What kinds of weapons and methods were used in WWI?What were some of the major battles?

September 5 –

Battle of the Marne

Trench warfare begins

Germans in their well protected trenches on the Belgian frontier take aim at their enemy.

Barbed Wire and Machine GunThis gun is capable of firing 28 rounds a minute and has a

maximum range of 1½ miles

Ottoman Turks joined the Central Powers

• Wanted to acquire lost territory

• Britain promised the Arabs living in the Ottoman Empire self-determination (their own country) if they would join with Britain against the Ottomans

• Turkey slaughtered millions of Armenians in what is known as the “Armenian Genocide”

• United Kingdom creates a blockade on the North Sea.

12/ 24 The unofficial Christmas truce

• German submarine blockade around Great Britain; even neutral merchant vessels were potential targets.

1915

• The Dardanelles Campaign

• Battle of Gallipoli

• German U-boat sinks the British ocean liner Lusitania

1915: German Zeppelins drop bombs on Britain

1915: second Battle of Ypres, the Germans first use poison gas.

Posed picture near the front lines to illustrate the effects of phosgene gas

• Tsar Nicholas II takes personal control over Russia's armies.

• The Battle of Verdun is the longest battle in the War and one of the bloodiest.

1916

• Machine gun versus a human charge through "No man's land"

• New technology = poison gas, airplanes

• Very high death rates

– Battle of the Somme = 600,000 allied and 500,000 German dead

– Battle of Verdun = 700,000 killed on both sides with no gain in territory

Tanks are first introduced during the Battle of the Somme.

• Battle of the Somme 1,219,201 total casualties