War Begins
The assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand resulted in a motion of diplomatic activity that soon led to war. Austrian leaders in Vienna, driven by nationalistic vengeance, on July 23, 1914 issued an ultimatum to the government of Serbia. All of the terms were accepted, except for one which demanded that Austrian officials take part in any Serbian investigation of persons found on Serbian territory connected to the assassination of the archduke. On July 28th the Serbian reply was declared unsatisfactory and Austria-Hungary declared war.
On July 29th, the Russian government mobilized its troops to defend its Serbian ally and itself from Austria. Next, tsar Alexander II ordered mobilization against Germany, prompted by his military experts’ advice that delayed mobilization might result in defeat if Germans were to enter the war. The result was a German ultimatum to Russia on July 31st demanding it ceased its mobilization. In addition, another ultimatum was sent to France, demanding to know its intentions in case Germany and Russia went to war. Russia replied, saying “impossible,” and France never replied. On August 1st, Germany declared war on Russia, and France started to mobilize.
On August 3rd, Germany declared war on France and on the same day invaded Belgium with the use of the Schlieffen plan. The Belgian government called on the signatories of the treaty of 1839, guaranteeing Belgium’s neutrality. On August 4th, the British government, one of the treaty’s signatories, sent an ultimatum to Germany demanding that Belgian neutrality be respected. Upon Germany’s refusal, Britain declared war.
On July 29th, the Russian government mobilized its troops to defend its Serbian ally and itself from Austria. Next, tsar Alexander II ordered mobilization against Germany, prompted by his military experts’ advice that delayed mobilization might result in defeat if Germans were to enter the war. The result was a German ultimatum to Russia on July 31st demanding it ceased its mobilization. In addition, another ultimatum was sent to France, demanding to know its intentions in case Germany and Russia went to war. Russia replied, saying “impossible,” and France never replied. On August 1st, Germany declared war on Russia, and France started to mobilize.
On August 3rd, Germany declared war on France and on the same day invaded Belgium with the use of the Schlieffen plan. The Belgian government called on the signatories of the treaty of 1839, guaranteeing Belgium’s neutrality. On August 4th, the British government, one of the treaty’s signatories, sent an ultimatum to Germany demanding that Belgian neutrality be respected. Upon Germany’s refusal, Britain declared war.
Stalemate War and Trench Warfare
A photograph of no-man's-land.
The Great War quickly fell into stalemate as barbed wire made advancing across no-man’s-land difficult and the continuous use of machine guns turned charges across no-man’s-land into suicide missions. New weapons therefore were developed to scoop trench warfare out of its current immobility.
The new weapons brought on the destruction of the body both from the inside, like poison, and from the outside, like guns. Mustard gas, for example, is a liquid agent that when exposed to air turns into a noxious yellow gas. The horror of this weapon was that, while effects didn’t begin showing until twelve hours after exposure, the actual later effect was the rotting of the body both inside and out. The gas first blisters the skin and damages the eyes, then attacks the bronchial tubes by stripping off its mucous membrane. Soldiers would endure excruciating pain while strapped down to their bunks for four to five weeks until they finally died. About 1.2 million soldier died to gas weapons. The war still failed to escape stalemate.
Trench warfare was no glamorous place to be found in, and it didn’t bring glory to its soldiers either. Shielded by gas masks, the dirt of their trenches, and barbed wire, soldiers attacked with machine guns and rifles. Yet all they met was death. No-man’s-land was lined with shell craters, cadavers, and body parts. And while the soldiers remained in their trenches, they faced its wet, cold, waist-deep mud, gluttonous lice, and corpse-fed rats.
The new weapons brought on the destruction of the body both from the inside, like poison, and from the outside, like guns. Mustard gas, for example, is a liquid agent that when exposed to air turns into a noxious yellow gas. The horror of this weapon was that, while effects didn’t begin showing until twelve hours after exposure, the actual later effect was the rotting of the body both inside and out. The gas first blisters the skin and damages the eyes, then attacks the bronchial tubes by stripping off its mucous membrane. Soldiers would endure excruciating pain while strapped down to their bunks for four to five weeks until they finally died. About 1.2 million soldier died to gas weapons. The war still failed to escape stalemate.
Trench warfare was no glamorous place to be found in, and it didn’t bring glory to its soldiers either. Shielded by gas masks, the dirt of their trenches, and barbed wire, soldiers attacked with machine guns and rifles. Yet all they met was death. No-man’s-land was lined with shell craters, cadavers, and body parts. And while the soldiers remained in their trenches, they faced its wet, cold, waist-deep mud, gluttonous lice, and corpse-fed rats.
Living Through Trench Warfare
Frank Richards wrote about his experiences in trenches:
“A good standing trench was about six foot deep, so that a man could walk upright during the day in safety from rifle-fire. In each bay of the trench we constructed fire-steps about two feet higher than the bottom of the trench, which enabled us to stand head and shoulders above the parapet. During the day we were working in reliefs, and we would snatch an hour’s sleep, when we could, on a wet and muddy fire-step, wet through to the skin ourselves.
If anyone had to go to the company on our right in the daytime he had to walk through thirty yards of waterlogged trench, which was chest-deep in water in some places.
The duckboard track was constantly shelled, and in places a hundred yards of it had been blown to smithereens. It was better to keep off the track when walking back and forth, but then a man had to make his way sometimes through very heavy mud…..wet snow had begun to fall, which turned into rain and some parts of the land were soon a bog of mud to get drowned in.”
Bruce Bairnsfather experienced trench life in the early stages of World War One.
“It was a long and weary night, that first one of mine in the trenches. Everything was strange, and wet and horrid. First of all I had to do and fix up my machine guns at various points, and find places for the gunners to sleep in. This was no easy matter, as many of the dugouts had fallen in and floated off downstream.
In this, and subsequent descriptions of the trenches, I may lay myself open to the charge of exaggeration. But it must be remembered that I am describing trench life in the early days of 1914, and I feel sure that those who had experience of them will acquit me of any such charge.
To give a recipe for getting a rough idea, in case you want to, I recommend the following procedure. Select a flat ten-acre ploughed field, so sited that all the surface water of the surrounding country drains into it. Now cut a zig-zag slot about four feet deep and three feet wide diagonally across, dam off as much water as you can so as to leave about one hundred yards of squelchy mud; delve out a hole at one side of the slot, then endeavour to live there for a month on bully beef and damp biscuits, whilst a friend has instructions to fire at you with his Winchester every time you put your head above the surface.
Well, here I was anyway, and the next thing was to make the bets of it. As I have before said, these were the days of the earliest trenches in this war; days when we had none of those “props” such as corrugated iron, floorboards, and sand bags.
When you made a dug-out in those days you made it out of anything you could find, and generally had to make it yourself.”
Some British soldiers found that captured German trenches were better built than British ones – as H S Clapham wrote after a successful attack on a German trench in Y Wood.
“When I dropped into the Hun trench I found it a great place, only three wide, and at least eight feet deep, and beautifully made of white sandbags, back and front. At that spot there was no sign of any damage by our shells, but a number of dead Huns lay in the bottom. There was a sniper’s post just where I fell in, a comfortable little square hole, fitted with seats and shelves, bottles of beer, tinned meats and a fine helmet hanging on a hook.”
August Hope wrote about the horrors he experienced.
“It was 9 a.m. and the so-called trench was full of corpses and all sorts of equipment. We stood and sat on bodies as if they were stones or logs of wood. Nobody worried if one had its head stuck through or torn off, or a third had gory bones sticking out through its torn coat. And outside the trench one could see them lying in every kind of position. There was one quite young little chap, a Frenchman, sitting in a shell-hole, with his rifle on his arm and his head bent forward, but he was holding his hands as if to protect himself, in front of his chest in which there was a deep bayonet wound. And so they lay, in all their different positions, mostly Frenchman, with their heads battered in by blows from mallets and even spades, and all around rifles, equipment of all kinds and any number of kepis. The 154th had fought like furies in their attack, to revenge themselves for the shellfire.
A heap of five corpses lay just this side of the barrier; we were constantly having to tread on them to try to squash them down in the mud, because, in consequence of the gunfire, we couldn’t get them out of the trench. Our feelings gradually became quite blunted.”
Mark Lewis McCave comments on his experience in the Great War.
"An infantryman cannot combat shells. All he can do is get away or be dug in so deeply that none will injure him."
Read more stories by the veteran of World War I here.
Battle of Verdun
Henri-Philippe Petain pleaded
"Ils ne passeront pas!" (They shall not pass!)
The longest battle of the Great War was the Battle of Verdun in 1916. Germans, in an attempt to break the dreadlock plaguing the war, assaulted the French fortress of Verdun. The French stood their ground, and in doing so defeated the Germans in battle at a massive cost. 315,000 French died while 280,000 Germans fell, and only 160,000 bodies were identifiable. The remaining cadavers had been blown to pieces by high explosives and sucked into the mud or were purely unrecognizable.
Battle of Somme
Soldiers at the Battle of Somme in a trench.
The Battle of the Somme took place in 1916 between the British and German forces. Taking advantage of France’s occupancy with the Battle of Verdun, Britain intended to swiftly break through the German defenses. At the beginning of the attack, the Germans took their posts and destroyed the oncoming waves of British infantry. After the first day, Britain hadn’t moved forward more than 2 miles yet had already suffered over 57,000 casualties. By the end of the battle in November of that same year, Britain had suffered 419,654 casualties while Germany had suffered between 450,000 and 680,000. British troops never reached their first-day destination of Bapaume and Serre, but nonetheless neither side took victory.
Weapons of Mass Destruction
Mustard gas used in WWI and soldiers in gas masks.
The Great War became a race for military and technological innovation as it fell into stalemate. Attempting to move the war further, potent weapons were developed and put into use. Poisonous gases, including mustard gas, were crafted as a long-distance attack, which could, like in the case of mustard gas, cause immense suffering and physical deformation. Mustard gas was used in trench warfare as it had massive effects on opponents and brought equally massive fear. Twelve hours after exposure to the chemical, one’s skin would blister and their eyes would be damaged. Next, the gas attacked the bronchial tubes, stripping off the mucous membrane. Yet death would not fall its victims until four to five weeks, which they would spend strapped in bed as they endured excruciating pain.
Dogfight between German and British planes during the Great War.
Planes were also created for the Great War, and while they did not prove to be as useful in the first global war compared to the latter, they introduced air war against civilians. In 1914 German zeppelin flew over Paris. The underbelly of the planes opened and rained bombs, eventually killing a person. Thus a new form of warfare was created. However, they were mostly used for aerial reconnaissance because they could not carry enough weapons to do serious damage.
German tank from WWI.
In addition, tanks were introduced in late 1915, used by the Allies to break down defensive trenches and restore fighting.