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WORLD WAR ONE

1915


CONTENTS

Continuing trench assault, gas – and
        stalemate – on the Western Front

Colonial troops are brought into the
        action

German Zepplins bomb England

The war at sea

Other nations join in

The Turks stand their ground at Gallipoli

The Russian retreat on the Eastern Front

Serbia falls to the Austro-Hungarians

The war in the Middle East and Africa

The war on the home front

The textual material on page below is drawn directly from my work A Moral History of Western Society © 2024, Volume Two, pages 82-85.


CONTINUING TRENCH ASSAULT, GAS – AND STALEMATE – ON THE WESTERN FRONT

The slaughter continues

As Christmas 1914 came and went, so with it went the idea that the war would be "over by Christmas."  Along the entire Western Front soldiers had dug deep trenches and awaited orders to move up out of their trenches to face barbed wire, machine guns, and shell holes (with dead and decaying bodies in them) in order to advance on an enemy well entrenched in an opposing line of trenches.  When nothing of strategic value was achieved in this butchery, troops still alive were called back, sent to a line of trenches in the rear in order to recover … until called  once again to the forward line of trenches … where they sat in anticipation of poisonous gas coming their way or enemy canon shells to explode in their midst – while they awaited their next call to attack the enemy across "no-man's land."
 
It was the Germans that got the brilliant idea of bombarding the enemy with poisonous gas, with the hope of clearing the enemy trenches before their assaults.  But while this proved deadly it did not prove as effective as they had hoped in clearing the enemy lines, and soon the British and French were attempting the same tactic, also now employing gas masks to protect themselves in the process.

Between the gas attacks and the constant barrage by enemy artillery, life on the front was a person’s worst nightmare, one that refused to go away.  There was no escaping the slaughter.  The casualty lists soon numbered in the millions on both sides.

So life went on for millions of young Europeans (and colonials from around the world as well), day after day, week after week, month after month, and now year after year.  Survival was not really expected.

The stalemate continues on the Western Front – despite bloody efforts of the Allies to dislodge the Germans

Marshall, p. 125

British troops head "over the top" for a skirmish with their German counterparts
Imperial War Museum, London



French troops assaulting well entrenched German positions

A photo taken by a French reconnaissance plane of a German gas attack

A British infantryman hit during a gas attack Ypres, April 2, 1915

Ruins of Ypres market square (1915)

Vickers Machine Gun Crew with gas masks


COLONIAL TROOPS ARE BROUGHT INTO THE ACTION – TO SEE HOW CIVILIZED NATIONS SLAUGHTER EACH OTHER

Troops from Senegal, West Africa, being brought up to serve in the French trenches

Troops from French Indo-China (Southeast Asia) serving in the French army.

Indian troops arriving in England to join the action


GERMAN ZEPPLINS BOMB ENGLAND

A German army balloon leaving its hangar

Destruction in England brought by the Zepplin bombing

A Zepplin brought down over France on its return to Germany after a raid on England


THE WAR AT SEA

The Blücher keels over after being shelled by the British at Dogger Bank - January 1915

A British submarine being strafed by a German airplane

An American ship hit by a German U-boat - 1915
National Archives NA-111-SC-16568

A wrecked German submarine at Calais used to try to break the British naval blockade of Germany

The Lusitania - sunk May 7, 1915 - torpedoed by a German submarine with 1,198 people - including 128 Americans - drowned

The Lusitania steaming out of New York on May 1, 1915
National Archives NA-111-SC-16578

The New York Times

An American Lusitania victim being carried by Irish pallbearers


OTHER NATIONS JOIN IN

It seems strange that with the horrifying experience of the Great War (as it was coming to be called) by this point a year old, any other countries would want to get involved.  But political folly is not unknown in high political places.

Bulgaria

For Bulgaria there was in fact a good reason for joining the war:  to get back the lands that it had lost to Serbia and Greece in the Balkan wars.  In this they largely succeeded ... until the war turned against their German allies in 1918.

Italy

Italy, however, was another story.  Italians were deeply divided about the war.  In one of the many secret treaties being issued during the war, the British and French in April of 1915 promised the Italian government lands taken from Austria along the upper Adriatic Sea coast and along the southern slopes of the Alps ... plus the possibility of picking up colonial territory from the Germans in Africa.  And although many Italians were adamantly opposed to getting involved in the war for any reason, pro-war enthusiasts, led especially by the fiery D’Annunzio, finally got most of Italy worked up for war.  Finally in May Italy declared war, coming in on the side of the British and French against Italy’s former allies Germany and Austria.  Not all Italians would be happy about this.

Italy was really not prepared mentally or physically for such a war.  As it turned out, the Italians were unable to dislodge the Austrians from the mountainous Italian province of Trentino, despite repeated efforts.  Finally they would find themselves in a humiliating retreat in the face of an advancing Austrian army in late 1917 after the fall of the Italian forward position at Caporetto.

Rumania (Romania)

Romania also decided to enter the war (August 1916) after promises for territorial compensation were made to it similar to those made to Italy.  When in September Romania invaded Hungarian Transylvania to collect on those promises, they were only briefly successful in holding that territory, before they were thrown back by a joint attack of Austria and Bulgaria.  Before the year was out Romania had to yield not only its capital city Bucharest but most of its land to the invading Bulgarian and Austro-Hungarian forces.  Romania was effectively knocked out of the war.

But still … promises are promises.  And at war's end Romania was ranked among the "victors" and awarded the Hungarian lands originally promised to them by the British and French.


Marshall, p. 109

Austrian troops in the Alps watching for Italian troops


THE TURKS STAND THEIR GROUND AT GALLIPOLI

Because of the murderous stalemate facing the British in their war against the Germans, the head of the British navy, Winston Churchill, came up with a plan to strengthen Russia’s fighting capacity on the Eastern Front (helping to relieve German pressure on the Western Front) by opening up a direct line of supply to Russia from the Mediterranean through the Dardanelles.  That would of course require taking out Turkey.  But Churchill was convinced that with a surprise attack launched directly at Constantinople (March 1915), the Turks would be neutralized and the way then cleared for this supply line to be opened up.  But the key to the strategy was speed.  And things just did not go Churchill’s way from the very start.

The Turks had mined the waters and these needed to be cleared before the small fleet of British and French ships could head on to Constantinople.  The Turkish shoreline forts were quickly reduced ... but clearing the mines proved to be more time consuming than anticipated.  As days passed British and French ships were sunk.  The Turks seemed able to maintain a steady attack on the invading fleet, though it also seemed that the Turks might be running out of ammunition. However the word was out that German relief ships were heading toward the battle ... and the local commanders convinced British headquarters that with bad weather and huge naval losses the effort had failed and the fleet needed to pull back.

The plan now shifted to the idea of landing shore parties to march overland toward Constantinople, destroying Turkish positions as they went, and allowing the fleet to try again to open the Dardanelles to allied shipping. The new plan included bringing Australian and New Zealand soldiers up from the British command in Egypt to join the attack.  Days went by as the commanders worked out the details of the plan, not realizing that the Turks – who were not the weak-willed Ottomans as the British and French had supposed – were also readying themselves to resist exactly the plan they by now had guessed that the British and French were working on.  When finally at the end of April everything seemed ready, the Allied troops went ashore, only to discover that the Turks, under the command of Mustafa Kemal (the "hero of Gallipoli" and future Turkish leader), were well entrenched in the heights above the beaches and – armed with massive firepower – were eagerly awaiting them. 
 
The Allies thus found themselves largely stranded along the Gallipoli shores unable to make any serious progress against the Turks.  More troops were brought in ... on both sides.  Gradually the Gallipoli Front was taking on the character of the Western front as both sides dug in deeply ... neither side able to advance against the other, yet neither side willing to give up their positions either.

Now the Gallipoli campaign would drag on and on.  With Bulgaria’s entry into the war on Germany’s side (September), supplies could now be brought directly from Germany to Turkey, ending all possibilities of the British simply wearing down the Turks to the point of surrender.  When winter then came on (soldiers were dying in great numbers from disease and exposure) the decision was finally made to abandon the effort.  In December the Allies pulled their troops out of Gallipoli, leaving behind only a memory that would never be forgotten by the parties involved ... on both sides of the engagement.
 

Winston Churchill and Admiral Jack Fisher  



Liman von Sanders



Sir Ian Hamilton

Marshall, pp. 114-115.

Australian troops being transported to Gallipoli - 1915

British going ashore at Suvla Beach, Gallipoli - August 7, 1915
Imperial War Museum, London

An Allied camp along the shores of Gallipoli

British troops hugging the cliffs at Cape Helles, Gallipoli,
as a shell from the Turk's "Asiatic Annie" falls close by - 1915
Imperial War Museum, London

Commonwealth troops at Gallipoli - 1915

British troops unable to break out of a tight spot at the Anzac Cove, Gallipoli - 1915

War Minister Lord Kitchener surveying the situation at Gallipoli - November 1915 - prior to the decision to pull out (completed by the following January)
Imperial War Museum, London


THE RUSSIAN RETREAT ON THE EASTERN FRONT


Marshall, p. 131

German troops moving past their Austrian allies to get themselves in position in Galicia - 1915
Kriegsarchiv, Vienna

Grand Duke Nicholas (standing 6'6") surrendered command to the Czar who took over after the Germans and Austrians forced the Russians out of Poland - September 1915

General Mackensen and his staff directing the German army through Poland

Austrian troops moving through a Polish village -September 1915
Kriegsarchiv, Vienna

Austrians burning and looting a Polish village -September 1915
Kriegsarchiv, Vienna

Destroying a Polish bridge
Kriegsarchiv, Vienna

Austrian engineers rebuilding a bridge over the Dunajee 
after Mackensen pushed the Russians out of Galicia in May of 1915

Entrenched Austrian troops in the Carpathian forests of Galicia
Kriegsarchiv, Vienna


SERBIA FALLS TO THE AUSTRO-HUNGARIANS

In the fall of 1915 Austria-Hungary and its allies Germany and Bulgaria joined forces to hit the Serbians hard.  The Serbians were forced to retreat, leaving their capital Belgrade in  enemy hands ... even falling back into the Albanian mountains, and finally being chased down even there.  Remnants of the Serbian army were finally, with British and French help, able to escape to Greece.  In all the Serbs lost over a million men (more than a quarter of its population and over half of its male population).  

Marshall, p. 119

A nearly blind 71-year old King Peter of Serbia heading for exile - December 1915
Musée de la Guerre, Paris

The Serbian army in retreat - December 1915
Imperial War Museum, London


THE WAR IN THE MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA


The War in the Middle East

British troops digging a desert well

Allenby - British general who took Palestine from the Turks

British troops entering Baghdad, Iraq 


The War in Africa

British artillery being brought up for action in German East Africa (Tanganyika or present Tanzania)

Ox carts bringing up supplies to British troops in British East Africa (Kenya)


THE WAR ON THE HOME FRONT

The Krupp Gun Works at Essen

The French munition works at Creusot

A French woman at an industrial lathe

Women manufacture artillery shells in a French factory




Go on to the next section:  1916


  Miles H. Hodges