War Practice: land, sea, air and home front tactics during the

“Great War”

War Begins

Russia mobilizes it’s army to the German and Austrian borders.

Germany demands an end to mobilization of troops, gets no answer and declares war on Russia on August 1, 1914.

Germany also declares war on France on August 3, 1914.

Britain declares war on Germany on August 4 only after neutral Belgium is invaded.

Land

The first movement of troops into foreign land was by German troops into Belgium on the 3rd of August 1914.

This was motivated by the Schlieffen PlanAs the German offensive began the following problems

appeared:Russian railways and organization had improved

since the inception of Schlieffen plan.Once German Armies started to march to battle

the trains were of little use.The plan did not anticipate Belgian resistance nor

British assistance.

Land and Schlieffen failures continued.

The plan did not take into account France’s use of aircraft surveillance of German movement.

The planners had underestimated the impact of modern weaponry. Fewer people could hold off large number of troops with automatic weapons.

The plans predicted timetable was slowed because of Belgian resistance, summer heat in 1914 as well as sending troops to eastern front to hold off Russian invasion.

German forces also decided on the ground to change attack of Paris from the east which caused confusion on the ground.

War Movement-Western Front

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/launch_ani_western_front.shtml

War on the Eastern front

On the Eastern front Germany employed traditional tactical warfare to expel Russians.

At the battles of Tannenberg and Masurian lakes Russian forces were outmaneuvered and encircled. This pushed the Russian back, cost them dearly and secured Germany on its eastern front.

Once the Russians were pushed back German and Russian troops “dug in” and both fronts became categorized by trench warfare.

This was a new development in war strategy that was not predicted not accounted for by Schlieffen or any other military leaders. It dominated the battles of World war I until 1918.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijN9B-OpiYQ

Land war: Turkey

Turkey joined the fight when British Naval forces chased German warships, the Goeben and the Breslau into Constantinople.

Turkey historically was loyal to Britain, however, their new government was sympathetic to Germans. Turkish troops had been trained by Germany. They also felt that in the future Germany would be key in defending them from potential invasions from Russia.

Land war: Japan

Japan took advantage of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance formed in 1902 and declared war on Germany in order to justify taking over German controlled territories in the Pacific and the port of Tsingtao (Qingdao)in China.

Land war: Africa

Entante forces were interested in taking as many German controlled colonies as possible. These efforts were aided by the Italians.

Italians? What were they doing?

Despite the Italians being aligned with the Austro-Hungarian Empire and Germany they remained neutral in the War until 1915. It is widely accepted that they waited to see the progress of the war until they decided which side to join in with.

Article “Italy and WWI”

The other fronts of the war

The Gallipoli FrontThe Italian FrontThe Palestine FrontThe Mesopotamian FrontThe African Wars

Using www.firstworldwar.com/battles/index.htm and other internet sources please explain where this line is and what troops/nationalities were involved in this battle. Create a poster which can be used to inform the other students where the land battles took place in WWI.

HW:

Read the two battles articles of war in WWI.

How were these different from the fronts in Eurasia?