuve Chapelle. After significant early gains, later assaults made little headway.

June 23-July 7, 1915: First Isonzo

After joining the Allies, the Italians attacked Austrian positions across the Isonzo River in north-east Italy. The attack petered out for lack of artillery support.

Sept 25-Oct 14, 1915: Loos

Using gas before the raid, the British made early progress but could not break into open country. High casualties led to French being replaced by Haig as BEF commander.

Oct 5-Nov 23, 1915: Serbia

Having twice repulsed Austrian offensives, the Serbians were overwhelmed by the combined forces of Austria, Germany and Bulgaria, with Belgrade falling on October 9.

Oct 18-Nov 3, 1915: Third Isonzo

With better artillery preparation, the Italians made good ground on either side of the town of Gorizia but were stopped by fierce Austrian counter-attacks.

Nov 22-25,1915: Ctesiphon

A Pyrrhic victory for Gen Townshend’s Anglo-Indian force. Its march on Baghdad was halted near Ctesiphon by fierce fighting. Townshend retreated to Kut.

Dec 7, 1915-April 28, 1916: Siege of Kut-al-Amara

After a 147-day siege, Townshend’s garrison surrendered to the Turks. Of the 10,300 soldiers taken prisoner, more than 40 per cent died in captivity.

Feb 11-16, 1916: Erzurum

The Russians defied snowstorms to capture the chain of mountain forts protecting Erzurum in eastern Anatolia, the gateway to the Turkish heartland.

Two titanic struggles: the Germans fail to break the French lines at Verdun, and the Anglo-French offensive on the Somme weakens the Germans.

Feb 21-Dec 18, 1916: Verdun

In the longest battle of the war, the German plan to wear down the French army and break civilian spirit failed. Casualties were huge: 355,000 German and 400,000 French.

February 25-April 1917: Hindenburg Line

German forces south of Arras pull back up to 25 miles to a new, straighter line of defences – a response to their heavy casualties in 1916.

May 15-June 10, 1916: Asiago/Trentino Offensive

A surprise Alpine attack by the Austrians drove the Italians back 14 miles. But the rugged terrain and Italian reserves eventually halted the offensive.

May 31, 1916: Jutland

 During the longest n aval battle in history Britain’s losses were bigger but she kept the strategic initiative for the rest of the war.

June 4-Sept 20, 1916: Brusilov Offensive

Russian General Alexei Brusilov attacked the southern Austrian defences, advancing the front more than 60 miles and inflicting a million casualties.

June 5, 1916-Oct 1918: Arab Revolt

Led by the Sharif of Mecca and British-backed (with TE Lawrence in liaison), the anti-Ottoman revolt began in Medina and spread across the Arabian peninsula.

July 1, 1916-Nov 18, 1916: Somme

An Anglo-French offensive relieves pressure on the French at Verdun. It failed to achieve a decisive breakthrough but the Germans were considerably weakened.

August 3-5, 1916: Romani

In an attempt to win control of the Suez Canal, German and Turkish forces attacked the British base of Romani in the Sinai but were driven off by counter-attacks.

August 6-17, 1916: Sixth Isonzo

The Italians used railways to shift troops back to the Isonzo front where their offensive resulted in the capture of Gorizia and the first bridgehead across the river.

April 9-May 17, 1917: Arras

Battle intended to pin German forces in Arras- Somme while French attacked in Champagne. Canadians took Vimy Ridge but became a costly attritional struggle.

An Allied attempt to win the war fails at Chemin des Dames; in the first major tank battle at Cambrai, early British gains are wiped out.

April 16-May 9, 1917: Nivelle

Offensive Hailed as the battle that would win the war, the Germans were ready for the attack at Chemin des Dames and inflicted 100,000 casualties on the first day.

June 7-14, 1917: Messines

Nineteen mines were exploded to shatter German defences and capture the Messines-Wytschaete Ridge, guarding the southern flank of the Ypres salient.

July 1, 1917-Aug 3, 1917: Kerensky Offensive

Russia made initial headway on the South-Western Front but a series of fierce Austro-German counter-attacks drove them back beyond their start line.

July 31-Nov 10, 1917: Third Ypres

An offensive designed to continue wearing out the Germans and capture the Belgian coast, it achieved only the first. Passchendaele was captured on November 6.

Aug 18-Sept 12, 1917: Eleventh Isonzo

Successful but costly Italian offensive that crossed the river in several places and captured the high plateau of Bainsizza, threatening the port of Trieste.

Oct 24-Nov 19, 1917: Caporetto (Twelfth Isonzo)

Launched to save Trieste, the Austro-German offensive tore through weak defences in Caporetto and drove the Italians back 50 miles.

Nov 20-Dec 3, 1917: Cambrai

The first major tank attack of the war. Big first-day British gains were wiped out by a German counter-attack using stormtroop tactics on November 30.

March 21-April 5, 1918: Operation Michael

Germany inflicted a humiliating defeat on the British Army with a massive bombardment that ripped a hole in weak British defences on the Somme.

April 9-30, 1918: Operation Georgette

The Allies clung on to the vital railway junction of Hazebrouck in the German assault on British defences on the River Lys in Flanders.

May 27-June 6, 1918: Operation Blücher (Third Aisne)

German forces smashed through Allied defences in Champagne but a French/US counter-attack saved Reims on June 2.

The Americans launch their first operations; the beginning of the end for Germany at the Second Marne and Amiens; Austria signs armistice.

May 28-30, 1918: Cantigny

The first independent American operation, an attack on a three-mile deep Germanheld salient in eastern France. The Doughboys repulsed repeated counter-attacks.

June 15-20, 1918: Piave

Simultaneous Austrian attacks on the Asiago Plateau and across the River Piave had early success but Allied counter-attacks drove the Austrians back to start lines.

July 15-Aug 4, 1918: Second Marne

A two-phase battle that marked the beginning of the end for German hopes of victory. It began with the last great German offensive of the summer (Operation Friedensturm), an advance from the tip of the Champagne salient formed by Blücher that was designed to establish bridgeheads across the Marne, threaten the capital and cut the Paris- Nancy railway.

But forewarned, the French met the attack head-on and held it on the river. Then on July 18 – in a curious echo of the First Marne battle in 1914 – a Franco-American force with 300 tanks counterattacked the vulnerable German flank.

By the time the fighting ended on August 4, the Allies had driven the Germans back to the Aisne (snuffing out most of the Champagne bulge) and had re-established the vital railway link between Paris and Châlons-sur-Marne.

Germany had been forced on the defensive and would remain there for the rest of the war.

Allied casualties: 160,000; German: 110,000.

August 8-11, 1918: Amiens

The first hugely successful blow in a new Allied strategy - designed by the French generalissimo Ferdinand Foch - to deliver a series of sharp, surprise attacks, each with a specific objective, and to halt them before the enemy brought up reserves.

On August 8, spearheaded by Canadian and Australian troops, and supported by 552 tanks and many horsemen, the British portion of the attack advanced eight miles on a 10-mile front - the furthest one-day advance on the Western Front since 1914 - with the French mirroring this success to the south. The German commander Erich Ludendorff called it ‘‘the black day of the German army’’. The British had used 50,000 troops, half as many as on July 1, 1916, but they were better trained and with a huge advantage in firepower.

When the advance slowed, the operation was ended on August 11, prompting Ludendorff to concede Germany could no longer win the war.

Allied casualties: 44,000; German: 75,000 (including 50,000 PoWs).

Sept 12, 1918: St Mihiel

Two-pronged assault by the newly formed American First Army (with French assistance) on the 200 sq mile St Mihiel salient forced the Germans to evacuate.

Sept 15-26, 1918: Vardar

General Franchet d’Espèry’s Franco-Serbian army attacked across the Macedonian mountains and split the Bulgarian forces. Bulgaria sues for peace.

Sept 19-21, 1918: Megiddo

General Allenby’s Egyptian Expeditionary Force breached Turko-German defences north of Jaffa, capturing Nazareth. The road to Damascus was open.

Sept 27-Oct 9 1918: Canal du Nord

British First and Third Army troops crossed the heavily wired Canal du Nord near Cambrai. But resistance would stiffen in the days ahead.

Sept 29-Oct 5, 1918: St Quentin Canal

In the last of a series of Allied attacks in France and Flanders, the British Fourth Army broke through the reserve defences of the Hindenburg Line.

Oct 24-Nov 3, 1918: Vittorio-Veneto

This Italian offensive across the Piave caused the collapse of Austria’s main army and the signing of an armistice with the Allies on November 3.

 

For updates click homepage here