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Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated
While visiting Sarajevo Archduke Franz Ferdinand was attacked by someone when they threw a bomb at his motorcade but missed his vehicle. When they were trying to find an alternate route, Bosnian Serb Nationalist named Gavrilo Princip saw the two. He shot the Archduke and his wife point blank and they died almost instantly. -
Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia
The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand led Austria Hungary to then giving Serbia an ultimatum. Serbia didn't accept all the term and unhappy Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. Then Russia came to aid Serbia. This then led other nations to join a side depending who they had an alliance with cause WW1. -
Chemical weapons used
The Germans released chlorine gas on Allied troops. The German scientist Fritz Haber was the one to suggest using chlorine as a weapon but many thought it wouldn’t have been very effective. On April 22 the gas was released and devastated two French division. The Germans didn't expect the attack to be so effective and were not able to capitalize on the attack. -
Lusitania Sinks
On May 7th at 2:12pm the Lusitania was hit by a torpedo that was shot from a German u-boat. It sunk off the south coast of Ireland. 1960 people were on the ship and roughly 700 people survived. The Germans justified their actions by saying it was an enemy ship and was carrying munitions for the British. -
Battle of Verdun
The battle of Verdun was the largest and longest battle of WW1 it lasted up until Dec 18, 1916. It was fought between the Germans and French. The Germans goal was to inflict the most fatalities to the French. The British started a battle with the Germans at Somme to relieve pressure off the French. This worked and the French were able to turn the tides on the Germans -
British use tanks for the first time
During the Battle of Somme the British launched a massive offensive against the Germans using tanks. This was the first time they were used in history and General Douglas Haig saw their potential and ordered hundreds be made. He launched his attack using the tanks. 100000 British soldiers ran out of the trenches onto nomans land expecting it to be clear. A few Germans heavy machine guns survived and killed a lot of the British troops. -
US enters the War
For the entirety of the war the U.S. stayed neutral. What caused them to join was when Germany sent the Zimmerman telegram to Mexico. And before that Germany was using unrestricted submarine warfare and ended up kill innocent American citizens. President Woodrow Wilson asked Congress for a decoration of war against Germany and it was granted. -
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a treaty signed by the new Bolshevik government of Russia and the Central powers. This ended Russia's participation in WW1. The terms were harsh to Russia, they gave up nearly half of their European territory. They lost a lot of the prime agricultural land, and eighty percent of their coal mines. -
Theodore Edward Beach leaves
Theodore leaves for Europe. He talks about how a lot of people were sick on the the deck and how good the food is on the ship and what they get to eat. -
Ship enters war zone
Theodor's ship enters into war zone on the 6th of March and four days later six convoy chasers are spotted. The following day a torpedo is shot at them. He says that they had to change coarse and they did it so fast that he almost fell down the stairs and all the tables in the mess hall slide across the room. -
Theodore arrives
Theodore arrives at Liverpool and goes for a hike thru Liverpool. He saw a lot of dirty kids running around begging for pennies. The next day he got in a compartment train to Winchester and arrived at night time. He had to hike to camp it was a long and hard hike. -
Battle of Belleau Wood
This was one of the first large scale battle the US took part in. The Germans were closing in on Paris and with the help of the US they were able to bring the Germans advancement to a halt. After 3 weeks of brutal fighting the Marines were able to clear the woods of all German soldiers. Eve though they won it took a toll on the Marines. Just on the first day nearly 1000 Marines died. -
Passing thru Chateau Thierry
Theodore passed thru Chateau Thierry everything was blown to pieces. As they walked thru he woods they saw a bunch of German helmets, bayonets and blankets on the ground he also saw a field of dead Germans and Marines. There was a lot of equipment left behind from the battle that took place only a few days prier. -
Sleep
as they arrive mile and a half away from German line they were instructed to put up their camouflage as they were getting shelled. Theodore wasn't able to get much sleep that night because of the shelling and gas that was going on and off. They closest they hit to his barracks was 25 ft but one barracks was hit. There were many time when a shell hit really close to them but yet not many were hurt. -
Armistice Day
At 11:00 on 11/11/1918 WW1 ended. Germany signed an armistice with the Allies outside of Compiégne, France. But the Peace treaty that officially ended WW1 was the Treaty of Versailles the following year and heavily penalized Germany. Now we remember Armistice Day as Vertrians day.
