1. Theaters of WWI

2. What does a “theater” refer to when talking about a war?
the entire land, sea, and air area that may become or is directly involved in war operations

4. The Western Front
The map shows the geographical position of the Western Front stretching from Belgium in the north to Switzerland in the south. Each colored square represents 50,000 men. Yellow represents the German army, blue the French, red the British and orange the Belgian army.

5. Western Front
Shorter (700km) – Belgian coast in the north to Swiss border in the south

6. The Western Front Info
The German army crossed the Belgian border on August 3rd 1914.
Britain and France declared war on Germany on August 4th.
The Germans pushed through Belgium, occupying Brussels before entering France.
The British and French armies marched to stop the German advance

7. Important Battles fought on the Western Front
Marne, September 1914; Stopped the Schlieffen Plan
First Battle of Ypres, October - November 1914; “Flanders”/The capstone to the “race to the Sea”
Verdun, February - December 1916; “Bleed France White”
Somme, July - November 1916; 1st Tank battle over 1 million in casualties
Passchendale, July - November 1917; Battle that defined the war, high casualties with mud 3rd battle of Ypres
Cambrai, November 1917; the first battle in which tanks were used en masse In fact, Cambrai saw a mixture of tanks being used, heavy artillery and air power
2nd Battle of Marne, July 1918 marked the turning of the tide in World War I. It began with the last German offensive of the conflict and was quickly followed by the first allied offensive victory of 1918.

8. Western Front
Line of trenches stretched whole way with little movement for Allied and Central Powers. (STALEMATE)

9. Fun Facts about the Western Front
Christmas The Christmas Truce happened on the western front
Battles on this front were fought for feet and miles
Most predominant area in the war for Trench Warfare
Tanks were first used on this front
When the British first invented tanks they called them "landships.“
Poison Gas was first deployed on this front

10. The Eastern Front
The map shows the geographical location of the Eastern front stretching from Riga in the north to Czernowitz in the south. The orange line shows the position of the Eastern Front in Each colored square represents 50,000 men. Red represents the Russian army, yellow, German soldiers and blue Austro-Hungarian.

11. Eastern Front
Longer (1,600km) – Baltic Sea in north to Black Sea in south.

12. Eastern Front Info
The line of fighting on the Eastern side of Europe between Russia and Germany and Austria-Hungary is known as the Eastern Front.
Fighting began on the Eastern front when Russia invaded East Prussia on August 17, Germany immediately launched a counter-offensive and pushed Russia back

13. Eastern Front Info
This pattern of attack and counter-attack continued for the first two years of the war and meant that the Eastern Front changed position as land was captured and lost by both sides.
Battles fought along this front include –
Tannenberg, August 1914; almost complete destruction of the Russian Second Army
Masurian Lakes, September 1914; second defeat for the Russian Army in World War One at the hands of the German army
Bolimov, January 1915; Freezing of Poison Gas
Lake Naroch, March 1916; offensive on the Eastern Front by the Russian army during World War I, ends on this day in 1916 after achieving little success against German positions
Riga, September 1917.

14. Eastern Front
More mobile and unstable as a result. Impossible to establish permanent trenches.
Troops widely dispersed so the enemy (Germany) could break through more easily.

15. Eastern Front
When the line was breached, a primitive line of communications made things worse. Reinforcements had to be found for counter attack.
Harsh winter made for unbearable conditions.

16. Fast Facts about the Eastern Front
A solid trench system similar to the Western Front never materialized because neither side had the manpower to cover such a distance in depth.
Russia initially fielded a huge and well-trained army
her factories could not keep up with demand and, even when they finally geared up around 1916, there weren't enough roads and railroads to keep the army supplied most of the time.
The Empire of Austria-Hungary was in decline. Many of her soldiers came from provinces and states that yearned for freedom and thus had little loyalty to the empire.

17. Fast Facts about the Eastern Front
During the winter of 1916 – 1917, huge packs of Russian wolves attacked soldiers on both sides. The wolves caused so much trouble that a temporary truce was called so the Russians and the Germans could deal with them.
The Russians lost from 1.8 million to 2.3 million soldiers killed and from 3.8 to 5.0 million wounded. About 500,000 civilians died in the fighting.
Austria-Hungary lost 1.1 million soldiers killed and 3.6 million wounded. About 120,000 civilians died in the fighting.
Railway lines played a critical role, and no army was able to operate far from its railheads [where military supplies were unloaded]

18. Italian Front
The Italians only managed to advance a short way into Austria (shown by the red line on the map
The 1918 location of the Italian front is marked on the map in yellow.

19. Italian Front Info
The Italian front is the name given to the fighting that took place along the border between Italy and Austria
Prior to the outbreak of war in August 1914, Italy had tended to side with Germany and Austria- Hungary.
To begin with, Italy kept out of the war. However, tempted by offers of more land once the war was won, Italy entered the war in April 1915 on the side of the allies.

20. Gallipoli Front Info
The Gallipoli peninsula is located in the south of Turkey.
In 1915, the Allies decided to try to attack Germany by attacking her ally, Turkey. 

21. Gallipoli
The map shows the front line. The blue line shows the allies position while the green shows the Turkish line.

22. Gallipoli Info
Allied soldiers, mainly from Australia and New Zealand, were sent to the Peninsula while British ships tried to force a way through the Dardanelles.
The entire mission was a failure. The allies lost more than 50,000 men but gained hardly any land.

23. The War at Sea
Before WWI, Germany and Britain were involved in a naval race
Britain had a long tradition of being the master of the seas and Germany knew that she was unlikely to win a naval war against Britain.

24. The War at Sea
 Britain's main naval tactic was to keep German ships in German ports and to block supplies from reaching Germany.
Germany's main naval tactic was to post u- boats in the Atlantic ocean and to destroy ships taking supplies from America and other countries to Britain.

25. German U-boat sinking a British Ship