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Battle of Tannenberg
This battle was a major defeat for Russia, with the Germans capturing 92,000 Russian prisoners and killing or wounding another 30,000. The battle also led to the suicide of the Russian Second Army's commanding general, Alexander Samsonov.
The battle had a significant symbolic meaning and became part of both Russia's and Germany's political and commemorative culture after the war. -
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First Battle of the Marne
In saving Paris from capture by pushing the Germans back some 72km (45 miles), the First Battle of the Marne was a great strategic victory, as it enabled the French to continue the war. However, the Germans succeeded in capturing a large part of the industrial north east of France, a serious blow. -
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Second Battle of Ypres
Second Battle of Ypres, second of three costly battles in World War I at Ypres (now Ieper), in western Flanders. The battle marked the Germans' first use of poison gas as a weapon. Although the gas attack opened a wide hole in the Allied line, the Germans failed to exploit that advantage. -
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Battle of Gallipoli
Overall the Gallipoli campaign was unsuccessful for the Allies. But the campaign did help to draw Ottoman troops away from the Caucasus front. Running from the Black Sea to Persia, Russian and Gallipoli was the first major amphibious operation in modern warfare. -
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Battle of Verdun
Battle of Verdun,World War I engagement in which the French repulsed a major German offensive. It was one of the longest, bloodiest, and most-ferocious battles of the war; French casualties amounted to about 400,000, German ones to about 350,000. Some 300,000 were killed German advance was contained at Douaumont by a heavy snowfall and the defence of French 33rd Infantry Regiment. -
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Battle of Jutland
Although it failed to achieve the decisive victory each side hoped for, the Battle of Jutland confirmed British naval dominance and secured its control of shipping lanes, allowing Britain to continue effective implementation of the maritime blockade that would contribute to Germany's eventual defeat in 1918. -
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Brusilov Offensive
The Russian Army had suffered defeats in the first year of the war, but the Brusilov Offensive from 4 June-20 September 1916 was its most successful offensive of the First World War, resulting in one of the Entente Allies' most successful breakthrough operations against the Central Powers. -
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Battle of the Somme
The Battle of the Somme was a joint operation between British and French forces intended to achieve a decisive victory over the Germans on the Western Front. For many in Britain, the resulting battle remains the most painful and infamous episode of the First World War The Allies won the Battle of the Somme, inflicting serious damage on German positions in France. The battle, which took place in 1916, was a strategic necessity for the international alliance. -
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Battle of Passchendaele
The Battle of Passchendaele was an Allied victory, but the cost was high. The battle took place from July 31 to November 6, 1917, and was the third and longest battle of the Ypres campaign in World War I. The British and Canadian forces won control of the village of Passchendaele in Belgium, but the victory came at a great cost. -
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Battle of Caporetto
The Central Powers were outnumbered and outgunned. As a result, Italy was able to concentrate more or less its entire army against Austria-Hungary, while Austria-Hungary had to divide its forces, with more of its army facing the Russians than the Italians. -
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Battle of Cambrai
The Battle of Cambrai in November 1917 turned out, for both Britain and Germany, to be a major signpost showing how to break the trench deadlock of the previous three years. The lessons of the operational successes and failures would be digested by both sides over the forthcoming winter. -
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Spring Offensive
Despite huge successes since March, by early June the overall German offensive was faltering. The German soldiers were exhausted from successive battles and had out-run their supplies of manpower and food by advancing so far and so fast. British signaller George Banton recalled the end of this phase of the offensive. -
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Second Battle of the Marne
Allied troops attacked the Germans' large Marne salient (i.e., a bulge protruding into the Allied lines), taking the Germans by surprise. Three days later the Allies crossed the Marne, and the Germans retreated to their former Aisne-Vesle lines. -
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Battle of Belleau Wood
The Allies won the Battle of Belleau Wood, which took place in France from June 1–26, 1918. The 4th Marine Brigade drove the Germans from Belleau Wood after a month of intense fighting, including hand-to-hand combat. The battle was a huge victory for the Allies, boosting morale and proving that the Germans were not invincible. -
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Hundred Days Offensive
he Hundred Days Offensive was a series of attacks by the Allied troops at the end of World War I. Starting on August 8, 1918, and ending with the Armistice on November 11, the Offensive led to the defeat of the German Army. By the Summer of 1918, German attacks in the war had halted.