The MegaMilitary Project | Online Edition #530

World War I

World War I began with a minor assassination in the remote corner of a now forgotten European empire. Yet it was to become the first truly global war, embroiling over 36 countries across 5 continents. As the tide swelled and nation upon nation rallied its forces, much of the world still belonged in the nineteenth century: cavalry officers rode to war on horseback, wearing gaudy uniforms and carrying flashing sabers at their sides. Some even took their servants and households. Military convention had changed little since the days of Wellington and Napoleon. World War I changed all that.

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The dramatic sinking of the Lusitania by a german submarine marked the second year of World War I. Most notable were also the battles at Neuve-Chapelle, of Woëvre, the second battle of Ypres, Vimy Ridge, renewed fighting in Champagne and Artois and finally the battle of Loos.
1916 witnessed two of the most costly and least-inspired military operations in history, when both camps were already experiencing severe shortages of manpower (to the extent that in Britain it was necessary to institute compulsory military service for the first time). Both sides decided on offence.
Political changes had considerably influenced allied strategy on the Western Front. Asquith’s British administration, which had been compelled to change from its original Liberal composition to a coalition because of the Dardanelles mishandling, had fallen at the end of 1916 and David Lloyd George had been installed as prime minister. In France,...
The near collapse of Italy emphasized the Allied need to co-ordinate their actions, to which end a “Supreme War Council” was created at the Rapallo Conference (5 Nov-ember 1917). The Council, established at Versailles, was to meet regularly and include the prime Ministers of France, Britain and Italy, and the US president, or their representativ...
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Latest Video...

Dark Secret of the Lusitania - National Geographic Documentary

Dark Secret of the Lusitania - National Geographic Documentary

A German torpedo hit the RMS Lusitania on May 7, 1915. Shortly after, a substantial second explosion shook the ship. Within 20 minutes, the vessel known as the "Greyhound of the Seas" had sunk to the ocean floor, resulting in the deaths of almost 1200 individuals. A new two-step investigation...
Submitted by: Tim Kirsten
22 March 2024

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