Warfare

 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...

 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 France is a battle between Germany and the poor countries around. This time I am going to discuss about the battle of France and how Germany destroyed the the Allied forces along it using mobile units. Early tactics Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, leading Winston Churchill to remark, shortly afterwards, 'Thank God for the French Army'. To Churchill at that time, France's army seemed a powerful bulwark against possible Nazi aggression towards other European nations. The defeat of this powerful army in a mere six weeks in 1940 stands as one of the most remarkable military campaigns in history. In 1939, as World War Two loomed, the British and French planned to fight an updated version of what happened in 1914-18 during World War One, but with some essential differences. The French had suffered massive casualties in frontal attacks in 1914. This time they were going to remain on the defensive in western Europe, while mobilising their military force...