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story of the
FIRST WORLD
WAR
FIFTH edition
Digital Edition
The campaigns, figures and stories that defined the Great War
A history of WWI
A history of WWI German U-boat Campaign Atlantic Ocean, North Sea and Mediterranean Sea 28 July 1914 11 November 1918
The assassination of Franz Ferdinand Bosnia and Herzegovina 28 June 1914
After Bosnia and Herzegovina were annexed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Franz Ferdinand, the heir of the empire, travelled to Sarajevo to inspect the army. A Serbian nationalist group, called The Black Hand, conspired to supply seven young students with weapons for an assassination of Ferdinand. After a failed assassination attempt, the Archduke decided to return home via a different route, but nobody told the driver. As the car stopped to turn, Gavrilo Princip, one of the conspirators, spotted the car and shot. By 11.30am, A depiction of Franz n Ferdinand’s assassinatio Prince Ferdinand had bled to death.
WWI timeline
l Austria declares war Blaming the Serbian government for Franz Ferdinand’s assassination, Austria-Hungary formally declares war on Serbia. 28 June 1914
Franz Ferdinand
l Britain declares war on Germany Germany refuses to withdraw from neutral Belgium and as a result Britain declares war on Germany. 4 August 1914
The U-boat Campaign was an effort by the German military to destroy the trade routes of the Entente Powers. With the British Empire relying heavily on imports for food and supplies, the German U-boats were commanded to sink all Allied or neutral ships on sight. This led to the sinking of almost 5,000 ships and pushed Prime Minister Lloyd George to order an armed navy convoy for all ships carrying provisions, equipment or A British propaganda poster from WWI weapons to the British Isles.
l The Battle of Tannenberg The Russian army march into Prussia, but struggle to get supplies through, suffering a crushing defeat to the Germans. Hindenburg at 26 August 1914 Tannenfeld
l Germany invades Germany declares war on France and implements the Schlieffen Plan, invading Belgium. Britain orders Germany to withdraw. 3 August 1914
A strategic meeting in WWI
l Turkey joins the war Turkey enters the war on the side of the Germans and contributes forces to a naval bombardment of Russia. 29 October 1914
largest The LZ 18 Zeppelin, the October in fire ght cau r, eve one ice 1913, before entering serv
Named after its German inventor Ferdinand von Zeppelin, the zeppelin was a balloonlike airship with a covered metal frame used by the German forces throughout the war. These ‘blimps’ were used for naval reconnaissance but were made infamous for their use in strategic bombing raids against England. Nicknamed ‘baby-killers’, these airships made 51 bombing raids, killing 557 people and injuring another 1,358, most of whom were civilians. Amassing a total of £1.5 million in damage, the Zeppelin raids finally came to a stop with the introduction of aeroplanes, which could shoot them down with relative ease.
Turkish leader Kemal Pasha
l Second Battle of Ypres Germany unleashes poison gas en masse for the first time – banned under the Hague Convention – claiming thousands of casualties. The Germans were surprised by the effectiveness of the new weapon and thus didn’t fully exploit the situation. 21 April - 25 May 1915
l Germany limits submarines In an effort to keep the USA out of the war, Kaiser Wilhelm suspends unrestricted submarine warfare. 18 September 1915
The Battle of Verdun France 21 February - 18 December 1916
The Zeppelin raids England December 1914 - August 1918
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RMS Lusitania
l Churchill resigns In response to the bloodshed at Gallipoli, Winston Churchill resigns as first lord of the admiralty. He returns to the army as a battalion commander. May 1915
1915
1914 l Germany declares war on Russia Germany offers support to AustroHungarians and Russia, allied with Serbia, mobilises. In response, Germany declares war on Russia. 1 August 1914
l The sinking of the Lusitania RMS Lusitania, a ship carrying 139 American passengers, is sunk in the German U-boat Campaign, prompting furious protests from the US. 7 May 1915
Conditions in WWI trenches were squalid
In response to the increasing threat of German invasion, the French attempted to build an impassable line of sunken forts extending from the Swiss frontier to the French city of Verdun. The Battle of Verdun was a German campaign to ‘bleed the French dry.’ Germany was successful in claiming the French forts but quickly became distracted by the British attack on the Somme and the Russian offensive in the East, allowing France to reclaim the forts. Nine months later, with enormous casualties on both sides, neither force had gained a real strategic advantage.
A history of WWI The Battle of Gallipoli Sanjak of Gelibolu 25 April 1915 9 January 1916
After a Russian appeal for aid, the British launched an expedition to take the Gallipoli Peninsula, hoping that by doing so they would knock Turkey out of the war. The campaign was a fiasco, as the Turkish repelled the Allied forces from fortified high ground, amassing huge numbers of casualties on both sides – 252,000 Allied and 218,000 Ottoman. After months of fighting and no gains on either side, the British forces withdrew. This disastrous campaign badly tarnished Winston Churchill and Field Marshall Lord Kitchener’s reputations.
The HMS Irresistible abandoned on 18 March 1915
The Battle of the Somme France 1 July - 18 November 1916 Fought between the armies of Britain and France against the German Empire, this fivemonth battle took place on either side of the river Somme in Northern France. Originally planned as a battle of attrition, the German Verdun offensive prompted the date of the planned attack to be brought forward. Although the numbers were highly in their favour, the Allies failed to destroy the German barbed wire and concrete bunkers, transforming no man’s land into a mess of mud and craters. As the infantry pushed forward, the Germans manned their machine guns and picked off the soldiers with ease. One of the bloodiest battles in history, the Battle of the Somme claimed the lives of over 420,000 British, 200,000 French and 500,000 German soldiers. Gaining the Allies just 12 kilometres (7.5 miles) of ground, Sir Douglas Haig’s decisions during the battle are still a source of great controversy today.
l The Battle of Jutland Although the British suffer heavy losses, the German Navy is largely put The HMS Birmingham out of operation for sinking at Jutland the remainder of the war after this battle. 31 May 1916
1916
l USA declares war In response to the sinking of more US ships by the German U-boats, the United States join the fight against Captured U-boats Germany. in Trondheim, 6 April 1917 Norway
l Battle of Cambrai Utilising tank warfare, the British artillery penetrate The Battle of the German Cambrai Hindenburg Line. These tactics will play a large part in the fighting throughout 1918. 20 November - 7 December 1917
l Hindenburg Line collapses After a 56-hour long bombardment, the Allied forces break through the last line of German defences on the Western Front, the Hindenburg Line. 29 September 1918
1917
l Important telegraph American President Woodrow Wilson is given the Zimmerman Telegraph by British intelligence. It urges Mexico to side with Germany, promising US territory in return. Wilson ultimately 25 February 1917 received the Nobel Peace Prize
Lloyd George becomes Prime Minister Great Britain 7 December 1916
l Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicates Faced with a German revolution, Kaiser Wilhelm resigns as emperor of the German Empire and king of Prussia. 9 November Kaiser Wilhelm II 1918
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1918 l Battle of Passchendaele Acting against the wishes of British PM David Lloyd George, Douglas Haig leads an offensive to reach the Belgian coast. Heavy losses result on both sides. 31 July - 6 November 1917
A scene of carnage at Passchendaele
After becoming critical of Prime Minister Asquith after repeated military failures in the war, and with the support of the conservative and labour leaders, Lloyd George became the Liberal wartime prime minister. His concentrated wartime cabinet meet every day, increasing the pace of action during the war. Lloyd George was highly untrusting of his war secretary, Douglas Haig, who he accused of needlessly sacrificing lives. He agreed to the instatement of French Marshall Ferdinand Foch as supreme commander of all Allied forces, which he hoped would limit Haig’s power. Lloyd George’s determination to achieve unity of military control among the Allies is regarded to have had a David Lloyd George became Britain’s great influence over their victory. prime minister during WWI
l The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk The Russians sign an armistice with Germany, ending their involvement in the war. The terms are harsh, with Russia surrendering Poland and Ukraine. 5 December 1917
RAF formed Great Britain 1 April 1918
Comprised of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service, the RAF was formed to combine the strengths of both organisations. The RAF were involved in major offensives on the Western Front. Now the world’s oldest independent air force, the RAF served a vital part of military operations throughout WWII and up to the modern day.
l Turkey makes peace Known as the ‘Armistice of Moudros’, the hostilities in the Middle Eastern theatre come to an end as the Turks finally ask for an armistice. 30 October 1918
l The Treaty of Versailles signed Five years to the day after Ferdinand’s assassination, the Treaty of Versailles is signed between the Allied powers and Germany. 28 June 1919
Armistice of Compiègne France 11 November 1918
Finally putting a stop to the fighting in Western Europe, this agreement ended the First World War. Now celebrated as Armistice Day, the cease-fire commenced on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month. The terms of the armistice were mainly written by the French Marshal Ferdinand Foch and included the withdrawal of German troops and exchange of prisoners.
Foch (second from right), and others at Compiègne
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WWI origins
Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina 28 June 1914
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f all the assassinations throughout history, that of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary, was both one of the most climactic and far-reaching in terms of consequences. The shooting of Ferdinand on 28 June 1914 in Sarajevo, the modern-day capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, shook the entire world and was a major step towards the outbreak of the First World War. Many historians argue that the shooting led to the deaths of almost 10 million soldiers and countless other civilians. The assassination was born out of a desire for Austria-Hungary’s South-Slav provinces to be split from their vast empire and incorporated into Greater Serbia; a desire which had led to heightened disputes between Serbia and its neighbouring countries. This came to a head in late 1913 when Bosnian Orthodox Serb Danilo Ilić, the leader of a Serbian Black Hand terrorist cell in Sarajevo, decided to go and speak to one of the organisation’s founders – Serbian Colonel C. A. Popovic. The Black Hand was a secret military society tasked with reclaiming the historical Serbian territories currently controlled by Austria-Hungary or other powers. Its motto was ‘Unification or Death’ and it specialised in covert operations designed to further Serbia’s cause. However, Ilić no longer believed engagement in such a manner would lead to success, making a case to Popovic that a campaign
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of direct action should be taken instead. After temporarily considering the Governor of Bosnia as an assassination target, it was eventually agreed that Archduke Ferdinand would be their victim. The plan was to strike during the Archduke’s visit to the city in June. The weaponry for the assassination arrived with a team of young Serbian and Bosnian Serb assassins that Ilić had recruited on 26 May, and by 4 June the six assassins were all in Sarajevo and ready to act. Along with a selection of hand guns, bombs and knives, Ilić also distributed suicide pills to the assassins – truly ‘unification or death’. On the following day, Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated, along with his wife Duchess Sophie. Despite the plans, the assassins and their masters in the Black Hand were caught, imprisoned or executed. The death of one man set in train a series of events that led to the Empire of AustriaHungary issuing an ultimatum in July of that year. This included a list of demands that Serbia was to accept within 48 hours or face having AustriaHungary’s ambassador removed from the country. Serbia did not accept, and on 28 July both sides mobilised their armies. Due to a series of alliances struck between the Great Powers of Europe, this forced Russia, France, Britain and Germany, among others, to take sides and begin the most brutal, bloody and costly war that the world had ever seen.
Double Phaeton
The Archduke and his wife were riding in an open-top Gräf & Stift Double Phaeton car at the time of their assassination. This car was part of a motorcade of six vehicles, which carried among others the Mayor and Chief of Police of Sarajevo. On 28 June 1914, it was subjected to a bomb attack that wounded 20 people.
Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
Last words
According to the memoir of Count Franz von Harrach, who was standing on the car’s sideboard when the assassination took place, Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s last words were “Sophie, Sophie, don’t die. Stay alive for the children!”, before stating when asked if he was injured “It is nothing.”
Weapon of death The weapon used by the assassin, Gavrilo Princip, was a Fabrique National model 1910 semiautomatic pistol. The gun was Belgian-made and used .380 ACP ammunition. When Princip fired on that fateful day, he did so twice from a distance of 1.5 metres, his shots hitting both the Archduke and his wife.
The Black Hand The assassins were part of an underground splinter cell of Bosnian Serbs coordinated by Danilo Ilić, a member of the secret military society the Black Hand. The organisation’s objective was to create an event that would lead to the splitting off of Austria-Hungary’s SouthSlav provinces from the empire.
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The world goes to war Discover the Great War and how it affected the whole world
54 30 WWI firsts
54 Zeppelin wars
38 Charge of the Sturmtruppen
60 Trench Warfare
See how warfare as we know it today began to take shape
Learn about the German soldiersdeveloped to win the war
48 Timeline of the Indian Army
Explore the operations that the Indian Army assisted in
50 What was it like? London 1915
Discover what life was like in a city in the grip of The Great War
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How Germany’s airship fleets created the first aerial bombing campaign
Take a look inside the trenches that soldiers fought and died in
62 Grave of Russia’s Imperial Army
Learn how the Eastern Front saw the most casualties of WWI
70 The Empire Strikes Back
Explore the tactical blow that Germany hoped would ultimately win them the war
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The world goes to war
Charge of the Sturmtruppen
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Charge of the Sturmtruppen In 1914, the world was confronted with a new kind of warfare. The German response was to develop a new kind of soldier
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ew Year’s Day, 1918, saw the appearance of a remarkable manual. ‘The Attack in Position Warfare’ was a distillation of the hard lessons learned during more than three years of intense combat on the Western Front. It detailed a new way of fighting, one that had formed as a natural response to the defensive dominance of the trenches. It outlined a mode of warfare that stressed the co-ordination of various armaments and put an emphasis on individual initiative, right down to Trenches had rendered old-style frontal assaults tragically expensive, forcing both the Allies and the Germans to consider new tactics
the low level of the common private soldier. Gone was the old-fashioned concept of a man drawing courage from large numbers of comrades around him. The new ideal was a man who drew on his own inner resolve to get the job done, who could react to changing circumstances and who relentlessly, remorselessly, pushed forwards. ‘The Attack in Position Warfare’ had a simple goal, to achieve a breakthrough in enemy defensive lines. Yet that simple goal had proved fiendishly difficult to achieve and had forced both sides of the
conflict to consider and adopt new tactics. The Allies found their answer in massed tank formations. The Germans went in a different direction, developing infantry tactics that saw a new type of soldier achieve legendary status towards the end of the war. These new troops had steadily developed their tactics and now their hard-earned knowledge had been condensed into a single manual. Not for nothing has ‘The Attack in Position Warfare’ been described as ‘the Stormtrooper Bible’.
The Kaiser’s Offensive
Germany found itself in a desperate race against time as World War I moved towards its climax. The entry of the United States into the war had left the Germans with a small window of opportunity. They needed to secure a quick victory, or at least force the Allies into
“The Germans went in a different direction, developing infantry tactics that saw a new type of soldier achieve legendary status towards the end of the war”
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The world goes to war
Inside a war zeppelin The terrifying world of the floating killing platforms, and the men who manned them miles above the ground Both the German army and navy operated zeppelin crews during the war. Thanks to the efforts of Peter Strasser, however, its navy really pioneered and pushed the bombing of civilian targets in Britain. Whichever branch of the services these soldiers came from, those who manned the zeppelins were essentially Special Forces operatives. All were highly trained volunteers, who conducted high-risk operations from deep behind enemy lines, using state-of-the-art technology. Science was initially on their side, and for a brief moment in 1915-16, during the so-called ‘Zeppelin Scourge’, the bombing behemoths that they manned ruled the skies. They were giants in the sky who simply couldn’t be slain. However, as time went on and the technological balance began to shift, their missions became increasingly perilous.
Gas bags
As opposed to blimps, which are merely pressurised balloons, zeppelins were kept aloft by thousands of bags filled with hydrogen gas. These were made from goldbeater’s skin – which is actually the outer membrane of a cow’s intestine. Primarily used as sausage skin, so much of it was demanded by the zeppelin factories that sausage production was suspended in parts of Germany during the war.
Forward control cabin
This was the main flight deck where the airship commander, navigator, ruddermen, elevatormen and wireless operator would have worked. Most of the engineers were stationed in the rear gondola of the zeppelin serving the main engines in an environment that was as noisy as it was dangerous.
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Cloud cars usually carried one observer who would relay navigation instructions
Even without the emerging dangers of weaponry that could blast them out of the skies, however, the life of a zeppelin crewman was hazardous. Their workplace was a world of cogs and levers, suspended two miles above the Earth’s surface by a battleshipsized balloon filled with highly flammable hydrogen. While these floating death traps grew increasingly bigger as the war went on, crew sizes remained roughly the same as planners wrestled with equations about weight and altitude. On average, 20 men were required to steer these monstrous killing platforms across the Channel. Their roles included
airship commanders, wireless operators, navigators, ruddermen and elevatormen, who would control direction and height, sail makers to repair tears and bullet holes in the hull, plus an assortment of mechanics and bombardiers. All crewmen were also trained to use the on-board defensive machine guns, although these were often left behind or dispensed with once airborne, along with parachutes. Both items were simply considered unnecessary weight in an environment where being able to climb rapidly was your only real hope of surviving combat.
“Whichever branch of the services they came from, those who manned the zeppelins were essentially Special Forces”
Engines
These were housed on the gondolas. Although they varied in size and weight, a typical engine for later R-class airships was the six-cylinder Maybach HSLu. It produced 240hp and six were used to power the ship – one on the front cabin, two on the side gondolas and three on the rear. They could produce a top speed of 63 miles per hour and could propel the zeppelin to over 13,000 feet.
Cloud car
It may look like a high-risk fairground ride, but this was actually an observation platform. If a zeppelin became temporarily unaware of its position, an observer could be winched down from inside the hull up to half a mile below to spot for landmarks. He could then relate back to the bombardiers above by telephone. To make it safer, a lightning conductor was built into the suspension cable.
Zeppelin wars years before Nazi bombers set London ablaze, THE ZEPPELIN BLITZ 25Britain’s capital was attacked by airship raiders
Machine Gunner
There were usually several fixed points both on top of the zeppelin and beneath it where machine gunners, operating in temperatures as low as -30 degrees Celsius, could defend the airships against attack from fighters. Gunners wore helmets, gloves and cold-weather clothing once airborne, but often no parachutes.
The devastation caused by the zeppelin raid on the night of 8 September 1915 was a foreshadowing of the London Blitz 25 years later
– was ablaze. 55 incendiary bombs had left a river of fire burning in the zeppelin’s wake. Mathy had also unleashed 15 high-explosive bombs, including one with a 660-pound payload – far bigger than anything that had previously been dropped on Britain. The night-time raid had caused the modern equivalent of £23 million worth of damage to the city, had injured 87 Londoners and killed 22 more. It had also proven that London was defenceless against air attack. Just six planes had intercepted the zeppelin, with zero success. The 26 anti-aircraft guns assigned to protect the capital, meanwhile, were too
Bomb bay
Located in the bottom of the hull, this could hold payloads that weighed up to 4,000 pounds. The bombs were usually a mix of larger high-explosives designed to shatter rooftops and smaller incendiary devices that could then be dropped into buildings to set them ablaze, as was the case with the London raid of 8 September 1915.
feeble to hit the airship. When some anti-aircraft fire had come close, Mathy simply took the zeppelin up to 11,200 feet, well out of their range, and carried on bombing from there. It was shock and awe, early 20th century style. As the writer DH Lawrence, who witnessed the raid, wrote in a letter to a friend: “Then we saw the zeppelin above us, amid a gleaming of clouds, high up… and underneath it were splashes of fire as the shells fired from Earth burst. It seemed as if the cosmic order were gone, as if there had come a new order. The Moon is not queen of the sky at night. It seems the zeppelin’s taken control.”
Structure
Zeppelins were typically built around a rigid skeleton of strong but lightweight aluminium girders over which a huge skin, made from chemically treated cotton, was then stretched. A main cable ran, attached at various points to the framework, through the entire length of the hull to give the ship longitudinal strength.
Illustration: Rebekka Hearl
On the night of 8 September 1915, Zeppelin LZ13 slunk over the Norfolk coast. It then followed rivers and canals south until its commander Kapitanleutnant Heinrich Mathy spotted London’s lights sparkling on the horizon. His intended target was in sight. This wasn’t the first time a zeppelin had bombed London. There had been three earlier attacks on the capital, the first in May 1915 and the last just the previous night. In total, 35 civilians had been killed and a further 121 wounded. All of those attacks, however, had been on the city’s suburbs east of the Tower of London. Kaiser Wilhelm, the German emperor, had been very specific about where his marauding knights of the sky could attack. After all, he had family in town – George V was his first cousin and the Tower was the British king’s most easterly royal property in the city. Tonight, however, would be different. Tonight, Mathy had the kaiser’s blessing to torch the heart of the city. London was about to experience its first Blitz. Mathy released his first bombs from 8,500 feet, hitting Euston station at about 10.40pm. Lit up by searchlights and with shrapnel from London’s antiaircraft batteries exploding all around him, he headed south. Next to be hit were Bloomsbury and Holborn. The city below him was now on fire, and the streets filling up with the wounded and the dead. Passing north of Saint Paul’s, Mathy’s zeppelin rained down incendiary bombs on textile warehouses as he steered towards Liverpool Street station. Here, he unleashed his deadliest attack, when a single bomb killed nine people on a bus. By the time LZ13 crept into clouds and back across the Channel, London – the heart of the British Empire
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The world goes to war
Trench Warfare Advancing painfully slowly in the slog of WWI, France, 1914-1918
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he assassination of Franz Ferdinand may have lit the touch paper for WWI but the conflict erupted due to a number of reasons, such as France and Russia forming a military alliance in 1894, which increased German isolation, and the second Balkan War. In the conflict, which lasted from 1914 to 1918, the countries were divided into two groups: the Allies, led by Great Britain, France and the United States, and the Central Powers, which included Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey. During the first years of the conflict, the armies stood still in trench lines or position wars. This caused the loss of thousands of lives and material resources as battles were often long affairs, such as the Battle of Verdun, which lasted a gruelling ten months.
Shell-shock Rearguard
The heavy artillery was commonly placed around 10km (6mi) away from the front line. It was moved forward as the infantry advanced.
Millions of men suffered psychological trauma as a result of their war experience. For many a large part of this was caused by the all-too frequent artillery bombardments which dished out death seemingly at random and meant a soldier was never truly safe.
Fire power
Machine guns were fairly primitive weapons in 1914 but by the end of the conflict they had evolved rapidly and by 1918, they could spit out over a thousand small-calibre rounds per minute. These weapons had the power to turn the course of a battle.
The Voie SacrĂŠe
This was the road that kept the French front line fully supplied. Between 3,000 and 3,500 trucks used it every day to transport soldiers, war supplies, food and to evacuate those who were injured.
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Trench Warfare
Wire fences
The trenches were protected by long lines of wires with intertwined barbs. They constituted a great challenge for the advancement of the enemy infantry units and many men became tangled on them and provided their enemy with an easy target.
No-man’s-land
This is the term used to describe the land between opposite enemy lines. It was frequently covered with mines and craters caused by bombs and as such was difficult to cross, which contributed to the lack of progress made by both sides.
Aviation
Planes frequently flew over trenches, whether firing at the enemy with machine guns or while engaged in a dogfight or a scouting mission.
Tunnels
Some German shelters were connected by tunnels that allowed the transportation of soldiers without the need to be exposed to enemy fire.
Front line
The first trench was usually the most dangerous one as it was closest to the action. Soldiers had to protect themselves from enemy fire and artillery.
Second trench
Š Sol 90 Images
This served as a reserve for the front line. It used to have refuges located at a depth exceeding 10m (33ft) to bear the direct impact of heavy artillery.
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Battles of WWI
River Somme, France 1916
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Battle of the Somme
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n 1 July 1916, tens of thousands of British soldiers marched into the jaws of death. It would become the bloodiest day in the history of the British Army: Nearly 20,000 Tommies were killed for little territorial gain. Nearly 30,000 more were wounded. What was supposed to be the scintillating start of the push towards defeat of the Central Powers became a bloodbath as thousands of men walked into the crosshairs of German MG 08s. The men who bore the brunt of the machine-gun fire were part of Herbert Kitchener’s New Army, a force assembled to provide Britain with the extra military muscle that would help turn the tide of the war. Conscription wasn’t popular back home, but Kitchener, the secretary of state for war, devised another way to bolster the ranks: a recruitment campaign appealing to single men between the ages of 18 and 41 to fight for king and country. The British Army only numbered 250,000 at the start of the war and, although highly trained, this was not enough for a conflict on this scale. The call to arms recruited an extra 500,000 men as the British Army, a professional force, took on a new wave of volunteers who would become the spine of a new look military. Each volunteer signed for a three-year contract. Fired up by patriotism, for many their first major offensive would be the Somme. In the opposing trenches stood the most formidable land force in the world, a conscript army that had trained for years: the Imperial German Army. Going up against them would be these British boys, oblivious to the true horrors of war. The artillery fell silent and the officer’s whistles were blown. It was time to go over the top.
A church service is hel d at a camp in Basingstoke but som e of the members of the Irish 10th Division seem more interested in the camera
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armis THE
AFTERMATH At the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month in 1918 the guns fell silent across the Western Front, and World War I was officially over – however, far from ending all wars, many overlooked conflicts continued to rage across the globe
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own through the generations, the familiar story told of the Great War is retold time and time again. Unfortunately, the neat, happy ending of World War I was anything but for people all over the world. Across Eastern Europe and the Middle East fighting continued, on and off, into the 1920s, as actors on the ground sought to either enforce the political agreements made at the end of the war, or to overturn or influence decisions they felt were unfavourable to them. Here, we look at a handful of conflicts in the post-war period, reminding us that the end of one war too often simply sets the scene for the next one. When WWI ended, the armed forces of most belligerent countries were still scattered all over
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Europe and in parts of the Middle East and Africa. Many of the German armies that had been left strewn across Eastern Europe and western Russia simply chose not to head home, but instead operated as independent armies pursuing their own political objectives. The West Russian Volunteer Army was one such unit. Nominally allowed to remain in the Baltic after the war to carry on the fight against the Bolsheviks in Russia, this force chose to largely ignore this mandate and instead charted a more independent path. Commanded officially by General Pavel Bermondt-Avalov, a Cossack from Tiflis in Georgia, the West Russian Volunteer Army launched a campaign to secure an independent state or fiefdom of its own, briefly announcing the creation
“The neat, happy ending of World War I was anything but for people all over the world” of a new West Russian state based in Riga, Latvia, and printing its own currency. The army quickly won fame after its initial successes in the Baltic and was frequently referred to simply as ‘the Bermontians’ in honour of their warlord-like commander. The West Russian Volunteer Army did not last long, however. After successfully invading Latvia and occupying at least part of Riga, it was defeated and driven back, with the support
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stice both of British warships firing from Riga’s harbour and reinforcements from Lithuania and Estonia aiding the Latvians. However, there is more to this brief campaign than is at first obvious. Instead of an independent army of people from western Russia, as it presented itself, the West Russian Volunteer Army was in reality 80 per cent German (roughly 40,000 Germans to 10,000 Russians and others). Its real commander was not even Bermondt-Avalov, but was instead the German General Rüdiger von der Goltz, a relative of the famous Colmar von der Goltz who had spent much of his professional life working with and training the Ottoman army, before dying of typhus in Baghdad in 1916. The much younger Rüdiger von der Goltz had been
covertly tasked with securing a German foothold in the Baltic, and if possible reasserting German control over the newly independent Baltic states. Ultimately he failed and was compelled to withdraw back to Germany, along with the other Freikorps, many of whom found themselves fighting in German streets in an undeclared civil war into the early 1920s. Von der Goltz was just one of a large number of actors scrambling for power,
“The West Russian Volunteer Army was in reality 80 per cent German”
influence, and even state-building, in the chaos that engulfed Eastern Europe in the aftermath of World War I.
The brutal birth of the USSR
When discussing conflicts that persist after World War I you have to start with the largest and probably the most influential of them all: the Russian Civil War. The start of the story is universally well known, but is far too often not told to completion. In March 1917 the February Revolution dethroned the Romanovs, and in their place was installed a Provisional Government. This continued to fight the war, despite a crumbling army infrastructure and a severely compromised command structure. The
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