Europe: Major Theaters of Warfare  II. Eastern Front: 1914  German victories over the Russians  Battle of Tannenberg  Battle of the Masurian Lakes  Russia’s Plan 19 failed  General Aleksandr Samsonov  Russia’s resupply worsened by Turkish blockade of the Dardanelles

Battle of Tannenberg: 23–30 August 1914  The Battle of Tannenberg was one of the largest, yet least known, strategically decisive victories in modern warfare. Its outcome allowed the Germans to recover momentum after their loss at the Battle of the Marne on the Western Front, to save Prussia from the Russians, to defeat three successive Russian armies, and to deal the first of several blows leading to the Treaty of Brest Litovsk and the Russian Revolution in Of the roughly 150,000 Russian soldiers who fought in the battle of Tannenberg, some 30,000 were killed or wounded and another 95,000 captured. The Germans suffered fewer than 20,000 casualties, captured more than 500 guns, and filled dozens of trains with captured equipment for transport to Germany.  After losing at Tannenberg, the Russian army could not muster enough offensive strength to re-enter Germany again until World War II. It was nothing short of a complete victory for Germany, and it came in large part because of the German Army’s successful use of intelligence.

Paul von Hindenburg (left) and Erich Ludendorff. Painting by Professor Hugo Vogel.

Hindenburg & staff

Russian POWs (Battle of Tannenberg)

Tannenberg (cont’d)

German civilians killed in East Prussia by invading Russians in 1914 are shown

Tannenberg Memorial

German troops advance on the Eastern Front (Aug. 1914)

Eastern Front: 1915  Germans capture Warsaw  Austro-German offensive in the Carpathians another Russian defeat  Russian general to the Czar, “A third of the men have no rifles. … The army is drowning in its own blood.”  Turkish blockade of the Dardanelles

Eastern Front: 1915

Eastern Front:  The Brusilov Offensive – initially successful against the Austrians  Germans again aid the Austrians  Offensive stopped – cost to Russia, 1,000,000 casualties  Czar forced to abdicate (Feb. 1917)  Revolution against the Provisional Government (Oct. 1917)

 The Eastern Front, 1917  Failure of the Kerensky Offensive – contributes to the “July Days”

German troops entering Riga during World War I September 3,1917.

Soviet delegation with Leon Trotsky greeted by German officers at Brest-Litovsk

German troops occupy Eastern Europe, 1918.

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk

Signing of the treaty, March 3, 1918

  Treaty of Brest- Litovsk (1918)

Europe: Major Theaters of Warfare  III. The Balkans Front ( ):  Serbia resists until Bulgaria  war  Encouraged by Russia’s success in the Brusilov Offensive, Romania  Allies  IV. The Italian Front ( ) :  Promised territory by Britain & France  Mountainous terrain difficult  October 1917 Austrians Battle of Caporetto

Serbia Is Overrun!

Roma Romania Joins the war!

Marshal Joffre inspecting Romanian troops during WWI

Falkenhayn's cavalry (German 9 th Army) entering Bucharest on December 6, 1916.

Europe: Major Theaters of Warfare  V. The Ottoman Front:  The Gallipoli Campaign ( )  Arab Nationalists  VI. The Colonial Territories:  British control of the seas; small garrisons  Japan takes Germany’s Asian colonies  Allies take most of Africa by 1917

Col. Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck  Launches a successful guerrilla campaign in East Africa w/ only 14,000 troops  times that number of Allied troops committed to stop him  Officially surrendered  British in Nov. 1918, having never been defeated