General:
- Already, information was already extremely important. Many major battles: Tannenberg, Verdun, Jutland, were all fought or turned out to be fought a specific way because of leaked information.
- World War I was a destructive war as some scars such as Hawthorne Crater from the Somme can still be seen almost a century later.
- Battles were marked by large artillery bombardment that were not that effective.
- Attempt by Russia to apply pressure onto the Eastern Front by invading Germany.
- General Samasov of the 2nd Russian army ventured too far into German territory without support due to Russian communication problems.
- An entire Russian Army (2nd) was wiped out and the Russians would not invade Germany again, lessening the pressure on Germany's East.
- Germany would shift more troops onto the western front and move deeper into France with these transferred troops.
- Germany could invade Russian and this loss and the invasion created huge amounts of dissent that would fuel the Bolshevik Revolution.
- Initially a German plan to "bleed France white" by destroying her ability to fight.
- Verdun began in February of 1916 and lasted for 10 months, during which, Petain rose to fame.
- Began with one of the largest artillery bombardments in history with 100,000 shells falling down per hour for 21 straight hours.
- There were almost 1,000,000 casualties, of which almost 450,000 were fatalities, with the defending French lost more men than the invading Germans due to the geography of Verdun.
- Neither the German nor French armies would be fit to fight full scale again for a long time (2 years).
- Began on July 1st, 1916 and was intended to draw German troops away from the Battle of Verdun.
- One of the bloodiest battles with over 1,100,000 casualties during the 4 1/2 months of fighting with only 7 miles of land to show.
- Began with one of the largest artillery bombardment in history with over 1,700,000 shells fired in 8 straight days.
- Displayed slow advances (typical of World War I battles) as a first week objective was not captured after 4 1/2 months of fighting.
- Proved to the Germans that they could not win the war on the Western Front decisively, so unrestricted submarine warfare that ultimately brought American into the war was re-implemented.
- Occurred between May 31st and June 1st of 1916, and was the German Navy's attempt to destroy part of its British counterpart and remove the British Royal Navy's dominance from the North Sea.
- One of the largest naval battles to date with around 250 ships participating, 26 ships sunk, and almost 10,000 men killed.
- Shows the dangers of naval warfare as many ships that sunk lost over 95% of its crew.
- This battle of reaffirmed the British superiority in the North sea as the Germans lost more large and important ships that did the British.
- The German surface fleet was shocked and would not harass Allied shipping anymore and Germany began to rely on its submarines.
- 4 types of trenches: front-line, support, reserve in that order, with communication trenches connecting those types of trenches.
- First used in the Battle of the Marne by German forces to prevent the loss of gained territory
- Was originally intended to be a short term strategy, but ended up being one of the major features of WW1
- British forces were forced to adopt this strategy after assaults on German trench systems proved fatal and disastrous
- The area between enemy trenches was known as "no-man's land", and was extremely deadly as shells and snipers had cover of the field
- Trenches were usually around 12 ft deep, and were constructed in a zig zag pattern in order to mitigate damage from shells and prevent enfilading
- The top of the trench was known as the parapet and was usually covered with sandbags
- Trenches were extremely dangerous because of shelling and enemy sniper fire
- Unsanitary: mice, lice, and diseases such as dysentery and trench foot were rampant (though trench drainage was later improved)
- "Going over the top" originated in World War I and referred to troops climbing out of trenches and trying to capture the enemy trenches, often leading to their deaths.
- Trench raiding was an effective tactic for information gathering, and usually involved a small group of people who would infiltrate an enemy trench at night