British Involvement in World War I By: Tyler Knox During World War I, several major powers in Europe went to war after the assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand. The conflict started when a member of the Serbian terrorist group Black Hand, Gavrilo Princip, killed the Archduke and his wife in the city of Sarajevo in Bosnia. Francis was the Archduke of Austria-Hungary, who thought that the Serbian government was indirectly involved in Ferdinand’s assassination. Austria-Hungary was going to declare war on Serbia, but feared Russian intervention, as Russia was one of Serbia’s most powerful allies. Austria-Hungary went to Germany for help, and Kaiser Wilhelm II gave them the “blank check”, which said that if Austria-Hungary went to war, Germany would back them up. Thinking this was an invitation to declare war on Russia, Austria-Hungary did so, and Germany’s agreement dragged them into the …show more content…
The decided action would be a French attack on the river Somme. However, due to German pressure on the French at the battle of Verdun, action became increasingly urgent, and Britain had to take action as well. When the Allied forces marched on the Somme they were faced with German defenses that had been prepared for months. Despite a seven day bombardment that had taken place before the attack, the British did not get the military breakthrough that they wanted to achieve, and the next 141 days became a “bloody battle of attrition.” During these days, the British advanced seven miles at max, and suffered approximately 57,000 casualties on the first day, and 19,240 of these men were killed, making the first of the 141 days of the Battle of the Somme the bloodiest day in British military history. The Somme became an important event in British history, and was a necessity to meet the needs of the alliance, and the British learned valuable lessons that contributed to the end of the war and the Allied