World War I: Turning Points

Weaponry

•Poison gas•Zeppelin•Big Bertha

•Machine gun•Airplane•Tank

Battle of the Marne(Sept 5-12, 1914)

• Month-long German offensive toward Paris halted after six French field armies and one British army counterattacked against the Germans

• Marked failure of Schlieffen Plan

Battle of Ypres(Oct 19-Nov 22, 1914)

• Ypres = strategic city in Belgium• British wanted to secure English Channel

ports for supply line by sea• Germans needed Ypres to get to Calais• French did not want Germans to outflank

Allied front from the north• Ended the “Race to the Sea”; Germans

prevented from reaching Calais and Dunkirk

Battle of Verdun(Feb 21-Dec 18, 1916)

• By 1915, many forts were left mostly undefended due to threat of German howitzers; Germans took Fort Douaumont February 25, 1916

• Fort Douaumont = largest/highest of the 19 large defensive forts protecting Verdun; recaptured by French in October 1916

• After nearly 10 months: negligible gains in territory, massive casualties (542,000 French & 434,000 Germans), yet an Allied victory

Fort Douaumont, start of 1916

Fort Douaumont, end of 1916

Battle of the Somme(July 1-Nov 18, 1916)

• British took lead since French were still defending Verdun

• More than one million casualties; one of the bloodiest wars ever recorded

U.S. Enters the War• 1914: US factories producing at high rate in

response to demand from war; U.S. maintained neutrality

• 1916: National Defense Act passed, authorizing expansion of US Army to 175,000-286,000 in the event of war

• 1917: Apr 2, President Wilson asked Congress for a declaration of war; granted Apr 6

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbggEGUaE28

Treaty of Versailles• Armistice Day: November 11, 1918: ceasefire• June 28, 1919: Ended state of war between

Germany and the Allied Powers• Germany required to:– Accept responsibility for causing the war (Austria &

Hungary in Treaties of Saint-Germain-en-Laye and Trianon)

– Disarm– Make substantial territorial concessions, and pay

heavy reparations to Entente Power countries• $31.4 billion in 1921• $442 billion today

Credits• http://flightlinefabrications.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/wwi.bmp• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:French_soldiers_ditch_1914.jpg• http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Battle_of_the_Marne_-_M

ap.jpg• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wbggEGUaE28• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-LxzD6Luj4• http://old.library.jhu.edu/sebin/x/o/box76item105.jpg• http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bVGcZWB00CI/T5tbAz4puLI/AAAAAAAAALk/griIO2CQV

0o/s1600/Gamma-gerat.jpg• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UamKIlTsKgA• http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Race_to_the_Sea_1914.pn

g• http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c6/Verdun_and_Vincinity_-_

Map.jpg• http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f5/Fort_Douaumont_Ende_19

16.jpg• http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Fort_Douaumont_Anfang

_1916.jpg• http://www.therooms.ca/regiment/images/somme-static-map-FA.jpg• http://www.ushmm.org/lcmedia/map/lc/image/ger71020.gif