Battle Of Somme
...WW I, to the British it was until recently always ‘the Great War’. It was the first major conflict between European coalitions since 1815. Individual powers were not defeated in seemingly decisive battles because each had allies to take up the fight. They ranged against the Central Powers Austria-Hungary and Germany, joined in November 1914 by Turkey in September 1915 and by Bulgaria these were the countries that were considered to be friendly and understanding between the warring countries (Strachan 40). Originally consisting of Russia, France, and Britain, they were reinforced by Japan in August 1914, and Italy in May 1915, Portugal in March of 1916, Romania in August 1916, and Greece in June 1917. When the USA entered the war in April 1917, the nations of South America followed strongly, as did China. Much of the rest of the world were colonies of aggressiveness and hostility, thus it was considered to be a global war (Strachan 56).
Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia on July 28, 1914 in a bid to reassert its authority as a dominant power. Austria-Hungary’s determination was weighed down by the knowledge that it enjoyed the support of its ally Germany. But Serbia was supported by Russia, and Germany therefore confronted the danger of a war on two fronts, as Russia was allied to France. Germany determined and eager to deal with France first needed Austria to engage Russia in Galicia (Keegan 77). The result was that Austria-Hungary divided its forces and suffered defeat on both fronts. So there uneasy situation was partially made acceptable by the Germans defeat of two Russian armies in East Prussia. The Germans then shifted their efforts to the south, to give direct aid to the Austrians then the two allies advanced into Poland in October. However their offensive miscarried, partly to blame on the lack of their commanding officer but principally...
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