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WW1 Timeline
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Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
Archduke Franz Ferdinand was shot while driving around Sarajevo with the top down in his limousine after a bomb was thrown at the car resulting in many injuries but Franz Ferdinand came out unscaved. Ferdinand after meeting with city officials wanted to check on the wounded from the bombing. The driver of the car Leopold driver to the local hospital but did not know his way around the city and took a wrong turn that is when the shooter Gavrillo Princip took the shot that killed Franz Ferdinand. -
Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia, Beginning of World War 1
On July 28, 1914, one month to the day after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife were killed by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo, Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia, effectively beginning the First World War. -
Battle of Mons
The first European clash since 1815’s Battle of Waterloo, the Battle of Mons takes place in Mons, Belgium, with a British forces that numbers about 75,000 fighting an estimated 150,000 Germans in an attempt to hold the Mons Conde Canal. In the final of four “Battles of the Frontier” held in the first weeks of World War I, the British forces are overpowered and forced to retreat, handing the Germans a strategic victory. Some 1,600 British and 5,000 Germans casualties are reported. -
Battle of Dogger Bank
After decoding intercepted German messages, the British Grand Fleet attacks the German Kaiserliche Marine in the North Sea, sparking the Battle of Dogger Bank. The smaller German squadron retreats, but can’t outrun the British. Long-range gunfire ensues but while the German SMS Blücher cruiser is sunk, the British HMS Lion is severely damaged. -
Battle of Gallipoli
In modern warfare’s first major beach landing, the Gallipoli Campaign sees British and French troops invading the Ottoman Empire at the peninsula of Gallipoli in the Dardanelles Straits. The invasion is an effort to control the sea route and seize Constantinople. With Western Front fighting stalled, the Ally forces intend the attack to be a swift victory, but ultimately withdraw, suffering some 180,000 casualties, including more than 28,000 Australian soldiers. -
Battles of the Isonzo
The 12 battles held along the Italian Front at the Isonzo River at the Adriatic Sea see the Italians repeatedly attacking the Austrians to gain control of the area and entry to Vienna. After Italy makes some progress after multiple failed attempts, Germany eventually joins the Austrian troops, forcing Italy into retreat. -
Beginning of the Battle of Verdun
At 7:12 a.m. on the morning of February 21, 1916, a shot from a German Krupp 38-centimeter long-barreled gun one of over 1,200 such weapons set to bombard French forces along a 20-kilometer front stretching across the Meuse River strikes a cathedral in Verdun, France, beginning the Battle of Verdun, which would stretch on for 10 months and become the longest conflict of World War I. -
Battle of Jutland
World War I’s biggest naval conflict, the Battle of Jutland off the coast of Denmark marks the first and only showdown between German and British battleships. After German forces attack the Royal Navy, 250 ships and 100,000 men take part in the bloody fight, with both sides losing thousands of lives and several ships. Although there is no clear victor, Britain is able to secure North Sea shipping lanes and continue a blockade of German ports. -
Battle of the Somme
During one of history's bloodiest battles, on the first day alone of the first Battle of the Somme, British forces suffer more than 57,000 casualties, including 20,000 deaths, they attempted to out gun the German trenches and are easily gunned down. -
Third Battle of Ypres
Also known as the Third Battle of Ypres, the Battle of Passchendaele takes place in Ypres, Belgium, as British forces, with help from the French and the use of tanks, launch an attack to wrest control of Ypres from the Germans. Canadian forces brought in to help relieve the troops but little ground being won. In the end, it is considered a victory for the Allies, with but one that costs both sides more than 550,000 casualties. -
Germany began unrestricted submarine warfare
Britain's blockade across the North Sea and the English Channel cut the flow of war supplies, food, and fuel to Germany during World War I. Germany retaliated by using its submarines to destroy neutral ships that were supplying the Allies. On May 7, 1915, German submarine U-20 torpedoed the Lusitania, a Cunard passenger liner, off the coast of Ireland. Nearly 1,200 men, women, and children, including 128 Americans, lost their lives. -
Battle of Vimy Ridge
In its first attack as a unified force, the Canadian Corps, consisting of the four Canadian divisions, launches an Easter Sunday offensive at Vimy Ridge in northern France, claiming a quick and decisive victory over the Germans in three days. Part of the Allied Battle of Arras, the well-planned battle uses new artillery tactics and marks the corps as an elite force. -
American combat forces arrive in France.
The first American soldiers landed in France in June 1917, it would take a year to create, train and equip an army and ship it across the Atlantic. The outcome of the war would turn on whether Germany could defeat Britain and France before the Americans arrived in force. -
Ludendorff Offensive
Also known as the Ludendorff Offensive, the 1918 Spring Offensive begins with the Germans launching a string of attacks along the Western Front in hopes of winning the war before U.S. troops can join the Allies. Despite making successful advances in four attacks, the territory they retake or newly control doesn’t lead to strategic gains. With the American forces arriving in July, a attack and exhausted soldiers, the Germans, while claiming victory, are badly weakened. -
Battle of Amiens
The opening attack of what would be come to be called the Hundred Days Offensive, the Battle of Amiens sees one of the most successful advances of World War I, with Allied troops securing more than eight miles in the conflict’s first foggy day, later called "the black day of the German Army" by General Erich Ludendorff. Catching the Germans by surprise, the Allies attack with the help of 2,000 guns, 1,900 planes and 500 tanks, causing large-scale German casualties and a fatal blow to morale.