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1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War

" 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War ” is an English-language virtual reference work on the First World War. The multi-perspective, open-access knowledge base is the result of an international collaborative project involving more than 1,000 authors, editors, and partners from over fifty countries. More than 1,500 articles will be gradually published. Innovative navigation schemes based on Semantic Media Wiki technology provide nonlinear access to the encyclopedia’s content.

International Encyclopedia of the First World War

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World War I

By: History.com Editors

Updated: August 11, 2023 | Original: October 29, 2009

World War I, also known as the Great War, started in 1914 after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. His murder catapulted into a war across Europe that lasted until 1918. During the four-year conflict, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire (the Central Powers) fought against Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Canada, Japan and the United States (the Allied Powers). Thanks to new military technologies and the horrors of trench warfare, World War I saw unprecedented levels of carnage and destruction. By the time the war was over and the Allied Powers had won, more than 16 million people—soldiers and civilians alike—were dead.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand

Tensions had been brewing throughout Europe—especially in the troubled Balkan region of southeast Europe—for years before World War I actually broke out.

A number of alliances involving European powers, the Ottoman Empire , Russia and other parties had existed for years, but political instability in the Balkans (particularly Bosnia, Serbia and Herzegovina) threatened to destroy these agreements.

The spark that ignited World War I was struck in Sarajevo, Bosnia, where Archduke Franz Ferdinand —heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire—was shot to death along with his wife, Sophie, by the Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip on June 28, 1914. Princip and other nationalists were struggling to end Austro-Hungarian rule over Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The assassination of Franz Ferdinand set off a rapidly escalating chain of events: Austria-Hungary , like many countries around the world, blamed the Serbian government for the attack and hoped to use the incident as justification for settling the question of Serbian nationalism once and for all.

Kaiser Wilhelm II

Because mighty Russia supported Serbia, Austria-Hungary waited to declare war until its leaders received assurance from German leader Kaiser Wilhelm II that Germany would support their cause. Austro-Hungarian leaders feared that a Russian intervention would involve Russia’s ally, France, and possibly Great Britain as well.

On July 5, Kaiser Wilhelm secretly pledged his support, giving Austria-Hungary a so-called carte blanche, or “blank check” assurance of Germany’s backing in the case of war. The Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary then sent an ultimatum to Serbia, with such harsh terms as to make it almost impossible to accept.

World War I Begins

Convinced that Austria-Hungary was readying for war, the Serbian government ordered the Serbian army to mobilize and appealed to Russia for assistance. On July 28, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, and the tenuous peace between Europe’s great powers quickly collapsed.

Within a week, Russia, Belgium, France, Great Britain and Serbia had lined up against Austria-Hungary and Germany, and World War I had begun.

The Western Front

According to an aggressive military strategy known as the Schlieffen Plan (named for its mastermind, German Field Marshal Alfred von Schlieffen ), Germany began fighting World War I on two fronts, invading France through neutral Belgium in the west and confronting Russia in the east.

On August 4, 1914, German troops crossed the border into Belgium. In the first battle of World War I, the Germans assaulted the heavily fortified city of Liege , using the most powerful weapons in their arsenal—enormous siege cannons—to capture the city by August 15. The Germans left death and destruction in their wake as they advanced through Belgium toward France, shooting civilians and executing a Belgian priest they had accused of inciting civilian resistance. 

First Battle of the Marne

In the First Battle of the Marne , fought from September 6-9, 1914, French and British forces confronted the invading German army, which had by then penetrated deep into northeastern France, within 30 miles of Paris. The Allied troops checked the German advance and mounted a successful counterattack, driving the Germans back to the north of the Aisne River.

The defeat meant the end of German plans for a quick victory in France. Both sides dug into trenches , and the Western Front was the setting for a hellish war of attrition that would last more than three years.

Particularly long and costly battles in this campaign were fought at Verdun (February-December 1916) and the Battle of the Somme (July-November 1916). German and French troops suffered close to a million casualties in the Battle of Verdun alone.

HISTORY Vault: World War I Documentaries

Stream World War I videos commercial-free in HISTORY Vault.

World War I Books and Art

The bloodshed on the battlefields of the Western Front, and the difficulties its soldiers had for years after the fighting had ended, inspired such works of art as “ All Quiet on the Western Front ” by Erich Maria Remarque and “ In Flanders Fields ” by Canadian doctor Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae . In the latter poem, McCrae writes from the perspective of the fallen soldiers:

Published in 1915, the poem inspired the use of the poppy as a symbol of remembrance.

Visual artists like Otto Dix of Germany and British painters Wyndham Lewis, Paul Nash and David Bomberg used their firsthand experience as soldiers in World War I to create their art, capturing the anguish of trench warfare and exploring the themes of technology, violence and landscapes decimated by war.

The Eastern Front

On the Eastern Front of World War I, Russian forces invaded the German-held regions of East Prussia and Poland but were stopped short by German and Austrian forces at the Battle of Tannenberg in late August 1914.

Despite that victory, Russia’s assault forced Germany to move two corps from the Western Front to the Eastern, contributing to the German loss in the Battle of the Marne.

Combined with the fierce Allied resistance in France, the ability of Russia’s huge war machine to mobilize relatively quickly in the east ensured a longer, more grueling conflict instead of the quick victory Germany had hoped to win under the Schlieffen Plan .

Russian Revolution

From 1914 to 1916, Russia’s army mounted several offensives on World War I’s Eastern Front but was unable to break through German lines.

Defeat on the battlefield, combined with economic instability and the scarcity of food and other essentials, led to mounting discontent among the bulk of Russia’s population, especially the poverty-stricken workers and peasants. This increased hostility was directed toward the imperial regime of Czar Nicholas II and his unpopular German-born wife, Alexandra.

Russia’s simmering instability exploded in the Russian Revolution of 1917, spearheaded by Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks , which ended czarist rule and brought a halt to Russian participation in World War I.

Russia reached an armistice with the Central Powers in early December 1917, freeing German troops to face the remaining Allies on the Western Front.

America Enters World War I

At the outbreak of fighting in 1914, the United States remained on the sidelines of World War I, adopting the policy of neutrality favored by President Woodrow Wilson while continuing to engage in commerce and shipping with European countries on both sides of the conflict.

Neutrality, however, it was increasingly difficult to maintain in the face of Germany’s unchecked submarine aggression against neutral ships, including those carrying passengers. In 1915, Germany declared the waters surrounding the British Isles to be a war zone, and German U-boats sunk several commercial and passenger vessels, including some U.S. ships.

Widespread protest over the sinking by U-boat of the British ocean liner Lusitania —traveling from New York to Liverpool, England with hundreds of American passengers onboard—in May 1915 helped turn the tide of American public opinion against Germany. In February 1917, Congress passed a $250 million arms appropriations bill intended to make the United States ready for war.

Germany sunk four more U.S. merchant ships the following month, and on April 2 Woodrow Wilson appeared before Congress and called for a declaration of war against Germany.

Gallipoli Campaign

With World War I having effectively settled into a stalemate in Europe, the Allies attempted to score a victory against the Ottoman Empire, which entered the conflict on the side of the Central Powers in late 1914.

After a failed attack on the Dardanelles (the strait linking the Sea of Marmara with the Aegean Sea), Allied forces led by Britain launched a large-scale land invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula in April 1915. The invasion also proved a dismal failure, and in January 1916 Allied forces staged a full retreat from the shores of the peninsula after suffering 250,000 casualties.

Did you know? The young Winston Churchill, then first lord of the British Admiralty, resigned his command after the failed Gallipoli campaign in 1916, accepting a commission with an infantry battalion in France.

British-led forces also combated the Ottoman Turks in Egypt and Mesopotamia , while in northern Italy, Austrian and Italian troops faced off in a series of 12 battles along the Isonzo River, located at the border between the two nations.

Battle of the Isonzo

The First Battle of the Isonzo took place in the late spring of 1915, soon after Italy’s entrance into the war on the Allied side. In the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo, also known as the Battle of Caporetto (October 1917), German reinforcements helped Austria-Hungary win a decisive victory.

After Caporetto, Italy’s allies jumped in to offer increased assistance. British and French—and later, American—troops arrived in the region, and the Allies began to take back the Italian Front.

World War I at Sea

In the years before World War I, the superiority of Britain’s Royal Navy was unchallenged by any other nation’s fleet, but the Imperial German Navy had made substantial strides in closing the gap between the two naval powers. Germany’s strength on the high seas was also aided by its lethal fleet of U-boat submarines.

After the Battle of Dogger Bank in January 1915, in which the British mounted a surprise attack on German ships in the North Sea, the German navy chose not to confront Britain’s mighty Royal Navy in a major battle for more than a year, preferring to rest the bulk of its naval strategy on its U-boats.

The biggest naval engagement of World War I, the Battle of Jutland (May 1916) left British naval superiority on the North Sea intact, and Germany would make no further attempts to break an Allied naval blockade for the remainder of the war.

World War I Planes

World War I was the first major conflict to harness the power of planes. Though not as impactful as the British Royal Navy or Germany’s U-boats, the use of planes in World War I presaged their later, pivotal role in military conflicts around the globe.

At the dawn of World War I, aviation was a relatively new field; the Wright brothers took their first sustained flight just eleven years before, in 1903. Aircraft were initially used primarily for reconnaissance missions. During the First Battle of the Marne, information passed from pilots allowed the allies to exploit weak spots in the German lines, helping the Allies to push Germany out of France.

The first machine guns were successfully mounted on planes in June of 1912 in the United States, but were imperfect; if timed incorrectly, a bullet could easily destroy the propeller of the plane it came from. The Morane-Saulnier L, a French plane, provided a solution: The propeller was armored with deflector wedges that prevented bullets from hitting it. The Morane-Saulnier Type L was used by the French, the British Royal Flying Corps (part of the Army), the British Royal Navy Air Service and the Imperial Russian Air Service. The British Bristol Type 22 was another popular model used for both reconnaissance work and as a fighter plane.

Dutch inventor Anthony Fokker improved upon the French deflector system in 1915. His “interrupter” synchronized the firing of the guns with the plane’s propeller to avoid collisions. Though his most popular plane during WWI was the single-seat Fokker Eindecker, Fokker created over 40 kinds of airplanes for the Germans.

The Allies debuted the Handley-Page HP O/400, the first two-engine bomber, in 1915. As aerial technology progressed, long-range heavy bombers like Germany’s Gotha G.V. (first introduced in 1917) were used to strike cities like London. Their speed and maneuverability proved to be far deadlier than Germany’s earlier Zeppelin raids.

By the war’s end, the Allies were producing five times more aircraft than the Germans. On April 1, 1918, the British created the Royal Air Force, or RAF, the first air force to be a separate military branch independent from the navy or army. 

Second Battle of the Marne

With Germany able to build up its strength on the Western Front after the armistice with Russia, Allied troops struggled to hold off another German offensive until promised reinforcements from the United States were able to arrive.

On July 15, 1918, German troops launched what would become the last German offensive of the war, attacking French forces (joined by 85,000 American troops as well as some of the British Expeditionary Force) in the Second Battle of the Marne . The Allies successfully pushed back the German offensive and launched their own counteroffensive just three days later.

After suffering massive casualties, Germany was forced to call off a planned offensive further north, in the Flanders region stretching between France and Belgium, which was envisioned as Germany’s best hope of victory.

The Second Battle of the Marne turned the tide of war decisively towards the Allies, who were able to regain much of France and Belgium in the months that followed.

The Harlem Hellfighters and Other All-Black Regiments

By the time World War I began, there were four all-Black regiments in the U.S. military: the 24th and 25th Infantry and the 9th and 10th Cavalry. All four regiments comprised of celebrated soldiers who fought in the Spanish-American War and American-Indian Wars , and served in the American territories. But they were not deployed for overseas combat in World War I. 

Blacks serving alongside white soldiers on the front lines in Europe was inconceivable to the U.S. military. Instead, the first African American troops sent overseas served in segregated labor battalions, restricted to menial roles in the Army and Navy, and shutout of the Marines, entirely. Their duties mostly included unloading ships, transporting materials from train depots, bases and ports, digging trenches, cooking and maintenance, removing barbed wire and inoperable equipment, and burying soldiers.

Facing criticism from the Black community and civil rights organizations for its quotas and treatment of African American soldiers in the war effort, the military formed two Black combat units in 1917, the 92nd and 93rd Divisions . Trained separately and inadequately in the United States, the divisions fared differently in the war. The 92nd faced criticism for their performance in the Meuse-Argonne campaign in September 1918. The 93rd Division, however, had more success. 

With dwindling armies, France asked America for reinforcements, and General John Pershing , commander of the American Expeditionary Forces, sent regiments in the 93 Division to over, since France had experience fighting alongside Black soldiers from their Senegalese French Colonial army. The 93 Division’s 369 regiment, nicknamed the Harlem Hellfighters , fought so gallantly, with a total of 191 days on the front lines, longer than any AEF regiment, that France awarded them the Croix de Guerre for their heroism. More than 350,000 African American soldiers would serve in World War I in various capacities.

Toward Armistice

By the fall of 1918, the Central Powers were unraveling on all fronts.

Despite the Turkish victory at Gallipoli, later defeats by invading forces and an Arab revolt that destroyed the Ottoman economy and devastated its land, and the Turks signed a treaty with the Allies in late October 1918.

Austria-Hungary, dissolving from within due to growing nationalist movements among its diverse population, reached an armistice on November 4. Facing dwindling resources on the battlefield, discontent on the homefront and the surrender of its allies, Germany was finally forced to seek an armistice on November 11, 1918, ending World War I.

Treaty of Versailles

At the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, Allied leaders stated their desire to build a post-war world that would safeguard itself against future conflicts of such a devastating scale.

Some hopeful participants had even begun calling World War I “the War to End All Wars.” But the Treaty of Versailles , signed on June 28, 1919, would not achieve that lofty goal.

Saddled with war guilt, heavy reparations and denied entrance into the League of Nations , Germany felt tricked into signing the treaty, having believed any peace would be a “peace without victory,” as put forward by President Wilson in his famous Fourteen Points speech of January 1918.

As the years passed, hatred of the Versailles treaty and its authors settled into a smoldering resentment in Germany that would, two decades later, be counted among the causes of World War II .

World War I Casualties

World War I took the lives of more than 9 million soldiers; 21 million more were wounded. Civilian casualties numbered close to 10 million. The two nations most affected were Germany and France, each of which sent some 80 percent of their male populations between the ages of 15 and 49 into battle.

The political disruption surrounding World War I also contributed to the fall of four venerable imperial dynasties: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia and Turkey.

Legacy of World War I

World War I brought about massive social upheaval, as millions of women entered the workforce to replace men who went to war and those who never came back. The first global war also helped to spread one of the world’s deadliest global pandemics, the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918, which killed an estimated 20 to 50 million people.

World War I has also been referred to as “the first modern war.” Many of the technologies now associated with military conflict—machine guns, tanks , aerial combat and radio communications—were introduced on a massive scale during World War I.

The severe effects that chemical weapons such as mustard gas and phosgene had on soldiers and civilians during World War I galvanized public and military attitudes against their continued use. The Geneva Convention agreements, signed in 1925, restricted the use of chemical and biological agents in warfare and remain in effect today.

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World War One and the NAS/NRC: A Research Competition

On the occasion of the centennial of World War I, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine hosted an open competition for scholars under the age of 30  to research and write a scholarly paper on a major aspect of how scientists and engineers in the United States were engaged in the World War I effort.  The focus, drawing on the creation of the National Research Council (NRC) associated with World War I, was on institutional changes (e.g., the charter of the NRC ) and the research enterprise in America.

In the summer of 1915, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) was already undertaking preparations for providing large-scale services to President Wilson if the U.S. were drawn into the European War.  At that time, George Ellery Hale (Foreign Secretary of the National Academy of Sciences) initiated a canvass of the NAS Council to determine whether it would support a proactive move to assist the Wilson Administration as part of the overall war effort.  Seeking to reform the mostly honorific NAS, the ambitious Hale strongly believed that service to the nation at a time of war would provide the fulcrum necessary to transform the Academy into a more active scientific research organization comparable to some of the most prominent foreign scientific academies he had surveyed the previous year.  Hale’s advocacy came to a head at a meeting of the NAS Council in April 1916, when the council unanimously asked the Academy’s president “to inform the President of the United States that, in the event of a break in diplomatic relations with any other country, the Academy desires to place itself at the disposal of the Government for any services within its scope.” 1    When the Academy’s leaders met with President Wilson later that month, he asked them to establish a committee to accelerate preparations for the Academy’s support of a war effort.

Once established, the committee soon drafted the blueprint for a National Research Council (NRC), the purpose of which would be to coordinate existing governmental, educational, industrial, and other research organizations with the initial object of inventorying the U.S.’s essential materials, equipment, and researchers.  The first topic thus identified was the supply of nitric acid, used in the manufacture of most high explosives, which, along with most chemicals, was overwhelmingly supplied by Germany.

Initially, the White House did not enthusiastically embrace the NAS’s plans for the NRC. President Wilson was facing re-election in 1916 and was running on a platform of keeping the U.S. out of the European war.  Nevertheless, the Wilson Administration did identify delegates from the relevant agencies to join with industrial R&D leaders and members of the NAS, as outlined in the NRC blueprint.  Thus, by the end of 1916, the nascent NRC had established 28 committees that spanned all scientific and engineering fields as well as specific war needs. 

The larger national context in which the NRC was launched in late 1916 was cluttered with other organizations offering to assist the prospective war effort: the Carnegie Institution of Washington; the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research; the Naval Consulting Board; and an advisory committee of the Council of National Defense, which President Wilson had established.  The severance of diplomatic relations with Germany on February 4, 1917, energized the NRC and its leadership, especially when the Council of National Defense met on February 28th and designated the NRC as the official organizer of all “scientific forces of the country” for national defense.  Requests from various federal agencies and non-governmental organizations cascaded into the NRC, ranging from the Patent Office asking for a review of its operations to the Signal Corps requesting the establishment of a dedicated research division. 

One of the enduring legacies of the NRC’s wartime operations was its proactive outreach to scientists in allied nations.  Intensive collaboration began with the UK, France, and Italy on a wide range of projects, including tools to combat the U-boat attacks on supply convoys to Europe.  The development of aviation for warfare, the wartime availability of synthetic drugs (e.g., novocaine and arsphenamine), and the roles of tanks, machine guns, and poison gas were all topics addressed by the NRC.  The widespread phenomenon of “shell shock” among combat troops led to engagement by psychologists, who were eventually accepted by the Army's Medical Department. 

Although the United States’ direct involvement in the war lasted only 18 months, the institutional and scientific changes wrought by World War I had lasting effect.  By the end of 1917, various leaders of the NAS were discussing a post-war, permanent organization like the NRC to continue to advise the nation on matters of science and engineering, to promote collaboration between industry, government and universities, and to sustain worldwide cooperation in scientific and industrial research (through an “International Research Council”).  In March 1918, the NAS sent a letter to President Wilson asking for a new Executive Order to establish the NRC on a permanent basis.  That Executive Order was signed on May 11, 1918.  The Carnegie Corporation of New York shortly thereafter awarded the NAS the largest gift in its history – $5 million – to provide for an endowment and construction of the headquarters of the NAS/NRC. 

With the eventual disbanding of the administration’s Council of National Defense, the relationship of the federal government with the NRC became somewhat more distant, as the character of the NRC as a subsidiary of the non-governmental, non-partisan NAS prevailed.  Nevertheless, President Wilson’s Executive Order of 1918 enabled a close, prominent, and enduring role for the NRC in harnessing the best expertise among American researchers to advise the government in an increasingly complex world.

1  See  http://www.nasonline.org/about-nas/history/archives/milestones-in-NAS-history/organization-of-the-nrc.html .

Some Essential Texts on the History of the National Academy of Sciences/National Research Council

• Cochrane, Rexmond C.,  The National Academy of Sciences: The First Hundred Years, 1863-1963   (Washington, DC: National Academy of Sciences, 1978)
• Dupree, A. Hunter,  Science in the Federal Government: A History of Policies and Activities to 1940  (Cambridge, MA: Harvard U Press, 1957)
• Hale, George Ellery. “National Academies and the Progress of Research.”  Science  38, no. 985 (1913): 681-698.
• Hale, George Ellery. “National Academies and the Progress of Research. II.”  Science  41, no. 1044 (1915): 12-23.
• Holley, Irving B. Jr.,  Ideas and Weapons: Exploitation of the Aerial Weapon by the United States during World War I: A Study in the Relationship of Technological Advance, Military Doctrine, and the Development of Weapons  (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1953).
• Kevles, Daniel .J.,  The Physicists: The History of a Scientific Community in Modern America  (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995).
• Millikan, Robert A.,  Autobiography  (New York: Prentice-Hall, 1950).
• Yerkes, Robert M. editor,  The New World of Science: Its Development during the War  (New York: The Century Company, 1920).

_____ The website of the Archives of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is  http://www.nasonline.org/about-nas/history/archives/collections/ .  A finding aid for period materials related to the NAS/National Research Council is available at  http://www.nasonline.org/about-nas/history/archives/collections/1914-1918-Outline.pdf . 

Description

A 3-5 person ad hoc committee will conduct an open competition for young scholars under the age of 30 to research a major aspect of how scientists and engineers in the U.S. were engaged in the World War I effort.  The focus, drawing on the creation of the National Research Council associated with World War I, is on institutional changes (e.g., charter of the NRC).  In effect, the scholarship should look at how the war experience fostered long-term relationships between scientists/engineers and U.S. policy on national security and the public welfare.  The committee will screen initial concept papers, award research support to the top five submissions, and then award the final prize to the top paper presented at a public workshop in Washington.

• Policy and Global Affairs

Policy and Global Affairs Executive Office

• U.S. Science and Innovation Policy

Education and Outreach Activity

• Conflict and Security Issues
• Engineering and Technology

Explore Science

• Policy for Science and Technology

Geographic Focuses

North America

Western Europe

Past Events

12:00AM - 12:00AM (ET)

October 26, 2018

Steven Kendall

(202) 334-1713

[email protected]

Responsible Staff Officers

• Steven Kendall  

Additional Project Staff

WW1 Research & Sources of Information

The Great War of 1914-1918 is a vast subject. Listed here are links to our pages or external links to websites covering some of the more specialist areas of World War 1 archives and resources for research. You will find information on a variety of resource material for research on this subject including archives and libraries, military records, maps, museums, schools resources and what records are available to help you trace WW1 family history.

Information on this page features:

Academic Study

Archives, military records and publications, battlefield guidebooks and tours, military museums and archives, resources for teachers and students.

• Trench Maps

WW1 Societies, Associations and Remembrance Projects

Events & Exhibitions

Other sources of information for family historians, related reading, useful links.

Educational establishments committed to the study of the First World War can be found on our page of organizations at:

Organizations for WW1 Academic Study

Archives and records dating back to the 1914-1918 war are held for individuals and military units in a variety of museums and archive collections. Many records are now available to view or buy online from public and government archives. Depending on the service offered by the archive institution, information can be downloaded free, for a single fee or by subscription. This is a great help if you cannot travel to view the records in another town or even another country.

Some public records listings are available to buy in book form or on CD Rom. But if you cannot afford to buy the book or CD, it is out of print or out of stock, it may be possible to request it as an inter-library loan. Ask about this at your local library.

A variety of books related to specific topics are suggested on this website as “Further Reading” on this website. The suggestions are intended to be a guide to help with research on the Great War of 1914-1918. If you do not wish to buy a listed book you may still find that the ISBN reference and publisher's reference is helpful if you prefer to borrow it from a library.

Miltary Records for Tracing WW1 Family History

There are several sources of military records which may be helpful for researching a family member who served in the First World War. See our page for advice on how to get started, which records are available for those who died, their Service Records and Medal Records and what information these records can offer:

Tracing WW1 Family History

For information about tracing a British First World War soldier go to our page at:

Trace a British WW1 Soldier

Official Histories: Military Operations

Most of the nations involved in the First World War published an official account of the involvement of their military forces. These official publications usually comprise numerous volumes and can be a great help to family historians looking to trace the place of action of a serviceman. In some cases they are now available in print, on DVD. The Canadian and Australian WW1 Official Histories are available to view online.

Official Histories of the First World War

Regimental Histories

There are also many published histories for regiments, battalions, divisions, corps and armies. Generally written after the First World War they were compiled using War Diaries and personal accounts of the men who served in that unit, together with other various official sources. Some may be more lavishly illustrated with photographs and maps than others. Some were published privately and may essentially reflect the views of the author. Some published personal experiences of life in the 1914-1918 war have become known as the unofficial records of a regiment or battalion.

The Imperial War Museum London has an unrivalled collection of printed books which include regimental histories. If you wish to find out whether a regiment you are interested in published a history and obtain the details of the title you can search the IWM Collections online or contact the museum to make an enquiry. Go to our page about the Imperial War Museum for the link to the IWM Collections Search:

Imperial War Museum: Collections Search

Orders of Battle

An Order of Battle is a list of an Army and its units as a structure of command before a battle. The units are listed in order of seniority. This list can be very useful to find out whether a particular unit was involved in action at a certain time. The listing will provide confirmation as to which division, corps and Army the unit was serving with at that time.

For more information about the Orders of Battle and where to find records of these go to our page at:

• War Diaries

British Army War Diaries were documents written as a daily account of a unit on Active Service or as an Intelligence Report. War Diaries can provide a valuable insight into the activities and locations of a particular unit and can offer information at a level of detail not available in Official Histories or regimental histories.

For more information about War Diaries, what sort of information can be found in them and where to view them, go to our page at:

There is a wide range of guide books for researching and visiting the 1914-1918 battlefields of the Western Front. Tours ranging from day trips to individual bespoke visits are also available to book from the United Kingdom or on the battlefields.

For more information go to our pages at:

Some military museums contain unrivalled collections of the histories of military units in the First World War. The larger museums may also hold copies of military unit histories of other national forces. Museums dedicated to a specific part of the services, such as medical services, will likely have well stocked reference libraries focusing on that special subject.

For a listing of military museums in the United Kingdom, Australia, Belgium and France see our page at:

WW1 Museums and Archives

A variety of resources are available for teachers and students for the study of the Great War of 1914-1918. Our information page gives links to museum education departments, exhbitions and online resources.

WW1 Education Resources for Teachers

A Trench Map is the name given to the maps used in the Theatre of War by the British Armed Forces during the First World War. Within the first few months of the war the British Army was producing maps for the fighting front to show the detail of the enemy trench lines, enemy positions and topographical information about the landscape. Most of the Front Line occupied by the British Army and its Imperial Forces was mapped to the scale of 1:20,000 and 1:10,000.

There are collections of surviving Trench Maps held in military and public archives which can be viewed and studied. Some collections have been reproduced on DVD and some are available to buy as reprints. When trying to follow in the footsteps of a serviceman, finding a Trench Map of the area where a particular unit was in action is a very good way of finding out the exact location down to the nearest few metres or yards, of where he was.

See our page on Trench Maps for detailed information about the maps and places where collections can be viewed:

British Army WW1 Trench Maps

There are a number of associations and societies which exist to further the aim of Remembrance of the First World War and those who fought in it on all sides. These organizations include those which promote the study of the subject, focus on particular specialisms within the Armed Forces or bring like-minded people together to learn and Remember.

In particular, members of military history associations can be contacted. Often there are experts in these groups, both amateur and professional, who have made it their life's work to study a particular military unit, a specific battle, military uniforms and medals or the impact of war on the home front. Members are often scattered all over the world but can usually be contacted through a website, discussion forum or journal.

A page listing some of the WW1 related events going on in the United Kingdom and on the battlefields of the Western Front is provided on this website. These events include exhibitions, lectures, plays, ceremonies and special memorial events.

Church Records and Memorials

Other possible sources of information can be names on a local war memorial in a town or church. There may be a Book of Remembrance held in a church or memorial plaques dedicated to individuals.

A national inventory of war memorials in the United Kingdom is held by the Imperial War Museum (London) with a database of the war memorials and memorial plaques. The project includes the names of those on the memorials. See our page for more information:

War Memorials Register (United Kingdom)

Family History Society

If you are looking into a specific town or local area you could try contacting members of a local history society.

Newspaper Archives

Often the local newspapers of the day carried pages of photographs of those who had joined up to serve in the military, and sadly, those who would not be returning home. A local newspaper may have an archive or copies would be held in a national newspaper archive collection.

School Archives

Some schools kept records of pupils who joined the forces. The school library may have a Book of Remembrance, a Roll of Honour or a memorial plaque to pupils and staff who were killed in 1914-1918.

Census Records

Census records can be examined for England, Scotland, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man for each decade from 1841 to 1911. These records can be very helpful to find out information about families, where they were living, their ages, occupations, and birthplace.

Family History and Ancestors in the Military

Army records: a guide for family historians (paperback).

by William Spencer

Published by The National Archives; illustrated edition edition (29 Feb 2008), 160 pages, ISBN-10: 1905615108 and ISBN-13: 978-1905615100

Tracing Your Army Ancestors (Paperback)

by Simon Fowler

Published by Pen & Sword Books Ltd (17 Aug 2006), 192 pages, ISBN-10: 1844154106 and ISBN-13: 978-1844154104

Who Do You Think You Are?: The Essential Guide to Tracing Your Family History (Paperback)

by Megan Smolenyak

Published by Penguin Books (28 Dec 2010), 224 pages, ISBN-10: 0143118919 and ISBN-13: 978-0143118916

Census: The Expert Guide (Paperback)

by Peter Christian and David Annal

Published by The National Archives (2 Sep 2008), 256 pages, ISBN-10: 1905615345 and ISBN-13: 978-1905615346

The Genealogist's Internet (Illustrated paperback)

by Peter Christian

A best-selling guide to resources available to family historians online. Published by The National Archives; 4th edition (27 Feb 2009), 402 pages, ISBN-10: 1905615396 and ISBN-13: 978-1905615391

A Guide to Military History on the Internet [Illustrated] (Paperback)

Location of British Army Records: A National Directory of World War I Sources

Tracing Your First World War Ancestors (Family History)

World War I Army Ancestry

More Sources for World War I Army Ancestry

Family History

Ancestral Trails : The Complete Guide to British Genealogy and Family History

The Genealogist's Internet

The Family and Local History Handbook: Bk. 11

The National Archives: A Practical Guide for Family Historians

Scottish Genealogy

Tracing Your Ancestors in the National Archives: The Website and Beyond

Tracing Your Irish Ancestors

Collins Tracing Your Irish Family History

"Who Do You Think You Are?" Encyclopedia of Genealogy : The Definitive Reference Guide to Tracing Your Family History

The National Archives, Kew, Surrey

Website: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

Ancestry.co.uk

Website: www.ancestry.co.uk

Findmypast.co.uk

Website: www.findmypast.co.uk

Forces War Records

Website: www.forces-war-records.co.uk

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Resources related to the study of World War 1

Don't forget as you do your research, that search terms may change from resource to resource.  If you're not finding anything, try variants such as: "The Great War", "World War One", and/or "The First World War".

World War 1 -- Books

If you're looking for a print book, there's a few places where you can look. 

The Library of Congress groups them primarily here: D501-680 -- World War I (1914-1918).

A good start would be here: JFL Library Search

Searching Outside Our Library's Holdings

If you're looking for books beyond our holdings, this site lets you search both our holdings and those of other libraries.  The ones we own are listed first: Worldcat Search

Borrowing from Other Libraries

For the items that we don't have, take advantage of our Inter Library Loan service to try to get the item from another library.  Plan 5 - 7 business days on average for a book, depending upon how busy our library is, how busy the other library is, how rare the book is, how far it has to come from to get here, etc.

Book Reviews

Don't ignore book reviews necessarily.  Multiple book reviews can help give a good understanding of thought on a particular book.  If the book review makes the book look interesting then, by all means, get access to that particular book.

World War 1 -- Media

• American History in Video This link opens in a new window Streaming video content, including a large volume of contemporaneous video from the 1890s to the 1980s, early newsreels, and full-length documentaries For more information, here is a brief tutorial on using American History in Video
• World History in Video This link opens in a new window Critically acclaimed documentaries exploring human history from the earliest civilizations to the late twentieth century, covering Africa and the Americas, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Oceania
• Films on Demand This link opens in a new window Streaming video clips and select full-length documentaries and other educational films from acclaimed producers For more information, here is a brief tutorial on using Films on Demand
• Overdrive Audio and E-Books We have a few books on World War One. You may find them by searching "First World War" or "Great War".

World War 1 -- Museums and Archives

• First World War Portal The First World War portal makes available invaluable primary sources for the study of the Great War, brought together in four thematic modules. From personal collections and rare printed material to military files, artwork and audio-visual files, content highlights the experiences of soldiers, civilians and governments on both sides of a conflict that shook the world. Personal Experiences Propaganda and Recruitment Visual Perspectives and Narratives A Global Conflict
• National Museum of American History -- World War One
• National World War One Museum and Memorial
• Museum of the Great War
• First World War National Army Museum (UK)
• Imperial War Museum First World War (UK)

World War 1 -- Newspapers and Journals

You can search specific databases that focus on history, or you can do a broad search of almost all of our databases to see what journals and newspapers you can find.  A broad search can be found here: World War 1 Newspapers and Journals.

Don't forget to try to limit your search.  Also, remember that when you cite an article, it should take you to the article itself, not to a search result for the article whereby someone has to click to get to the article.

• America: History and Life with Full Text This link opens in a new window Full-text journals and books covering the history and culture of the United States and Canada from prehistory to the present For more information, here is a brief tutorial on using this EBSCO database
• Historical Abstracts with Full text This link opens in a new window Full-text journals and books covering world history (excluding the United States and Canada) from the 15th century to the present with coverage since 1863 For more information, here is a brief tutorial on using this EBSCO database
• JSTOR This link opens in a new window Full-text electronic access to back issues of core journals in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences For more information, here is a brief tutorial on using JSTOR
• Cambridge Core This link opens in a new window Full-text, peer-reviewed journals and e-books published by Cambridge University Press on wide variety of subjects including astronomy, Shakespeare studies, economics, mathematics, politics, music, literature and classics, philosophy, religion, culture, and history For more information, here is a brief tutorial on using Cambridge Core
• Oxford Academic Journals This link opens in a new window Full text of electronic journals published by the Oxford University Press from 1996 to the present For more information, here is a brief tutorial on using Oxford Journals
• ProQuest Historical Newspapers This link opens in a new window Single-search of the full-text of The New York Times (1851-2014), The Washington Post (1877-2002), The Baltimore Sun (1837-1993), The Guardian ‎(1791-2003), The Observer‎ (1791-2003), and Chicago Defender (1909-2010), including full page and article images For more information, here is a brief tutorial on using ProQuest Historical Newspapers
• Telegraph Historical Archive
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• British Library Newspapers
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“A sobering reminder”: important lessons from World War One

Making research on past wars accessible to new generations can help us understand conflict today argues david stevenson, who worked with the british library to provide educational resources on the great war for school students..

Every day, as we hear more about the devastating invasion of Ukraine by Russia, we are reminded how commemorating the past can help us try to make better decisions for the future.

Work by Professor David Stevenson, based in the Department of International History at LSE, tries to do just that. With over 40 years of experience researching the First World War, he has been involved in numerous projects to stimulate interest in the history of the conflict and strengthen understanding of its causes and consequences.

For one of these projects, Professor Stevenson was invited by the British Library to advise on a major collection marking the centenary of the Great War: Europeana 1914-1918 Learning Website.

The collection, which features over 500 items related to the War from postcards and photographs to propaganda material and news clippings, is linked to a series of research-based essays on the history of the First World War.

The Europeana 1914-1918 project, led by the British Library in collaboration with 11 other European institutions, provides an English language web resource for First World War teachers in secondary schools across the globe. It provides an important insight for students about the War. And with over four million individual website visits to date, the impact of the project speaks for itself.

No war is good - but what makes a “bad” one?  

It’s a sobering reminder… of how important it is to stop wars from starting in the first place; it’s very rare they achieve the objectives they set out to.

Due to his expertise on World War One, Professor Stevenson was recruited to advise on the editorial side of the collection. As well as giving guidance on the structure of the project and suggesting authors for supporting articles, he personally contributed seven essays on topics ranging from “Europe before 1914” to “Supply and Logistics” and “The War Effort at Home”.

All of these had to be two sides of A4 in length and accessible to a secondary school audience, something which Professor Stevenson admits isn’t always easy for those more used to writing lengthy academic papers. However, he notes the critical importance of making the material available and approachable to a young audience, so they are equipped to learn about the War.

“We are seeing now that major wars can still happen,” he says. “The First World War was the first modern industrial war. Millions of shells were manufactured, and millions of troops were enlisted - meaning it was fought on a much larger scale than 19th century wars. It’s also an emblematic example of what is sometimes called a ‘bad war’ – one which didn’t really achieve its aims, where the casualties were far worse than expected and where the outcome was indecisive.”

“It’s a sobering reminder, or it should be, of how important it is to stop wars from starting in the first place; it’s very rare they achieve the objectives they set out to,” he continues.

Watch: LSE was only 20 years old when the war broke out. Professor David Stevenson looks at the impact the conflict had on the School and the role LSE played in shaping post-war society.

Commemorating our ancestors  

Another reason Professor Stevenson feels it’s important for younger people to learn about past wars is from the perspective of family history. This involves having a better connection to our ancestors and making sure we commemorate them and their efforts during the War.

I had to keep an eye on whether the essays we were producing were too centred on the British experience…We wanted to present the experiences of all the countries involved.

“Almost every British family will have been impacted by the Great War,” he says, noting that indeed his own interest in the period was sparked by family background. “My mother’s father, my grandfather, actively fought in the War from 1914 to 1918. He was injured twice and there were times my grandmother – his fiancée at the time – was worried that he wouldn’t come back – but he did!”

His grandfather on his father’s side was in the police force so contributed to the war effort from the home front, providing another perspective on the War.

Ensuring that all experiences of the War were captured in the project was important to Professor Stevenson, who was keen to ensure the articles reflected the myriad of people affected by the conflict. This included ensuring the essays highlighted the international impact of the War.

The importance of highlighting diverse experiences

“I had to keep an eye on whether the essays we were producing were too centred on the British experience, which is a danger with a project based in the UK. We were clear this shouldn’t happen, and we wanted to present the experiences of all the countries involved,” he says. For example, the collection highlights the role of Indian soldiers in the War – over 50,000 of whom died fighting.

As the project progressed it became clear to Professor Stevenson that there was a wealth of material focusing on the second half of the War that wasn’t being fully utilised. With this in mind, he recommended a supplementary project concentrating on the latter part of the War and himself contributed a piece on “How the First World War Ended”.

Although the collection was designed to commemorate the centenary of World War One, it continues to be an invaluable resource for schoolchildren, teachers, and researchers alike.

Going forwards, Professor Stevenson hopes to work on similar projects in the future but is currently concentrating on a new book on the origins of 20th century wars.

Professor David Stevenson was speaking to Charlotte Kelloway, Media Relations Manager at LSE. 

Professor Stevenson’s research features in a Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021 impact case study, Commemorating the First World War . Explore LSE's REF 2021 results in full.

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Stevenson Professor of International History, Department of International History, LSE

Professor David Stevenson is Stevenson Professor of International History in the Department of International History at LSE. His main fields of interest lie in international relations in Europe during the 19th and 20th centuries, and the origins, course and impact of the First World War. His publications include "With our backs to the wall: victory and defeat in 1918", "1914-1918: the history of the First World War" and "1917: war, peace and revolution".

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World War One Group Project

National Standards in World History: Era 8, A Half Century of Crisis and Achievement, 1900-1945 Standard 2, The Causes and Global Consequences of World War One

Summarize topics from an academic article related to World War One. Synthesize the main idea from this article with those of their group members. Organize work into a cohesive group project. Present and share this project with fellow classmates.

Go to the following webpage: https://encyclopedia.1914-1918-online.net/themes/ Your group will be assigned a theme: 1. Pre-War 2. Violence 3. Power 4. Media 5. Home Front 6. Post-War

Each individual within your group should choose an article that is of interest. (You all need to choose a different article.) The article should be from one of the first two categories, a survey article or a regional article, not an encyclopedic entry.

Each individual will summarize his/her article in two slides. Each slide must contain text (not cut and pasted, write it in your own words!) and at least one visual. Note, that each theme has an image tab. In addition, the group will work together to create both an introduction slide and a conclusion slide that synthesize all five articles. Each presentation will be 13 slides in length: 1 cover slide, 1 introduction, 10 article summaries (2 per person, 1 conclusion)

These will be presented in class and each individual will be responsible for speaking about his/her own slides and also be prepared to answer questions that go beyond the text on the slide. Yes, you really need to read your entire article so that you know your subject well! Each person will receive both a group and an individual grade for this assignment.

Modifications

Because the articles are rather lengthy and academic in nature, some students might struggle. In this case, they may be encouraged to select an encyclopedia entry to summarize rather than a thematic or regional essay. The encyclopedia entries are more succinct and will be easier for a lower level reader to analyze.

Students may extend this lesson by creating a recorded news program rather than a google presentation. These programs could then be uploaded onto YouTube for sharing with a wider audience.

Also, students from each thematic group could meet in a jigsaw fashion for an extension activity, that could include either the news program idea (above,) or a portfolio that includes the synthesis of each theme’s message and images.

The Great War’s Impact on American Foreign Policy and Civic Religion by Walter McDougall

The Great War’s Impact on American Foreign Policy and Civic Religion

https://www.1914-1918-online.net/

• Leonore Heino
• Centennial High School

Related History Institute

• America’s Entry into World War I

Grade Level

• High School: 10
• Two 55 minute class periods for assembly of project and two periods for presentations

Download this Lesson Plan

If you have any questions about this lesson plan, or if you wish to contact the author, please email us at [email protected]

165 World War 1 Topics for Essays with Examples

Looking for good World War 1 topics to write about? This area of study is exciting, controversial, and worth analysing!

• 🔝 Top 10 WW1 Topics to Write about
• 📝 WW1 Essay: How to Write
• 🏆 Best WW1 Essay Topics & Examples

💡 Good Essay Topics on WW1

• 🔎 Interesting Topics to Write about WW1
• ⭐ WW1 Research Topics
• 📃 Simple & Easy WW1 Essay Titles
• ❓ WW1 Essay Questions

In your WW1 essay, you might want to focus on the causes of the conflict, its participants, or answer the question of who started the First World War. In this article, we’ve gathered 139 WW1 ideas that you can use in any project, presentation, or even debate. There are also great World War 1 essay examples to inspire you even more.

🔝 Top 10 World War 1 Topics to Write about

• Causes of World War I
• Political and military alliances before the WWI
• Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand as the starting point of WW1
• Naval warfare of World War I
• Ottoman Empire in World War 1
• The role of technology in World War 1
• The use of chemical weapons in WWI
• The most cruel war crimes of WW1
• Armenian genocide as a part of World War 1
• The effects and consequences of WW1

📝 World War 1 Essay: How to Write

With over 60 million people mobilized and involving countries all around the world, any World War 1 Essay is bound to touch upon a wide variety of topics.

The mechanics behind the start of the war, its process, and results all interconnect, which may make the subject seem hard to understand and harder to outline.

However, navigating your way around World War 1 essay questions is only a matter of taking note of a few cornerstone historical processes.

Before You Start Your Outline

Do some research on your assigned issue. The more books and journals you peruse, the more aware of your subject you will be. You will not use all of them, but you will form an understanding of which titles your essay needs.

As you continue your research, start compiling your bibliography, which will be the backbone of your essay’s credibility. World War 1 is a highly historiographical event, and you will be sure to find a wide variety of literature on it on the internet.

Write down some essential terms and think about how they relate to your essay. Imperialism, nationalism, the Versailles treaty are good starter examples of omnipresent processes and results of World War 1. Doing so may help you give your essay a new, previously explored perspective.

Structuring your Thoughts into an Essay Outline

After you have finished with your sources and key terms, think about how you can split your main theme into subtopics.

Even if your essay is a single page, doing so will allow you to divide your ideas evenly between paragraphs. If it is on the longer side, think about including subheadings in your work.

This action gives your essay a more rigid structure that is easy to read. Additionally, now is the time to think about your essay’s title. World War 1 essay titles should reflect your stance as the writer and hint at the conclusion that you will draw.

You may feel like your outlined subheadings are overlapping, making your essay seem messy. In this case, find and read a World War 1 essay sample. Plagiarism is a severe academic offense, but getting inspired by someone else’s work, while giving credit, is not.

Beginning to Write

You should try to start your essay with something that attracts the attention of your readers. This World War 1 essay hook can be a fact or an intriguing explanation of a process central to your topic. Then, in this paragraph:

• Give your readers a brief overview of the events that are relevant to your essay;
• Hint at your intent, explain your methods and make your point of view clear;
• Make sure your readers are aware of what problems you will touch upon;
• Create a working thesis statement that will be your guideline throughout your work.

Each paragraph you include should link back to your thesis statement. Always be sure to ask yourself when writing:

• Does this further my argument?
• Can my facts be used against me? How can I fix that?
• Is there a different perspective on this issue?
• Could I remove this without hurting the quality of my essay?
• Is my structure reflective of the problem it is covering? What can I do better?

Remember that a good structure reflects the amount of effort you put into your work. Need a sample to get inspired? Head over to IvyPanda!

🏆 Best World War 1 Essay Topics & Examples

• Positive and Negative Effects of WW1 on Canada: Essay Nonetheless, the war led to great negative impacts such as loss of lives, economic downtrend, and the generation of tensions involving the Francophones and Anglophones who disagreed after the emergence of the notion of conscription.
• First World War: Causes and Effects This later led to the entry of countries allied to Serbia into the war so as to protect their partners. In conclusion, the First World War led to the loss of many lives.
• American Dream After World War I People lost vision of what this dream was supposed to mean and it became a dream, not of the vestal and industrious, but of the corrupt coterie, hence corrupting the dream itself.
• Effects of the Industrial Revolution in Relation to World War I During the last period of the 19th century all the way to the early 20th century, Europe and America experienced revolutions in communication, transportation and weapons which were very crucial particularly in the manner in […]
• World War I Technology Although the question of the origins of the Great War is highly debated, and although this war is considered by many as the beginning of a new stage in history and the real starting point […]
• Total War of World War I The paper will demonstrate that the First World War was a total war since it bore most the hallmark characteristics of the total war including unlimited warfare, prioritization of armament efforts, involvement of the civilian […]
• Federal Government Expansion During World War I The period between 1914 and 1918 was marked by the increased role of the federal government in the United States and the dramatic expansion of its bureaucracies.
• Ernest Hemingway’s Personality and His Reflections on WWI The events of World War I and Hemmingway’s personal experiences seemed to have an impact on his writings as he sought to establish himself alongside great writers in the Lost Generation, thus portraying his sensitivity.
• Causes of WWI and WWII: Comparing and Contrasting In the following paper, Kenneth Waltz’s levels of analysis will be used for the comparison and contrast of causes of WWI and WWII. The second similarity refers to the distribution of power and the division […]
• The Causes and Effects of World War I To this end, the Commission on the Responsibility of the Authors of the War and the Enforcement of Penalties met in Paris in 1919. It is impossible to name a single reason for the initiation […]
• World War 1 Origins (How and Why the War Started) William Anthony Hay claims that according to McMeekin, a tutor of international relations, “The war’s real catalyst lay in Russia’s ambition to supplant the waning Ottoman Empire in the Near East and to control the […]
• Anti-War Movement DADA Vs. Propaganda Posters of WWI In relation to the causes of the WWI, these can considered as pertinent specifically on the basis that the reasons can be related to the type of society that is present during the said era.
• Life of Soldiers During the World War I In this paper, we are going to discuss how the World War I affected live of people and what was the life of soldiers and civilians serving and living on the frontlines.
• Eastman Kodak Company and Fujifilm The Eastman Kodak Company has been focusing on photography and has currently added the use of technology in combining images and information in order to alter the ways through which businesses and people communicate.
• The Aftermath of World War I for Germany In spite of the fact that Germany was one of the most powerful European states before the war’s start in 1914, World War I led to the political, economic, and social decline in the country […]
• The Progressive Era and World War I To achieve the intended goals, many progressives began by exposing the major evils and challenges that were affecting the United States towards the end of the 19th century.
• The Progressive Movement and the American Entry Into World War I The motivations of the progressive movement were complex and varied, but they all sought to improve the lives of the people of the United States.
• World War I as the Catastrophe of the 20th Century There were increased cataclysms in Europe over time; for instance, the war laid a foundation for the rise of Hitler and increased the influence of the Nazism ideology.
• World War I: American Policy of Neutrality Even though the people of America were shocked and firmly against involvement in the war, the US president thought of the crisis as a turning point that could significantly change America’s place in the world.
• Economic Causes of World War I As of 1860, the American South was generating 75% of the world’s cotton due to the institution of slavery on the part of its wealthy farmers.
• The Role of Canada in World War I The beginning of the war was marked by great losses in the field and in the economy of the state. By the war’s end, Canada had shown itself as a great power, which allowed the […]
• America’s Progressive Era and World War I This paper will outline the events leading to America’s entrance into the war, the obstacles faced by the U.S.military, and the role of American women and minorities.
• Aboriginal Soldiers in the World War I and II Additionally, the paper will argue that the role and experiences of Aboriginal soldiers and the manner in which they have been overshadowed by other significant events in Australian history.
• The Entry of the United States Into World War I The United States is believed to have entered the war after sinking the American liner Lusitania by a German submarine in 1915. Due to the competent actions of President W.
• Role the United States of America in the World War I The main result of the battle was the victory of the Entente and the collapse of the four largest empires: the Russian, Austro-Hungarian, Ottoman, and German.
• Impact of World War I on the American Army Some of the major strategies include the use of airplanes in the field of battle, employing armored vehicles, and electronic communication.
• America’s Involvement in World War I The issues that led to America’s involvement in this were the German’s resumption of unexpected submarine attacks and the Zimmerman telegram.
• The United States Priorities Following World War I Gentile, Linick, and Shurkin single out four important periods in the evolution of the US army: Constitutional moorings and the 19th century, the Spanish-American War to Total War, and the Korean War to Total Force […]
• Biggest Influence on the US Involvement in World War I Although a combination of factors including trade alliances and the interception of the Zimmerman note encouraged the decision to join the fray, Germany’s unrestricted submarine warfare was the biggest reason for the US involvement.
• Nationalism in Europe Before WWI This movement was the result of effective propaganda and an aggressive policy aimed at the redistribution of territories and the seizure of power.
• Factors Leading to the Termination of World War I However, the deliberate humiliation of the German leadership at the hand of the Allied forces perpetrated through the signing of the “war guilt clause” indicates that the reason for the Allied forces was not solely […]
• World War I Causes by Ethnic Problems in Austro-Hungary The presence of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne in the said maneuvers was the perfect opportunity. After the capture of Gavrilo Princip it was time for the Austro-Hungarian Empire to react and teach the […]
• World War I: Medias of Propaganda in the U.S. Posters of World War 1 presented a different style of propaganda because of the war time effort of U S government.
• America Changes After World War I Among the various changes underwent by America during their recovery period in the 1920s were changes in culture, economy as well as in the workforce.
• America in World War I One of the events that led America into the First World War was when a liner belonging to the British was sunk by the U-boat belonging to Germans.
• The Nature of the Fighting in World War I and World War II So, the results of this war were awful, but still, speaking about the losses of the World War II, it can be said, that it was the bloodiest conflict in human history. The most obvious […]
• Treaty of Versailles History: The Pact of Peace After WWI The differences among the winners of the war, later on, led to the emergence of more conflicts simply because Germany was not fully weakened; it is believed that the conflicts between these nations were the […]
• The Wars Between 1815 and WWI in Europe Tsar Nicholas moved into Moldavia and Wallachia and secret accords with the Austrian and British governments for the disposition of the Ottoman empire were formulated in 1844 in London.
• World War I Within the Context of Military Revolution The main peculiarity of the World War I is the advent of the so-called “three-dimensional conflict”, which means that the combat is held also in the air.
• Life Before World War I and Life of Soldiers in Trenches The future of these Habsburg domains, assembled over the centuries by marriage, purchase and conquest, was the subject of endless coffee-table speculation, but the subsequent demise of the monarchy should not necessarily encourage the notion […]
• Great Depression of Canada and Conscription During World War I in Canada Due to the depression in the United States, the people across the border were not able to buy the wheat produced and cultivated in Canada and as a result, the exports declined.
• Leadership in the World War I Environment Military leadership is the process of influencing others to accomplish the mission by providing purpose, direction, and motivation and the basic responsibilities of a leader are the accomplishments of the mission and the welfare of […]
• World War 1 and Technological Improvement The was sparked by the assassination of the Heir to the Austrian throne, Franz Ferdinand by a Serbian nationalist, Gavrilo Princip on June 28th, 1914.
• The Battle of Verdun: World War One The choice of Verdun as the center of interest by the Germans was not very effective because the French men lost faith in the fortresses and the need to defend them.
• Imperialist Global Order After World War I Thus, the general trend of the after-war years was the dismantling of multiethnic empires and the establishment of new nation-states. However, World War I also created new challenges to the existing hierarchies of wealth and […]
• Soccer Influence on Sociopolitical Aspects of WWI During this period, many footballers and athletes were tempted or encouraged to join the militaries of their respective countries and become part of the ongoing war.
• Idealist Philosophy After World War I Although I disagree with the philosophy of idealism, it is a fact that it managed to create a better world following the events of World War I.
• World War I and Its Outbreak Causes Some of the events that influenced the eruption of World War I include the Franco-Prussian war, the Moroccan crisis, the Balkan wars, and the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand from Austria.
• World War I and Battle of Vimy Ridge for Canadians If the authors of the required readings gathered for a discussion of the First World War and Vimy Ridge, they would be likely to agree and disagree with one another on some points.
• Aftermath of the WWI The source concludes that the provisions of the treaty were unfavorable to the government and the people of Germany, something that forced the country’s leaders to respond with militarization of the state.
• Trucial States’ History From World War I to the 1960s During the decline of the pearling industry, the British were highly vigilant to sustain the existing regional trend of alienation amongst leaders and the people.
• World War I and Its Aftermath In 1930, Hitler’s ambitions and the rise of Nazism was boosted by president’s declaration that the state was to be ruled autocratically.
• American Experiences in World War I: Radio Broadcast There was a heated debate in the American society concerning the county’s involvement in the Great War, and President Wilson was heavily criticized not only for the fact of entering the war but also for […]
• World War I and the 1920s In this case, American citizens went from industry workers and soldiers during the World War I to the explorers, who discover different forms of entertainment in the 1920s because of stabilization of the politics in […]
• World War I, Its Origin and Allies Many researchers consider the assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, in June 1914 in Sarajevo to be the reason for the start of World War I.
• World War I for Americans: Before and After It is important to say that lower classes had to deal with the biggest number of issues, and they have suffered the most.

🔎 Interesting Topics to Write about World War 1

• France Before World War I and After World War II To overcome the negative consequences of the Franco-Prussian War, France needed to focus on new perspectives for the state’s economic and political development, and such an approach could provide the state with the necessary resources […]
• Pozieres Battle in World War I on Western Front The battle for the village of Pozieres was one of the deadliest and most remarkable for the Australian troops which took part in the First World War.
• Native Americans Role in World War I Most of the students who went to schools away from the reserves came to the realization that they were, ‘first Americans and then indians second.’3 The schools also taught patriotic songs as well as observation […]
• American History From Reconstruction to World War I However, despite the popular opinion of the individual initiative of the first settlers, the federal government played a great role in facilitating the settlement of the West.
• America & World War I The three years have been used to argue that the US was unwilling to enter the war; that the US was neutral as Woodrow Wilson had declared.
• From World War One to Globalization Even though the First World War shook Europe to the core, the combination of the first and the Second World War created a three world order, modeled along three rival political affiliations.
• How the Federal Bureaucracy Expanded During WWI? The role of the bureaucracy was expansive during the war since the state was expected to provide many services to the citizens, something that led to the formulation of stronger rules and regulations to guide […]
• The Expansion of Federal Bureaucracy During WWI With these, a number of government agencies were created during the WWI particularly when it emerged that there was a need to regulate or control industrial sector as well as the call for the US […]
• Role of Civilian Population in World War I Not only did the war encouraged people to join their forces in order to fight the enemy, but also affected their perception of the state’s key political processes raising political engagement rates among population, WWI […]
• WWI: Germany’s Secret Gambles The “interception of the German arms shipment by the Royal Navy” led to the quick suppression of the Eastern uprising and execution of key leaders of the Irish Republicans.
• The Second Battlefield: Women, Modernism, and the First World War The first theme is the connection of writings of women on the subject of the First World War and the modernism theoretical constructs.
• The Book “The First World War” by John Keegan However, the emergence of the bill of the right to people’s life across the globe is owed to the occurrence of the First and the Second World War.
• Watching the World Fall Apart: A Post-WWI Vision of the World in the Works of Otto Dix, Max Beckmann and George Grosz While it is quite understandable that at the current stage of the development of humankind, some conflicts still have to be resolved with the use of coercive methods, war as a massive homicide still remains […]
• First World War and Germany In particular, the author is more concerned with giving the effects of the war on the German people, unlike other authors who generalize the effects of the war.
• Ernist Junger’s World War I Experiences When the Storm of Steel was published, it became a favorite in Germany since it adored the greatness of war and the huge sacrifices made by the Germany warriors to end the war victoriously.
• World War I Technological Advancements World War I saw the application of several new technologies to the battlefield, the most important being that of the internal combustion engine, which permitted the development of the first successful mechanized armored fighting vehicles1.
• The First World War and the Russian Revolution Scholars argue that Russia’s involvement in the First World War and the economic consequences are the primary causes of the revolution.
• Effects of World War I on the Development of Modern Art For the artists and most of the people in Europe, the time that preceded the World War I, the actual war period and the aftermath of the was presented a period of profound disillusionment 13.
• United States and World War I The paper further gives an in-depth analysis of how the Germans waged war against the European countries and the circumstances that forced the United States to abandon its neutrality to take part in the Great […]
• WWI-War: Revolution, and Reconstruction In as much as soldiers and civilians garnered experience during WWI, it is imperative to acknowledge that the unsuitable environment at the forefront led to deterioration of health standards; furthermore, civilians were forced to live […]
• The Causes of the First World War In his description of the war, it is clear that Europe played a key role towards the formation of the war alliances.
• The Role of Airplanes During World War I (1914-1918) The government further formed a consultative ‘Aircraft Production Board’ that was made up of members of the Army, Navy, as well as the sector to assess the Europeans’ fortunes in aircraft sector in a bid […]
• The World War I The war brought to the fore various issues which had been in the air in the end of the nineteenth century and in the beginning of the twentieth century.
• Importance of Accountability: World War I It is clear from the beginning of this article, that the statistics on the World War I causalities indicates that the Germans suffered fewer casualties compared to their western counterparts, who are the French and […]
• Events Leading Up to WWI This move also contributed to the start of the conflict and eventually to the war. This decision was vehemently opposed by the Slavs, which saw Russia come to the aid of Serbia while on the […]
• America and Democracy, at Home and Abroad, During and Just After the First World War Democracy is a kind of regime in which all eligible citizens are allowed to contribute to the decisions of the state.
• Causes and Consequences of World War 1 In social and economic cycles, the interaction of the whites and Blacks was controlled by the laws that neither of the groups was allowed to cross the other party’s path.
• Changes in the Middle East After the World War I The involvement in the war by the countries from the Middle East not only led to loss of power but also spurred the economic decline and created social problems.

⭐ World War 1 Research Topics

• Industrialization and Competition for Resources Which Led to the First World War
• Factors That Made the First World War Unique
• Identify and Evaluate Two Main Themes That Have Defined Management Thought Since the End of the First World War.
• The Events and Results of the First World War I
• Terrible Beauty: Music and Writing of the First World War
• Liberal Democracy and Capitalism After World War 1
• European Politics and the Impact of French Foreign Policy Before the First World War
• Chemical Warfare During the First World War
• The First World War and Russian Revolution
• European Diplomacy and the First World War
• With What Justification Can World War 1 Be Called a Total War
• The Catalyst for the First World War
• The Reasons for the Economic Prosperity in America After the First World War
• Events Leading for the First World War
• Imperialistic Rivalries and the Road to the First World War
• Shaping the American Dream, Defining Success From the First World War to Present
• Austro-Serbian Relations Provoked the First World War
• America and the First World War
• The Purpose and Intent of the League of Nations After the First World War
• The First World War Impact on Australian Economy
• The Long Term and Short Term Causes of World War 1

📃 Simple & Easy World War 1 Essay Titles

• European Goods Market Integration in the Very Long Run: From the Black Death to the First World War
• The Reasons for the American Support for the Involvement in the First World War
• Military Technology During the First World War
• German Foreign Policy and the Impact of Nationalism on It Before the First World War
• The American Foreign Policy After the First World War
• The Economic, Social, and Political Impact of the First World War on Eur
• Technological Advancements During the First World War
• The World Before the First World War According to Barbara Tuchman
• The Effects That the First World War Had on Many People
• The Effective Weapons Used in the First World War
• Women’s Work During the First World War
• Diplomatic Crises: The First World War and the Cuban Missile Crisis
• The First World War Changed the Way People Thought About War and Patriotism
• Gender Roles During the First World War
• The Reasons for the Outbreak of the First World War
• Australia’s Economic and Military Contribution in the First World War
• The First World War: A New Era of Military Conflict
• German Propaganda During the First World War
• Analyzing Propaganda During World War 1
• Britain During the First World War and the Social and Welfare Reforms

❓ World War 1 Essay Questions

• How Important Was the Entry of the U.S. Into the First World War?
• Was the First World War a Total War?
• What Effect Did the First World War Have on Germany?
• How Significant Was the First World War?
• In What Ways Were People’s Lives at Home Affected by the First World War?
• The Russian Revolution Us a Direct Result of the First World War
• How Did Medical Care Change During the First World War?
• How the First World War Created Modern America?
• Was the First World War the Cause of the February Revolution in Russia?
• Was the First World War Inevitable?
• How Did the First World War Change the Role of Women?
• How Industrialization Powered the First World War?
• Why Did the First World War Last So Long?
• How Far Was the First World War Responsible for the Growth of the Labour Party and the Decline of the Liberal Party?
• Why Did the United States Entry Into World War 1?
• How Did the United States Prepare to Fight for the First World War?
• How Did the First World War Set the Global Stage for the Second World War?
• Why Did World War 1 End So Quickly After the Years of Stalemate?
• Why Did the First World War End When It Did?
• How Did the First World War Affect Britain Society?
• How Did Women Affected World War 1?
• How Did Imperialism Cause World War 1?
• How the First World War Impacted the Homefronts of Participating Nations?
• Was the Alliance System the Main Cause of the First World War?
• How Did the Middle East Change as a Result of World War 1?
• Why Did the Ottomans Enter the First World War?
• Why Did Germany Lose the First World War?
• What Was the Most Important Cause of the First World War?
• How Did the Allies Win World War 1?
• Why Did Some Men Oppose Women’s Employment in the Industry During the First World War?
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2024, March 2). 165 World War 1 Topics for Essays with Examples. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/world-war-1-essay-examples/

"165 World War 1 Topics for Essays with Examples." IvyPanda , 2 Mar. 2024, ivypanda.com/essays/topic/world-war-1-essay-examples/.

IvyPanda . (2024) '165 World War 1 Topics for Essays with Examples'. 2 March.

IvyPanda . 2024. "165 World War 1 Topics for Essays with Examples." March 2, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/world-war-1-essay-examples/.

1. IvyPanda . "165 World War 1 Topics for Essays with Examples." March 2, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/world-war-1-essay-examples/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "165 World War 1 Topics for Essays with Examples." March 2, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/world-war-1-essay-examples/.

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World War I - The Great War

• Periodicals
• Internet Resources
• Primary Sources
• Archives & Special Collections
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Database Instructions

You can find the Databases' sub-tab on the Library's Home Page. All of these databases are available for on and off-campus users at http://www.library.ncat.edu .

To find databases from the Library Home Page:

• Choose the Databases tab from the Library home page
• Click View Databases by Title
• Look in alphabetical order for the name of the database

Please note : For off-campus access use your username and password that you use for wifi and Blackboard.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

• First World War
• The Great War
• World War 1
• World War I
• World War One

Other Possible Keywords/Subject Headings

The War to End All Wars

The War of the Nations

African Americans and World War I

Women and World War I

Casualties and World War I

Enlisted Personnel and World War I

Regiments, Units, Formations, and Battalions in World War I

Europe and World War I

Medicine and World War I

The Homefront during World War I 

Battles and World War I

Airpower and World War I

Seapower and World War I

Weaponry and World War I

External Databases

• International Encyclopedia of the First World War
• Online World War I Indexes and Records - USA
• World War I Biographical Dictionary
• Europeana WWI Collections 1914-1918
• Military Resources World War I - National Archives
• World War I Document Archive
• Newspaper Pictorials: World War I Rotogravures, 1914 to 1919
• World War History: Newspaper Clippings, 1914 to 1926
• HathiTrust Digital Library
• Digital Public Library of America
• Academic Search Ultimate This link opens in a new window Academic Search Ultimate provides access to full-text articles from a wide variety of disciplines.
• Military and Government Collection This link opens in a new window Military & Government Collection offers current news pertaining to all branches of the military and government, including full text for nearly 300 journals and periodicals. The database also offers indexing and abstracts for more than 400 journals.
• ProQuest Military This link opens in a new window The Military Database covers topics across all government and military branches, including international relations, political science, criminology, defense, aeronautics and space flight, communications, civil engineering, and more. An important benefit of the Military Database is its content diversity. Included are scholarly journals, trade and industry journals, magazines, technical reports, conference proceedings, government publications, and more.
• Project Muse This link opens in a new window Currently, Project MUSE Premium Collection offers 300 humanities, arts, and social sciences journals from 60 scholarly publishers. Project MUSE covers the fields of literature and criticism, history, the visual and performing arts, cultural studies, education, political science, gender studies, economics, and many others.
• African American Biographical Database This link opens in a new window African American Biographical Database is the largest electronic collection of biographical information on African Americans from 1790-1950. Biographies of thousands of African Americans, many not found in other reference sources, are assembled from biographical dictionaries and other sources. Includes extended narratives of African American activists, former slaves, performing artists, educators, writers, and more.
• JSTOR This link opens in a new window The JSTOR project seeks to develop online access to the full back files of selected journals. The database contains a digitized image of every page and is searchable by every word.
• PubMed This link opens in a new window PubMed is a database with access to articles in biomedical and life science journals, many of which are full-text.
• ProQuest East Europe, Central Europe Database This link opens in a new window This database provides ongoing full-text academic journals that are locally published by scholarly publishing organizations and educational institutions in East European and Central European countries. Major subject areas of study are represented, including business, science, technology, engineering, social sciences, education, and humanities.
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• Last Updated: Oct 2, 2023 1:12 PM
• URL: https://libguides.library.ncat.edu/wwi

Resources for Genealogists

Researching Individuals in WW1 Records  

Start your research.

You may first want to search the WW1 Draft registration cards for basic information on individuals (see Draft cards section below).  Nearly all men between the ages of 18-45 registered during the years the draft was implemented, about 23% of the U.S. population.  

If you are interested in researching military service records, this article will provide you with a good overview of military records at the National Archives .    

What do I need to know before I start?

What records can I see online?

Where at the National Archives can I find the records?

What records can I find in other archives and organizations?

What other resources will help me find information?

African Americans - WW1

Records of Military Agencies Relating to African Americans from the Post-World War I Period to the Korean War  , Reference Information Paper

Blacks in the Military , resources compiled by NARA's Archives Library Information Center (ALIC)

Deaths - WW1

World War I Dead Buried in American Battle Monument Commission Cemeteries, Missing in Action, or Buried or Lost at Sea

World War I Gold Star Mothers Pilgrimages , an article in Prologue magazine

Draft Registration Cards - WWI

The WWI draft registration cards consist of approximately 24,000,000 cards of men who registered for the draft, about 23% of the population in 1918.  The cards are arranged by state.  Not all of the men who registered for the draft actually served in the military, and not all who served in the military registered for the draft.

The WWI Selective Service System was in place from May, 1917 to May, 1919.  There were 3 registrations:

• June 5, 1917 -- all men ages 21-31
• June 5, 1918 -- those who attained age 21 after June 5, 1917
• Sept. 12, 1918 -- all men ages 18-45

What Can You Find in the Cards?

While the 10-12 questions varied slightly between the 3 registrations, information one can find there generally includes:

• date and place of birth
• citizenship status
• occupation and place of employment
• personal description
• nearest relative (last two versions)

The draft cards contain no information about an individual's military service.  They are not service cards.   Learn more about the draft registration cards

View Registration Cards Online

World War I Draft Registration Cards , digitized on the FamilySearch website (free)

World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 , digitized on the Ancestry.com website (free on NARA computers, otherwise by subscription)

Additional Resources

International Researchers "Jazzed" about Southeast Region's WWI Draft Registration Cards , NARA news item

Selected World War I Draft Registration Cards of the Famous, Infamous, and Interesting , from the National Archives at Atlanta

Military Service Records - WW1

•   Records Relating to the Meuse-Argonne Offensive
•  List of Series Relating to World War I at the National Archives at St. Louis
• They Answered the Call, Military Service in the United States Army During World War I, 1917-1919  , an article in  Prologue  magazine, Fall 1998
• An Overview of Records at the National Archives Relating to Military Service
• Where to Find Military Service and Pension Records at NARA
• Military Reference Reports
• General Index to Pension Files, 1861-1934   (See also descriptive pamphlet for Microfilm T-288 )
• 20th-Century Veterans' Service Records Safe, Secure-and Available , an article in  Prologue Magazine about the National Personnel Records Center  

How to Order Records

Ordering information for military service records

Veterans' Homes

• Leavenworth Soldiers Home, Leavenworth, Kansas, ca. 1885 - ca. 1933 ,  Sample Case Files of Veterans Temporarily at the Branch
• Leavenworth Soldiers Home, Leavenworth, Kansas,  ca. 1885 - ca. 1933 , Sample Case Files of Veterans
• Sawtelle Disabled Veterans Home Case Files, Los Angeles, 1888-1933

See also our main  WW1 topics page 

What are people asking on History Hub about Genealogy Records?

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What are people asking on History Hub about World War I records?

• RE: I am looking for information on the 668th Motor Transport Company during the "war to end all wars", WW1. Also, any information on Cpl. William E. Streeter, discharged 15 May 1919.
• RE: 82 airborne paratrooper in WWII
• Looking for info on my grandfathers WWI service-Cpl William Zevas. (41293) He volunteered june 7th, 1917 and went to france with first division. later when 2nd Div was formed he was transferred there to HQ Co 9th Infantry. he was also breifly transfered
• Naval Sea Plan Hangar University of Washington
• Trying to find any information on a company L, 26th infrantry during WWI.

World War One (WWI) Battles - Research Project with Rubric

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World War 1 Research Project

Why was the war on the Western Front so dreadful for British Soldiers? Introduction: In this project, my primary focus is on answering the question ‘Why was the war on the Western Front so dreadful for British Soldiers? In my project I will discuss the New Technologies, How awful daily life was for a soldiers in the trenches, Why defending the Ypres salient was difficult, Why the battle of Somme was such a disaster and finally some research on graves I visited on the battlefields. I will analyse sources and hopefully come to a conclusion. In addition to this, I will be making inferences and explaining how the different parts of the war were significant.

World War 1, sometimes called the Great War was centred in Europe; it began on the 28th July 1914 and lasted until November 1918. The war started because a group of young men called the Black Hand were asked to assassinate Franz Ferdinand, when they heard the archduke, the future Austria-Hungary King was coming to Sarajevo on the 28th June 1914. From the assassination, this then made one thing lead to the other. Essentially, war broke out like this: -Serbian nationalist killed Franz Ferdinand on the 28th June 1914.

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This then caused Austria-Hungary to declare war on Serbia to eliminate the nationalists. The following day 29th June 1914 Russia prepares for war on Austria-Hungary to protect its ally Serbia. On the 1st August 1914 Germany declared war on Russia to help her ally Austria-Hungary. On following day 2nd August 1914 France declares war on Germany to protect their ally Russia. Then on the 3rd August Germany declares war on France and wrongly decides to invade through Belgium.

Then on the 4th August 1914 Britain declares war on Germany to support its ally Belgium and France. It involved all the world’s greatest countries which were assembled in two opposing alliances, the allies based on the Triple Entente of the UK, France and Russia, against the central European alliance or Triple Alliance consisting of Germany, Austria Hungary and Italy. However during the war Italy changed sides to join the allies.

Originally Germany never would have thought the UK would enter the war because it was over a scrap of paper and not many countries would keep a promise over a scrap of paper and risk a lot of soldiers getting killed, however the UK kept their word and stuck to their promise of agreeing to help France and Russia in the war. How had science and technology changed the nature of warfare? In the First World War a variety of new inventions were being introduced due to the development of science and technology, therefore it had changed the nature of warfare and near enough everything about World War I.

Machine Guns The machine gun was a unique and devastatingly effective form of technology which could be fired automatically without stop until it would overheat or until it lacked ammunition. The benefits of a machine gun is that you did not need to directly and precisely aim at just one soldier, you could simply spray the weapon at vast numbers of soldiers; this was the case with advancing troops as they were just shred to bits by bullets causing mass murder. Another advantage is that it can be used at long range on scales never before seen. 0,000 men killed on one day alone at the Battle of the Somme. It stopped infantry troops to have to duck for cover where they used to line up in rows to fire, that would no longer work in the world of machine guns hence trenches were made to protect the soldiers and hold the lines. The disadvantages are that they often overheated and were heavy and hard to move. You could not pick one up alone and move it from position to position, then fire it. It took a team to do. The machine guns, used in 1914, required a crew of three to six men and were positioned on a flat trajectory tripod.

The machine gun would be well protected by sandbags all around which would provide cover for the men firing it. Early machine guns were prone to overheating which caused them to jam this was a major problem and many attempts were made to cool the gun with water jackets and other devices. This was not just a killing machine it also helped defend your area. Germany introduced the machine gun, which dealt a brutal blow on the British forces claiming over half of the causalities. When established in fixed strong points sited specifically to cover potential enemy attack routes, the machine gun proved a fearsome defensive weapon.

On the opening day of the offensive, the British suffered a record number of single day casualties, 60,000, the great majority lost under withering machine gun fire. In essence, defence was the best means of attack. The Maxim gun could fire 400-600 rounds of small-calibre ammunition per minute. Each gun had the firepower of about 100 rifles. The German Army’s Maschinengewehr and the Russian Pulemyot Maxima were both based on the same design. The American Army tended to use the Browning Machine-Gun whereas the French Army preferred the Hotchkiss. Machine-guns were positioned all along the Western Front.

For added protection, German machine-guns were often housed inside concrete blockhouses. Unfortunately for British soldiers, the Generals at the time were still convinced that charging the enemy from the front was still the best plan. This was one of the main reasons that so many soldiers died in battle – outdated tactics. This was achieved by abandoning the idea of reloading each bullet manually or of loading a short magazine that required bolt action. A British inventor, Sir Hiram Stevens Maxim, realised that by taking advantage of some of the bullets’ energy he could let the recoil force back the bolt and load the next round automatically.

In other words, what we call a machine gun. Using a long chain of bullets, and this mechanism, suddenly one soldier could fire up to 600 Rounds per Minute. This new gun meant that now a line of soldiers walking across a field could be mown down, row by row with just one gun. I have included the picture above, on the right side, because it provides us evidence of the amount of ammunition used in war, and because this was only found in one section we realise that a significant amount of ammo was used in the war while this is only evident of the small amount of ammo found.

Additionally, I have included the pictures of machine gun post and bunkers below to show how the machine guns were protected by and where they were used. These pictures are extremely reliable because of the fact that I had visited the area as well as taking the actually photograph. Machine guns made life dreadful for soldiers because they left soldiers simply sitting ducks. This is because they were incredibly at risk at being killed.

Also it was most likely and almost certain that they would get hit by machine gun fire – consequently lowering military moral as there were very few ways of getting past the machine gun posts and even if you were able to get past, it would only be by a few metres before you would be sighted and killed. Heavy Artillery Artillery was sometimes effective in WW1 but not all the time. Artillery was basically, large cannons with the capability of firing single large weight bombs into the enemy frontline from a huge distance away. All these cannons varied in shape and sizes and each used for different effects.

There were also major changes in the way normal artillery was used. Cannons used a rifled barrel to give range and accuracy, changing the glass gas bottle for little lead balls created horrific shrapnel wounds and high explosive rounds would kill anyone within 10 metres. These pictures below of shrapnel balls and unexploded artillery missiles, show the amount of artillery used but also how dangerous they are being that they haven’t exploded ever since. Personally, I was taken aback when I witnessed the pure ruthlessness of the war; the sheer number of shell holes was unbelievable.

At the time, the churned and largely disfigured battlefield would be something reminiscent of a swamp. Regrettably, this acted as yet another barrier, which played itself in a brutal way killing many more, as it would have shaped hostile conditions. The soldiers would have drowned in the mud due to the huge weight of their equipment. Staggeringly, you could still see how harshly the terrain had been penetrated. This sustained authenticity enhances your imagination of how dreadful it must have been for the soldiers on the western front.

Solely, this piece of evidence could supply historians with knowledge of how significant this aspect of the war must have been. Initially this piece of terrain may have been 3 or 4 times worse, and to think some parts can still not be passed puts the inconvenient truth into perspective. Almost a quarter of the causalities came as a result of bad terrain. Even though the terrain took a small proportion of causality’s, I still believe it is a significant factor which contributed largely to the dreadful war on the western front as it was not at all planned or anticipated.

The landscape was littered with shell craters, but the largest crater of them all that we saw on the trip was Lochnagar Crater, which was created by a 60,000lbs mine. The Lochnagar mine crater on the 1916 Somme battlefields in France is the largest man made crater created in the First World war on the Western Front. It was laid by the British Army’s 179th tunnelling company Royal engineers underneath a German strong point called “Schwaben Hohe”. The mine was exploded two minutes before 7:30 am and quite evidently had a truly catastrophic effect.

The shear depth of this crater is made evident by the warning signs which surround the crater. From the experience of being there I understood the historical significance this crater held. The fact was, this piece of territory still contained the undiscovered remains of German, French and British soldiers from the first world. They were maintaining and preserving the site by removing the rubbish and holding the structure which had been under danger before July 1978, when Richard Dunning purchased the land.

Additionally, whilst I was there I noticed a memorial which commemorates the men and women of all nations whose lives were affected by the great war of 1914 – 1918. I also understood that they were constructing a sustainable path which circled the crater. It is not only necessary to protect and preserve the crater from natural erosion from the weather but the large number of visitors, increasing year by year, also adds to the requirement for the continued provision of safe and sensitively constructed visitor access to this memorial site. 2nd Lieutenant C. A Lewis of the royal lying corps saw the explosion from the sky “the whole earth heaved and flared, a tremendous and magnificent column rose up into the sky. There was an ear splitting roar, drowning all the guns, flinging the machine sideways in repercussing air. The Earth column rose higher and higher to almost 4000 feet! ” – This is reliable evidence because he actually so the explosion occur and so we can get his point of view on how devastating the explosion was. Chemicals/Gas Poison Gas Causalities| 1914- 1918| | | Country| Non- Fatal| Deaths| Total| British Empire| 180,597| 8,109| 188,706| France| 182,000| 8,000| 190,000|

United States| 71,345| 1,462| 72,807| Italy| 55,373| 4,627| 60,000| Russia| 419,340| 56,000| 475,340| Germany| 191,000| 9,000| 200,000| Austria-Hungary| 97,000| 3,000| 100,000| Others| 9,000| 1,000| 10,000| Total| 1,205,655| 91,198| 1,296,853| The first use of gas was in august 1914, by the French who used tear gas in the form of 26mm grenades which would irritate the Germans’ eyes, though not affective. The main three Gases used in World War I were Mustard, Chlorine and Phosgene gas. As you can see from the table above, the use of gas claimed a total of 91,198 people’s life’s during the war.

Mustard Gas was the most deadly of the gases used as no gas mask could stop the gas getting inside you, although the commanders never told the troops on the frontline this. Gas was used in shells so that when the shell detonated the gas was dispersed into the air near the enemy frontline. Most victims of gas did not die in fact 1,205,655 people affected by gas did not die in the war. Originally the gas would only be used when the wind was blowing in the right direction; it would be pumped down a long tube into no-man’s land where the wind would carry it to the Allied troops.

This technique was perfected by the Germans who would use it at every opportunity. The British on the other hand, would use it when they felt like it and would therefore poison their own troops. One of the worst examples of this was in the first battle of the Somme where Phosgene gas, which is heavier than air, was pumped into the wind up a hill at the Germans; needless to say the gas came back at the British and killed almost the whole front line. The next advance in gas technology and one the British fared better at, was putting a glass bottle with the liquid gas inside an artillery shell and firing it.

Both the introduction of gas and the sudden ability to fire it from miles away meant that soldiers on both sides of the war were in trouble. These pictures of bottles show us how the gas was transported and placed in to be fired at the enemy. These pictures are very reliable as I took them myself, but also because they were found at a farm which used to be a battle ground. Gases changed the nature of war as it could be fired miles behind the frontline trenches and still have devastating effects on the enemy, without the chance of your own side being killed by it too.

Gas was never an instant killing machine, as it normally took a matter of time for it to take affect and start doing damage. Science and technology have changed the nature of warfare over the centuries, for example new weapons were created which were vital in battle, as they allowed the opposing sides to fight over greater distances, moving away from small scale hand to hand skirmishes. With the development of technology, weapons became a dominant aspect, which ultimately drove the direction of the war. Weapons were the key to victory and if you had a lot of powerful weapons you would stand a far higher possibility of winning the war.

If there were no weapons capable of firing over distances it would be almost impossible to have a world war, as you would have no machinery you would have had to fight hand to hand which would limit the size of a war. How awful was daily life for soldiers in the trenches? Life in the trenches during the First World War took many forms, and varied widely from sector to sector and from front to front. Undoubtedly, it was entirely unexpected for those eager thousands who signed up for war in August 1914. A trench is a hole in the ground designed to give its occupant protection from enemy fire.

It was meant as a defensive position but the British and Allied forces were forced to dig in themselves when they realized they could not get past the Germans quickly. Unfortunately the Germans had started their trenches first and so had the higher ground, the nicer soil and other major advantages in defending. The British were left with the sea level ground to dig their trenches in; this meant that a few feet under the surface was pure mud and water. Allied troops had to live in these conditions for years at a time; this gave rise to not only the water-Bourne diseases but also to trench foot.

This was a condition where, after a soldier had had wet feet for a couple of weeks his feet would start to rot while still attached to his body. This was a bit like gangrene and frostbite except a lot more painful because the blood had not frozen or cut off supply. Many thousands of soldiers were removed from the front line because they could no longer walk. So, although the trench was a great thing if you were the only side using it, when stuck in a stalemate with the opposition in wet, muddy conditions it could be a horrific thing for soldiers on both sides of the war.

A minor idea that made life more bearable for soldiers was duck boards. These were horizontal planks that were either on or up to one foot above the bottom of the trench (shown below). They were designed to try and keep soldiers above the level of the water and eliminate trench foot. Although a great idea the water level would consistently rise above this level, forcing soldiers into the abject misery of a flooded trench. Daily Death in the Trenches Death was a constant companion to those serving in the line, even when no raid or attack was launched or defended against.

In busy sectors the constant shellfire directed by the enemy brought random death, whether their victims were lounging in a trench or lying in a dugout. Similarly, novices were cautioned against their natural inclination to peer over the parapet of the trench into No Man’s Land. Many men died on their first day in the trenches as a consequence of a precisely aimed sniper’s bullet. It has been estimated that up to one third of Allied casualties on the Western Front were actually sustained in the trenches. Aside from enemy injuries, disease wrought a heavy toll.

There are many pictures to prove that there was death daily in the trenches, this evidence is reliable because it was taken by a real soldier and it maybe was sent in a letter, found in a dugout etc. Rat Infestation Rats in their millions infested trenches. There were two main types, the brown and the black rat. Both were despised but the brown rat was especially feared. Gorging themselves on human remains (grotesquely disfiguring them by eating their eyes and liver) they could grow to the size of a cat.

Men, exasperated and afraid of these rats (which would even scamper across their faces in the dark), would attempt to rid the trenches of them by various methods: gunfire, with the bayonet, and even by clubbing them to death. It was futile however: a single rat couple could produce up to 900 offspring in a year, spreading infection and contaminating food. The rat problem remained for the duration of the war. Rats were massive pests in World War I and were dreadful for soldiers in the trenches because they kept waking them up during the night, spreading diseases etc.

Rats were in the trenches and you can see this in the letter below written by a soldier. This evidence is very reliable because it is a real letter written by a soldier in the western front who explains his experiences of the trenches. “The rats were huge. They were so big they would eat a wounded man if he couldn’t defend himself. ” These rats became very bold and would attempt to take food from the pockets of sleeping men. Two or three rats would always be found on a dead body. They usually went for the eyes first and then they burrowed their way right into the corpse.

One soldier described finding a group of dead bodies while on patrol: “I saw some rats running from under the dead men’s greatcoats, enormous rats, fat with human flesh. My heart pounded as we edged towards one of the bodies. His helmet had rolled off. The man displayed a grimacing face, stripped of flesh; the skull bare, the eyes devoured and from the yawning mouth leapt a rat. ”  The trenches were a great thing to have to cover from enemy fire but presented the soldiers living in it with hours of upkeep work every day. Allied trenches were mainly built downhill so they were in soft, wet mud.

This meant that the trench walls routinely collapsed, forcing soldiers to dig them back up, and one artillery shell could destroy five metres of trench at a time – once again forcing soldiers to spend hours of their time re-digging trenches. As well as that, the sand bags needed replacing, supplies brought from the reserve trenches through narrow, muddy communication trenches, new trenches needed digging, saps and listening posts, barbed wire replacements, digging mines under enemy positions… the list goes on of hard, repetitive tasks that were carried out on a daily basis.

Although there were many downsides to trench life there were also some benefits. For example, there was lots of time to bond with friends… fight with comrades… die with comrades… This particular positive was exploited by the British army who set up pals regiments. These were regiments from one small area in England; therefore people were more willing to sign up knowing they would be with their mates. Daily Boredom Given that each side’s front line was constantly under watch by snipers and look-outs during daylight, movement was logically restricted until night fell.

Thus, once men had concluded their assigned tasks they were free to attend to more personal matters, such as the reading and writing of letters home. Meals were also prepared. Sleep was snatched wherever possible – although it was seldom that men were allowed sufficient time to grab more than a few minutes rest before they were detailed to another task. Mud The mud didn’t help the trenches as when it rained heavily the surface was very wet so people could trip over and hurt themselves.

In the war the injuries were horrific and the treatment was limited, often the best you could do was suppressing pain and let them rest and see if they recover. There were so many deaths in the war it was unbelievable also there were so many wounded with people with their arm cut off or people with their leg cut off because they had trench foot. The picture on the right shows that even in the present day the trenches are still full of mud. Food The other complaint men had been of their rations. Basic as they were, along the route from England to Belgium people would beg, borrow or steal most of the supplies.

This meant that by the time the food got to where it was needed most – it was almost all gone. Equipment Soldiers in World War one would have a lot of valuable equipment; however it weighed quite a bit so was very heavy to carry around. Here are the equipment the soldiers used gas masks, mess tin, covered tin hat, puttees, large pack, wire cutters, entrenching tool, towel, waterproof sheet, holdall knife, fork, spoon, razor and comb. Below is a picture of a soldier also this is where all the equipment was placed in his soldier outfit.

Trench life was horrific and we witnessed this when we went on the Battlefields Trip, you could see how compacted the sides were to each other. The trenches were unbelievably small and see conditions were poor for the soldiers who lived there for four long, tiring years. I could see why all the trenches didn’t go straight as all the artillery or machine guns have to do is fire it straight, however if the trenches were not straight it would be very hard to hit them. Daily for soldiers in the trenches was so awful because of this type of illness known as shell shock.

At first these people were thought to be wimps but then they found out that it was actually an illness. It occurred when bullets constantly kept whizzing past their ears, and constant explosions. These people just became nervous wrecks and were sometimes sent home due to not being able to continue. When night-fall came, all was not quiet. Snipers often put all their fears behind them and crawled into No Man’s Land. Their mission was to try and find any sudden movements and take advantage. Many men couldn’t sleep that well due to rats, explosions, the cold or false alarms.

Many didn’t sleep any more than three to four hours. Bearing all this in mind, it would be no surprise that the life expectancy of a 2nd Lieutenant was no more than three months. You can now really start to see how the number of deaths in the trenches came about. It was not only the fighting and bullets that killed people, but the appalling living conditions as well. It is quite shocking the number of deaths due to the conditions and I know that I would hate to be one of those men fighting in the front line trenches of Europe. Why was defending the Ypres Salient so difficult?

The Belgian coast, Ypres was the meeting point of many important trade routes. During the 17th and 18th centuries, Austrians and the French occupying armies built strong walls the town and turned Ypres into a fortress. The Ypres salient was one of the worst battlefields in British military history. It was a difficult place to attack from even without the weather. The salient was a stretch of front line that stuck out like a bulge into German territory; tactically it was a bad place to be in possession of as it was a flat waste land deep in German territory.

However, the Allied soldiers had to defend Ypres to stop the Germans capturing the last city in Belgium and potentially gaining access to the channel ports, this would almost certainly mean failure for Britain because they would not be able to import enough troops or equipment to successfully defend France. As was usual in the First World War, the Germans had the higher ground and bombarded the town below. The Brits responded by shelling the Germans back. This tactic soon turned the already flooded salient into a quagmire of mud and water. In the battle of Ypres an estimated 40,000 British soldiers died in the mud and were never recovered.

The 1st Battle of Ypres, October – November 1914 The Ypres salient was home to a number of battles but there were three main battles in that area. The first was where most of the BEF and German students died. Although the BEF was a much better fighting force than the German volunteer students – sheer weight of numbers managed to inflict heavy casualties on the British. In German history this battle is often referred to as the massacre of the innocents. The Germans were so upset about the loss of these young people that the gate leading into Langemarck is dedicated to the students, all six thousand of them.

The 2nd Battle of Ypres, April-May, 1915 The second battle went down in history as the first battle in history where chemical weapons, or gas, were used. The Germans sent chlorine gas over to the French line on the 22nd April 1915. This attack was in the second battle of Ypres and sent the entire battalion scurrying. The only reason that Ypres wasn’t lost there and then was that the Germans were to slow to advance and the Canadians came in and fought viciously, using handkerchiefs soaked in urine once the worst of the gas had blown away. The ammonia in urine counteracting the gas) The 3rd Battle of Ypres, July – October 1917 (Passchendaele) The 3rd Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) is the bloodiest battle in history, British colonial troops thought in unbearable conditions to capture German position on the ridge at Passchendaele. Soon after 13 weeks, in which it rained almost the whole entire time, allied troops attempted to cross the 5 miles of muddy swamps to take the German lines. 300,000 British and 260,000 German soldiers died in the battle. Some 40,000 soldiers sank in the mud and were never recovered.

The Ypres Sailent was so hard to defend because of several reasons one of the reasons was because of the geography of the land. The area was called flanders and flanders means “flooded land”, it was once under water. Ypres key geographical features: Land: Flat, low lying Soil: Sand or silt Climate: Temperature, but very variable Rainfall: Hevy &amp; frequent (750-1000m) Winter: Average 60 days of frost a year ; 15 of snow Natural Features: A ridge of higher land (over 40m) surronds the south and east a few miles away.

Germany had the advantage because they possessed the higherland, firmer land and where they it was easy to spy on the city were the British were staying. Also It was very easy for them to surrond the target and where the Germans were situated on high ground so it wouldn’t be waterlogged unlike the British trenches. It was hard to defend the Ypres sailent because the allied forces were surrounded in three directions and the ground was at sea level so they found water 18 inches below the ground. The water logged trenches made soldiers less moblie and increased the likely hood of trench foot as they were half submerged in water most of the day.

Ypres was so hard to defend because every thing the Allied forces did could be seen by the Germans. As the Germans could see everything the British were doing they were able to tell when an attack was coming so it was easy for the Germans to prepare for attack so the allied forces lost the sense of surprise. Why was the Battle of the Somme such a disaster? Background By December 1915, Allied milatary commanders agreed that a massive offensive – “The Big Push” – was needed to break the stalemate: of the war the Russians would attack in the East, while British and French armies would launch an offensive on the western front.

General Haig (picture on the left) wanted the big push to take place at Ypres and further down the line was the Somme and Germans were to well dug in so they didn’t want to make the big push there however in the end the big push happened at the Somme. In Febuary 1916, the Germans began an attack on Verdun , this was a clever tactic because Verdun was of great importance to the French and a sign of milatary pride. Even through Verdun was of no milatary signifacance to either side it could not be lost as it would shatter the French soldiers moral.

Therefore milatary comanders agreeded to lanch an attack on the Somme to divert French forces. The Plan The offensive of the Somme was a very inquisitive mixture of old milatary tactics and new technnology. It was decided to bombard the German lines for five days continuously, beginning on June 24th , however the event was extended for two days. An incredible one and a half million shells were prepared for the attack. The objective was to obliverate the German lines, machine gun posts and fortified villages. Everyone assumed that the Germans would be vapourised and only few would remian and it would beeasy to take the trenches.

They also believed that the barbed wire would be gone because of the artillery however it got more tangled up and harder to get through. Two minutes before the attack a series of mines under the key German positions would be detonated simulataneously. At 7:30am, artillery bombardment would lift from the German front line, and steadily creep forward across over the back lines. Soldiers thought they would walk across no mans land without obstacles or machine gun fire and take the German lines. The offensive would take place along a 20km stretch of land and Haig’s aim was to advance two and a half kilometers on the first day.

So why did it fail, here are the reasons why the plan was a failure: 1) It was hard to know if the bombardment was working due to the fact that there was poor weather conditions. 2) The early explosion of Hawton mine (at 7:20) alerted the Germans telling them that there was an attack coming. Also some of the mones did not destroy German positions as planned. 3) There were arguable reports about whether the wire had been cut. 4) Haig was being given “optimistic” reports about the attack, so the uneffective bombardment continued. Bad communication. 5) Lots of shells did not Explode.

Some German trenches were badly damaged, suffering very little casualties. German dugouts were extremly well built deep under ground so they weren’t effected. When the bombardment ended the Germans were able to get ready since they realised that the allied force were about to lanch an attack. This gave them time to get to the firesteps and set up machine gun posts. Following the plan the shelling stopped when it should have been heaviest. The bombardment turned ‘No mans land’ into a mass of mud and craters while twisting and distorting the German wire without cutting it.

When soldiers went over the top they walked incredibly close together getting mown down by machine gun fire and they were carrying packs of about 29kg as they thought they would take the trenches with ease and not have to return. Some soldiers received additional items making there packs about 40kg in weight and it was incredibly hard for them to move through thr mud. No ground was gained, the British suffered 57,000 casulaties, of whom 19,000 were killed. Despite heavy casulties the attack carried on for four months. By the end of November both sides sufferd an incredible amount of deaths.

The offensive had cost Britain 419,000 deaths, 204,000 for the French and 600,000 for the Germans, in total it added up to over 1. 2 million. In my opinion the most significant factor to why the Battle of the Somme was such a disaster was because of communication. We know that communication failed because even when they went ‘over the top’, General Haig still kept on sending them in. Now, it is important to not that there were no easy communication methods like phones, before they had messengers and so it would take days for the General to recieve it and so this lead to the deaths of many soldiers on the Wester Front.

Personal Research on the Graves and Memorials of Soldiers Personal Research on Lewis McGee Lewis McGee was an Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest decoration for gallantry “in the face of the enemy” that can be awarded to members of the British and Commonwealth armed forces. He was a sergeant in the Australian Imperial Force; McGee was awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions in the Battle of Broodseinde and part of the Passchendaele offensive on 4th October 1917. McGee was born in Campbell Town, Tasmania on 13 May 1888; he was the youngest of eleven children to John McGee, a labourer and farmer, and his wife Mary.

Three of McGee’s sisters had died in infancy prior to his birth, and—when Lewis was aged only seven—his mother died due to pleurisy. He gained employment as an engine driver with the Tasmanian Department of Railways. During March 1916, he joined the Australian Imperial Force for service in the First World War. He was positioned in the 40th Battalion, and completed training in Tasmania and the United Kingdom, where he was promoted to lance corporal. In November 1916 he transferred to the Western, where he promoted rapidly from corporal then sergeant, and took part in the Battle of Messines.

McGee was killed in action on 12 October 1917, eight days after his Victoria Cross exploit. McGee’s 40th Battalion were part of the third phase of the Passchendaele offensive. His battalion of the 10th Australian Brigade were detailed to execute an attack on Broodseinde Ridge. The brigade was allocated four primary objectives to seize during the assault, one for each battalion, with the 40th Battalion to take the final target located on the ridge itself. On the 4th October 1917, at 06:00, the advance commenced at under the cover of an artillery barrage.

Through intensive fighting, the first three battalions were able to seize their objectives. As the 40th Battalion were set to advance towards the final objective, its progress became hampered by increasingly heavy machine-gun and rifle fire from a German pillbox 50 metres in front of his position, as well as by barbed wire entanglements and sectors of impassable swamp. McGee rushed alone across open ground towards the German machine gun post. He was armed solely with a revolver; he shot the gunners and captured remaining soldiers in the garrison and seized control of the pillbox.

He then organised a bombing party, and led the group in the seizure of a second machine gun post. By 09:12 on 5 October, the 40th Battalion had seized its objective and held complete control of the Broodseinde Ridge, having captured 300 Germans as prisoners in the process. Sadly, Sergeant McGee was killed in action during the second battle of Passchendaele, aged 29, at Augustus Wood on the morning of the 12th October 1917. He is buried at Tyne Cot cemetery nearby. Personal Research on Clarence Jeffries

Clarence Smith Jeffries VC was an Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest decoration for gallantry “in the face of the enemy” that can be awarded to members of the British and Commonwealth armed forces. He was a Captain in the Australian Imperial Force; Jeffries was awarded the Victoria Cross following his actions in the First Battle of Passchendaele during the First World War. Jeffries was born in a suburb of Newcastle, New South Wales on 26 October 1894; He was the only child of Joshua Jeffries, a colliery manager, and his wife Barbara, nee Steel.

Jeffries attended Dudley Primary School before moving onto Newcastle Collegiate and High schools. Jeffries was employed as a surveyor at a mining company where his father served as general manager following his completion of school. In, 1912 he joined a militia battalion, where he was commissioned as a second lieutenant upon the outbreak of war and tasked with the instruction of volunteers for the newly raised Australian Imperial Force. He transferred into the Australian Imperial Force himself in 1916, where Jeffries embarked with his battalion for service on the Western Front.

In late November, the 34th Battalion was shipped to France for service on the Western Front. Initially posted to the Armentieres sector in Belgium, the battalion did not participate in its first major battle until June 1917, when it took part in the Battle of Messines after the British and Dominion operations switched to the Ypres Sector of Belgium. During the engagement, Jeffries received a bullet wound to the thigh while leading a patrol and was evacuated to the 3rd General Hospital in London.

While recovering, he was promoted to captain on 26 June, before rejoining his battalion in September as a company commander. During the battle of Passchendaele, heavy machine gun fire assaulted the troops from all directions. The position consisted of two pillboxes, supported by fifty metres of trench which was occupied by approximately thirty men with four machine guns and so the fire from these machine guns forced Jeffries men get cover and to halt the entire advance. Jeffries quickly organised a bombing party of fourteen men and set about outflanking the pillboxes.

Working around the position, the party attacked the emplacement from the rear, capturing four machine guns and thirty-five prisoners; thus reviving the advance. Jeffries then led his company forward under heavy artillery and machine gun fire to reach their first objective. At 08:25, parties from the 34th and 35th Battalions headed out along the south-eastern edge of the ridge towards the outskirts of Passchendaele. Almost immediately, they came under heavy fire from a pillbox close by a railway embankment, at which time Major J.

B. Buchanan, the senior brigade officer with the advance party, fell dead, leaving Jeffries to assume control. Gathering a party of eleven men, he set about silencing the machine gun position. Edging across the open ground, the party attacked the position from the west just as the machine gun was firing to the north. Realising that an attack was about to happen, the machine gunner switched around and mortally wounding Jeffries in the stomach along with the rest of the party.

When it fire eased, the remaining members of the group worked around the position, rushed it and seized two machine guns in conjunction with thirty prisoners. With the second objective only partially captured, the remnants of the 9th Brigade, battered by artillery and machine gun fire, were forced to relinquish their position and retreat back to their own lines. All that remained on the Passchendaele ridge of the 9th Brigade was the dead and wounded, among who was Clarence Jeffries, who was later counted among those with no known grave. Personal Research on James Peter Robertson

James Peter Robertson was born on 26 October 1883 and died on the 6 November 1917. He was a Canadian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. Born in Albion Mines (now called Stellarton), Pictou County, Nova Scotia, Robertson was 34 years old, and a private in the 27th (City of Winnipeg) Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force, during the First World War when the following deed took place for which he was awarded the VC.

On 6 November 1917 at Passchendaele, Belgium, when his platoon was held up by a machine-gun, Private Robertson rushed the gun, killed four of the crew and then turned the gun on the remainder. After inflicting more casualties and carrying the captured gun, he led his platoon to the final position and got the gun into action, firing on the retreating enemy. During the consolidation his use of the machine-gun kept down the enemy sniper fire. Later when two of the snipers on his own side were wounded, he went out and carried one of them in under heavy fire but he was killed by a shell just as he returned with the second man.

Conclusion: I conclude that War was so dreadful for British Soldiers on the Western Front because of four things: * How science and technology changed the nature of warfare – The Western Front during World War I essentially depended on trench warfare, which was defensive in nature. Neither side could advance, so the battles bogged down for long periods of time. The machine gun in particular made it nearly impossible for soldiers to leave the trenches; when they did, a high percentage was shot. How awful daily life was for soldiers in the trenches – Soldiers in the trenches were exposed to the elements–the wind, the sun, rain, snow. Drainage was poor, so there was often standing water or mud. Rats, mosquitoes, and other vermin proliferated. Maintaining basic sanitary conditions was nearly impossible, so disease was widespread. Meals were irregular, often from cans. In addition to urine and feces, there was likely to be blood and vomit in the trenches after time, not to mention the bodies of dead comrades who could not be pulled to safety.

Often one could hear the agonising of soldiers from both sides who had been caught and wounded in no-man’s land. Even while not fighting, one could hear the sound of battles in other areas, and there was constant fear. The men were far from their loved ones, and there was no outlet for sexual desire. Regular exercise was nearly impossible, sleep was uncomfortable, and there was little to do for entertainment. There was also the uncertainty about how long this would last. Why defending Ypres Salient was so difficult – It was only the aid of the Americans that finally ended the battles at Ypres. At the end of the war, over 1,700,000 men had been injured, killed or reported missing on both sides during Hill 60, Passchendaele, Lys, Sanctuary Wood, etc. This number does not take into account the enormous civilian casualties. It was a ‘Massacre of the Innocents’. * Why the Battle of the Somme was such a disaster – Communication significantly being the most important in causing the thousands of deaths that occurred in the Somme.

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A New Chapter for Irish Historians’ ‘Saddest Book’

A globe-spanning research project has turned the catalog of a public archive destroyed in Ireland’s civil war into a model for reconstruction.

By Ed O’Loughlin

Reporting from Dublin

In the first pitched battle of the civil war that shaped a newly independent Ireland, seven centuries of history burned.

On June 30, 1922, forces for and against an accommodation with Britain, Ireland’s former colonial ruler, had been fighting for three days around Dublin’s main court complex. The national Public Record Office was part of the complex, and that day it was caught in a colossal explosion . The blast and the resulting fire destroyed state secrets, church records, property deeds, tax receipts, legal documents, financial data, census returns and much more, dating back to the Middle Ages.

“It was a catastrophe,” said Peter Crooks, a medieval historian at Trinity College Dublin. “This happened just after the First World War, when all over Europe new states like Ireland were emerging from old empires. They were all trying to recover and celebrate their own histories and cultures, and now Ireland had just lost the heart of its own.”

But perhaps it was not lost forever. Over the past seven years, a team of historians, librarians and computer experts based at Trinity has located duplicates for a quarter of a million pages of these lost records in forgotten volumes housed at far-flung libraries and archives, including several in the United States. The team then creates digital copies of any documents that it finds for inclusion in the Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland , an online reconstruction of the archive. Still a work in progress, the project says its website has had more than two million visits in less than two years.

Funded by the Irish government as part of its commemorations of a century of independence, the Virtual Treasury relies in part on modern technologies — virtual imaging, online networks, artificial intelligence language models and the growing digital indexes of archives around the world — but also on dusty printed catalogs and old-school human contacts. Key to the enterprise has been a book, “A Guide to the Records Deposited in the Public Record Office of Ireland,” published three years before the fire by the office’s head archivist, Herbert Wood.

“For a long time, Wood’s catalog was known to Irish historians as the saddest book in the world, because it only showed what was lost in the fire,” Dr. Crooks said. “But now it has become the basis for our model to recreate the national archive. There were 4,500 series of records listed in Wood’s book, and we went out to look for as many of them as we could find.”

A major partner in this hunt was the National Archives in Britain, to which centuries of Irish government records — notably tax receipts — had been sent in duplicate. The Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, which remains part of the United Kingdom, has also been a major partner, contributing records from the centuries before Ireland was partitioned in 1921.

A considerable haul of documents has also been uncovered in the United States. The Library of Congress, for example, dug up dozens of volumes of lost debates from Ireland’s 18th-century Parliament. According to David Brown, who leads the Virtual Treasury’s trawl through domestic and overseas archives, before this trove of political history came into Congress’s possession, one previous owner had tried to sell it as fuel. Serendipity has often played a role in such U.S. discoveries, he said.

“You would have old family records stored away in some gentleman’s library, and he’d move to the colonies, and take the books with him,” Dr. Brown said. “Or else heirs would eventually sell the old library off to collectors, and eventually an American university or library might buy the collection, maybe because they wanted something important in it, and they took everything else that came with it. Archivists may not always know what they have, but they never throw anything out.”

The Huntington Library in California, and libraries of the universities of Kansas, Chicago, Notre Dame, Yale and Harvard are among around a dozen U.S. organizations to respond positively to the hopeful request from the Irish: “Do you have anything there that might be of interest to us?” And in the process of hunting down material that is already on its radar, the Virtual Treasury team is also uncovering, and incorporating, unexpected treasures.

One is a previously unnoticed 1595 letter shown to Dr. Brown late last year while he was visiting Yale’s Lewis Walpole Library to view some other material. In it, Sir Ralph Lane — a founder and survivor of the infamous lost colony of Roanoke, off North Carolina, which had vanished in the decade before this letter was written — petitions Queen Elizabeth I to order the conquest of Ulster, then a Gaelic stronghold in the north of English-ruled Ireland.

Dr. Brown, a specialist in early modern Atlantic history, said the letter — long overlooked because it was bound in a volume with much later documents — showed the close connection between England’s colonial conquests in North America and Ireland, both in the personalities involved and their motivation. The letter suggests conquering Ulster primarily so that the English could seize the inhabitants’ land, and it proposes paying for the war by looting the Ulster chiefs’ cattle. The area was ultimately conquered and colonized in 1609, six years after Lane’s death.

“For the Elizabethan adventurers, colonialism was a branch of piracy. All they wanted was land,” Dr. Brown said. “Roanoke hadn’t worked out for Lane, and Elizabeth had just granted Sir Walter Raleigh 10,000 acres of land in Munster,” in the south of Ireland. “So Lane thought, if Raleigh got 10,000 acres in Munster, why can’t I have 10,000 acres in Ulster?”

Another contribution to the project could be seen in contemporary Northern Ireland, at the Public Record Office in Belfast. The head of conservation, Sarah Graham, was restoring and preserving a collection of records and letters kept by Archbishop John Swayne, who led the church in Ireland in the 15th century. Watching her at work was Lynn Kilgallon, research fellow in medieval history for the Virtual Treasury. Once preserved, its pages will be digitized and added to Dublin’s online archive.

“If you don’t understand the words in a book, it becomes just an object,” Ms. Graham said. “You need someone to read it — medievalists like Lynn here, to bring it to life.”

You do not necessarily need to be a specialist to read the documents in the Virtual Treasury, however. New artificial intelligence models developed for the project allow archivists to turn ancient handwriting into searchable digital text, with modern translations.

The site went online in June 2022, the 100th anniversary of the records office fire, and is aiming for 100 million searchable words by 2025, a target it says it is three-quarters of the way to reaching. Eventually, it hopes to recover 50 to 90 percent of records from some priority areas, such as censuses from before and after Ireland’s Great Famine in the mid-19th century, which are of particular value to historians, and to people of Irish descent tracing their roots. More than half of the details of the first nationwide census of Ireland, a religious head count in 1766, have been retrieved and published.

“Cultural loss is sadly a very prominent theme in the world right now, and I don’t think there is an example like this, where there’s been so much international cooperation in the reconstruction of a lost archive,” Dr. Crooks said. “It shows that the collective culture of many countries can be brought together to achieve a goal. Borders are fluid.”

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Annie Jacobsen: 'What if we had a nuclear war?’

The author and Pulitzer prize finalist, who has written the latest pick for the New Scientist Book Club, Nuclear War: A scenario, on the "shocking truths" about a nuclear attack

By Annie Jacobsen

12 April 2024

The Titan nuclear missile in the silo in Arizona, US

Michael Dunning/Getty Images

Not long after the last world war, the historian William L. Shirer had this to say about the next world war. It “will be launched by suicidal little madmen pressing an electronic button. Such a war will not last long and none will ever follow it. There will be no conquers and no conquests, but only the charred bones of the dead on an uninhabited planet.”

As an investigative journalist, I write about war, weapons, national security and government secrets. I’ve previously written six books about US military and intelligence programmes – at the CIA, The Pentagon, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency– all designed to prevent, or deter, nuclear world war III . In the course of my work, countless people in the upper echelons of US government have told me, proudly, that they’ve dedicated their lives to making sure the US never has a nuclear war. But what if it did?

“Every capability in the [Department of Defense] is underpinned by the fact that strategic deterrence will hold,” US Strategic Command (STRATCOM), which is responsible for nuclear deterrence, insists publicly. Until the autumn of 2022, this promise was pinned on STRATCOM’s public Twitter feed. But to a private audience at Sandia National Laboratories later that same year, STRATCOM’s Thomas Bussiere admitted the existential danger inherent to deterrence. “Everything unravels itself if those things are not true.”

If deterrence fails – what exactly would that unravelling look like? To write Nuclear War: A scenario , I put this question to scores of former nuclear command and control authorities. To the military and civilian experts who’ve built the weapon systems, been privy to the response plans and been responsible for advising the US president on nuclear counterstrike decisions should they have to be made. What I learned terrified me. Here are just a few of the shocking truths about nuclear war.

The US maintains a nuclear launch policy called Launch on Warning. This means that if a military satellite indicates the nation is under nuclear attack and a second early-warning radar confirms that information, the president launches nuclear missiles in response. Former secretary of defense William Perry told me: “Once we are warned of a nuclear attack, we prepare to launch. This is policy. We do not wait.”

The US president has sole authority to launch nuclear weapons. He asks permission of no one. Not the secretary of defense, not the chairman of the joint chief of staff, not the US Congress. “The authority is inherent in his role as commander in chief,” the Congressional Research Service confirms. The president “does not need the concurrence of either his [or her] military advisors or the US Congress to order the launch of nuclear weapons”.

When the president learns he must respond to a nuclear attack, he has just 6 minutes to do so. Six minutes is an irrational amount of time to “decide whether to release Armageddon”, President Ronald Reagan lamented in his memoirs. “Six minutes to decide how to respond to a blip on a radar scope… How could anyone apply reason at a time like that?” And yet, the president must respond. This is because it takes roughly just 30 minutes for an intercontinental ballistic missile to get from a launch pad in Russia, North Korea or China to any city in the US, and vice versa. Nuclear-armed submarines can cut that launch-to-target time to 10 minutes, or less.

Today, there are nine nuclear powers, with a combined total of more than 12,500 nuclear weapons ready to be used. The US and Russia each have some 1700 nuclear weapons deployed – weapons that can be launched in seconds or minutes after their respective president gives the command. This is what Shirer meant when he said: “Such a war will not last long and none will ever follow it.”

Nuclear war is the only scenario other than an asteroid strike that could end civilisation in a matter of hours. The soot from burning cities and forests will blot out the sun and cause nuclear winter. Agriculture will fail. Some 5 billion people will die. In the words of former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev, “the survivors will envy the dead”.

I wrote Nuclear War: A scenario to demonstrate – in appalling, minute-by-minute detail – just how horrifying a nuclear war would be. “Humanity is one misunderstanding, one miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation,” UN secretary-general António Guterres warned the world in 2022. “This is madness. We must reverse course.”

Nuclear War: A Scenario   by Annie Jacobsen, published by Torva (£20.00), is available now. It is the latest pick for the New Scientist Book Club: sign up  here  to read along with our members

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End of the Line? Saudi Arabia ‘forced to scale back’ plans for desert megacity

Crown prince’s pet project was sold as a 105-mile-long city of the future, but finances may have led to a rethink

It was billed as a glass-walled city of the future, an ambitious centrepiece of the economic plan backed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to transition Saudi Arabia away from oil dependency.

Now, however, plans for the mirror-clad desert metropolis called the Line have been scaled down and the project, which was envisaged to stretch 105 miles (170km) is expected to reach just a mile and a half by 2030.

Dreamed up as a linear city that would eventually be home to about 9 million people on a footprint of just 13 sq miles, the Line is part of a wider Neom project. Now at least one contractor has begun dismissing workers.

The scaling down of Prince Mohammed’s most grandiose project was reported by Bloomberg , which said it had seen documents relating to the project.

The project, which had been slated to cost $1.5tn (£1.2tn), was pitched as a reinvention of urban design. However, it has long attracted scepticism and criticism, not least after the reported execution of several members of the Howeitat tribe who had protested over plans to construct on their ancestral lands.

Then there were reports of Prince Mohammed’s changing vision for the project, budget overspends and an ever-changing roster of key staff, with some who have worked on the project describing it as “untethered from reality”.

According to Bloomberg, the scaling back of the Line comes as the overall Neom budget for 2024 has yet to be approved by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund amid declining cash reserves.

Promotional presentations had suggested something out of a science fiction novel running inland into Tabuk province from the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba where it enters the Red Sea.

A few hundred metres wide, the linear city had been sold as the future of accessible urban planning, with amenities for residents within close walking distance to accommodation and districts connected by one of the world’s fastest trains.

Promotional material described the Line in almost mystical terms: a “cognitive city” and a “civilisation revolution” where amenities would be provided by artificial intelligence.

Prince Mohammed, who has long been accused of involvement in the killing of the Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul in 2018, had described the city project as “tackling the challenges facing humanity in urban life today” to “shine a light on alternative ways to live”.

Not everyone, however, has been convinced by the prince’s glossy prospectus. Writing in the New York Times in 2021 at the time Neom released a video describing the prospects of living between the city’s silvered walls, the US journalist and author Robert Worth said: “To watch the crown prince’s promotional video is to be immersed in a distinctively Saudi form of arrogance, blending religious triumphalism and royal grandiosity.”

And hubris, too, apparently.

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IMF head projects slightly stronger global growth in 2024 and warns of potential long-term pitfalls

FILE - Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund takes part in a panel discussion at the Annual Meeting of World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Jan. 17, 2024. Strong economic activity in the United States and emerging markets is projected to help drive global growth by about 3% in 2024, the International Monetary Fund chief said Thursday, below the annual historic average and a warning sign about potential lackluster performances through the 2020s. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Strong economic activity in the United States and emerging markets is projected to help drive global growth by about 3% this year, the International Monetary Fund’s chief said Thursday, below the annual historic average and a warning sign about potential lackluster performances through the 2020s.

“Without a course correction, we are indeed heading for ‘the Tepid Twenties’ -– a sluggish and disappointing decade,” said Kristalina Georgieva, the organization’s managing director, in announcing the economic projection and longer-term outlook.

She said global economic activity is weak by past measurements and debt is up, posing major challenges to public finances in many parts of the world.

“The scars of the pandemic are still with us. The global output loss since 2020 is around $3.3 trillion, with the costs disproportionately falling on the most vulnerable countries,” she said.

The anticipated growth rate of just more than 3% is slightly above last year’s projection. The historic average is 3.8%.

“Global growth is marginally stronger on account of robust activity in the United States and in many emerging market economies,” Georgieva said.

The IMF and its fellow lending agency, the World Bank, will hold their spring meetings next week in Washington, where finance ministers, central bankers and policymakers will discuss the global economy’s most pressing issues.

The annual gathering will take place as several conflicts threaten global financial stability, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the war between Hamas and Israel in Gaza.