3.  The Head of chiefs, Von Schlieffen, realised that Germany had to fight on two fronts if she went to war with Allies  Russian country was large, poorly organised and slow to mobilise  He didn’t expect the British to join in, they had signed an aggression pact with Belgium, Kaiser called it, ‘A scrap of paper’ and wouldn’t oblige  The German left army would keep the main French army occupied  He planned a outflanking manoeuvre, the right part of the German army would swing through Belgium and attack Frances weakly defended Belgium-French boarder › France had been obliged not to build forts along their boarder with Belgium as she was an ally, it would be seen as an act of aggression  The right arm would then swing around and down surrounding Paris, cutting it off from the rest of France  They would then attack, from behind, the German-French boarder to relieve the left part of the German

4.  Von Schlieffen died meaning that the plan changed  The head of chiefs that replaced him preferred a more bolder frontal attack, this weekend the outflanking army  Belgium refused access through her lands, the Germans invaded, this lead to Britain declaring war on Germany  The Belgium's put up more resistance than expected, advance held up, giving Briton the time she needed to send the BEF over  Russia quicker than expected to mobilise and invaded Germany within a week, 100,000 Germans had to be moved to the Russian front  They sent over the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) roughly 160,000 men strong, Kaiser called it ‘A contemptible little army’  The German right army turned in before Paris leaving their flank exposed to the BEF and French 6 th and 7 th army, the German army was 30 km from Paris but exhausted  The counter-attack at Marne meant that the offensive ground to a halt, this is known as a stalemate  Both sides settled down for trench warfare hardly moving more that a couple of miles until November 1917

5.  The BEF was, the British Expeditionary Force, sent over to France to aid her against Germany  It was only 160,000 men strong, this was small compared to the 6.5 million strong invading German army  The BEF was deployed on France’s left flank to fight the outflanking German army  The BEF made first contact at the river Mons, the BEF did manage to halt the Germans  Eventually the Germans overwhelmed them with sheer numbers as they out numbered the British  The British retreated to Marne where half the army stood and fought to give the other half a chance of escape, the other half eventually pulled back  30 km before Paris the German army, thinking that they had gone past the French capital, turned in exposing their flank  The French 6 th and 7 th armies with the BEF alongside, counter-attacked at Marne where the German army was pushed back to the river Mons where both side dug in for the precursor to Trench Warfare

6.  The Germans had expected Belgium to allow them through their lands as Germany was 6 times the size and had a10 times bigger army than her  The Belgium refused and fought the Germans invading  They had two strong forts in the north west of Belgium that would have to be destroyed with heavy siege artillery  That meant that the German army was again split on two fronts  Further weakening the attacking right flank  The two forts were bombarded for 10 days before they surrendered to the Germans  The Belgium Government went into exile in Briton where they organised Belgium resistance

7.  Allies counter-attacked on September 1914  At the battle of Marne the BEF and French 6 th and 7 th armies pushed back the German army to the river Mons  The Germans were pushed back to their staring positions one week earlier  The German army held the British back and dug in  Both sides now raced to outflank the other in a desperate race  It was called ‘The Race To The Sea’  Both sides dug in forming a network of trenches that run all the way from the Belgian coast to the Swiss Alps

8. › Both sides settled down for winter as they knew it wouldn’t end before Christmas › The Schlieffen plan had failed and Germany was now fighting on two fronts, France/Russia › The head of chiefs committed suicide as communications were slow › British and French barrages often destroyed the telephone wires to HQ › The German army was exhausted and in no state able to attack › The Head of chiefs was replaced  He ordered the German army to dig in deep and prepare for a war of attrition  A trench is when soldiers dig into the ground and reinforce it with wood, sand bags and corrugated iron  Both sides were using the machine gun which was a brilliant defensive weapon, it could kill 100 men and fight off an attack  Because the German supply lines were overstretched, German soldiers didn’t receive their winter clothing, more died of frostbite than of fighting that winter of 1914

10.  The trenches were dug in a dog tooth style to reduce the effect of artillery [¬]_[¬]_[¬]_[¬]_[¬]  There would be about 5 lines of barbed wire  Sand bags would line the top along the entire trench  There would be a firing step where a lookout would look from, or when attacking fire from  Either corrugated iron or wood would reinforce the walls to stop it collapsing  These trench systems would stretch for miles and miles  There was a fighting trench, support trench and a reserve trench  The fighting trench saw most of the action  The support trench would act as a second line of defence should the enemy break through  The reserve trench was where HQ was and where the artillery was placed, only having a skeleton crew to man the trench  These were all connected by communication trenches

11.  [¬]_[¬]_[¬]_[¬]_[¬]_[¬]_[¬]_[¬]_[¬]_[¬]_[¬]_[¬]_[¬]_[¬]_[¬] f fighting trench  | | | | c communication trenches  [¬]_[¬]_[¬]_[¬]_[¬]_[¬]_[¬]_[¬]_[¬]_[¬]_[¬]_[¬]_[¬]_[¬]_[¬] s support trench  | | | | c communication trenches  [¬]_[¬]_[¬]_[¬]_[¬]_[¬]_[¬]_[¬]_[¬]_[¬]_[¬]_[¬]_[¬]_[¬]_[¬] r reserve trench

12.  There was a stand to at 4-6 am, this was when the enemy was most likely to attack  One officer would stay on duty for the next two hours before swapping with another officer, there was 6 officers taking 2 hour shifts  The soldiers would have breakfast after the stand to  Would sit around in their trenches, playing card games, killing lice and rats, and waiting  Trench warfare was mostly a waiting game, after a while the morale of the troops would wear thin, causing some to fake illness or desertion  From 6-8 there was another stand to before the night shift began for the officers  The soldiers would retire to their bunks, cleaning their weapons after a day soaked in mud and rain  Trench foot was rife among the soldiers, as every day they would walk through muddy water that had built up in the trenches  Lice was another uninvited guest in the trench, they were a constant problem, the soldier resorted to frying, then eating them as there was hardly any meat which was rare to eat

13. › Artillery  Heavy artillery meant that soldiers out in the open were likely to be killed  These were guns that could fire an explosive shell at the enemy for great distances  The shell was mainly used to soften enemy trenches, create holes in barb wire and damage fortresses › Machine guns  these were good defensive weapons  Two of them could stop an entire attack of over 300 hundred men  It could fire 8 bullets a second, 480 a minute  These news weapons were cheap to produce and replace and cut down on the need for manpower

14. › Over the top  This is the most common method used in WW1  There would be a 1-7 day bombardment of enemy trenches  This meant that the enemy knew there was going to be an attack, it was a big alarm bell  Once the bombardment had stopped, ¾ of the men in the trenches would run over no-mans-land and try to overrun the enemy trench  This method caused many casualties without much success  The battle of the Somme is a good example, 41,000 British servicemen lost their lives on the first day of conflict  Gas, tanks, artillery barrages

15. › Both sides ():  Had large and evenly balanced armies  Had modern transport, trains, trucks  Had heavy industry  modern weapons  Had mainly defensive weapons  Couldn’t be used on the offensive  Generals on () at loss to new form of warfare  Expected war of movement (cavalry)  Needed develope new tactics  break stalemate

17.  Turkey joined the triple alliance  She declared war on the triple entente  Invaded British held territory in north Africa  Invaded Southern Russia opening second front › Reasons for Gallipoli  Constantinople, Turkish capital, was accessible by sea  The allies planned to occupy the capital, force turkey to surrender and aid the Russians  Open up another front and attack Austro-Hungary  The French and British sent an invasion force up the red sea to invade Constantinople

18.  The French-English, 18 th march 1915, sent a fleet up Dardanelles  To destroy the Turkish forts on either side of the river  There was an expeditionary force being sent to attack Constantinople week later  The Turkish had heavily mined the channel 10 days before, the French lost 4 cruisers  None of the forts were destroyed  The operation was a complete disaster  This gave the Turkish forces a massive morale boost in the area

19.  25 th April 1915, British Imperial and French forces land on the Gallipoli peninsular  The aim:  To knock Turkey out of the war  To give allied forces control of Dardanelles  Open a year round supply line to Russia  What happened  They landed at cape hells  Soldiers from Austrailia landed at Anzac coast  Land both sides to prevent retreat and rienforcements from Turkey  Landed further north than planned  Raced for high ground, Turkish win  British forces pushed back to landings  Turkish victory, demoralised the British troops

20. › The British had been fought to stand still by the defending Turkish army › Both sides dug trenches that were hastily built and offered little or no protection › `When there was thunderstorm on the 6 th of july that lasted 3 days  Trenches were flooded, drowning the men  Corpses off no-mans-land now came into the trench poisoning the water  Both sides suffered many losses after each battle, the allies eventually were forced to retreat  As Bulgaria had entered the war on the central powers side

21.  Channel too heavily mined for ships to pass through, lose 4 cruisers 6 troop transports  Landed at Gallipoli instead, closest that they can get to Constantinople  Stalemate with Turkish troops  Turkish push back the battle weary troops  Mass evacuation  Total disaster as it give confidence boost to Turkish forces in north Africa

22.  4 months of campaigning, little gained  Krithia main capture target, unachieved, heavy losses, trench warfare  New landing Suvla Bay  Sending troops to seize heights to over look Hells bay  To force Turkish retreat, splitting of forces  But the commander held his troops on the beach giving Turkish time to prepare trenches  The British were pushed back

24. › Germany was attacking Verdun as they saw that it was a symbol of French resistance › The Germans intended to bleed France dry › BEF and French 4 th and 5 th army ordered to attack Somme to relieve the pressure at Verdun › The French knew if they lost Verdun that they would probably lose the war › The army was close to mutinying because of recent defeats and trench warfare › The allies hastily planned the invasion of the some and didn’t plan for many failures

25. › The bombardment lasted two whole days  It was one of the most veracious bombardments of the whole war  British commanders and officers boosted how they would walk into the trenches after the bombardment › Bombardment failure  The bombardment failed to create holes in the German barbed wire  Had failed to destroy and kill the German soldiers and positions  20,000 British service men died on the first day of combat  450,000 would be the total figure of dead after the attack was called off

26.  The failure of the artillery bombardment highlighted the weaknesses of barrages  No amount of shells could kill a German soldier dug deep into the ground  A different weapon would have to be invented to break the deadlock  The amount of losses was devastating and massively brought BEF morale to an all time low  Press censorship was at a loss, they showed clips of the devastation back on the home front  The propaganda branch turned this disaster to their advantage at saying how evil and menacing the German soldiers were  How they could thousands of men and not even bat an eyelid  How these vermin needed to be rid of from this world  This encouraged more people to help out with the war

27.  Passchendaele or otherwise know as the battle of Ypres's is another example of massive loss of life  265,000 British servicemen lost their lives in the space of, July – mid-November, 4 months  The attack became quickly bogged down with a gain of only 7 km

28. › The invention of the Tank in 1915 and it’s use in 1917 was a massive new development on the battlefield › The Mark I wasn’t successful › the Mark V was very successful and lead the allied counter-attack after the Ludendorff spring offensive › Over the top was a successful failure  Massive loss of life caused by over the top meant that both nations avoided it later in the war  When USA joined, they used tactics the British had used in 1914 and refused to allow the British to teach them the knew methods  This caused more losses to USA than Briton in the last year of the war

29.  Sir Donald Douglas Haig was in charge of the BEF  He was the planner behind the somme and Ypres's  He was the face behind Britons campaign for recruitment  The most famous one was ‘Your country needs you’ and ‘Briton Needs you, don’t let her down’

31.  In the pre-war armament plan by the Germans, they built up there fleet so that it could rival Briton’s  They also invented the U-boat  An underwater vessel designed to sink ships from underneath the waves with torpedoes  The British public afraid of this new threat as they were an island with her navy as her main army  Requested 10 new dreadnoughts be built  This greatly improved the power of the navy and morale of the home front  When war broke out the German navy did bombard some British coastal towns, but they were sunk by British BB’s  The British navy emplaced and long range blockade of German ports, this starved Germany  The German fleet tried to break the Blockade on the 8 th may 1916  The British lost 16 ships to Germany’s 11, but the German fleet fled to port where they remained for the rest of the war

32.  The Germans would send squadrons of ships to raid British coastal towns of supply routes  The British countered this by decoding the German communications and sending their own squadrons against  Most of the German raids were successful as the British ships would turn up to late or be overpowered by the might of the heavy guns  When the British was successful it would be because of surprise or they had sent a BB

33.  The British intercepted a radio transmission from the Germans of a big raid about to take place  The British sent 3 squadrons and 1 force  Against Germany’s 2 scouting groups and two flotillas of torpedo boats (combined)  The British found the German raiding fleet exactly where they thought they would be  The German fleet was surprised  The admiral in charge ordered a organised withdrawal  The British ships were faster than the Germans and soon they engaged fire  The rear German cruiser was disabled and slowed to a stop  The British capital ship was badly damaged, after a signal mix up the British fleet broke off the attack and attacked the disabled German cruiser  This gave the rest of the German fleet time to escape to port, they had taken some heavy damage that took many months to repair

34.  Germans lanched ¾ of thier fleet in an attempt the lift the blockade  Briton lanched her entire navy (homeland defence fleet) to counter the German threat  The commanding officer of the German fleet engaged the British fleet  The German Commanding officer called off the attack as he feared that the British main fleet was lying in wait in a trap  The Germans lost 11 ships to the British 16, both fleets retreated back to port where they remained for the rest of the war

35. › The u-boats were becoming an increasing threat to Britain’s merchant fleet › which was starting to decline as metal was in short supply, all metal was put into planes › The U-boats had declared unrestricted warfare  Any boat suspected of taking supplies to Briton was sunk › At one point in the war it was said that Briton only had 6 weeks supply left

36. › In 1916 the American cruise liner Luistania was sunk by a German U-boat › Although USA didn’t declare war, Germany cancelled unrestricted warfare › In return USA didn’t declare ware on Germany › To counter the threat of U-boats, Winston Churchill lord of the admiralty, introduced convoy systems › Convoy  Merchant ships would travel together in groups  These convoys would be protected by escort vessels  The escort vessels were equipped with the latest anti u- boat equipment, sonar, hydrophone and depth charges

38. › Germany was negotiating with Mexico to declare war on USA › The UK found out and made sure Woodrow Wilson was notified › USA declared war in 1917 and sent over 1,000,000 men until wars end  The resent hostilities shown by Germany through Mexico gave USA reason to declare war on Germany

39. › Ludendorff and Hindenburg realised with the US entry, Germany would be outnumbered › With Russia Defeated, 1 million men were transferred to the eastern front where they were used in the spring offensive › Or otherwise known as the Ludendorff Offensive, this was Germany’s last gamble › The Bombardment started in spring with more that 100,000 cannons firing along 118 miles of frontline › This was the most ferocious barrage of the entire war

40.  After the German spring offensive the Allies counter attacked in November  They broke through the German lines and continuously attacked only stopping to eat and sleep  The Germans were pushed all the back to Mons  The Ludendorff line was captured which the Germans thought to be impregnable  Although the german army was still in captured French and Belgium terriotory the Government opened peace terms with the allies  The Kaiser had fled to sweden where he lived for the rest of his life

41.  The soldiers and workers at Wilhelm went on strike refusing to take orders  Many other revolutions occurred and the army refused to suppress  The Kaiser fled to Sweden and the democrats took over  They negotiated peace with the allies hoping to gain an advantageous point in the treaty

42.  The German economy was crippled  The German army was on the verge of defeat  Austro-Hungary and Turkey had surrendered  The British blockade was causing starvation in Germany  Poverty was gripping Germany as she had spent all her reserves of gold on the war  Germany had agreed a ceasefire with the allies  The Allies threatened that if Germany did not accept the peace treaty then they would open fire and continue the attack