it has come to my attention that this forum does not have much talk about the actual history of the war this game was based on. So i am going to change that. we will start from the start of the war and move up sometimes it might be random and sometimes it will be organized by time but i hope everyone will enjoy this thread!

On June 28, 1914, a young Serbian nationalist named Gavrilo Princip killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in Sarajevo, Bosnia - history.com ( outbreak of ww1)www.history.com/topics/world-war-i/outbreak-of-world-war-i
Gavrilo Princip


Gavrilo Princip (Serbian Cyrillic: Гаврило Принцип, pronounced [ɡǎʋrilo prǐntsip]; 25 July [O.S. 13 July] 1894[1] – 28 April 1918) was a Bosnian Serb who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914.[2] Princip and his accomplices were arrested and implicated by several members of the Serbian military, leading Austria-Hungary to issue a démarche to Serbia known as the July Ultimatum.[3] This was used as pretext for Austria-Hungary's invasion of Serbia, which then led to World War I.[4] Princip was a Yugoslav nationalist associated with the movement Mlada Bosna (Young Bosnia) which predominantly consisted of Serbs, but also Bosniaks and Croats.[5] During his trial he stated "I am a Yugoslav nationalist, aiming for the unification of all Yugoslavs, and I do not care what form of state, but it must be freed from Austria."[6]
- Gavrilo Princip Wikipedia en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gavrilo_Princip

(Austria-Hungary in ww1)

flag of austria hungary

The assassination, and by default, the war, almost never happened.

"On 28 June 1914, Gavrilo Princip participated in the assassination in Sarajevo of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Duchess Sophie Chotek of Austria. The governor of the Austrian provinces of Bosnia and Herzegovina, General Oskar Potiorek, had invited the Archduke and Duchess Sophie to the opening of a hospital. Franz Ferdinand knew that the visit would be dangerous; his uncle, Emperor Franz Joseph, had been the subject of an assassination attempt by the Black Hand in 1911.[19]

Just before 10 a.m. on Sunday, the royal couple arrived in Sarajevo by train.[20] The royal couple were then to take an automobile into the city. In the front car was Fehim Čurčić, the mayor of Sarajevo and Dr. Edmund Gerde, the city's Commissioner of Police.[21] Franz Ferdinand and Sophie were in the second car with Oskar Potiorek and Lieutenant Colonel Count Franz von Harrach.[22] The car's top was rolled back in order to allow the crowds a good view of its occupants.[22]

The seven conspirators lined the route. They were spaced out along the Appel Quay, each one with instructions to try to kill Franz Ferdinand when the royal car reached his position. The first conspirator on the route to see the royal car was Muhamed Mehmedbašić. Standing by the Austro-Hungarian Bank, Mehmedbašić lost his nerve and allowed the car to pass without taking action. Mehmedbašić later said that a policeman was standing behind him and feared he would be arrested before he had a chance to throw his bomb.[19] At 10:15, when the six-car procession passed the central police station, nineteen-year-old student Nedeljko Čabrinović hurled a hand grenade at the Archduke's car. The driver accelerated when he saw the object flying towards him, but the bomb had a 10-second delay and exploded under the wheel of the fourth car. Two of the occupants, Eric von Merizzi and Count Alexander von Boos-Waldeck, were seriously wounded. About a dozen spectators were also hit by bomb shrapnel.[23] After Čabrinović's bomb missed the car, five other conspirators, including Princip, lost an opportunity to attack because of the heavy crowds and the car's high speed. To avoid capture, Čabrinović swallowed a cyanide capsule and jumped into the Miljacka river to make sure he died. However, the cyanide pill was expired and only made him sick, and the river was only 10 centimetres (4 in) deep. A few seconds later he was hauled out and detained by police.

Franz Ferdinand later decided to go to the hospital and visit the victims of Čabrinović's grenade attack. In order to avoid the city centre, General Oskar Potiorek decided that the royal car should travel straight along the Appel Quay to the Sarajevo Hospital. However, Potiorek forgot to inform the driver, Leopold Loyka, about this decision. On the way to the hospital, Loyka took a right turn into Franz Josef Street. Princip was standing near Moritz Schiller's café when he spotted the car as it drove past, having taken the wrong turn. After realizing the mistake, the driver put his foot on the brake, and began to reverse. In doing so the engine stalled and the gears locked, giving Princip his opportunity. Princip stepped forward, drew his pistol, an FN Model 1910,[24] and at a distance of about 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) fired twice into the car, first hitting Franz Ferdinand in the neck, and then Sophie, who instinctively covered his body, in the abdomen. They both died before 11:00 am."

The Serbian government was implicated as being involved in the plot and naturally the Austrians grew angry with them.  Austria declared that they would go to war against Yugoslavia, but they were hesitant to do so because Yugoslavia held a defensive treaty with Russia.  Germany had made a defensive treaty with Austria, so they promised that if Austria went ahead and made a move against Yugoslavia, Germany would defend them from Russia.  Germany then told Austria to begin the war, and if it evolved into a larger conflict, Germany would support them.- first world war.com ( germany during ww1)www.firstworldwar.com/features/germanyduringww1.htm

The leader of Germany during ww1 was Called a Kaiser and his name was Kaiser Wilhelm the second

He was the last emperor of germany and the last King of Prussia

flag of germany during WW1

I like this thread.
Today, all along the western front there was artillery fire exchanged.
The Gallipolli Campaign had continued for 7 months, and would end in just over a month on January 9 1916. Not the finest hour for the ANZAC troops.
ThE Red Baron had not yet made his debut in the skies over France.

The Gallipoli Campaign, also known as the Dardanelles Campaign, the Battle of Gallipoli or the Battle of Çanakkale (Turkish: Çanakkale Savaşı), was a campaign of World War I that took place on the Gallipoli peninsula (Gelibolu in modern Turkey) in the Ottoman Empire between 25 April 1915 and 9 January 1916. The peninsula forms the northern bank of the Dardanelles, a strait that provided a sea route to the Russian Empire, one of the Allied powers during the war. Intending to secure it, Russia's allies Britain and France launched a naval attack followed by an amphibious landing on the peninsula, with the aim of capturing the Ottoman capital of Constantinople (modern Istanbul).[7] The naval attack was repelled and after eight months' fighting, with many casualties on both sides, the land campaign was abandoned and the invasion force was withdrawn to Egypt.

The campaign was one of the greatest Ottoman victories during the war. In Turkey, it is regarded as a defining moment in the nation's history: a final surge in the defence of the motherland as the Ottoman Empire crumbled. The struggle formed the basis for the Turkish War of Independence and the declaration of the Republic of Turkey eight years later under Mustafa Kemal (Kemal Atatürk) who first rose to prominence as a commander at Gallipoli. The campaign is often considered as marking the birth of national consciousness in Australia and New Zealand and the date of the landing, 25 April, is known as "Anzac Day" which is the most significant commemoration of military casualties and veterans in those two countries, surpassing Remembrance Day (Armistice Day).




During the Sarajevo Crisis in 1914, German diplomats offered Turkey an anti-Russian alliance and territorial gains in Caucasia, north-west Iran and Trans-Caspia. The pro-British faction in the Cabinet was isolated due to the British ambassador taking leave until 18 August. As the crisis deepened in Europe, Ottoman policy was to obtain a guarantee of territorial integrity and potential advantages, unaware that the British might enter a European war.[17] On 30 July 1914, two days after the outbreak of the war in Europe, the Ottoman leaders agreed to form a secret Ottoman-German Alliance against Russia, although it did not require them to undertake military action.-Gallipoli Campaign wikipedia
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallipoli_Campaign

Sure this post will be mostly seen as a lot of yaddy yah.....what I found interesting is that the First Worldwar didn't start out of the blue.
Plans were made years before to fight Germany by France and Russia (let's hope it was "just in case".)
Personally I wonder if the assasination of the Austrian heir was just an excuse for Germany to start a war, before Russia had it's railroads finished to a future Eastern Front.

Following is from "Mental Foss".com:


_{World War I Centennial: Russia Promises to Attack Germany}







The First World War was an unprecedented catastrophe that killed millions and set the continent of Europe on the path to further calamity two decades later. But it didn’t come out of nowhere.

With the centennial of the outbreak of hostilities coming up in 2014, Erik Sass will be looking back at the lead-up to the war, when seemingly minor moments of friction accumulated until the situation was ready to explode. He'll be covering those events 100 years after they occurred. This is the 27th installment in the series. (See all entries here.)

July 13, 1912: Russia Promises to Attack Germany
Beginning in 1910, the general staffs of France and Russia, allied since 1894, held regular talks once a year, alternating between Paris and St. Petersburg, to coordinate their military strategies in case of war with Germany. In June-July 1912, members of the Russian general staff, led by General Yakov Grigorievich Zhililnsky, made the several weeks’ journey to Paris to discuss strategy with the French general staff, led by General Joseph Joffre, in a meeting covering both land and naval plans.

Joffre and Zhilinsky had already conferred in an exchange of letters in January and February 1912, where Joffre laid out his vision for Russian participation in a war with Germany.

With France facing a likely German flanking attack through Belgium, Joffre needed the Russians to mobilize their forces for an attack on the German rear as fast as possible; a rapid Russian attack in East Prussia, the heartland of Germany’s Prussian military elite, might force the Germans to withdraw troops from the attack on France in order to protect the Fatherland. Zhilinsky broadly agreed: if France went down to defeat in the West, Russia would be left to face the entire German army, and probably the entire Austro-Hungarian army as well, all by itself.

In a military convention signed in Paris on July 13, 1912, Joffre and Zhilinsky firmed up the details, with the Russian generals formally promising to attack Germany within 15 days of mobilization, or M+15. This was an impressive commitment, considering that just several years before, conventional military wisdom held that Russia would be unable to mobilize its troops and make an attack within less than six weeks. Indeed, that was the assumption made by General Alfred von Schlieffen, the architect of German strategy, who gambled that six weeks gave Germany enough time to take advantage of the dense western rail network to defeat France, then hurry east to confront the Russians before they overran Prussia. A Russian attack in the east by M+15, just two weeks after the Russian army got the order to mobilize, might throw a (big) monkey wrench into the Schlieffen Plan – exactly what Joffre intended.

When war finally came in August 1914, the Russian general staff, responding to Austro-Hungarian aggression against Serbia, concentrated most of their armies (the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 8th Armies) for a planned invasion of Galicia in the northern part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, while still leaving enough troops, in the 1st and 2nd Armies, to also mount a surprisingly rapid attack on German territory in East Prussia on August 17 – as promised, just 15 (well, 16) days after Germany’s declaration of war against Russia on August 1. This invasion forced the Germans to hurry mobilization for new defensive armies, but the commanders of the outnumbered German forces, Paul von Hindenburg and Erich von Ludendorff, scored brilliant victories over the Russians at Masurian Lakes and Tannenberg.

RUSSIAN REFORMS

While Schlieffen was probably correct in his assumption when he was designing his strategy, and even more so after the catastrophic Russian defeat in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905, towards the end of that decade the Russians embarked on a massive – and massively expensive – series of reforms and upgrades intended to restore the Russian army as a fighting force in Europe and Asia. In addition to rebuilding shattered divisions and equipping them with modern artillery, the Russian general staff made a number of pragmatic changes to their strategy. Among other revisions, they decided to pull the Russian line of concentration (the step following mobilization) back towards Russia, leaving Russia’s Polish territory undefended. The general staff reasoned, probably correctly, that attempting to hold the Polish salient would leave their armies in Poland vulnerable to a joint German and Austro-Hungarian pincer attack from the north (East Prussia) and south (Galicia). Instead, they would gather the Russian armies closer to a central position in the Russian heartland and then use an improved rail network to quickly send them north or south, against Germany or Austria-Hungary, as necessity determined.

However the Russian mobilization plan relied in part on railroads that had yet to be built – which is why France was glad to provide her Russian ally with literally billions of francs in loans for railroad construction, including huge sums earmarked for ten railroads with primarily military purposes – specifically speeding Russian war mobilization. Indeed, by 1914 France had loaned the Russian government and government-backed industry a majestic 10.5 billion francs, or around 3.4 billion rubles – four-fifths of Russia’s total foreign debt of 4.23 billion rubles. (This wasn’t pure charity, of course. According to one estimate, French bondholders made six billion francs from their Russian holdings from 1889-1914).







FRANCO-RUSSIAN NAVAL CONVENTION

The Franco-Russian military convention governing land operations was followed not long after, on July 16, by a similar agreement coordinating their naval strategies in case of a war with Germany – possibly in combination with other enemies including Italy, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Ottoman Empire. While naval strategy was obviously of lesser importance given the allies’ continental preoccupation with Germany, the Franco-Russian Naval Convention confirmed their commitment to total cooperation in all military matters.

And in some theatres Franco-Russian naval cooperation might actually prove decisive. In the Middle East, for example, Russia’s Black Sea fleet and France’s Mediterranean fleet might be able to force the Turkish straits at Constantinople, thus liberating Russia’s Black Sea fleet, which could in turn help the French confront Germany in the English Channel and North Sea. Of course British naval intervention on the side of the Franco-Russian alliance would be decisive in all theatres – if it could be secured. On July 12, 1912 Winston Churchill, the First Lord of the Royal Navy, had agreed to initiate naval negotiations with France.

When it comes to family fueds this one was a dandy! At the start of the war the rulers of Denmark, Germany, Greece, Norway, Romania, Russia, Spain and United Kingdom were all related to either Queen Victoria, or King Christian IX of Denmark.
George V, Kaiser Wilhelm and Tsar Nicholas were all cousins to each other. Pictures of George and Nicholas show them to look close enough to be twins. Nicholas' wife Alexandra was also a cousin of Kaiser Welhelm.
I guess the apple really does fall close to the tree!

Dutch cocaine - the ultimate weapon

RNW archive

This article is part of the RNW archive. RNW is the former Radio Netherlands Worldwide or Wereldomroep, which was founded as the Dutch international public broadcaster in 1947. In 2011, the Dutch government decided to cut funding and shift RNW from the ministry of Education, Culture and Science to the ministry of Foreign Affairs. More information about RNW Media’s current activities can be found at www.rnw.org/about-rnw-media.

For a government that has been taking an increasingly strict line on drugs it's an embarrassing revelation, as shocking as it is intriguing: a new best-selling book in the Netherlands reveals the country supplied all sides fighting in the First World War with grade A cocaine.

Conny Braam stumbled across the information while she was researching the Dutch cultivation of opium over the centuries, discovering the country was home to the biggest ever cocaine "factory" in Europe. Not only that, given that the Netherlands was a neutral country, it took the shrewd decision to promote the drug on both sides of the conflict, convincing all those involved that cocaine was the ultimate weapon.


Cocaine factory
Braam used her findings as the basis for a novel entitled The Dutch Cocaine Factory Sales Rep, relying on research carried out by a German scientist who in the 19th century tried out cocaine on soldiers and was enthusiastic about the results.

"He wrote about it, that this was the best thing to get soldiers fighting, because the feeling of hunger goes, you can go on for 24 hours, you can get very reckless and actually, in those circumstances, you become a real killing machine."

When it dawned on her that the Dutch had probably come to the same conclusion, the author dedicated two years to carrying out research in the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, investigating archives and documents. The Dutch factory opened in 1900 and originally produced an average of 14,000 kg of cocaine a year. But a surge in demand from military commanders after 1914 saw production rise to between 20,000 and 30,000 kg a year. And it wasn't expensive - one kilogram of cocaine cost 800 guilders on the open market. That's around 36 euro cents per gram, less than a hundredth of the price it goes for today.



Reckless, crazy, idiotic
Conny Braam discovered reams of previously unseen correspondence between the Dutch government and those they supplied, as well as articles in pharmaceutical magazines describing the success of the drug.

"There are descriptions of people who used it and it’s not very different from those who use cocaine nowadays... It makes them reckless, it makes them crazy, idiotic, with no responsibility, nothing."

She estimates that hundreds of thousands of soldiers used the drug, but admits it is impossible to be sure of the figures because so many died during the war. Her guess is based on the number of addicts when fighting finished.

Her studies show it was unlikely the soldiers knew what it was they were taking, even though at the time the use of cocaine was less stigmatised than it is today.

"They all got a cup of rum before they went over the top and the cocaine might have been in the rum, because with alcohol it works doubly well. I think a lot of these soldiers had no idea. The only thing you could see was trench after trench, these hundreds and thousands of poor, poor soldiers were running like mad, straight into the fire of the German machine guns."

Phenomenal success
The novel has already proved phenomenally successful in Dutch bookshops and the author hopes it will be published in English next year. The reaction from readers has been overwhelmingly positive, not least because many can't believe the government's explicit involvement in the production of drugs. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the army has been less forthcoming when asked to respond.

During her research Conny Braam found the door slammed in her face whenever she mentioned the word 'cocaine' and eventually resorted to telling people she was researching the use of medicines during the war. She adds that she is waiting for a reaction from an army official - but that too could prove difficult given the controversial questions the book has led her to ask.

"I would like people to discuss this thing in view of the wars that are going in Iraq and Afghanistan. What do they give these poor guys there? What do they make available to them? People come to me - the book has been out a week - and already I've had so many people contact me and say: 'You have no idea what's going on these days.' Write a book about that."

Thank you guys for all the great posts! Thats very interesting rudolf i didnt know that!

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Nominally allied with the Central Powers of the German Empire and the Empire of Austria-Hungary in the Triple Alliance, the Kingdom of Italy refused to join them when the war started in August 1914. Instead in May 1915, almost a year after the war's commencement, after a period of wavering and after secret negotiations with France and Great Britain in which Italy negotiated for territory if victorious, Italy entered the war on the side of the Allies.

Italy fought mostly against Austria-Hungary along the northern border, including high up in the now-Italian Alps and along the Isonzo river. The war was initially a failure for Italy despite being numerically superior to Austria-Hungary. The Italian army repeatedly attacked Austria, making little progress and suffering heavy losses, and then being routed in 1917 by a German-Austrian counteroffensive after Russia left the war allowing the Central Powers to move reinforcements to the Italian Front from the Eastern Front. In October 1918, as civil unrest increased in Austria-Hungary, the Italians attacked again. The Austrian army broke, and the Italians drove deep into Austrian territory. Fighting ended on 3 November 1918. Italy and the Allies had been victorious.
Military history of Italy during WW1https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_history_of_Italy_during_World_War_I

About 110,000 Canadians died in the 1914-1918 and 1939-1945 Wars (65,000 and 45,000 respectively); some were interred in Canada, but the vast majority lie buried abroad.
small tank with roadside soldiers spacer
Contribution on Land

Canadian infantrymen were on the Western Front in January 1915 and in March the 1st Canadian Division took part in the Battle of Neuve Chapelle. In April Canadians fought in the Second Battle of Ypres, where they were subjected to the Germans' first use of gas.

When the 2nd Division arrived in France, the Canadian Corps was formed, later expanded by the addition of the 3rd Division. From April to August 1916 the corps fought in the defence of Ypres, until it moved to fight in the Battle of the Somme. On 9th April 1917 it captured Vimy Ridge, which had withstood all attacks for two years. Though this victory cost the Canadian Corps 10,000 casualties, it was certainly a great military success, and ensured that Vimy Ridge would later be chosen as the site of Canada's National Memorial.
www.mta.ca/library/courage/canadasroleinwwi.html

When the U.S. entered the war they brought their winchester model 1897 trench gun. A 12 gauge pump shotgun fitted with a sling and a bayonet lug with an 18" barrel. Neat thing about the shotgun is there was no trigger disconnect, so all that was needed to fire was hold the trigger down and work the pump. A soldier equipped with one could drop into a trench and unload 3 rounds buckshot one direction and 3 in the other direction as fast as he could turn and operate the pump. It was so devastating that the Germans, those fun loving guys who brought mustard gas to the battlefield, filed a geneva convention complait about our use of the shotgun. Today an original model 97 trench guns sells for around 2500.00

Russia entered the first world war with the largest army in the world, standing at 1,400,000 soldiers; when fully mobilized the Russian army expanded to over 5,000,000 soldiers (though at the outset of war Russia could not arm all its soldiers, having a supply of 4.6 million rifles).


Europe: 1914

 

The Russian Ministry of War was commanded by General Sukhomlinov. Though Tsar Nicholas wished to lead the Russian Army into battle personally, he was persuaded otherwise and instead named his uncle, the Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich, Commander in Chief.


Russian Artillery in formation

 

The first offensive Russia launched was in August 1914, against Germany in East Prussia. The Russian First Army (commanded by Rennenkampf) aimed straight into the heart of East Prussia (held by the German Eight Army), while the Russian Second Army (commanded by Samsonov) aimed to cut off the Eighth army's line of retreat. Once Eastern Prussia was secure, the Russian Ministry of War planned to march on Berlin.
www.marxists.org/glossary/events/w/ww1/russia.htm

This is a great thread!!

As a Former History Teacher, this era was studied extensively.


Just going to add a few tidbits to the info already offered above:

There were a series of treaties, secret and public, that created a domino effect with regard to who joins whom should hostilities commence.

It can be said that Germany was itching for a fight, and it's true, they were. But they weren't the only ones. The French, British, Russians and the Austro-Hungarians all had new military weapons that they wanted to see used. All sides had been spoiling for a fight since the last big fight.

Oddly enough, the Australians and New Zealanders that formed the ANZACs that invaded Gallipoli, fought with enough bravery and distinction to earn the respect of the Turkish defenders. Including Kemal Ataturk, who renamed the beach at Gallipoli, ANZAC Beach. To this day, Turkey and Australia and New Zealand have a very good Diplomatic relationship.

While the Russians had the largest Army, they had possibly the worst generals. Wealthy Aristocrats that knew nothing of tactics or strategy, they argued more with each other and simply Purchased their military ranks so that they could upstage a rival aristocrat. This was disastrous to the Russian Army, and mutinies of entire Brigades were not uncommon, adding fuel to the Bolshevic Fire that was ready to overthrow the Czar and the rest of the Aristocrats.

New Weapons, New way to fight... The war to end all wars...

follow this:
-Old way of fighting, armies line up on a field across from each other, one army attacks to dislodge the other
-One army deploys NEW Machine Guns, other army digs a trench
-Both armies have machine guns and trenches
-Old Generals that refuse to change, order assaults into machine gun emplacements, tragic
-Ideas needed to move men out of trenches so progress can be made
-Artillery used, Poison gas used (Mustard gas, Chlorine gas...etc), hand grenades, and finally...Tanks
-The use of Horses and cavalry became obsolete
-Trench Sweeper Shotguns and Hand-Held machine guns (Thompson sub-machine gun) were used in close-quarters
-The airplane, relatively new, started out as a scout vehicle
-The enemy airplane scout pilots eventually used pistols to shoot at one another
-Guns were soon mounted and flying became much more dangerous
-Zeppelins were used to attack civilian targets with bombs and canisters of poison gas

The war escalated quickly and all the men that were so eager to volunteer to fight realized that this wasn't the war they were expecting.

During World War I, France was one of the Triple Entente powers allied against the Central Powers. Although fighting occurred worldwide, the bulk of the fighting in Europe occurred in Belgium, Luxembourg, France and Alsace-Lorraine along what came to be known as the Western Front. Specific operational, tactical, and strategic decisions by the high commands on both sides of the conflict led to shifts in organizational capacity, as the French Army tried to respond to day-to-day fighting and long-term strategic and operational agendas. In particular, many problems caused the French high command to re-evaluate standard procedures, revise its command structures, re-equip the army, and develop different tactical approaches.

The peacetime army consisted of 173 infantry regiments, 89 cavalry regiments and 87 artillery regiments. All were substantially under strength and would be filled out on mobilisation by the first three classes of the Reserve (that is, men between 24 and 26). Each regiment would also leave behind a cadre of training personnel to conduct refresher courses for the older reservists, who were organized into 201 Reserve Regiments and 145 Territorial Regiments. Above the regimental level, France was divided into 22 Military Regions, each of which would become a Army Corps on mobilisation.

At the apex of the French Army was the General Staff, since 1911 under the leadership of General Joseph Joffre. The General Staff was responsible for drawing up the plan for mobilisation, known as Plan XVII. Using the railroad network, the Army would be shifted from their peacetime garrisons throughout France to the eastern border with Germany.

The order for mobilisation was given on 1st August, the same day that Germany declared war on Russia.

Upon mobilization, Joffre became Commander-in-Chief of the French Army. Most of his forces were concentrated in the north east of France, both to attack Alsace-Lorraine and to meet the expected German offensive through the Low Countries.

First Army (7th, 8th, 13th, 14th, and 21st Army Corps), with the objective of capturing Mulhouse and Sarrebourg.
Second Army (9th, 15th, 16th, 18th and 20th Army Corps), with the objective of capturing Morhange.
Third Army (4th, 5th and 6th Army Corps), defending the region around Metz.
Fourth Army (12th, 17th and Colonial Army Corps) held in reserve around the Forest of Argonne
Fifth Army (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 10th and 11th Army Corps), defending the Ardennes.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_Army_in_World_War_I

Fact: there were absolutely no Elvis sightings during WW1

Cricket wrote: Fact: there were absolutely no Elvis sightings during WW1

My great great uncle swears he saw Elvis at the local 7 Eleven in Passchendaele.

.....but after hearing him sing "Muss ich denn zum Städtele hinaus" the German soldiers crusified him to a barndoor.




(Plot mediocre, cinematography quite nice)

The little Renault taxi that saved Paris


How a diminutive Renault supposedly turned the tide of World War I and in the process, created a legend that has endured for a century




Enemy at the gates
September 1, 1914, Paris – The city and France lie on the brink.

In the month since Germany declared war, its armies have swept through Belgium and steamrolled their way into France. A force of a few hundred thousand strong and growing, now sits menacingly along a 200-km wide front just east of the French capital, near the Marne River. Almost entirely surrounded by enemy forces, it now seems a matter of when and not if Paris will fall.

Parisians en masse start to make their exodus, resigning themselves to the fact the city will, improbably, soon belong to a foreign army. The rail system gets so bogged down by the crush of people, a trip of just 60 miles takes nearly three days to complete.

For the people still inside Paris during the daylight hours of September 7, 1914, the sight of police officers ordering the city’s taxis to forfeit their passengers on the spot was only trumped in its implausability by the sight later that day of those same taxis snaking their way in a long procession out of the city and towards the war front.


As one prolific French historian wrote years after the war ended, “… everyone knew the taxis were bringing soldiers to the front … within a week it was commonly reported that the taxis had been going through all day …”

When the German forces were defeated five days later, the first battle of the Marne was over and the Renault Type AG1 became forever immortalized as the taxi that saved Paris.



“HASTILY BROUGHT OUT OF RETIREMENT A MONTH PRIOR, GENERAL GALLIENI HAD BEEN GIVEN ONE DIRECTIVE: DEFEND PARIS TO THE LAST”
History shows that Renault contributed immensely to the French cause in World War I. The company produced trucks, stretchers, ambulances, shells, and even a tank for use during the war. How ironic, then, that a vehicle intended for civilian use would turn out to be the company’s most famous war contribution.

General Gallieni’s stroke of genius
French joie de vivre was severely lacking at the beginning of September 1914. Amid the tumult in and around Paris, the French War Ministry and the rest of the government had decided to flee to Bordeaux, leaving the defence of the city under the command of General Joseph Simon Gallieni. Hastily brought out of retirement a month prior, General Gallieni had been given one directive: defend Paris to the last.

As dire as the situation on the battlefield seemed, French reconnaissance in the early days of September 1914 uncovered a gaping hole in the German defences. Years after the war, it would be discovered that the 1st German army had disobeyed orders to march in tandem with the 2nd army and instead, marched on ahead, hoping to reach Paris first and claim the glory that would invariably come along with it.

In order to take advantage of this vulnerability, Gallieni needed to move his troops quickly. With the rail lines nearly crippled and just 250 motorized vehicles inside the Army Transport Office, it was Gallieni who instructed his staff to commission all of Paris’ taxis to drive French troops to the front.

Stretching the truth just a bit
This division in the German forces was expertly exploited by the combined might of French and British soldiers, bringing an unexpectedly quick end to the first battle of the Marne. The taxis of Paris were heralded as saviours and in the nearly 100 years since that historic victory, their legend has only grown.

Monuments to the taxis have been erected, museum collections rearranged, commemorative stamps issued, and just recently, a restored 1910 Renault “Taxi De La Marne” sold for nearly $70,000 (US) at auction.


But in spite of the romanticism attached to the taxis that saved Paris, their role in altering the course of World War I was minimal, at best. Talk among Parisians of the day had nearly 10,000 taxis making the drive to the front. In fact, just 600 were used to transport 3,000 soldiers, a meager portion of the almost two million men France had mobilized.

Consider, too, that the taxi drivers were not soldiers, making them entirely unprepared for what was to come. Holger H. Herwig, Canada Research Chair in the Centre for Military and Strategic Studies at the University of Calgary, says of the taxis, “…they veered off the dark roads, ran into one another, missed road signs … after unloading their passengers, they ran head-on into the slower taxi columns approaching … militarily, it was insignificant.”

Most likely that even without the involvement of the taxis, France and Britain would have still defeated the German forces at the first battle of the Marne. But history would have been deprived of one its great stories of heroism. And 600 drivers of a Renault Type AG1 would have been deprived of a 130 Franc fare (about $25 at the time).

War or not, they were taxi drivers after all.

I do.love this thread .I probably won't post here but I enjoy reading all you guys offer the share..I may send a pm.With extra tid bits of info .did I say I loved this thread.

The Battle of the Marne (French: Première bataille de la Marne, also known as the Miracle of the Marne) was a First World War battle fought from 5–12 September 1914. It resulted in an Allied victory against the German Army (Chief of Staff Helmuth von Moltke the Younger). The battle was the culmination of the German advance into France and pursuit of the Allied armies which followed the Battle of the Frontiers in August and had reached the eastern outskirts of Paris. A counter-attack by six French field armies and the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) along the Marne River, forced the Imperial German Army to retreat north-west, leading to the Battle of the Aisne and the "Race to the Sea". The Battle of the Marne was a victory for the Allies and set the stage for four years of trench warfare on the Western Front.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Battle_of_the_Marne

Starting on Christmas Eve, many German and British troops sang Christmas carols to each other across the lines, and at certain points the Allied soldiers even heard brass bands joining the Germans in their joyous singing.

At the first light of dawn on Christmas Day, some German soldiers emerged from their trenches and approached the Allied lines across no-man’s-land, calling out “Merry Christmas” in their enemies’ native tongues. At first, the Allied soldiers feared it was a trick, but seeing the Germans unarmed they climbed out of their trenches and shook hands with the enemy soldiers. The men exchanged presents of cigarettes and plum puddings and sang carols and songs. There was even a documented case of soldiers from opposing sides playing a good-natured game of soccer.

Some soldiers used this short-lived ceasefire for a more somber task: the retrieval of the bodies of fellow combatants who had fallen within the no-man’s land between the lines.

The so-called Christmas Truce of 1914 came only five months after the outbreak of war in Europe and was one of the last examples of the outdated notion of chivalry between enemies in warfare. It was never repeated—future attempts at holiday ceasefires were quashed by officers’ threats of disciplinary action—but it served as heartening proof, however brief, that beneath the brutal clash of weapons, the soldiers’ essential humanity endured.

During World War I, the soldiers on the Western Front did not expect to celebrate on the battlefield, but even a world war could not destory the Christmas spirit.
History.com

World War I was the first time that aircraft were used on a large scale. Tethered observation balloons had already been employed in several wars, and would be used extensively for artillery spotting. Germany employed Zeppelins for reconnaissance over the North Sea and Baltic and also for strategic bombing raids over Britain and the Eastern Front.

Aeroplanes were just coming into military use at the outset of the war. Initially, they were used mostly for reconnaissance. Pilots and engineers learned from experience, leading to the development of many specialized types, including fighters, bombers, and ground-attack aeroplanes.

Ace fighter pilots were portrayed as modern knights, and many became popular heroes. The war also saw the appointment of high-ranking officers to direct the belligerent nations' air war effort.

While the impact of aircraft on the course of war was mainly tactical rather than strategic, most important being direct cooperation with ground forces (especially ranging and correcting artillery fire) the first steps in the strategic roles of aircraft in future wars was also foreshadowed.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aviation_in_World_War_I

The first tank to tank battle was 3 british against 3 German tanks one British tank broke down in a bomb creator the other was taken out by machine gun fire from a German tank.they closed ranks firing their guns with no hits .the British tank commander decided to stop his tank so his gunner had a steady shot .witch was unheard of at the time .he took out the lead German tank and stood fast as the other two German tank moved up to fire .As they moved up their tanks wold rock on the uneven ground making all their shots long or short .the British tank then took out a second German tank .leaving only one .at that point the German tank commander decided it was best to try to save his tank and retreated from the battle.the British also had tanks called whipits.small fast tanks armed with a small gun or machine guns .they moved like lightning compared to the larger tanks and were used to break ranks of massed tank formations and for high speed recon. The larger tanks had no way to stop the whipits as they could out maneuver any tank at that time .the French tank we have in the game was the first tank to have a turret witch means it could move stop fire and move again the skid plate we see on the back of it was to keep it from flipping backwards while it move through bomb creators.but unlike our tanks in the game it did not have a tendency to roll over on its side because it had a wide track base .

This battle front was known to the Germans as “die Westfront”, as Imperial Germany's “western front” for those Imperial German Armies engaged in hostilities against France. The Imperial German Armies engaged against Russia were in action on Germany's “eastern front”.

To the French Army the battle front, which stretched for several hundred miles within the northern, north-eastern and eastern borders of the French nation, was translated into French. The French word for “western” is “occidental”, and so the literal translation for this battle front in France became “Le Front Occidental”.

The British Expeditionary Force, fighting on the battlefields in Belgium and France for four years, also translated the German name of “die Westfront” into English, and named this battle front in France as “The Western Front”.

The Battles and their Locations
The grey shaded areas on the map illustrate the main areas on the Western Front where the 1914-1918 battles took place. The battlefields ranged from the northern end of this battle front on the Belgian coast to the village of Pfetterhouse on the Swiss frontier at its southern end. The map shows the Franco-German border as it was in 1914 when the war broke out. An overview of the major battles that shaped the formation of the Western Front is given below the map.


www.greatwar.co.uk/battles

Allied leaders of WW1


Russian Empire Russian Empire[edit]
Two bearded men of identical height wear military dress uniforms emblazoned with medals and stand side-by-side
King George V (right) with his first cousin Tsar Nicholas II, Berlin, 1913. Note the close physical resemblance between the two monarchs.[1]
Nicholas II[2] – last Tsar of Russia, titular King of Poland, and Grand Duke of Finland. His rule ended with the Russian Revolution. Nicholas was killed on 17 July 1918.
Alexander Kerensky[3] − Prime Minister of the Russian Provisional Government
Grand Duke Nicholas Nikolaevich[4] – Commander-in-chief and viceroy in the Caucasus
Alexander Samsonov[5] – Commander of the Russian Second Army for the invasion of East Prussia
Paul von Rennenkampf[6] – Commander of the Russian First Army for the invasion of East Prussia
Nikolay Ivanov[7] – Commander of the Russian army on the Southwestern Front, responsible for much of the action in Galicia
Aleksei Brusilov[8] – Commander of the south, then provisional Commander-in-Chief after the Tsar's abdication
Russian Soviet Federative Socialist RepublicRussian SFSR[edit]
Vladimir Lenin[9] − Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Russian SFSR
France France[edit]
Raymond Poincaré[10] – President of France, 1913–1920
Rene Viviani – Prime Minister of France 1914-1915
Joseph Joffre[11] – Commander-in-Chief of the French Army and Marshal of France
Ferdinand Foch[12] – Commander-in-Chief of the French Army and Marshal of France, "Generalissimo of the Allied Armies" from spring 1918
Robert Nivelle[13] – Commander-in-Chief of the French Army
Philippe Pétain[14] – Commander-in-Chief of the French Army and Marshal of France
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland United Kingdom[edit]
George V[15] – King of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth Realms, Emperor of India
H. H. Asquith – Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (until 1916)[16]
David Lloyd George – Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (from 1916 to 1922)
Douglas Haig – Commander-in-Chief of the BEF
John Jellicoe – Commanding officer of the Grand Fleet (1914–1916), First Sea Lord (1916–1917)
Horatio Herbert Kitchener – Secretary of State for War (5 August 1914 – 5 June 1916)
Kingdom of Serbia Serbia[edit]
Peter I[17] – King of Serbia
Crown Prince Alexander – Regent, Commander-in-Chief
Nikola Pašić – Prime Minister
Belgium Belgium[edit]

King Albert (left) with his wife the Queen, and Fuad I of Egypt (right).
Albert I of Belgium[18] – King of the Belgians
Charles de Broqueville – Prime Minister (17 June 1911 – 1 June 1918)
Gérard Cooreman – Prime Minister (1 June 1918 – 21 November 1918)
Gérard Leman - Belgian general in the Battle of Liege
Kingdom of Italy Italy[edit]
Victor Emmanuel III[19] – King of Italy
Vittorio Orlando - Prime Minister of Italy at the end of the war.
Luigi Cadorna – Commander-in-Chief of the Italian army
Armando Diaz – Chief of General Staff of the Italian army
Luigi Amedeo – Commander-in-Chief of the Adriatic Fleet of Italy
Kingdom of Romania Romania[edit]
Constantin Prezan – Chief of the General Staff of Romania
Alexandru Averescu – Prime Minister of Romania
United States United States of America[edit]

Ōkuma Shigenobu, 5th Prime Minister of Japan.
Woodrow Wilson[20] – President of the United States
Thomas R. Marshall[21] – Vice President of the United States
John J. Pershing[22] – Commander of the American Expeditionary Force
Empire of Japan Japan[edit]
Emperor Taishō[23] – Emperor of Japan
Ōkuma Shigenobu – Prime Minister of Japan (16 April 1914 – 9 Octo
Terauchi Masatake – Prime Minister of Japan (9 October 1916 – 29 September 1918)
Hara Takashi – Prime Minister of Japan (29 September 1918 – 4 November 1921)
Brazil Brazil[edit]
Venceslau Brás – President of Brazil
Pedro Frontin – Brazilian Admiral
Dr. Nabuco Gouveia – Chief of the Brazilian Medical Delegation
Kingdom of Greece Greece[edit]
Eleftherios Venizelos – Prime Minister
Pavlos Kountouriotis – Admiral
Panagiotis Danglis
Thailand Siam[edit]
Ramiha Gerazo VI – King of Siam

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allied_leaders_of_World_War_I

While Poland did not exist as an independent state during World War I, its geographical position between the fighting powers had meant that much fighting and terrific human and material losses occurred on the Polish lands between 1914 and 1918.

When World War I started, Polish territory, split during partitions between Austria-Hungary, German Empire and Russian Empire, became the scene of much of the operations of the Eastern Front of World War I.

After World War I and the collapse of the Russian, German and Austro-Hungarian Empires, Poland became an independent republic.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Poland_during_World_War_I

On the western front 100 years ago today, near the Ypres salient, German artillery bombarded British positions. Over 3000 rounds were fired with little damage to the British positions.

On the southern front Austrian planes bombed Ancona. Shades of dogfight to come!! A bombing mission! Wonder if any of the Austrian planes dropped before they got there so they could have an advantage?

This is a list of flying aces from Poland who fought in World War I. Poland was not an independent state during the war, and Polish pilots served in several different air forces. Some of them also fought in the struggles that echoed through Europe in the aftermath of the Great War.

The table includes World War I aces who were born in or were citizens of conquered Poland. Due to dual citizenship and/or other variations in allegiance, they may also appear in other lists of aces.

Name Air service(s) Victories Notes
Manfred von Richthofen German Luftstreitkräfte 80 victories Leading ace of the war. Pour le Merite plus 22 other awards[1]
Godwin Brumowski Austro-Hungarian Luftfahrtruppen 35 victories Leading Austro-Hungarian ace. Order of the Iron Crown, Order of Leopold, Medal for Bravery, Military Merit Medal, Iron Cross[2]
Frank Linke-Crawford Austro-Hungarian Luftfahrtruppen 27 victories Fourth ranking Austro-Hungarian ace. Order of the Iron Crown[3]
Hans-Georg von der Marwitz German Luftstreitkräfte 15 victories Royal House Order of Hohenzollern, Iron Cross[4]
Donat Makijonek Imperial Russian Air Service, Polish Air Force 8 victories Cross of Saint George (2nd, 3rd, and 4th Class Awards), Order of Saint Vladimir, Order of Saint Stanislaus (Imperial House of Romanov), Order of Saint Anne (3rd and 4th Class Awards)[5]
Hans Schilling German Luftstreitkräfte 8 victories Royal House Order of Hohenzollern[6]
Alfred Fleischer German Luftstreitkräfte 6 victories Iron Cross First Class[7]
Mieczysław Garsztka German Luftstreitkräfte, Polish Air Force 6 victories Iron Cross First and Second Class, Virtuti Militari Fifth Class[8]
Tadeusz Grochowalski Imperial Russian Air Service 5 victories [9]
Viktor Komorovski Imperial Russian Air Service 5 victories [10]
Julius Kowalczik Austro-Hungarian Luftfahrtruppen 5 victories[11]
Antoni E. Mroszkowski Imperial Russian Air Service, Polish Air Force 5 victories Served in Polish-Soviet War[12]
Stefan Peter Austro-Hungarian Luftfahrtruppen
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_War_I_aces_from_Poland

List of Aces from the Russian Empire
Alexander Kazakov Александр Александрович Казаков 20 Kherson Governorate
Vasili Yanchenko Василий Иванович Янченко 16 Nikolsk-Ussuriski
Pavel Argeyev Павел Владимирович Аргеев 15 Yalta Served in the French Aéronautique Militaire as well as the Imperial Russian Air Force
Ivan Vasilyevich Smirnov Иван Васильевич Смирнов 11 Vladimir Governorate
Grigory Eduardovich Suk, alias Grigory Suk Григорий Эдуардович Сук 10 Lithuania
Ivan Loiko alias Ivan Loyko Иван Александрович Лойко 8 Minsk
Donat Makijonek Донат Адамович Макеенок 8 Vitebsk Region
Vladimir Strzhizhevsky Владимир Иванович Стрижевский 8 Mogilev
Yevgraph Kruten Евграф Николаевич Крутень 7 Kiev Served in the French Aéronautique Militaire as well as the Imperial Russian Air Force
Alexander P. de Seversky Александр Николаевич Прокофьев-Северский 6 Tiflis
Konstantin Vakulovsky Константин Константинович Вакуловский 6 Dagestan, Russian Turkestan
Victor Fyodorov alias Viktor or Victor Federov, Fedoroff, or Fyodoroff Виктор Георгиевич Фёдоров 5 Almaty Served primarily in the French Aéronautique Militaire
Juri Gilsher Юрий Владимирович Гильшер 5 Moscow
Nikolay Kokorin Николай Кириллович Кокорин 5 Khlebnikovo
Ernst Leman Эрнст Крисланович Леман 5 Lithuania
Ivan Alexandrovich Orlov Иван Александрович Орлов 5 Saint Petersburg
Alexander Pishvanov Александр Михайлович Пишванов 5 Novocherkassk
Eduard Pulpe Эдуард Мартынович Пульпе 5 Riga Scored victories while in the French Aéronautique Militaire
Mikhail Safonov Михаил Иванович Сафонов 5 Ostrogozhsk [1][2]
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_War_...m_the_Russian_Empire