Important dates and events of the First World War. Main events of the First World War The course of the First World War 1915

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The year 1915 began with an intensification of military actions by the warring parties. Symbolizing the emergence of sinister new means of warfare, on January 19, German Zeppelins began raiding the east coast of England. Several people died in the ports of Norfolk, and several bombs fell near the royal house at Sandringham. On January 24, a short but fierce battle took place off Dogger Bank in the North Sea, during which the German cruiser Blücher was sunk and two battlecruisers were damaged. The British battlecruiser Lion was also seriously damaged.

Second Battle of Masuria

In February 1915, Germany began major offensive operations in East Prussia (Augustow and Prasnysz), which were called the Second Battle of Masuria. On February 7, 1915, the 8th (General von Below) and 10th (General Eichhorn) German armies went on the offensive from East Prussia. Their main blow fell in the area of ​​the Polish city of Augustow, where the 10th Russian Army (General Sievers) was located. Having created numerical superiority in this direction, the Germans attacked the flanks of Sievers’ army and tried to encircle it.

The second stage provides for a breakthrough of the entire North-Western Front. But due to the tenacity of the soldiers of the 10th Army, the Germans failed to completely capture it in pincers. Only the 20th Corps of General Bulgakov was surrounded. For 10 days, he valiantly repelled attacks by German units in the snowy forests near Augustus, preventing them from further advancing. Having used up all the ammunition, the remnants of the corps attacked the German positions in the hope of breaking through to their own. Having overthrown the German infantry in hand-to-hand combat, the Russian soldiers died heroically under the fire of German guns. “The attempt to break through was complete madness.

But this is holy madness, heroism, which showed the Russian warrior in his full light, which we know from the time of Skobelev, the times of the storming of Plevna, the battle in the Caucasus and the storming of Warsaw! The Russian soldier knows how to fight very well, he endures all sorts of hardships and is able to be persistent, even if certain death is inevitable!”, wrote the German war correspondent R. Brandt in those days. Thanks to this courageous resistance, the 10th Army was able to withdraw most of its forces from attack by mid-February and took up defense on the Kovno-Osovets line. The Northwestern Front held out and then managed to partially restore the lost

positions. The heroic defense of the Osovets fortress provided great assistance in stabilizing the front. Almost simultaneously, fighting broke out on another section of the East Prussian border, where the 12th Russian Army (General Plehve) was stationed. On February 20, in the area of ​​Prasnysz (Poland), it was attacked by units of the 8th German Army (General von Below). The city was defended by a detachment under the command of Colonel Barybin, who for several days heroically repelled the attacks of superior German forces. On February 24, 1915, Prasnysh fell. But its staunch defense gave the Russians time to bring up the necessary reserves, which were being prepared in accordance with the Russian plan for a winter offensive in East Prussia. On February 25, the 1st Siberian Corps of General Pleshkov approached Prasnysh and immediately attacked the Germans. In a two-day winter battle, the Siberians completely defeated the German formations and drove them out of the city. Soon, the entire 12th Army, replenished with reserves, went on a general offensive, which, after stubborn fighting, drove the Germans back to the borders of East Prussia; Meanwhile, the 10th Army also went on the offensive, clearing the Augustow Forest from the Germans. The front was restored, but the Russian troops could not achieve more. The Germans lost about 40 thousand people in this battle, the Russians - about 100 thousand. On February 12, the French launched a new offensive in Champagne. The losses were enormous, the French lost about 50 thousand people, having advanced almost 500 yards. This was followed by a British offensive on Neuschtal in March 1915 and a new French offensive in April in an easterly direction. However, these actions did not bring tangible results to the Allies.

In the east, on March 22, after a siege, Russian troops captured the Przemysl fortress, which dominated the bridgehead on the San River in Galicia. Over 100 thousand Austrians were captured, not counting the heavy losses suffered by Austria in unsuccessful attempts to lift the siege. Russia's strategy at the beginning of 1915 amounted to an offensive in the direction of Silesia and Hungary while securing reliable flanks. During this company, the capture of Przemysl was the main success of the Russian army (although it managed to hold this fortress only for two months). At the beginning of May 1915, a major offensive by the troops of the Central Powers in the East began. Gorlitsky breakthrough. The beginning of the Great Retreat Having failed to push back Russian troops at the borders of East Prussia and in the Carpathians, the German command decided to implement the third breakthrough option. It was supposed to be carried out between the Vistula and the Carpathians, in the Gorlitsa region. By that time, over half of the armed forces of the Austro-German bloc were concentrated against Russia. But, before launching an offensive in the Gorlitsa area, the German command undertook a series of offensive operations in

East Prussia and Poland against the troops of the Northwestern Front. Moreover, in the offensive against Russian troops near Warsaw on May 31, 1915, the Germans successfully used gases for the first time. More than nine thousand Russian soldiers were poisoned, of which 1,183 died. Russian troops did not use gas masks at that time. In the 35-kilometer section of the breakthrough at Gorlitsa, a strike group was created under the command of General Mackensen. It included the newly formed 11; the German army, consisting of three selected German corps and the 6th Austrian corps, which included Hungarians (the Hungarians were considered the best soldiers of the multi-tribal Austrian army). In addition, the 10th German Corps and the 4th Austrian Army were subordinated to Mackenzin. Mackenzin's group was superior to the Russian 3rd Army (General Radko-Dmitriev) stationed in this area in manpower - twice, in light artillery - three times, in heavy artillery - 40 times, in machine guns - two and a half times . On May 2, 1915, Mackensen’s group (357 thousand people) went on the offensive. The Russian command, knowing about the build-up of forces in this area, did not provide a timely counterattack. Large reinforcements were sent here late, were brought into battle piecemeal and quickly died in battles with superior enemy forces. The Gorlitsky breakthrough clearly revealed the problem of shortage of ammunition, especially shells.

The overwhelming superiority in heavy artillery was one of the main reasons for this, the largest German success on the Russian front. “Eleven days of the terrible roar of German heavy artillery, literally tearing down entire rows of trenches along with their defenders,” recalled General A. I. Denikin, a participant in those events. - We almost didn’t answer - we had nothing. The regiments, exhausted to the last degree, repulsed one attack after another - with bayonets or point-blank shooting, blood flowed, the ranks thinned, grave mounds grew... Two regiments were almost destroyed by one fire.” The Gorlitsky breakthrough created a threat of encirclement of Russian troops in the Carpathians. Other Austro-Hungarian armies, reinforced by German corps, also went on the offensive. The troops of the Southwestern Front began a widespread withdrawal. At the same time, the 48th division of General L.G. Kornilov found itself in a difficult situation, which fought out of encirclement, but Kornilov himself and his headquarters were captured. We also had to leave the cities conquered by the Russians with such great blood: Przemysl, Lvov, and others. By June 22, 1915, having lost 500 thousand people, Russian troops abandoned all of Galicia. The enemy lost a lot, only Mackensen’s group lost two-thirds of its personnel. Thanks to courageous resistance

Russian soldiers and Mackensen’s group were unable to quickly enter the operational space. In general, its offensive was reduced to “pushing through” the Russian front. It was seriously pushed back to the east, but not defeated. The strike forces of Field Marshal Mackensen's 11th German Army, supported by the 40th Austro-Hungarian Army, went on the offensive along a 20-mile front in Western Galicia. Russian troops were forced to leave Lvov and

Warsaw. In the summer, the German command broke through the Russian front near Gorlitsa. Soon the Germans launched an offensive in the Baltic states, and Russian troops lost Galicia, Poland, part of Latvia and Belarus. The enemy was preoccupied with the need to repel the impending attack on Serbia, as well as to return troops to the Western Front before the start of a new French offensive. During the four-month campaign, Russia lost 800 thousand soldiers alone as prisoners. However, the Russian command, switching to strategic defense, managed to withdraw its armies from the enemy’s attacks and stop his advance. Concerned and exhausted, the Austro-German armies went on the defensive along the entire front in October. Germany faced the need to continue a long war on two fronts. Russia bore the brunt of the struggle, which provided France and England with a respite to mobilize the economy for the needs of the war. On February 16, 1915, British and French warships began shelling Turkish defenses in the Dardanelles. With interruptions caused in part by bad weather, this naval operation continued for two months.

The Dardanelles operation was undertaken at the request of Russia to launch a diversionary attack on Turkey, which would relieve pressure on the Russians fighting the Turks in the Caucasus. In January, the Dardanelles Strait, about 40 miles long and 1 to 4 miles wide, connecting the Aegean Sea with the Marmara Sea, was chosen as a target. The operation to capture the Dardanelles, opening the way to an attack on Constantinople, figured in the Allied military plans before the war, but was rejected as too difficult. With Turkey's entry into the war, this plan was revised as possible, although risky. A purely naval operation was initially planned, but it immediately became clear that a combined naval and land operation had to be undertaken. This plan found active support from the English First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill. The outcome of the operation, and if it was successful, the “back door” would have been opened for Russia, was questioned by the reluctance of the allies to immediately send sufficiently large forces and the choice mainly

outdated warships. At the beginning, Türkiye had only two divisions to defend the strait. At the time of the Allied landings, it had six divisions and outnumbered five Allied divisions, not counting the presence of magnificent natural fortifications. Early on the morning of April 25, 1915, Allied troops landed at two points on the Gallipoli Peninsula. The British landed at Cape Ilyas, at the southern tip of the peninsula, while the Australians and New Zealand units advanced along the Aegean coast about 15 miles to the north. At the same time, the French brigade launched a diversionary attack on Kumkala on the Anatolian coast. Despite barbed wire and heavy machine-gun fire, both groups managed to seize a bridgehead. However, the Turks controlled the heights, as a result of which the British, Australian and New Zealand troops were unable to advance.

As a result, as on the Western Front, there was a lull here. In August, British troops landed at Suvla Bay in an attempt to capture the central part of the peninsula opposite the pass. Although the landing in the Gulf was sudden, the command of the troops was unsatisfactory, and the opportunity for a breakthrough was lost. The offensive in the south also proved unsuccessful. The British government decided to withdraw troops. W. Churchill was forced to resign as First Lord of the Admiralty. On May 23, 1915, Italy declared war on Austria, signing a secret treaty with the Allies in London in April. The Triple Alliance, which linked Italy with the Central Powers, was denounced, although at this time it refused to declare war on Germany.

At the beginning of the war, Italy declared its neutrality on the grounds that the Triple Alliance did not oblige it to take part in a war of aggression. However, the main reason for Italy's actions was the desire to gain territorial gains at the expense of Austria. Austria was unwilling to make the concessions that Italy sought, such as giving up Trieste. Moreover, by 1915, public opinion began to swing in favor of the Allies, and both former pacifists and radical socialists, led by Mussolini, saw an opportunity to bring about a revolution in the face of the lack of stability in society during the war. In March, the Austrian government took steps to satisfy Italy's demands, however, it was already too late. Under the Treaty of London, the Italians got what they wanted, or most of what they wanted. Under this treaty, Italy was promised Trentino, South Tyrol, Trieste, Istria and other predominantly Italian-speaking regions. On May 30, the Italians began military operations against Austria with the launch of an offensive by the 2nd and 3rd armies under the overall command of General Cadorna in the northeast direction.

Italy had very limited capabilities for warfare; its army had low combat effectiveness, especially after the Libyan campaign. The Italian offensive floundered, and the fighting in 1915 took on a positional character.

Change of Supreme Commander-in-Chief During the Great Retreat, the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief moved from Baradovichi to Mogilev in mid-August 1915. Soon after the change in Headquarters, there was a change in the commander-in-chief. On September 5, 1915, this mission was undertaken by the sovereign himself, Nicholas II. He took command of the army during the most critical period of the struggle against an external enemy, thereby demonstrating a close bond of unity with his people and the Russian Imperial Army. Many tried to dissuade him, but the sovereign insisted on his own. Nikolai Alexandrovich was then 47 years old: By nature, he was a modest person, extremely delicate, easy to communicate with people. He loved his wife and children very much and was an impeccable family man.

He shunned pomp, flattery, and luxury, and almost never drank alcohol. He was also distinguished by his deep faith. Those around him often did not understand the king’s actions, but only because they themselves had lost the sincerity and purity of their faith. The Emperor managed to preserve it. He directly and directly perceived his calling as God's anointed and was guided by it in the way he understood. All his contemporaries noted his colossal restraint and self-control, and Nikolai Alexandrovich explained: “If you see that I am so calm, it is because I have a firm and decisive belief that the fate of Russia, my fate and the fate of my family is in the will of God who gave me this power. Whatever happens, I commit myself to His will, knowing that I can think of nothing else but serving the country He has entrusted to me.”

It was common in many states for the monarch to become commander-in-chief. But this was always done in anticipation of victorious laurels. Nicholas II took on a colossal burden at the most difficult moment of the war. Nikolai Nikolaevich was appointed commander of the Caucasian Front, but, concentrating rear affairs in his hands, he left the leadership of military operations to General Yudenich. The army took the change of supreme commander calmly. The soldiers already considered the king their highest superior. And the officers understood that the chief of staff would play an important role under the sovereign, and they heatedly discussed who would take this position. When they found out that it was General Alekseev, it made everyone happy. General Evert became the commander-in-chief of the Northwestern Front. The year 1916 began with the offensive of Russian troops in the Caucasus. On February 16, they took the Turkish fortress of Erzurum. Meanwhile, in England, parliament approved a law on universal conscription, which was strongly opposed by trade unions and Labor. Conservatives voted for the introduction of the law and

some liberals led by D. Lloyd George. And in the capital of Germany, a food riot broke out in Berlin; there was a catastrophic shortage of food. In the same year, the battles of Verdun and the Somme River ended.

These battles were the bloodiest of the war on the Western Front. They were distinguished by the massive use of artillery, aviation, infantry, and cavalry and did not bring success to either side. The main reason for this balance was the unconditional advantage of defensive methods of warfare over offensive methods. The Verdun Offensive signified the desire of the Chief of the German General Staff, Falkenhayn, to deliver a decisive blow on the Western Front, which was postponed in 1915 after the successes achieved in the East. Falkenhayn believed that Germany's main enemy was England, but at the same time he recognized that England could not be conquered, partly because an offensive in the English sector had little chance of success, and also because a military defeat in Europe would not England from the war. Submarine warfare was the best hope for realizing this possibility, and Falkenhayn saw his task as defeating the British allies in Europe.

Russia seemed already defeated, and the Austrians showed that they could cope with the Italians. That left France. Given the proven strength of the defenses in trench warfare, Falkenhayn abandoned the idea of ​​​​trying to break through the French lines. At Verdun, he chose a strategy of war of attrition. He planned a series of attacks to lure out the French reserves and destroy them with artillery. Verdun was chosen partly because it was on a salient and disrupted German communications, but also because of the important historical significance of this major fortress. As soon as the battle began, the Germans were determined to capture Verdun and the French to defend it. Falkenhayn was right in his assumption that the French would not give up Verdun easily. However, the task was complicated by the fact that Verdun was no longer a strong fortress and was practically deprived of artillery. And yet, forced to retreat, the French maintained their forts, while reinforcements filtered through a very narrow corridor that was not exposed to German artillery fire. By the time General Petain, commanding the Second Army, was sent to Verdun at the end of the month to lead its defense, the immediate threat had passed. The German crown prince, who commanded the army corps, scheduled the main offensive for March 4. After two days of shelling, the offensive began, but by March 9 it was stopped. However, Falkenhayn's strategy remained the same.

On June 7, the Germans captured Fort Vaux, which controlled the right flank of the French positions at Verdun. The next day they captured Fort Tiomon, which had already changed hands twice since the offensive began on June 1. It seemed that an immediate threat loomed over Verdun. In March, the Germans failed to achieve a quick victory at Verdun, but they continued their attacks with great persistence, which were carried out at short intervals. The French repulsed them and launched a series of counterattacks.

German troops continued their offensive. On 24 October, having taken over the 2nd Army after Pétain became commander-in-chief, General Nivelle launched a counter-offensive at Verdun. With the start of the Somme offensive in July, German reserves were no longer sent to Verdun. The French counterattack was covered by the "creeping artillery attack," a new invention in which infantry advanced behind a gradually moving wave of artillery fire according to a precisely timed schedule. As a result, the troops captured the initially set objectives and captured 6 thousand prisoners. The next offensive was hampered by bad weather at the end of November, but was resumed in December and became known as the Battle of Luvemen.

Almost 10 thousand prisoners were taken and more than 100 guns were captured. In December, the Battle of Verdun ended. About 120 divisions were ground in the Verdun meat grinder, including 69 French and 50 German. During the battle of Verdun, the Allies on July 1, 1916, after a week of artillery preparation, began an offensive on the Somme River. As a result of the exhaustion of the French troops near Verdun, the British units began the bulk of the offensive force, and England the leading Allied power on the Western Front. The Battle of the Somme was where tanks, a new type of weapon, first appeared on September 15. The effect of the British vehicles, which were initially called “landships,” was quite uncertain, but so was the number The number of tanks that took part in the battle was small.In the fall, the British advance was blocked by swamps.

The Battle of the Somme River, which lasted from July to the end of November 1916, did not bring success to either side. Their losses were enormous: 1 million 300 thousand people. The situation on the Eastern Front was more successful for the Entente. At the height of the battles near Verdun, the French command again turned to Russia for help. On June 4, the Russian 8th Army under the command of General Kaledin advanced into the Lutsk area, which was considered as a reconnaissance operation. To the surprise of the Russians, the Austrian defense line collapsed. And General Alexei Brusilov, who exercised overall command of the southern sector of the front, immediately intensified his offensive, bringing 3 armies into battle. The Austrians were soon put into panic flight. In three days, the Russians captured 200 thousand prisoners. The army of General Brusilov broke through the Austrian front on the Lutsk-Chernivtsi line. Russian troops again occupied most of

Galicia and Bukovina, putting Austria-Hungary on the brink of military defeat. And, although the offensive dried up by August 1916, the “Brusilovsky breakthrough” suspended the activity of the Austrians on the Italian front and greatly eased the position of the Anglo-French troops at Verdun and the Somme.

The war at sea came down to the question of whether Germany could successfully resist England's traditional superiority at sea. As on land, the presence of new types of weapons - aircraft, submarines, mines, torpedoes, and radio equipment - made defense easier than attack. The Germans, having a smaller fleet, believed that the British would seek to destroy it in a battle that they tried to avoid. However, the British strategy was aimed at achieving other goals. Having relocated the fleet to Scala Flow in the Orkney Islands at the beginning of the war and thereby establishing control over the North Sea, the British, wary of mines and torpedoes and the inaccessible coast of Germany, chose a long blockade, being constantly ready in case of an attempt to break through the German fleet. At the same time, being dependent on supplies by sea, they had to ensure security on ocean routes.

In August 1914, the Germans had relatively few battleships based abroad, although the cruisers Goeben and Breslau successfully reached Constantinople early in the war, and their presence contributed to Turkey's entry into the war on the side of the Central Powers. The most significant forces, including the battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, were destroyed during the fighting off the Falkland Islands, and by the end of 1914 the oceans were, at least on the surface, cleared of German raiders. The main danger to ocean trade routes was not combat squadrons, but submarines. As the war progressed, Germany's inferiority in capital ships forced her to increasingly concentrate her efforts on submarines, which the British, suffering heavy losses in the Atlantic, viewed as an illegal means of warfare. Ultimately, the policy of unrestricted submarine warfare boats, which turned out to be almost disastrous for England, indirectly brought death to Germany, since it was the direct reason for the entry of the United States of America into the war in 1917.

On May 7, 1915, the huge American liner Lusitania, on a voyage from New York to Liverpool, was sunk by a torpedo attack by a German submarine off the Irish coast. The steamer quickly sank, and with it, about 1,200 people, almost three-quarters of all those on board, went forever into the cold waters of the ocean. The sinking of the Lusitania, whose speed was thought to make it invulnerable to torpedoes, necessitated a response. The fact that the Germans gave a cautious warning to the Americans not to sail on this ship only confirmed that the attack on it was most likely pre-planned. It caused sharp anti-German protests in many countries, primarily in the USA. Among the dead were nearly 200 American citizens, including such famous figures as millionaire Alfred Vanderbilt.

This sinking had a major impact on President Woodrow Wilson's declared policy of strict neutrality, and from that time on, US entry into the war became a potential possibility. On July 18, 1915, the Italian cruiser Giuseppe Garibaldi sank after being torpedoed by an Austrian submarine. A few days earlier, the English cruiser Dublin was attacked in a similar way, however, she managed to escape despite serious damage. The French fleet, based in Malta, fell to the task of implementing a blockade in the Adriatic Sea. Austrian submarines were active, and after the loss of the battleship Jean Bart in December 1914, the French were wary of releasing their heavy ships, relying on cruisers and destroyers. German U-boats also entered the Mediterranean in the summer of 1915, and the Allies' position was complicated by the task of protecting numerous transports and supply ships making raids to and from the Gallipoli Peninsula and, later, to Thessaloniki. In September, an attempt was made to block the Strait of Otranto using nets, but German submarines managed to pass under them. Military operations in the Baltic intensified.

Russian sailors disabled a German minelayer, and a British submarine torpedoed the cruiser Prinz Adalbert. The Russian naval forces, supplemented by several British submarines, as a rule, successfully thwarted German plans to land troops in Courland and prevented the laying of mines. British submarines also tried to disrupt the supply of iron and steel from Sweden to Germany, later sinking 14 ships engaged in these shipments in 1915. But the British losses also grew. By the end of 1915, the total number of British merchant ships sunk by German submarines exceeded 250. The Battle of Jutland between the British and German fleets in the summer of 1916 led to large mutual losses, but in strategic terms it changed little. England retained naval superiority and the blockade of Germany continued. The Germans had to return to submarine warfare again. However, its effectiveness became less and less, especially after the United States entered the war.

The results of the 1915 campaign on the Eastern Front led German strategists to the idea that subsequent offensives by their army, be it on Petrograd or Ukraine, could not lead to significant results and decisively turn the tide of the war in their favor. Without the defeat of France and Britain, as Berlin understood, there could be no victory in the war. That is why German troops decided in 1916 to deliver the main blow on the Western Front - to launch an attack on the fortified area of ​​the Verdun ledge, which was the support of the entire French front. In a 15 km long section, 6.5 Reichswehr divisions with 946 guns (including 542 heavy ones) were concentrated against two French divisions. The French built four defensive positions around the Verdun fortress, and the front line was covered with wire barriers ranging from 10 to 40 m wide.

It should be noted that both France and England made good use of the respite presented to them in 1915. France, for example, this year increased the production of rifles by 1.5 times, cartridges by 50 times, and large guns by 5.8 times. England, in turn, increased the production of machine guns by 5 times, aircraft - almost 10 times. In these countries, the production of chemical weapons and gas masks has sharply increased, and a completely new type of weapon has also appeared, and in considerable quantities - tanks. By 1915, the English navy had established an effective blockade of the German coast and deprived it of supplies from overseas of important raw materials and food, and in addition, London managed to mobilize the economic and human resources of its colonies and dominions, among which were such developed countries as such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and such densely populated countries as India (in those years, India included the territories of modern Pakistan and Bangladesh). As a result of mobilization measures, by the beginning of 1916, England was able to increase its army by 1 million 200 thousand people, France - by 1.1 million, and Russia - by 1.4 million. The total number of armies of the Entente countries by the beginning of 1916 reached such Thus, 18 million people versus 9 million who were at the disposal of the countries of the Quadruple Alliance.

The military-political cooperation of the Entente allied countries intensified and took on closer forms. Thus, at the conference in Chantilly in March 1916, a joint decision was made to conduct an offensive on the Western Front and it was finally established that it would begin in July.

Thus, when on February 21, 1916, at 8:12 a.m., the Germans launched a hitherto unprecedented artillery, air and chemical attack on Verdun, the French met the enemy fully armed. When eight hours later the Germans launched a bayonet attack, they had to take every piece of land with huge losses. After the French forces dried up and they left the strategically important fort of Duomen, General A. Petain (later sentenced to death by the French people for treason during the Second World War) managed to arrange the transfer of reserves, and by March 2 the French army doubled in size, while while the German one is only 10%. As a result, selected German units during the Verdun offensive were able to advance only 5–8 km, and their losses were so great that the Reichswehr lost the ability to conduct a massive offensive. As a result of successfully organized counterattacks, the French again reached their third defensive line, and on September 2 the German command was forced to stop further offensive. On the contrary, having launched a series of small but successful offensive operations in October and December 1916, the French completely restored their positions at Verdun.

The Battle of Verdun in a world war called “meat grinder”. In almost a year, this “meat grinder” grinded 600 thousand Germans and 350 thousand French. These were unprecedented losses of life. At Verdun, the Germans' hopes that in 1916 they would be able to turn the tide of the war in their favor were finally dispelled. They did not complete any of the tasks they had set for themselves: the fortress of Verdun was not captured, the French army was not bled white and taken out of the fight, the Allied offensive on the Somme was not prevented.

Near this river east of the city of Amiens, from July 1 to November 18, 1916, a major offensive operation of Anglo-French troops took place with the goal of breaking through the German defense front and reaching the Germans in the rear. Seven days before the offensive, the French began a powerful artillery barrage, which demoralized the defenders. French troops broke through two lines of German defense, but the British in their sector were unable to support them and advanced only 2–3 km within 24 hours. A total of 32 infantry and 6 cavalry divisions, 2,189 guns, 1,160 mortars, 350 tanks under the command of General F. Foch took part in the breakthrough. On the defending side there were 8 divisions with 672 guns, 300 mortars and 114 aircraft. In 4 and a half months, the Allies brought over 50 divisions into the battle and were able to wedge 5-12 km into the enemy’s position, losing 792 thousand people. For the first time in world history, in this battle the British introduced a new type of weapon into battle - tanks. The Germans used 40 divisions, losing 538 thousand people. The Battle of the Somme became an example of the ineffective bleeding of troops. At the cost of huge losses, the allies recaptured 240 square meters from the enemy. km, but the German front continued to stand strong. Nevertheless, after this battle the Allies managed to seize the initiative, and the Germans were forced to switch to strategic defense.

According to the Entente plan, in May 1916, Italy launched the next, fifth, offensive at the Isonzo. At this point, the Austrians, under the leadership of Prince Eugene, managed to break through the Italian defenses and developed an offensive in the direction of the Po River valley. In the Trentino region, the front was broken through 60 km. In this critical operation, Rome asked the Russians to launch a major offensive in Galicia in order to divert part of the Austrian forces there. It was the offensive of the Southwestern Front that allowed the Italians to regain lost territories and stabilize the situation.

Operations on the Eastern Front were also of great importance in the 1916 campaign. In March, Russian troops, at the request of the allies in the person of Marshal Joffre, carried out an offensive operation near Lake Naroch, which significantly influenced the course of hostilities in France. It not only pinned down about half a million German troops on the Eastern Front, but also forced the German command to stop attacks on Verdun for some time and transfer some of its reserves to the Eastern Front.

Due to the heavy defeat of the Italian army in Trentino in May, the Russian high command launched an offensive in Galicia on May 22, two weeks earlier than planned. During the fighting, Russian troops on the Southwestern Front under the command of General A. A. Brusilov managed to break through the strong positional defense of the Austro-German troops to a depth of 80-120 km. Lacking an overall superiority over the enemy, the Russian troops, due to the uneven distribution of forces and means, achieved some superiority in certain sectors of the breakthrough. Careful preparation, the factor of surprise and the use of a new form of warfare - simultaneous strikes in some areas - allowed the Russians to achieve serious successes. Artillery preparation in various areas lasted from 6 to 45 hours. During this breakthrough, it was possible to achieve the greatest coherence between the infantry and artillery. The cities of Galich, Brody, and Stanislav were liberated. The enemy suffered heavy losses - about 1.5 million people were killed, wounded and captured, and the Russians lost half a million people. The Austro-German command was forced to transfer large forces (over 30 divisions) to the Russian front, which eased the position of the Allied armies on other fronts.

The offensive of the Southwestern Front, which became known as the Brusilov breakthrough, was of enormous political significance. It became obvious to the whole world that, despite the defeats of 1915, the Russian army was strong, combat-ready and posed a real serious threat to the central powers. The Russian offensive saved the Italian army from defeat, eased the position of the French at Verdun, and accelerated the appearance of Romania on the side of the Entente.

However, Romania’s entry into the war on the side of the Entente had very unpleasant consequences for Russia: the armed forces of Romania numbered 600 thousand poorly armed and insufficiently trained soldiers and. The professional training of officers especially did not stand up to any criticism. This “army” launched an offensive against Austria-Hungary on August 15, but was immediately defeated by the troops of the Danube Mackenzen group, surrendered Bucharest without a fight and retreated to the mouth of the Danube, losing more than 200 thousand people. Russia had to send 35 infantry and 13 cavalry divisions to save its new allies, while its front line instantly increased by 500 km.

As for other fronts of the First World War, the victories of the Russian troops of the Caucasian Front were important in the Middle Eastern theater. In the winter of 1916, Russian armies advanced 250 km in Turkey and captured the Erzurum fortress and the cities of Trebizond and Erzincan. There were no major operations on the Thessaloniki front in 1916, and the situation in Mesopotamia was not in favor of the British - the prestige of Great Britain was seriously damaged after the surrender of the group in Kut el-Amar.

The 1916 campaign again did not lead any of the warring parties to fulfill their intended strategic plans. Germany failed to defeat France, Austria-Hungary failed to defeat Italy, but the Entente allies, in turn, failed to defeat the Quadruple Alliance. And yet, luck favored the Entente: as a result of the 1916 campaign, the German-Austrian bloc suffered huge losses and lost its strategic initiative. Germany was forced to defend on all fronts. Despite the defeat of Romania, the superiority of the Entente became more and more obvious. The coordinated actions of the allied forces in the West and East of Europe marked the beginning of a turning point in the course of the First World War. “This was the year that determined the victory of the Entente in the future,” wrote a prominent researcher of the First World War, A. M. Zayonchkovsky. And subsequent events at the fronts proved the truth of his words.

V. Shatsillo. World War I. Facts and documents

In August 1914, the First World War began. Serbian student Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archerzog Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. And Russia was drawn into the First World War. Gavrilo Princip, a member of the Young Bosnia organization, provoked a global conflict that lasted for four long years.

On August 8, 1914, an eclipse occurred in the Russian Empire, which passed through the sites of the First World War. The countries immediately divided into several blocs (unions), despite the fact that everyone in this bloc supported their own interests.

Russia, in addition to its territorial interests - control over the regime in the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits, was frightened by the growing influence of Germany in the European community. Even then, Russian politicians viewed Germany as a threat to their territory. Great Britain (also part of the Entente) wanted to defend its territorial interests. And France dreamed of taking revenge for the lost Franco-Prussian War of 1870. But it should be noted that there were some disagreements within the Entente itself - for example, constant friction between the Russians and the British.

Germany (the Triple Alliance) already in the First World War sought sole domination over Europe. Economic and political. Since 1915, Italy participated in the war on the side of the Entente, despite the fact that it was then a member of the Triple Alliance.

On July 28, 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Russia, as expected, could not help but support its ally. Opinions in the Russian Empire were divided. On August 1, 1914, the Prussian ambassador to Russia, Count Friedrich Pourtales, announced a declaration of war to the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Sazonov. According to Sazonov’s recollections, Friedrich went to the window and began to cry. Nicholas II announced that the Russian Empire was entering the First World War. There was some kind of duality in Russia at that time. On the one hand, anti-German sentiment reigned, on the other hand, patriotic enthusiasm. French diplomat Maurice Paleologue wrote about the mood of Sergius Sazonov. In his opinion, Sergei Sazonov said something like this: “My formula is simple, we must destroy German imperialism. We will achieve this only through a series of military victories; We are facing a long and very difficult war.”

At the beginning of 1915, the importance of the Western Front increased. In France, fighting took place somewhat south of Verdun, in historical Port Artois. Whether this is true or not, there really were anti-German sentiments at that time. After the war, Constantinople was to belong to Russia. Nikolai Alexandrovich himself accepted the war with enthusiasm and helped the soldiers a lot. His family, wife and daughters were constantly at hospitals in different cities, playing the roles of nurses. The emperor became the owner of the Order of St. George after a German plane flew over him. This was in 1915.

The winter operation in the Carpathians took place in February 1915. And in it, the Russians lost most of Bukovina and Chernivtsi. In March 1915, after the death of Pyotr Nesterov, his air ram was used by A. A. Kazakov. Both Nesterov and Kazakov are known for shooting down German planes at the cost of their lives. Frenchman Roland Gallos used a machine gun to attack the enemy in April. The machine gun was located behind the propeller.

A.I. Denikin in his work “Essays on Russian Troubles” wrote the following: “The spring of 1915 will remain in my memory forever. The great tragedy of the Russian army is the retreat from Galicia. No cartridges, no shells. Bloody battles day after day, difficult marches day after day, endless fatigue - physical and moral; sometimes timid hopes, sometimes hopeless horror.”

On May 7, 1915, another tragedy occurred. After the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, this apparently became the last cup of patience for the United States. In fact, the death of the Titanic can or cannot be linked to the beginning of the First World War, but few people know that in 1915 the loss of the passenger ship Lusitania occurred, which accelerated America's entry into the First World War. On May 7, 1915, the Lusitania was torpedoed by the German submarine U-20.

The crash killed 1,197 people. Probably by this time the patience of the United States in relation to Germany had finally burst. On May 21, 1915, the White House finally announced to the German ambassadors that this was an “Unfriendly Step.” The public exploded. Anti-German sentiments were supported by pogroms and attacks on German shops and stores. Outraged civilians from different countries destroyed everything they could to show the extent of the horror they were gripped by. There are still disputes over what the Lusitania carried on board, but nevertheless, all the documents were in the hands of Woodrow Wilson and the decisions were made by the president himself. On April 6, 1917, after yet another investigation into the sinking of the Lusitania, Congress announced that the United States had entered the First World War. In principle, “Conspiracy Theories” are sometimes adhered to by researchers of the Titanic disaster, however, there is this point in relation to the Lusitania. Time will tell what actually happened there in both the first and second cases. But the fact remains that 1915 became a year of further tragedies for the world.

On May 23, 1915, Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary. In July-August 1915, the Russian essayist, prose writer and writer was in France. At this time he realizes that he needs to go to the front. He constantly corresponds with the poet Maximilian Voloshin at that time, and this is what he writes: “My relatives began to oppose this: “at home they don’t allow me to join the army (especially Lev Borisovich), but it seems to me that as soon as I arrange my money a little business, I'll go. I don’t know why, but there is a growing feeling in me that this is how it should be, regardless of decrees, circulars and sections. Stupid, isn't it?

The French at this time were preparing an offensive near Artois. The war depressed everyone. Nevertheless, Savinkov’s relatives allowed him to go to the front as a war correspondent. On August 23, 1915, Nicholas II assumed the title of Commander-in-Chief. This is what he wrote in his diary: “Slept well. The morning was rainy; in the afternoon the weather improved and it became quite warm. At 3.30 I arrived at my Headquarters, one mile from the mountains. Mogilev. Nikolasha was waiting for me. After talking with him, the gene accepted. Alekseev and his first report. Everything went well! After drinking tea, I went to explore the surrounding area.”

From September there was a powerful Allied offensive - the so-called third Battle of Artois. By the end of 1915, the entire front actually became one straight line. In the summer of 1916, the Allies began to wage an offensive campaign on Sonma.

In 1916, Savinkov sent home the book “In France during the War.” However, in Russia this work had very modest success - most Russians were sure that Russia needed to get out of the First World War.

Text: Olga Sysueva

The war that happened was the result of all the accumulated contradictions between the leading world powers, which completed the colonial division of the world by the beginning of the twentieth century. The chronology of the First World War is a most interesting page in world history, requiring a reverent and attentive attitude towards oneself.

Main events of the First World War

The huge number of events that happened during the war years is difficult to remember. To simplify this process, we will place the main dates of the events that occurred during this bloody period in chronological order.

Rice. 1. Political map 1914.

On the eve of the war, the Balkans were called “the powder keg of Europe.” The two Balkan wars and the annexation of Montenegro by Austria, as well as the presence of many peoples in the “patchwork Habsburg empire,” created a lot of different contradictions and conflicts, which sooner or later were to result in a new war on this peninsula. This event, which has its own chronological framework, occurred with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand by the Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip on July 28, 1914.

Rice. 2. Franz Ferdinand.

Table “Main events of the First World War 1914-1918”

Militarily, the Allies were never able to crush the German army. Germany had to make peace because of the revolution that had happened, and most importantly, because of the economic exhaustion of the country. Fighting with almost the entire world, the “German machine” exhausted its economic reserves earlier than the Entente, which forced Berlin to sign peace.

The Russian command entered 1915 with the firm intention of completing the victorious offensive of its troops in Galicia.

There were stubborn battles for the capture of the Carpathian passes and the Carpathian ridge. On March 22, after a six-month siege, Przemysl capitulated with its 127,000-strong garrison of Austro-Hungarian troops. But Russian troops failed to reach the Hungarian plain.

In 1915, Germany and its allies directed the main blow against Russia, hoping to defeat it and take it out of the war. By mid-April, the German command managed to transfer the best combat-ready corps from the Western Front, which, together with the Austro-Hungarian troops, formed a new shock 11th Army under the command of the German General Mackensen.

Having concentrated on the main direction of the counteroffensive troops that were twice as large as the Russian troops, bringing up artillery that outnumbered the Russians by 6 times, and by 40 times in heavy guns, the Austro-German army broke through the front in the Gorlitsa area on May 2, 1915.

Under the pressure of Austro-German troops, the Russian army retreated from the Carpathians and Galicia with heavy fighting, abandoned Przemysl at the end of May, and surrendered Lviv on June 22. Then, in June, the German command, intending to pincer the Russian troops fighting in Poland, launched attacks with its right wing between the Western Bug and the Vistula, and with its left wing in the lower reaches of the Narew River. But here, as in Galicia, the Russian troops, who did not have enough weapons, ammunition and equipment, retreated after heavy fighting.

By mid-September 1915, the offensive initiative of the German army was exhausted. The Russian army was entrenched on the front line: Riga - Dvinsk - Lake Naroch - Pinsk - Ternopil - Chernivtsi, and by the end of 1915 the Eastern Front extended from the Baltic Sea to the Romanian border. Russia lost vast territory, but retained its strength, although since the beginning of the war the Russian army had by this time lost about 3 million people in manpower, of which about 300 thousand were killed.

While the Russian armies were waging a tense, unequal war with the main forces of the Austro-German coalition, Russia's allies - England and France - on the Western Front throughout 1915 organized only a few private military operations that were of no significant importance. In the midst of bloody battles on the Eastern Front, when the Russian army was fighting heavy defensive battles, there was no offensive on the Western Front by the Anglo-French allies. It was adopted only at the end of September 1915, when the offensive operations of the German army on the Eastern Front had already ceased.

Lloyd George felt the remorse of ingratitude towards Russia with great delay. In his memoirs, he later wrote: “History will present its account to the military command of France and England, which, in its selfish stubbornness, doomed its Russian comrades in arms to death, while England and France could so easily have saved the Russians and thus would have helped themselves best.” ".

Having received a territorial gain on the Eastern Front, the German command, however, did not achieve the main thing - it did not force the tsarist government to conclude a separate peace with Germany, although half of all the armed forces of Germany and Austria-Hungary were concentrated against Russia.

Also in 1915, Germany attempted to deal a crushing blow to England. For the first time, she widely used a relatively new weapon - submarines - to stop the supply of necessary raw materials and food to England. Hundreds of ships were destroyed, their crews and passengers were killed. The indignation of neutral countries forced Germany not to sink passenger ships without warning. England, by increasing and accelerating the construction of ships, as well as developing effective measures to combat submarines, overcame the danger hanging over it.

In the spring of 1915, Germany, for the first time in the history of wars, used one of the most inhumane weapons - toxic substances, but this ensured only tactical success.

Germany also experienced failure in the diplomatic struggle. The Entente promised Italy more than Germany and Austria-Hungary, which faced Italy in the Balkans, could promise. In May 1915, Italy declared war on them and diverted some of the troops of Austria-Hungary and Germany.

This failure was only partially compensated by the fact that in the fall of 1915 the Bulgarian government entered the war against the Entente. As a result, the Quadruple Alliance of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria was formed. The immediate consequence of this was the offensive of German, Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian troops against Serbia. The small Serbian army heroically resisted, but was crushed by superior enemy forces. The troops of England, France, Russia and the remnants of the Serbian army, sent to help the Serbs, formed the Balkan Front.

As the war dragged on, suspicion and distrust of each other grew among the Entente countries. According to a secret agreement between Russia and its allies in 1915, in the event of a victorious end to the war, Constantinople and the straits were to go to Russia. Fearing the implementation of this agreement, on the initiative of Winston Churchill, under the pretext of an attack on the straits and Constantinople, allegedly to undermine the communications of the German coalition with Turkey, the Dardanelles expedition was undertaken with the aim of occupying Constantinople.

On February 19, 1915, the Anglo-French fleet began shelling the Dardanelles. However, having suffered heavy losses, the Anglo-French squadron stopped bombing the Dardanelles fortifications a month later.

On the Transcaucasian front, Russian forces in the summer of 1915, having repelled the offensive of the Turkish army in the Alashkert direction, launched a counteroffensive in the Vienna direction. At the same time, German-Turkish troops intensified military operations in Iran. Relying on the uprising of the Bakhtiari tribes provoked by German agents in Iran, Turkish troops began to advance to the oil fields and by the fall of 1915 occupied Kermanshah and Hamadan. But soon the arriving British troops drove the Turks and Bakhtiars away from the oil fields area, and restored the oil pipeline destroyed by the Bakhtiars.

The task of clearing Iran of Turkish-German troops fell to the Russian expeditionary force of General Baratov, which landed in Anzali in October 1915. Pursuing German-Turkish troops, Baratov’s detachments occupied Qazvin, Hamadan, Qom, Kashan and approached Isfahan.

In the summer of 1915, British troops captured German South-West Africa. In January 1916, the British forced German troops surrounded in Cameroon to surrender.

1916 Campaign

The 1915 military campaign on the Western Front did not produce any major operational results. Positional battles only delayed the war. The Entente moved to an economic blockade of Germany, to which the latter responded with a merciless submarine war. In May 1915, a German submarine torpedoed the British ocean-going steamer Lusitania, on which over a thousand passengers died.

Without undertaking active offensive military operations, England and France, thanks to the shift in the center of gravity of military operations to the Russian front, received a respite, and focused all their attention on the development of the military industry. They accumulated strength for further war. By the beginning of 1916, England and France had an advantage over Germany by 70-80 divisions and were superior to it in the latest weapons (tanks appeared).

The severe consequences of active offensive military operations in 1914-1915 prompted the leaders of the Entente to convene a meeting of representatives of the general staffs of the allied armies in December 1915 in Chantilly, near Paris, where they came to the conclusion that the war could be ended victoriously only with coordinated active offensive operations on the main fronts .

However, even after this decision, the offensive in 1916 was scheduled primarily on the Eastern Front - June 15, and on the Western Front - July 1.

Having learned about the planned timing of the Entente offensive, the German command decided to take the initiative into their own hands and launch an offensive on the Western Front much earlier. At the same time, the main attack was planned on the area of ​​​​the Verdun fortifications: for the protection of which, in the firm conviction of the German command, “the French command will be forced to sacrifice the last man,” since in the event of a breakthrough of the front at Verdun, a direct path to Paris will open. However, the attack on Verdun, launched on February 21, 1916, was not crowned with success, especially since in March, due to the advance of Russian troops in the area of ​​​​the city of Dvinsky Lake Naroch, the German command was forced to weaken its onslaught near Verdun. However, bloody mutual attacks and counterattacks near Verdun continued for almost 10 months, until December 18, but did not produce significant results. The Verdun operation literally turned into a “meat grinder”, into the destruction of manpower. Both sides suffered colossal losses: the French - 350 thousand people, the Germans - 600 thousand people.

The German offensive on the Verdun fortifications did not change the Entente command's plan to launch the main offensive on July 1, 1916 on the Somme River.

The Somme battles intensified every day. In September, after a continuous barrage of Anglo-French artillery fire, British tanks soon appeared on the battlefield. However, technically still imperfect and used in small numbers, although they brought local success to the attacking Anglo-French troops, they could not provide a general strategic operational breakthrough of the front. By the end of November 1916, the Somme fighting began to subside. As a result of the entire Somme operation, the Entente captured an area of ​​200 square meters. km, 105 thousand German prisoners, 1,500 machine guns and 350 guns. In the battles on the Somme, both sides lost over 1 million 300 thousand killed, wounded and prisoners.

Carrying out the decisions agreed upon at a meeting of representatives of the general staffs in December 1915 in Chantilly, the high command of the Russian army planned for June 15 the main offensive on the Western Front in the direction of Baranovichi with a simultaneous auxiliary attack by the armies of the Southwestern Front under the command of General Brusilov in the Galician-Bukovinian direction. However, the German offensive on Verdun, which began in February, again forced the French government to ask the Russian tsarist government for help through an offensive on the Eastern Front. At the beginning of March, Russian troops launched an offensive in the area of ​​​​Dvinsk and Lake Navoch. The attacks of Russian troops continued until March 15, but led only to tactical successes. As a result of this operation, Russian troops suffered heavy losses, but they pulled over a significant number of German reserves and thereby eased the position of the French at Verdun.

French troops were given the opportunity to regroup and strengthen their defenses.

The Dvina-Naroch operation made it difficult to prepare for the general offensive on the Russian-German front, scheduled for June 15. However, after the help to the French, there was a new persistent request from the command of the Entente troops to help the Italians. In May 1916, the 400,000-strong Austro-Hungarian army went on the offensive in Trentino and inflicted a heavy defeat on the Italian army. Saving the Italian army, as well as the Anglo-French in the west, from complete defeat, the Russian command began an offensive of troops in the southwestern direction on June 4, earlier than planned. Russian troops under the command of General Brusilov, having broken through the enemy’s defenses on an almost 300-kilometer front, began to advance into Eastern Galicia and Bukovina (Brusilovsky breakthrough). But in the midst of the offensive, despite General Brusilov’s requests to reinforce the advancing troops with reserves and ammunition, the high command of the Russian army refused to send reserves to the southwestern direction and began, as previously planned, an offensive in the western direction. However, after a weak blow in the direction of Baranovichi, the commander of the northwestern direction, General Evert, postponed the general offensive to the beginning of July.

Meanwhile, the troops of General Brusilov continued to develop the offensive they had begun and by the end of June had advanced far into Galicia and Bukovina. On July 3, General Evert resumed the attack on Baranovichi, but attacks by Russian troops on this section of the front were not successful. Only after the complete failure of the offensive of General Evert’s troops did the high command of the Russian troops recognize the offensive of General Brusilov’s troops on the Southwestern Front as the main one - but it was already too late, time was lost, the Austrian command managed to regroup its troops and pull up reserves. Six divisions were transferred from the Austro-Italian front, and the German command, at the height of the Verdun and Somme battles, transferred eleven divisions to the Eastern Front. Further advance of Russian troops was suspended.

As a result of the offensive on the Southwestern Front, Russian troops advanced deep into Bukovina and Eastern Galicia, occupying about 25 thousand square meters. km of territory. 9 thousand officers and over 400 thousand soldiers were captured. However, this success of the Russian army in the summer of 1916 did not bring a decisive strategic result due to the inertia and incompetence of the high command, backwardness of transport, and lack of weapons and ammunition. Still, the offensive of Russian troops in 1916 played a major role. It eased the position of the Allies and, together with the offensive of the Anglo-French troops on the Somme, negated the initiative of the German troops and forced them in the future to strategic defense, and the Austro-Hungarian army after the Brusilov attack in 1916 was no longer capable of serious offensive operations.

When Russian troops under the command of Brusilov inflicted a major defeat on the Austro-Werger troops on the Southwestern Front, the Romanian ruling circles considered that the opportune moment had come to enter the war on the side of the winners, especially since, contrary to the opinion of Russia, England and France insisted on the entry of Romania into the war. On August 17, Romania independently began the war in Transylvania and initially achieved some success there, but when the Somme fighting died down, Austro-German troops easily defeated the Romanian army and occupied almost all of Romania, obtaining a fairly important source of food and oil. As the Russian command foresaw, 35 infantry and 11 cavalry divisions had to be transferred to Romania in order to strengthen the front along the Lower Danube - Braila - Focsani - Dorna - Vatra line.

On the Caucasian front, developing an offensive, Russian troops captured Erzurum on February 16, 1916, and occupied Trabzond (Trebizond) on April 18. Battles developed successfully for the Russian troops in the Urmia direction, where Ruvandiz was occupied, and near Lake Van, where Russian troops entered Mush and Bitlis in the summer.