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The Western Front. On 28 June 1914 Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie were assassinated in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina. The shot that killed Ferdinand has been touted as the “Shot that Started the Great War”. However it was not until 28 July 1914 that Austria declared war on Serbia. Suddenly Russia ordered a total mobilisation of its forces, which, on the 1st of August the Germans demanded be halted. The Russians refused and on that day in 1914 the Germans declared war on Russia. On the 3rd of August Germany declared war on France and the following day invaded Belgium. On behalf of itself and Empire, Britain declared war on Germany, thus dragging Australia, Canada,India,New Zealand and South Africa into the stoush.
Suddenly there was a flurry of diplomatic telegrams flying back and forth across and around Europe with various countries declaring war on each other. By the end of August there were two distinct groups; Germany and Austria-Hungary versus France, Britain and Russia. Or Central Powers versus the Allies.
Between the invasion of Poland and the end of August 1914 the Germans had a series of victories that got them to the outskirts of Paris. The French and the British armies retreated from Belgium and the North of France to the Marne River. The Germans followed sensing a victorious entry into Paris. By now French reinforcements began to arrive and every available French soldier was being rushed forward to strengthen the line along the Marne River. Troops were moved mainly by train except for about 6000 men of a fresh division that had just arrived from Tunis. The train could only shift half of the division. On 7 September the Military Governor of Paris, with the aid of the police rounded up some 600 taxis and transported those men to the front line about 25 miles away. Meanwhile the Commander of the German 1st Army moved to a position to protect himself from an attack from the direction Paris. Unfortunately for the Germans this opened a gap of nearly 30 miles between the 1st Army and the 2nd Army which was along the Marne. The British advanced into the gap between the two German armies. At the Eastern end of the line the French held the Germans, firstly at Charmes then Nancy. The French Garrison at Verdun held firm. The result was the Germans began to withdraw. They withdrew to the Aisne River, blew the bridges and dug in. By 17 September 1914 the front extended and remained static right along the French Frontier.
Now that both sides had settled into their trenches the only way to gain an advantage was for one side to outflank the other. From the sea to the beginning of the trenches was a 200 mile (320 kilometres) gap. The opposing Armies had three objectives, to hold their current positions, to capture the ports of Calais, Dunkirk, Boulogne, Ostend and Zeerbruggen. Antwerp was also part of these plans as a base for later offensives into Belgium by both the British and the French and into Belgium and France by the Germans. By the time the British got to Antwerp, the Germans were already in possession, and the French and British had secured the coastline.
The Allies, using French railways to move their forces northwards to outflank the Germans at the Somme, Arras and Ypres (pronounced Wipers by the Brits) found they could not break the German line. Neither could the Germans breakthrough the British Defences. One of the Germans attempts was at Langemark. The British saw lines of uniformed men approaching and heard them singing. The men were marching arm in arm straight into British machine guns and shrapnel and were torn apart. It turned out that these people were German student volunteers with only 6 weeks training and had never been in action before. In three weeks, it has been said, 36,000 students died. The Germans referred to this action as “kindemord”, the Massacre of the Children. The numbers of students involved is subject to conjecture, as is the number of casualties.
On 11 November 1914, 18000 Germans broke through the British line and advanced on a placed known as Polygon Wood, defended by 1000 British soldiers. These soldiers forced the Germans into another Wood nearby, Nonnebosschen or Nuns Wood. The German soldiers were hunted out of Nuns Wood and the Brits closed the Gap in the line. The fighting ended this day and after three months of absolute carnage the combatants had fought themselves to a standstill. They now faced each other over a line that stretched from the Swiss border to the English Channel.
During WWI much use was made of Trench Warfare by both sides. The antagaonists faced each other from behind parapets formed by the earth thrown out of the trench work. Many of the trenches were close enough so that soldiers could throw grenades at each other. The area between the trenches was covered by Machine Gun and Artillery fire. It made attacking the enemy an extremely hazardous and humanly expensive task. It would have been bad enough hearing the small arms fire whistling over the tops of your trench or listening for the whistle of decending Artillery or Mortar Fire upon your trench, but being all lined up, leaning against the front wall of the trench, rifle in hand, bayonets fixed, waiting for the word to go Over the Top and Charge into almost certain death to attack the enemy would have been about the worst feeling imaginable.
0429hours 25 April 1915. Australian and New Zealand Soldiers landed at what was to become ANZAC Cove. Their objective: Invade Turkey. Turkish defenders were entrenched on the cliffs above the beach. Anzac soldiers rushed to the base of those cliffs and secured the beach head. By the end of the first day the ANZACs had taken some of the Turkish positions and also their first Turkish prisoners. This action lasted 8 months before the ANZAC forces withdrew from the Gallipoli Peninsular in December 1915.
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