World War 1 Facts

World War One has the moniker “the War to End All Wars”; however, it was anything but that. World War One began due to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. However, historians believe that several smaller factors ultimately led to the bloodbath that was the First World War. The outcome was larger than what was anticipated due to the rise of militarism, the European system of alliances, imperialism, and nationalism. The scope of World War 1 grew due to untrained soldiers in 1914, Allied forces becoming more well trained in 1916, and both Allied and Axis soldiers being well trained by 1918. When World War One began in 1914 following the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, some members

“On the morning of July 1, the BEF sent its troops forward theinto no-man’s-land. British generals were so confident that their artillery had wiped out the Germans that they ordered their troops to walk in an orderly way into the battlefield. The Germans popped up from their bunkers and opened fire with machine guns and rifles.British troops were cut to pieces…Approximately 20,000 of those were dead...” (Hamilton) The British Expeditionary Force had been hitting the Germans with artillery during the Battle of the Somme and the BEF figured that the majority of the Germans were wiped out. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case because the Germans were in bunkers that prevented them from being heavily affected from the artillery. The BEF decided to rush their soldiers into open territory, which was exactly what the Germans wanted. This lack of caution resulted in the largest amount of losses in a single day for the British army. The BEF wouldn’t have lost that many men had they been cautious before sending so many men to what would be their death. The Battle of the Somme lasted a little over three months and resulted in approximately 1.25 million deaths on both

Due to the lack of time the new recruits had, some squads weren’t capable of getting well trained. “Sixteen British divisions—its new armies of volunteers—were expected to“walk through” and break the German lines.Everything went wrong. Many shells failed to explode. The Germans’ deep, shell-proof bunkers protected them. The raw volunteers were led headfirst into rapid machine gun fire…” (Hamilton) Had the divisions had time for more training, perhaps they would’ve been able to take out more Germans before their inevitable deaths. However, it is hard to say since the Germans were in bunkers so many likely just fired from small openings that faced no-man’s