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First battle of the Marne
Germany wanted to destroy France before moving to Russia, an ally of France, in order to avoid fighting on two fronts. Although the initial German attack had some early success, there weren't enough reinforcements on hand to keep things going. In response to the French and British counteroffensive at the Marne (6–10 September 1914), the Germans abandoned after many days of brutal battle. -
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Gallipoli
Allied forces arrived on the Gallipoli peninsula in Ottoman Turkey early on April 25, 1915. General Sir Ian Hamilton decided to conduct two landings, with the British 29th Division landing at Cape Helles and the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) landing north of Gaba Tepe in a region that would later be known as Anzac Cove. Both landings were quickly contained by the Ottoman army, which prevented either the British or the Anzacs from advancing. -
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Battle of Verdun
The longest battle of the First World War was the Battle of Verdun, which lasted from 21 February to 18 December 1916. It was also among the most expensive. German forces launched an assault on the heavily fortified French town of Verdun in February 1916, setting off a year-long period of ferocious combat. -
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Jutland
By setting up an ambush on the British Grand Fleet in the North Sea, the German High Seas Fleet aimed to destroy the Royal Navy. Admiral Sir David Beatty's Battlecruiser Force and Admiral Sir John Jellicoe's Grand Fleet were both targets of German Admiral Reinhard Scheer's enticement strategy. Scheer aimed to defeat Beatty's force before Jellicoe's arrived, but the British sent both forces to sea ahead of schedule after receiving a warning from their codebreakers. -
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Brusilov offensive
The offensive, which was named after the Russian leader Aleksei Brusilov, togethers that would later be successful on the Western Front. To add a sense of surprise to the offensive, Brusilov used shock troops and a short, quick artillery barrage to attack weak spots. -
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Battle of the Somme
When Allied commanders gathered in December 1915 to plan their strategies for the next year, they decided to undertake a joint French and British attack in the River Somme region in the summer of 1916. Action on the Somme became more urgent throughout 1916 as a result of intense German pressure on the French at Verdun, which led to the British taking the lead in the offensive. -
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Third Ypres campaign