Warfare

The German Revolution of 1918-1919 was a pivotal moment in German history that marked the end of the German Empire and the establishment of the Weimar Republic. This revolution was a complex and multifaceted event, influenced by a combination of political, social, and economic factors. It brought about significant changes in Germany's political landscape, leading to the abdication of the German Kaiser Wilhelm II and the rise of a democratic government.                                       Picture courtsey:iwm.org.uk The roots of the German Revolution can be traced back to the tumultuous events of World War I. The war had a profound impact on German society, causing widespread suffering and economic hardship. The German people, weary of the prolonged conflict and facing food shortages, economic collapse, and military defeat, grew increasingly discontented with the autocratic rule of the monarc...

 First Battle of Ypres      Picture courtesy  quizzclub.com On October 19, 1914, close to the Belgian city of Ypres, Allied and German forces began the first of what would be three battles to control the city and take the advantage of the positions on the north coast of Belgium during the First World War. After the German advance through Belgium and eastern France was curtailed by a great Allied victory in the First Battle of Marne and Second Battle of Marne   in late September 1914, the so-called name “Race to the Sea” began, as each army attempted to outflank the other on their way northwards, hastily constructing trench fortifications as they went. The race ended in mid-October at the city named Ypres, the ancient Flemish city with its fortifications guarding the ports of the English Channel and access to the North Sea beyond. After the Germans had taken control of the Belgian city of Antwerp early in October, Antwerp’s remaining Belgian forces along w...

  Picture courtesy  wikipedia.org The World War I Battle of Cambrai first battle marked the first large-scale use of tanks for a military offensive. British force of nine infantry divisions, five cavalry divisions and three tanks brigades was led by General Julian Byng sprung a surprise attack near Cambrai, France, on November 20, 1917. Although the British tanks and infantry overwhelmed German defenses on the first day, the cavalry exploitation was slow to develop. On Nov. 30, the Germans counterattacked and regained most of the ground lost. Officially finished by Dec. 7, the battle decisively demonstrated the power of tanks and altered the course of future warfare. The battle of Cambrai was famous for two things: it saw the first greatest tank attack in history and, of equal importance, the first preregistration of artillery for an offensive. The idea for the large-scale use of British tanks started in early August 1917, when J. F. C. Fuller (second general staff officer, Ta...

  Picture courtesy history.com The battle of Jutland involved some about 250 ships and 100,000 men, this battle off Denmark’s North Sea coast was the only major naval surface engagement of World War I. The battle began in the afternoon of May 31, 1916, with gunfire between the German and British scouting forces. When the main warships met, British Admiral John Jellicoe maneuvered his boats to take advantage of the fading daylight, scoring dozens of direct hits that eventually forced German Admiral Reinhard Scheer into retreat. Both sides claimed victory in this indecisive battle, though Britain retained control of the North Sea. Picture courtesy britannica.com The British Grand Fleet enjoyed a numerical advantage over the German High Sea Fleet of 37:27 in heavy units and 113:72 in light support craft. It also enjoyed fon of having broken German signal codes. There were two major phases of the battle. At 4:48 p.m. on May 31, 1916, the scouting forces of Vice Admirals David Beatty ...

 On July 15, 1918, near the Marne River in the Champagne region of France, the Germans with their last battle which would be their final offensive push of World War I. Dubbed the Second Battle of the Marne, the conflict ended several days later in a major victory for the Allies. Picture courtesy britannica.com The German general Erich Ludendorff, convinced that an attack in Flanders, the region stretching from northern France into Belgium, was the best route to a German victory in the war. Hence, he decided to launch a sizeable diversionary attack further south in order to lure Allied troops away from the main event. The resulting attack at the Marne, launched on the back of the German capture of the strategically important Chemin des Dames ridge near the Aisne River on May 27, 1918, was the latest stage of a major massive German offensive—dubbed the Kaiserschlacht, or the “kaiser’s battle”—masterminded by Ludendorff during the spring of 1918. On the morning of July 15, then, 23 di...

The World War I First Battle of the Marne which brought to the first use of radio intercepts and automotive transport of troops in wartime. After French commander in chief Joseph Joffre ordered an offensive mission in September 1914, General Michel-Joseph Maunoury’s French Sixth Army opened a gap between Germany’s First and Second Armies. Maunoury exploited the gap with help from the French Fifth Army and British Expeditionary Force, while Ferdinand Foch’s Ninth Army thwarted the advances of the German Second and Third Armies. By Sept. 10, the Germans embarked on a retreat that ended north of the Aisne River, beginning a phase of the war that would be marked by trench warfare. Picture courtesy wikipedia.org The First Battle of the Marne was fought to the to area of north and east parts of Paris in early September 1914. The opportunity opened for Anglo-French forces to reverse the hitherto victorious German advance through Belgium and France when First Army commander Heinrich von Kluck,...

The battle of Verdun started on 21st February and continued till 18th December, 1916. World War 1 was the engagement in which the French repulsed a major German offensive. It was one of the largest, longest and most ferocious battle until World War 1. French casualties were about 400,000, German ones to about 350,000. Some of about 300,000 troops were killed. German Gen,  Erich von Falkenhayn was believe that war would be either lost or won in mainland of France, and he also felt that a strategy of attration was Germany's best hope of achieving it's dreams. In a letter to German emperor William 2 in late 1915, German Gen. Erich von Falkenhayn believed that the war would be won or lost in France, and he felt that a strategy of attrition was Germany’s best hope of achieving its goals. In a letter to German Emperor William II in late 1915, he argued that Britain was the most formidable of the Allied powers, but he conceded that it could not be assaulted directly, save by submarin...

Picture courtesy The Guardian The Battle of Amiens was an Allied victory that helped the allies to bring an end to World War I. Following the Second Battle of the Marne, the Allies launched an attack in August 1918 with a force of 75,000 men, more than 500 tanks and nearly 2,000 planes. The offensive achieved huge gains on the first day, with Allied troops and tanks advancing eight miles and causing 27,000 casualties. Although the German resistance stiffened and the fighting was over after a few days, the battle convinced many in the German high command that victory in the war was unattainable. Picture courtesy The Guardian Following the failure of the 1918 German spring offensives and the successful French counterstroke on the Marne in July, the Allies turned to their own offensive on August 8 in the Amiens sector. The Amiens offensive finally brought an end Erich Ludendorff’s hopes for further attacks and indeed persuaded the German high command that the war must be ended. Amiens was...

 The battle of Somme took began from July to November 16. began as an Allied offensive against German forces on the Western Front and turned into one of the most bitter and costly battles of World War I. British forces suffered more than 57,000 casualties which includes more than 19,000 soldiers killed—on the first day of the battle alone, making it the single most disastrous day in that nation’s military history. By the time the Battle of the Somme (sometimes called the First Battle of the Somme) ended nearly five months later, more than 3 million soldiers on both sides had fought in the battle, and more than 1 million had been killed or wounded. Battle Begins - July 1, 1916 Picture courtesy telegraph.co.uk Prior to the attack, the Allies launched a very week-long heavy artillery bombardment, using some about 1.75 million shells, which aimed to cut the barbed wire surrounding German defenses and destroy the enemy’s positions. On the morning of July 1, 11 divisions of the British 4...

 Blitzkrieg is a term used to describe a method of offensive warfare designed to strike a swift, focused blow at an enemy using mobile, maneuverable forces, including armored tanks and air support. Such an attack ideally leads to a quick victory, limiting the loss of soldiers and artillery. Most famously, blitzkrieg describes the successful tactics used by Nazi Germany In the early years of World War II, as German forces swept through Poland, Norway, Belgium, Holland and France with astonishing speed and force.  Blitzkrieg Definition  Picture courtesy wikipedia.org Blitzkrieg, which means “lightning war” in German, had its roots in earlier military strategy, including the influential work of the 19th-century. Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz. Clausewitz proposed the “concentration principle,” the idea that concentrating forces against an enemy, and making a single but a hard  blow against a carefully chosen target (the Schwerpunkt, or “center of gravity”) was mor...

 After destroying Italy and Germany in the North African Campaign (November 8, 1942-May 13, 1943) of World War II (1939-45), the United States and Great Britain, the leading Allied powers, looked ahead to the invasion of occupied Europe and the lead the final defeat of Nazi Germany. The Allies decided to move next against Italy, hoping an Allied invasion would remove that fascist regime from the war, secure the central Mediterranean and divert German divisions from the northwest coast of France where the Allies planned to attack in the near future. The Allies’ Italian Campaign began with the invasion of Sicily in July 1943. After 38 days of fighting, the U.S. and Great Britain successfully drove German and Italian troops from Sicily and prepared to assault the Italian mainland. The Allies Target Italy Picture courtesy wikipedia.org When the Allies won the North African Campaign on May 13, 1943, a quarter-million German and Italian troops surrendered at Tunisia, on the north coast o...

 In the final push to defeat the Axis powers of Italy and Germany during World War II (1939-45), the U.S. and Great Britain, the leading Allied powers, planned to attack Italy. Beyond their goal of crushing Italian Axis forces, the Allies wanted to draw German troops away from the main Allied advance through Nazi-occupied northern Europe to Berlin, Germany. The Italian Campaign, from July 10, 1943, to May 2, 1945, was a series of Allied beach landings and land battles from Sicily and southern Italy up to the Italian mainland toward Nazi Germany. The campaign seared into history the names of such places as Anzio, Salerno and Monte Cassino, as Allied armies severed the German-Italian Axis in harsh fighting and threatened the southern flank of Germany. The Allied advance through Italy produced some of the most bitter, costly fighting of the war, much of it in treacherous mountain terrain. The Allies Target Italy: 1943 Picture courtesy pinterest.com In Casablanca, Morocco, in January 1...

 On June 15, 1944, during the Pacific Campaign of World War II (1939-45), U.S. Marines stormed the beaches of the strategically significant Japanese island of Saipan, with a goal of taking control of a crucial air base from which the U.S. could launch its brand new plane long-range B-29 bombers directly at Japan’s home islands. Facing fierce Japanese resistance, Americans poured from their landing crafts to establish a beachhead, battle Japanese soldiers inland and force the Japanese army to retreat north. Fighting became especially brutal and prolonged around Mount Tapotchau, Saipan’s highest peak, and Marines gave battle sites in the area names such as “Death Valley” and “Purple Heart Ridge.” When the U.S. finally trapped the Japanese in the northern part of the island, Japanese soldiers launched a massive but futile banzai charge. On July 9, the U.S. flag was raised in victory over Saipan. U.S. Commanders Focus on Taking Saipan Picture courtesy history.com In the spring of 1944,...