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Started the first world war
Before Gavrilo shot the Archduke, Ferdinand was supposed to be assassinated by several other men but the men could not go through with doing it. 19-year-old Gavrilo had tuberculosis and thought that this should be the last thing he would do to make an impact before succumbing to his sickness. Because of the deaths, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, starting the war. -
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World war one
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First Battle of the Marne
The French attacked Germany unsuccessfully and had to retreat. The commanding chief of France was asked to spare one of these armies to defend Paris, the capital of France German General Alexander Von Kluck went against orders and decided to have his army push the retreating French army. The German army was depleted of resources needed to battle and grew weak during the fight. One of the French armies pursued a surprise attack on the German army, forcing them to retreat. -
Battle of Passchendaele
Harry Patch, a 19-year-old boy who served as a Lewis gunner, was conscripted to the army. Harry said that the morning inspections were server making sure your gun was cleaned, loaded, and oiled. Harry said if you didn't do what you were told, you would be shot for being cowardly. -
Battle of Passchendaele
June 1917, outside of the trench, 5 Germans ran at Harry and the other men he was with. A German man was running right at Harry with no ammunition. Harry had a point-blank shot to the head; instead, he shot him in the shoulder. He was thinking about the man he found on the ground after being hit by a shrapnel shell and how all he wanted before he died was his mom. He thought about how the German was someone's son, probably had brothers and sisters, and possibly was a father who had to provide. -
Battle of Passchendaele
July 1917, during the battle, Harry fell into the trench. He saw an extremely gruesome scene as he entered the hole. There in front of Harry's frozen body lay a man who was “ripped from shoulder to waist," as Mr. Patch described it, due to a shrapnel. Harry held the man's hand for the last 30 seconds of his life. The man managed to ask Harry to shoot him. The very last thing the man said to Harry before he died was the word mother. -
Battle of Passchendaele
Harry Patch was doing turns with 3 other men. Overhead of the men, a German shrapnel shell exploded. The three other men who were with Harry died, and Harry was wounded. Harry was impaled with a piece of metal from the explosion in the groin and passed out. When Harry woke up, he was in a dressing station. -
Battle of Cambrai
The British launched an attack on the Germans in Cambrai. The British deployed 476 tanks to Cambrai. This was the most tanks utilized in the war at the time. The first day of the battle, the British made 5 miles of gain and were doing significantly well. But most tanks were unusable, so Germans launched a counterattack on the British. The British were forced to retreat. This war had an extreme impact on the tactical methods used for the rest of the war -
German Spring Offensives
The Germans opened heavy gun and mortar fire on the British. The Germans penetrated the British's weakest defensive line. The British army grew weak after 1917 and was pushed back; the Germans were only five miles from Amiens. The Germans again violently attacked the British because they were running out of supplies. The Allies strengthened their defense in the end, causing around 348,000 German casualties, and around 328,000 Allied casualties. -
Battle of Amiens
The allies launch several controlled attacks instead of one big attack. Germany was weak from losing many men, sickness, and lack of supplies. Launching these limited attacks would embarrass Germany. The British first attacked the Germans and outnumbered them six to one with the assistance of Canada and Australia. The Allies then penetrated German lines on August 8, but the German front lines continued to fight for months till the end of the war. -
Battle of Passchendaele
Harry Patch was terribly wounded in the chest. When he went back, the chest pains continued. He got a new job in the plumbing industry. Harry also met his first wife, Ada, when he went back to France.