What were the biggest battles of World War I?
In our ranking the greatest battles of World War I are the Marne in 1914, Gallipoli in 1915 to 1916, Verdun in 1916, the Hundred Days of 1918 and the Somme in 1916, with Tannenberg, First Ypres, Passchendaele, Caporetto and Megiddo among the fifteen. Verdun and the Somme became months-long grinding machines, and the Somme, with a million casualties, became the symbol of the war.
World War I buried the war of movement in mud and wire. These fifteen battles, from the Marne in 1914 to Megiddo and the Hundred Days in 1918, are ranked by score; see how we chose them.1
1 The Marne, 1914
- Where
- The Marne valley between Paris and Verdun, France
- War
- World War I, Western Front
- Sides
- France and the British Expeditionary Force against Germany
- Strength
- Maunoury's French Sixth Army alone had 150,000 men, by HISTORY's count; totals for the whole battle are not firmly established
- Result
- Allied victory, September 1914; the German armies fell back to the Aisne
Germany's war plan, the Schlieffen Plan, was a quick strike against France while Russia was still slowly mobilizing, and then a turn against Russia. Alexander von Kluck's First Army was meant to pass west of Paris. Instead, disobeying orders, Kluck turned southeast of the city after the retreating French Fifth Army and crossed the Marne on 3 September.2
On 6 September Joseph Joffre's counteroffensive began. Michel-Joseph Maunoury's Sixth Army struck Kluck's flank, a gap opened between the German First and Second Armies, about 20 miles wide by EBSCO's account and 30 by HISTORY's, and the French Fifth Army and the British pushed into it. On 9 September the Germans began to retreat to the Aisne, where both sides dug in. Losses are hard to pin down: the historian Holger Herwig counts about 67,700 casualties in the five German armies between Verdun and Paris, and 1,701 British. Myth vs fact: the Paris taxis did not save the day. The Musée de l'Armée, which keeps one, counts 630 taxis and says most troops went by train. The taxis still became the battle's symbol.3
Why it ranks here: It changed the course of the whole war: it ended Germany's hope of a quick victory and condemned it to a long war on two fronts. Full marks for recognition, decisiveness and consequence; it loses a point on memory, being less commemorated than Verdun, and one on certainty, as casualty counts differ widely. It leads the list by one point.4
2 Gallipoli, 1915 to 1916
- Where
- Gallipoli peninsula and the Dardanelles, Ottoman Empire (today Turkey)
- War
- World War I, Dardanelles campaign
- Sides
- Britain, the British Empire (with Australia and New Zealand) and France against the Ottoman Empire, with some German officers
- Strength
- Some 559,000 Allied troops over the campaign (Gallipoli Association; the National Army Museum gives nearly 500,000); Ottoman strength not firmly known
- Result
- Ottoman victory; naval attack from 19 February 1915, landings from 25 April, evacuation complete 9 January 1916; over 250,000 Allied and 250,000 to over 300,000 Ottoman casualties
With the Western Front locked in trenches, Britain and France looked for another way to win. A fleet that forced the Dardanelles could reach Constantinople, perhaps knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war and open a supply route to Russia through the Black Sea. The naval bombardment began on 19 February 1915. On 18 March the fleet tried to force the strait, three battleships sank on mines laid by the Ottoman minelayer Nusret, and the attack was called off.5
On 25 April troops landed at Cape Helles and at what became Anzac Cove. Mustafa Kemal, later Atatürk, saw that the Anzac landing was no feint and led the counterattack that pinned the invaders below the heights. A new landing at Suvla Bay on 6 August also stalled. The Allies left Anzac and Suvla on 19 to 20 December and Cape Helles on 8 to 9 January 1916. The Gallipoli Association counts over 250,000 Allied and more than 300,000 Ottoman casualties and calls its figures approximate; HISTORY gives 250,000 Allied and roughly as many Ottoman. Myth vs fact: Gallipoli is remembered as an Anzac battle, but of some 559,000 Allied troops only about 63,000 were Australians and New Zealanders; 420,000 were British and other Empire soldiers and 80,000 French.6
Why it ranks here: Full marks for recognition, memory and certainty: Australia keeps 25 April as Anzac Day, Turkey marks 18 March, and the campaign made Mustafa Kemal's name. It decided its own front, not the war, so it drops a point on decisiveness and on consequence; it ties Verdun on points, recognition and consequence, and goes ahead as the older battle.7
3 Verdun, 1916
- Where
- The hills north of Verdun, on both banks of the Meuse, France
- War
- World War I, Western Front
- Sides
- France against Germany
- Strength
- At the start about 150,000 Germans in ten divisions with almost 1,200 guns, against about 25,000 French infantry on the right bank
- Result
- French defensive victory, 21 February to 18 December 1916; almost 700,000 killed and wounded (Mémorial de Verdun)
Germany's chief of staff Erich von Falkenhayn chose Verdun, a ring of forts whose big guns the French had stripped out in 1915, for his great attack of 1916. At 7:15 on the morning of 21 February almost 1,200 guns opened fire, and ten divisions, some 150,000 men, went in against about 25,000 French infantry on the right bank of the Meuse. Fort Douaumont fell on 25 February almost without a fight.8
Philippe Pétain took command and fed the battle along a single road from Bar-le-Duc, the Sacred Way, where at the height of the fighting a truck passed every five seconds. The last great German push was stopped at Fort Souville in July; in the autumn the French took back Douaumont and Vaux, and the battle ended on 18 December almost where it had begun. The Mémorial de Verdun gives 163,000 French and 143,000 German dead and almost 700,000 killed and wounded in all. Myth vs fact: Falkenhayn's claim that he meant to bleed the French army white comes from his memoirs, written after the war, and historians still argue over what he really intended.9
Why it ranks here: Full marks for recognition, memory and certainty: "They shall not pass," the watchword that grew out of Robert Nivelle's order of 23 June, and the Douaumont ossuary with the remains of 130,000 soldiers keep it alive in France. The French held but the front barely moved, so decisiveness 4; it ties Gallipoli on points, recognition and consequence and stands behind it only as the later battle.10
4 Hundred Days Offensive, 1918
- Where
- The Western Front from Amiens through the Hindenburg Line to Mons, France and Belgium
- War
- World War I, Western Front
- Sides
- The British Empire, France and the United States, under Ferdinand Foch's overall command, against Germany
- Strength
- At Amiens on 8 August alone: 13 attacking divisions with over 2,000 guns, 450 tanks and 1,900 aircraft
- Result
- Allied victory, 8 August to 11 November 1918; Germany signed the armistice; close to 1,070,000 Allied and 1,172,075 German casualties (National WWI Museum)
Germany's spring offensives of 1918 won ground but exhausted its army, and by summer the initiative had passed to the Allies under Ferdinand Foch. At 4:20 on the morning of 8 August the Australian and Canadian Corps, with a British corps and the French First Army on their flanks, attacked near Amiens behind a creeping barrage, with over 2,000 guns, 450 tanks and 1,900 aircraft in support. The Australians advanced 11 kilometers, the Canadians nearly 13, and Erich Ludendorff called it "the black day of the German Army."11
From then on the Allies attacked again and again along the whole front. The Americans opened the Meuse-Argonne offensive on 26 September, the same day the British broke into the Hindenburg Line, and on 29 September the British crossed the St Quentin Canal. The armistice took effect at 11 o'clock on 11 November, with the British back at Mons, where they had first fought in 1914. The National WWI Museum puts Allied casualties at close to 1,070,000 and German losses at 1,172,075, many of them prisoners. Myth vs fact: the German army was not "undefeated in the field": in the autumn of 1918 its own high command concluded that it could not go on and had the government ask for an armistice; the "stab in the back" legend came afterward.12
Why it ranks here: Full marks for decisiveness, consequence and certainty: this is the campaign that won the war. But it is a run of battles with a less familiar name than the Somme or Verdun, remembered above all in Canada as "Canada's Hundred Days," so recognition 4 and memory 3.13
5 The Somme, 1916
- Where
- A 25-mile front on the river Somme, Picardy, France
- War
- World War I, Western Front
- Sides
- Britain, its Empire and France against Germany
- Strength
- 14 British divisions in the first assault, with the French Sixth Army to the south
- Result
- No breakthrough, 1 July to 18 November 1916; Allied advance about 7 miles; 420,000 British Empire, 200,000 French and at least 450,000 German casualties (National Army Museum)
The Somme was planned as the Allies' "Big Push" of 1916, on a 25-mile front where the British and French armies met. When Germany attacked at Verdun in February, the British went in earlier than planned to take the pressure off their ally. A seven-day bombardment fired 1.5 million shells, but the guns were spread too thin, many shells were shrapnel or duds, and much of the German wire stayed uncut.14
At 7:30 a.m. on 1 July 14 British divisions went over the top. The German machine gunners came up from their dugouts in time, and by nightfall the British Army had suffered over 57,000 casualties, the bloodiest day in its history. The French to the south did better. The offensive ground on through twelve battles and the first use of tanks, on 15 September, until Douglas Haig shut it down on 18 November, about seven miles from where it began. The National Army Museum counts 420,000 British Empire, 200,000 French and at least 450,000 German casualties. Myth vs fact: it did not achieve nothing: it relieved Verdun, cost the German army experienced officers it never replaced, and forced its retreat to the Hindenburg Line in 1917.15
Why it ranks here: Full marks for recognition, memory and certainty: its first day became the symbol of the whole war, fixed on screen in 1916 by Geoffrey Malins's film. But after four and a half months it had decided nothing, and decisiveness 2 keeps it one point behind the Hundred Days, which won the war.16
6 First Ypres, 1914
- Where
- Around Ypres (Ieper), West Flanders, Belgium
- War
- World War I, Western Front
- Sides
- Britain, France and Belgium against Germany
- Strength
- A British Expeditionary Force doubled from its original 90,000 men, alongside French and Belgian troops; German numbers not firmly established
- Result
- Allied defensive victory, 20 October to 22 November 1914 (National Army Museum dating); nearly 150,000 casualties on each side by EBSCO's count
After the Marne the German high command tried once more to get around the Allied flank, between Lille and the Channel coast, and reach the Channel ports. The British Expeditionary Force, now twice its original 90,000 men with Indian and Territorial divisions, was moved from the Aisne to Ypres.17
From 20 October the Germans tried again and again to break through, Gheluvelt among the places they struck. The line held. Even the dates differ: the National Army Museum gives 20 October to 22 November, EBSCO's Research Starters 30 October to 25 November, and EBSCO puts the losses of each side at nearly 150,000. The old regular army was almost wiped out: by the end of 1914 the BEF had suffered over 90,000 casualties. Myth vs fact: German propaganda claimed that young volunteers stormed the ridge at Langemarck on 10 November singing "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles"; in fact machine guns firing from the high ground mowed down hundreds of barely trained recruits. In Ypres the Last Post is still sounded at the Menin Gate every evening at 8 p.m.18
Why it ranks here: It closed the last open flank in the west and ended the war of movement: after it, trenches ran from the Channel to Switzerland. Better known in Britain and Belgium, it scores 4 on every main criterion and 5 for certainty: alone on 41, a point behind the Somme and ahead of the four on 40.19
7 Passchendaele, 1917
- Where
- The ridges east of Ypres, West Flanders, Belgium
- War
- World War I, Western Front (Third Battle of Ypres)
- Sides
- Britain, its Empire and France against Germany
- Strength
- 3,000 British guns in the opening bombardment; about 100,000 Canadians in the final phase
- Result
- Ridge taken, no breakthrough, 31 July to 10 November 1917; 300,000 British and about 260,000 German casualties by the National Army Museum's count
Douglas Haig wanted to break out of the Ypres salient, take the high ground around it and push on to the Belgian coast and the U-boat bases there. After a two-week bombardment by 3,000 guns, the infantry attacked at 3:50 on the morning of 31 July 1917. That afternoon the rain began.20
Shelling had wrecked the drainage of the low Flanders fields, and the rain turned them into a swamp of mud and flooded shell holes. Attacks in September and October took Polygon Wood and Broodseinde. The Canadians, some 100,000 men, took the ruined village on 6 November and cleared the ridge on 10 November; 15,654 of them were killed or wounded, almost exactly what their commander Arthur Currie had predicted. The gain was about five miles. The National Army Museum gives 300,000 British and about 260,000 German casualties, EBSCO's Research Starters about 245,000 British and 230,000 German. Myth vs fact: Passchendaele is the popular name for the whole Third Battle of Ypres; the village was only the last objective of a battle that began more than three months earlier. In 1918, facing the German spring offensive, the British gave up the ridge without a fight.21
Why it ranks here: Its name is a byword for mud and for sacrifice without result, so full marks for recognition and memory. But the breakthrough never came, so decisiveness 2 and consequence 3; it ties Tannenberg, Caporetto and Megiddo on 40 points and goes ahead of all three on recognition.
8 Tannenberg, 1914
- Where
- Southern East Prussia, southwest of the Masurian Lakes, Germany (today Poland)
- War
- World War I, Eastern Front
- Sides
- Germany against Russia
- Strength
- German Eighth Army about 150,000; Russian Second Army 230,000 by Erik Sass's count
- Result
- German victory, 26 to 30 August 1914; Russian Second Army destroyed; about 90,000 to 92,000 Russians taken prisoner
Russia kept its promise to France and invaded East Prussia in mid-August 1914, before its mobilization was complete: Pavel Rennenkampf's First Army from the east, Alexander Samsonov's Second Army from the south, meant to trap the German Eighth Army of about 150,000 men between them. Berlin called Paul von Hindenburg out of retirement, with Erich Ludendorff as his chief of staff, and they carried out a plan already drawn up by Colonel Max Hoffmann: screen Rennenkampf and shift the bulk of the army south by rail against Samsonov. Intercepted Russian radio messages told them where he was going.22
From 26 August the Germans broke both Russian flanks, and between 28 and 30 August the rest of the Second Army was surrounded; Samsonov shot himself. HISTORY counts over 30,000 Russians killed and some 92,000 taken prisoner; Erik Sass about 170,000 Russian casualties, 90,000 of them prisoners, against 14,000 German. The Russian invasion was finished off at the Masurian Lakes in September. Myth vs fact: the name was a piece of propaganda: the Germans called the battle Tannenberg to avenge the defeat of the Teutonic Knights there in 1410, the battle Poles call Grunwald. The Tannenberg memorial of 1927 became Hindenburg's tomb in 1935 and was blown up in 1945.23
Why it ranks here: It destroyed a Russian army, wrecked the invasion of East Prussia and made Hindenburg a national hero, so 4 on every main criterion. It did not decide the war in the east, is less known outside Germany, Russia and Poland, and loses a point on certainty because Russian losses and strength vary widely. On 40 points it trails Passchendaele on recognition, ties Caporetto on recognition and consequence but is older, and leads Megiddo on recognition.24
9 Caporetto, 1917
- Where
- Upper Isonzo valley at Caporetto (now Kobarid, Slovenia), then back across the Venetian plain to the Piave
- War
- World War I, Italian front
- Sides
- Austro-German Fourteenth Army under Otto von Below against the Italian army under Luigi Cadorna
- Strength
- Seven German divisions sent to join the Austro-Hungarians against the Italian Second Army of 353 battalions plus 36 in reserve
- Result
- Central Powers victory, 24 October to 12 November 1917; Italians driven back to the Piave, some 60 miles by HISTORY's account; 280,000 to 293,000 captured
By the autumn of 1917 Italy had attacked eleven times on the Isonzo since May 1915 and gained less than seven miles, but the Austro-Hungarian line near Gorizia was close to breaking. Germany sent seven divisions to help, and a joint Austro-German Fourteenth Army, under the German general Otto von Below, was aimed at the Italian Second Army around the small town of Caporetto, today Kobarid in Slovenia, an army that held about half of Italy's strength.25
The attack opened on 24 October after a brief, effective bombardment, and by nightfall, by HISTORY's account, the attackers had advanced 25 kilometers. The Italian army fell back to the river Piave, north of Venice, some 60 miles by HISTORY's account, and there the new line held. About 40,000 Italians were killed or wounded. HISTORY counts 280,000 prisoners, the Risorgimento museum in Bologna 293,493. Armando Diaz replaced Cadorna on 9 November, and the last attack on the Piave failed on 23 November. In Italian the name became a common word: a caporetto is any crushing defeat. Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms made the retreat famous abroad; myth vs fact, he never saw it: Gale's Novels for Students notes that he volunteered for Italy only in May 1918.26
Why it ranks here: It nearly knocked Italy out of the war, but Italy held on the Piave, and the prisoner counts differ, so it scores 4 on every criterion. Four battles share its total: Passchendaele is better known and stands ahead, Tannenberg matches it on recognition and consequence and goes first as the older battle, and Megiddo, less well known, follows it.
10 Megiddo, 1918
- Where
- Plain of Sharon and the valley below Megiddo, Palestine
- War
- World War I, Sinai and Palestine campaign
- Sides
- British Empire under General Sir Edmund Allenby against three Ottoman armies under Otto Liman von Sanders
- Strength
- About 57,000 infantry and 12,000 mounted troops against three Ottoman armies of about 35,000 men
- Result
- Ottoman defeat, 19 to 25 September 1918; over 25,000 Ottoman killed, wounded or captured in the battle, some 75,000 prisoners by 30 October
In September 1918 three Ottoman armies, about 35,000 men under the German general Otto Liman von Sanders, held a line across Palestine; one was led by Mustafa Kemal, the defender of Gallipoli. Allenby made them expect his blow across the Jordan and secretly shifted his strength to the coast.27
The attack began on 19 September. The infantry broke the line by the sea and the cavalry rode through the gap into the Ottoman rear; by the evening of the 20th they were in Nazareth, where Liman von Sanders escaped from his headquarters just in time. The Eighth Army was destroyed, the Seventh routed, and the capture of the railway junction at Deraa cut off the survivors of the Seventh and the Fourth east of the Jordan. The National Army Museum puts Ottoman losses in the whole battle at over 25,000 killed, wounded or captured. Australian horsemen rode into Damascus on 1 October and Aleppo fell on 25 October. In six weeks Allenby's army took some 75,000 prisoners and 360 guns and moved the front 560 kilometers, and on 30 October the Ottoman Empire signed the armistice of Mudros and left the war. Allenby chose the name himself: Megiddo is the biblical Armageddon.28
Why it ranks here: Top marks for decisiveness, consequence and certainty, because three Ottoman armies were broken within a week and the Ottoman war was over within six; but the Western Front overshadows it, so recognition and memory are 3. It shares its total with Passchendaele, Tannenberg and Caporetto, all better known, so it comes last of the four.
11 Jutland, 1916
- Where
- North Sea, off the coast of Jutland, Denmark
- War
- World War I, North Sea
- Fleets
- British Grand Fleet (Jellicoe, Beatty) against German High Seas Fleet (Scheer, Hipper)
- Strength
- 250 or 279 warships in all by Royal Museums Greenwich's two counts, the British much the stronger
- Result
- Draw, 31 May to 1 June 1916; Britain lost 14 ships, Germany 11, and the High Seas Fleet went home
Britain's plan at sea was simple: keep the German fleet shut in the North Sea and squeeze Germany by blockade. Reinhard Scheer, commanding the High Seas Fleet, knew he could not take on the whole Grand Fleet, so he tried to lure part of it out and destroy it. Warned by intercepted German signals, the Grand Fleet put to sea on the evening of 30 May. On 31 May 1916 the scouting battlecruisers of Franz von Hipper and David Beatty met in the North Sea, with John Jellicoe's battle fleet coming up behind. Royal Museums Greenwich counts 250 ships in all on one of its pages and 279 on another.29
Beatty chased Hipper south onto the German battleships and within half an hour lost two battlecruisers to catastrophic explosions. Then Scheer ran into Jellicoe. Twice he met the massed guns of the Grand Fleet and withdrew, and in the night his fleet broke through the British destroyers to get home. Britain lost 14 ships and Germany 11; Royal Museums Greenwich counts 6,945 British and 3,058 German casualties, prisoners included. Myth vs fact: in terms of losses Germany could claim a tactical victory, but the next day Britain had 105 undamaged warships ready to fight and Germany only 40, and Scheer admitted to the Kaiser that a fleet battle could not knock Britain out of the war. Royal Museums Greenwich calls it the largest naval battle of the First World War.30
Why it ranks here: The only full clash of the dreadnought fleets is famous and superbly documented, and it kept the blockade in place; but neither fleet was destroyed and the war went on as before, so decisiveness is only 3, which leaves it a point below the four battles on 40.
12 Spring Offensive, 1918
- Where
- Western Front in France and Flanders, from the Somme and the Lys to the Aisne and the Marne
- War
- World War I, Western Front
- Sides
- German armies under Erich Ludendorff against British, French and American forces, coordinated from 26 March by Ferdinand Foch
- Strength
- 81 German divisions faced Haig's 59 in mid-February 1918; some 9,000 to 10,000 guns opened the attack
- Result
- German failure, spring 1918; up to 40 miles gained but no breakthrough; in Operation Michael alone 240,000 German losses (National Army Museum)
Russia's withdrawal from the war released substantial numbers of German troops, and by mid-February 1918, the National Army Museum counts, 81 German divisions faced Haig's 59. The window could not last: large numbers of American troops would soon be in the line, and Erich Ludendorff staked everything on one last offensive. His first blow, Operation Michael, fell on 21 March on the thinly held British front south of Cambrai, after a five-hour bombardment by some 9,000 to 10,000 guns.31
Storm troops broke the British Fifth Army, and on 26 March the Allies put Ferdinand Foch in charge of coordinating them. By 5 April, when Ludendorff called Michael off, the Germans had advanced almost 40 miles and taken 70,000 prisoners, the biggest gains on the Western Front by either side since 1914. Ludendorff launched four more such operations that spring and summer, and in one of these crises Haig ordered his men to fight on "with our backs to the wall." In Operation Michael alone the National Army Museum counts 178,000 British, 77,000 French and 240,000 German losses; HISTORY notes that the Germans lacked the fresh reserves the Allies now had. The offensives exhausted the German army and left it holding a vulnerable salient, which the Allies attacked at Amiens in August.32
Why it ranks here: Germany's last bid to win the war gained more ground than any attack since 1914, then stalled and cost an army that could not be replaced; its failure set up the Allied victory, so decisiveness, consequence and recognition are 4. Remembered mostly under its separate names, with casualty counts that differ widely, it gets 3 for memory and 4 for certainty.
13 Brusilov Offensive, 1916
- Where
- Eastern Front, some 200 miles from the Pripet Marshes to the Romanian border (today western Ukraine)
- War
- World War I, Eastern Front
- Sides
- Russian South-West Front under Aleksei Brusilov against Austro-Hungarian and German armies
- Strength
- Four Russian armies of the South-West Front; Piotr Szlanta judges the two sides' forces roughly equal
- Result
- Russian victory, 4 June to 20 September 1916; Austro-Hungarian losses put at 600,000 to 1.5 million, Russian at 1.4 million (Erik Sass)
In 1916 France pleaded with its allies to attack elsewhere and draw German strength away from Verdun. Aleksei Brusilov, commanding the South-West Front, struck with all four of his armies at once on a very wide front, 200 miles by HISTORY's account and over 300 kilometers by Piotr Szlanta's; in Brusilov's view, Szlanta explains, a bombardment should be short and confuse the enemy rather than destroy him.33
The attack began on 4 June. Near Lutsk the Russians took 26,000 prisoners in a day and within two days had broken the Austro-Hungarian Fourth Army; in Szlanta's words the Fourth and Seventh Armies in practice ceased to exist. Conrad von Hötzendorf had to halt his offensive in Italy and send guns and divisions east, Falkenhayn had to release four German divisions from the west, and more German divisions were rushed in to shore up Austria-Hungary. The offensive also persuaded Romania to join the Allies. When it was shut down on 20 September, the Russians had pushed the Habsburg armies back over a hundred miles in places. The cost is disputed: the historian Piotr Szlanta puts Austro-Hungarian losses at up to 600,000, HISTORY at 1.5 million with 400,000 prisoners; Erik Sass puts Russian losses at 1.4 million. Austria-Hungary never recovered its striking power and fell under German command, while Russia, bled white, slid toward revolution.34
Why it ranks here: Russia's best offensive of the war nearly broke Austria-Hungary, so recognition, decisiveness and consequence are 4; but Russia could not exploit it, and loss estimates on both sides differ by hundreds of thousands, so certainty is only 3. It has the same total and the same recognition as Vimy Ridge and stands ahead because its consequences were far larger.
14 Vimy Ridge, 1917
- Where
- Vimy Ridge, north of Arras, France
- War
- World War I, Western Front (Battle of Arras)
- Sides
- Canadian Corps under Sir Julian Byng against the four German divisions of Gruppe Vimy
- Strength
- The four divisions of the Canadian Corps, attacking together for the first time, with more than 15,000 infantry in the first assault
- Result
- Canadian victory, 9 to 12 April 1917; 3,598 Canadians killed and about 7,000 wounded
Vimy Ridge, a heavily fortified seven-kilometer ridge in northern France, held a commanding view over the Allied lines, and earlier French attacks on it had failed with over 100,000 casualties. In April 1917 the task went to the Canadian Corps, as part of the British offensive at Arras, and for the first time all four Canadian divisions would attack together, side by side.35
At 5:30 a.m. on Easter Monday, 9 April, more than 15,000 Canadian infantry went forward behind the barrage. By the afternoon three divisions had taken their objectives, but the 4th Division was stopped short of Hill 145, which fell the next day, and the Pimple only on 12 April. The Canadians lost 3,598 killed and about 7,000 wounded; the Canadian Encyclopedia estimates German casualties at 20,000, with another 4,000 taken prisoner. Myth vs fact: Vimy is remembered as "the birth of a nation," Brigadier-General Alexander Ross's phrase, but historians note that it did not change the course of the war, and the wider offensive it served ended in failure. The memorial on Hill 145, unveiled in 1936 before a crowd of more than 100,000, carries the names of 11,285 Canadians killed in France who have no known grave.36
Why it ranks here: Few battles of the war live on so strongly, so memory scores 5; but it was a local success inside the failed Arras offensive, so decisiveness is 2. It has the same total and recognition as the Brusilov Offensive and follows it because its consequences were smaller.
15 Second Marne, 1918
- Where
- The Marne valley around Reims, Château-Thierry and Soissons, France
- War
- World War I, Western Front
- Sides
- German armies under Erich Ludendorff against French, American, British and Italian troops under Ferdinand Foch
- Strength
- 23 German divisions east of Reims and 17 west of it on 15 July; French and American troops with tanks and aircraft in the counterattack of 18 July
- Result
- Allied victory, July and August 1918; German losses about 168,000, Allied about 120,000 (EBSCO)
In July 1918 the German high command, convinced that the decisive blow had to fall in Flanders, planned one more attack farther south, on both sides of Reims, to draw Allied strength away first. The Allies learned of it a week ahead. On 15 July, 23 German divisions attacked east of Reims and 17 west of it. East of the city the attack was halted by the end of the day. West of it the Germans crossed the Marne at several points, and the US 3rd Division, holding its ground, earned the name "Rock of the Marne."37
Foch had already prepared his reply. On 18 July, without an artillery barrage to warn the Germans, French and American troops supported by tanks and aircraft struck the German positions along the Marne. The French count gives Mangin's Tenth Army 18 divisions, two of them American and one Scottish, and 10,000 prisoners on an advance of 10 kilometers. The Germans fell back across the Marne to positions along the Aisne. EBSCO's Research Starters puts German losses at about 168,000 and Allied at about 120,000. The initiative passed to the Allies, and on 8 August they struck again at Amiens.38
Why it ranks here: It stopped Germany's last offensive of the war and handed the initiative to the Allies for good, so decisiveness scores 5; but it lives in the shadow of the first battle on the same river, so recognition is 3 and memory only 2.
How we chose and ranked these World War I battles
We counted every battle or named offensive of World War I, on the Western, Eastern and Italian fronts, at Gallipoli, in the Middle East and at sea, and we ranked it above all on how famous it is and whether it decided a campaign or the course of the war. Long campaigns made of many separate battles, such as the twelve battles of the Isonzo, are counted only through their decisive moment. Sea battles of every age are compared in the greatest naval battles, the Ottoman fronts in the greatest battles of the Ottoman Empire, and the bloodiest fights of all wars in the deadliest battles in history.
We considered 25 candidates and scored each one from 1 to 5 on five criteria. Recognition counts three times, because this page answers the question of which battles of World War I are the greatest and best known; decisiveness, consequence and memory count twice, and certainty once:
- Recognition (×3). 5 if the name is known far beyond military history and appears on most published lists of its kind, 1 if only specialists know it.
- Decisiveness (×2). 5 if it decided a campaign or the course of the war, 1 if the war went on as if it had not been fought.
- Consequence (×2). 5 if it changed the map, the fate of a state or the way wars are fought, 1 if its effects stayed local.
- Memory (×2). 5 if it is still a living tradition (a national day, a great memorial, a famous book, poem or film), 1 if it is forgotten.
- Certainty (×1). 5 if the numbers and events are confirmed by independent sources, 1 if they rest on one source or are disputed.
The list is ranked by total score, not by date. Ties go to the better-known battle, then to the one with the greater consequence, then to the older one. The scores are our editorial judgment, made on the evidence in the sources below, and the table shows every one of them. It explains, for example, why the Somme, the most famous battle of the war, is only fifth: it cost over a million casualties and after four and a half months the Allies had advanced about seven miles, so it decided no campaign.
| Rank | Name | Recognition ×3 | Decisiveness ×2 | Consequence ×2 | Memory ×2 | Certainty ×1 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Marne | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 47 |
| 2 | Gallipoli | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 46 |
| 3 | Verdun | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 46 |
| 4 | Hundred Days Offensive | 4 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 43 |
| 5 | The Somme | 5 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 42 |
| 6 | First Ypres | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 41 |
| 7 | Passchendaele | 5 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 40 |
| 8 | Tannenberg | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 40 |
| 9 | Caporetto | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 40 |
| 10 | Megiddo | 3 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 40 |
| 11 | Jutland | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 39 |
| 12 | Spring Offensive | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 38 |
| 13 | Brusilov Offensive | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 37 |
| 14 | Vimy Ridge | 4 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 37 |
| 15 | Second Marne | 3 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 36 |
Close calls
Five battles came close and did not make the fifteen:
Gorlice-Tarnów, 1915. On 2 May 1915 a German and Austro-Hungarian offensive broke the Russian front between Gorlice and Tarnów. The advance that followed won back almost all of Galicia, Przemyśl and Lwów included, and took the whole Kingdom of Poland from Russia. Few battles of the war decided more, but outside Central Europe hardly anyone knows the name.39
Vittorio Veneto, 1918. Italy's last battle against Austria-Hungary: armistice talks began on 29 October 1918, while it was still being fought, and the armistice of Villa Giusti, signed on 3 November, took effect on 4 November. Italy still marks that day. But the Habsburg empire was already falling apart, and few outside Italy know the name.40
Meuse-Argonne, 1918. The US Army calls the American offensive of 26 September to 11 November 1918 the largest and most costly military operation in American history: 26,277 men killed and 95,786 wounded. Yet it was one part of the Hundred Days, which is already on the list, and it is little known outside the United States.41
Second Ypres, 1915. On 22 April 1915 the Germans released about 160 tons of chlorine at Ypres, the first large poison gas attack of the war, and the Canadians held the gap it tore in the line. There John McCrae wrote "In Flanders Fields." The battle changed how the war was fought, not how it went.42
Mons, 1914. On 23 August 1914 the British Expeditionary Force, some 90,000 men in all, stopped the German First Army on the Mons-Condé canal, then began a 200-mile fighting retreat. From a short story by Arthur Machen, published that September, grew the legend of the Angel of Mons. Famous in Britain, but a delaying action, so decisiveness 2.43
See these battles set beside every other era in Battles That Changed the World.
Why World War I changed war forever
World War I was where industry overwhelmed tactics. Machine guns, quick-firing artillery and barbed wire made the old attacks suicidal, and the fighting froze into a line of trenches from the Channel to Switzerland. Battles like the Somme and Verdun became months-long grinding machines that killed hundreds of thousands for a few miles of mud.44
What was the first major battle of World War I?
There is no single first battle. In the west the war opened with Germany's attack on the Belgian fortress city of Liège, 4 to 16 August 1914, followed by the Battle of the Frontiers in Belgium and eastern France. In mid-August Serbia won the first major Allied victory at Cer, and on 23 August Britain fought its first major battle at Mons.45
Liège lay across the German route into Belgium and France. German troops slipped between its forts and took the center of the city in the first days, but the forts held out, the first of them falling on 8 August, until 420-mm guns were brought up against them from 13 August; by the Ardennes tourist board's account the last surrendered on 16 August. In Serbia the Serbs defeated the invading Austro-Hungarians at Cer, in the first major Allied victory of the war. At Mons the British Expeditionary Force met the German First Army and, after a day of fighting, began a long retreat; the Commonwealth War Graves Commission counts around 1,600 British soldiers killed, wounded, captured or missing there. In the east, Russia's invasion of East Prussia ended in a heavy defeat at Tannenberg at the end of August. The first battle to settle the shape of the war came in September, on the Marne.46
What was the deadliest battle of World War I?
It depends on what is counted. Counting killed, wounded, missing and captured on both sides, the Somme, 1 July to 18 November 1916, is most often named; the National Army Museum's figures are given below. Russia's Brusilov offensive of 1916 may have cost more: Austro-Hungarian losses are put at 600,000 by the historian Piotr Szlanta and at 1.5 million by HISTORY, and Russian losses at 1.4 million by Erik Sass, but it was a campaign on a front HISTORY puts at 200 miles.47
World War I figures almost always mean casualties, not deaths alone, and sources often differ by tens of thousands. For the Somme, the National Army Museum gives 420,000 British Empire, 200,000 French and at least 450,000 German casualties. For Verdun the Mémorial de Verdun counts almost 700,000 killed and wounded, and for Passchendaele the National Army Museum gives 300,000 British and about 260,000 German casualties. If whole campaigns are counted, the fighting of 1918 ranks higher still: the National WWI Museum puts the Allied Hundred Days at close to 1,070,000 Allied and 1,172,075 German casualties. See how these battles compare with those of other wars in our ranking of the deadliest battles in history.48
What happened on the first day of the Somme?
On 1 July 1916, at 7:30 in the morning, 14 British divisions attacked after a week-long bombardment that had left much of the German wire uncut. By nightfall the British Army had suffered 57,470 casualties, 19,240 of them killed, according to the Imperial War Museums. It remains the bloodiest day in British military history.49
The bombardment had begun on 24 June. The National Army Museum puts the number of shells fired at 1.5 million, but the guns were spread too thinly, many of the shells were shrapnel that could do little against concrete dugouts, and up to 30 percent may have failed to explode. When the barrage lifted, the German machine gunners came up from shelters that had survived and swept the ground in front of them. The French made good progress south of the British, and the British divisions next to them took their objectives, but along most of the line the attack failed. Over the next four and a half months the Allies advanced only about seven miles. Our account of the Battle of the Somme follows the offensive to its end in the November mud.50
What was the longest battle of World War I?
The National Army Museum calls Verdun the longest battle of the First World War. It opened with a German bombardment on 21 February 1916 and ended on 18 December 1916, after ten months of fighting, in the Mémorial de Verdun's words. The Somme, by the National Army Museum's account, was a five-month struggle, and Passchendaele ran from 31 July to 10 November 1917.51
The Mémorial de Verdun counts about 700,000 victims on both sides, 306,000 of them dead or missing and around 400,000 wounded, and breaks its count down into 163,000 French dead and 216,000 wounded, and 143,000 German dead and 190,000 wounded. Our full account of the Battle of Verdun follows the fight for the forts.52
What was the largest naval battle of World War I?
Jutland, fought in the North Sea on 31 May and 1 June 1916, was the largest naval battle of the war. About 250 ships and some 100,000 men took part as Admiral John Jellicoe's British Grand Fleet met Reinhard Scheer's German High Seas Fleet.53
The British lost 14 ships and more than 6,000 men, the Germans 11 ships and more than 2,500 men; Royal Museums Greenwich gives 6,094 British and 2,551 German dead. In its account, David Beatty's battlecruiser force lost two ships to catastrophic explosions within half an hour of the first clash. Both sides claimed victory. Germany sank more ships, but its fleet failed to defeat the Grand Fleet, and the Imperial War Museums notes that the German battle fleet never again seriously contested British control of the North Sea. Jutland takes its place among the great fleet actions in our guide to the greatest naval battles.54
What was the turning point of World War I?
Two battles are most often named. The First Battle of the Marne in September 1914 wrecked Germany's plan for a quick victory over France and ended the belief that the war would be short. The Battle of Amiens on 8 August 1918 began the Allied Hundred Days, the advance that ended in the armistice of 11 November.55
Amiens was a shock to the German command. On the first day the Canadian Corps advanced 13 kilometers (8 miles) and the Australians about 11 kilometers (7 miles), and Erich Ludendorff later called it "the black day of the German Army." The Canadian War Museum calls it “the most successful day of combat for the Allies on the Western Front.”56
How did World War I end on the battlefield?
The war was decided on the Western Front in 1918. Germany's spring offensive, launched on 21 March, won ground but not the war. From 8 August, beginning at Amiens, the Allies' Hundred Days Offensive drove the German army back through the Hindenburg Line and led directly to the armistice of 11 November 1918.57
Russia's withdrawal from the war released substantial numbers of German troops for the West. The German high command saw one last chance: strike before large numbers of American troops could be committed. The attacks brought the Germans back to the river Marne, where their advance had been stopped in 1914, and in July Ferdinand Foch counterattacked in the Second Battle of the Marne. Read how the first stand saved Paris in the Battle of the Marne.58
At Amiens on 8 August, General Henry Rawlinson's British Fourth Army, spearheaded by Canadian and Australian troops, attacked with 13 divisions and 420 to 450 tanks. From then on the Allies won battle after battle. On 29 September they crossed the St Quentin Canal and broke through one of the strongest sections of the Hindenburg Line. Farther east, the American First Army under General John J. Pershing opened the Meuse-Argonne offensive on 26 September. The US Army Center of Military History calls it “the largest and most costly military operation in American history,” with 26,277 American soldiers killed; see our account of the Meuse-Argonne offensive. The "Hundred Days" ended with the armistice of 11 November.59
We follow the whole campaign in the Hundred Days Offensive, and its last morning in how World War I ended.
Each battle has its full account on its own page. Test what you have learned with our World War I battles quiz or today's Battle of the Day, or see how this industrial slaughter fits the wider story in the greatest battles of all time.
Notes
A number in the text points to a note; each note names the works that paragraph draws on, listed in full under Sources.
- National WWI Museum and Memorial, “The Hundred Days Offensive”. ↩
- National Army Museum, “Timeline”; EBSCO Research Starters, “First Battle of the Marne”; HISTORY.com Editors, “First Battle of the Marne begins”; HistoryNet, “1914”. ↩
- EBSCO Research Starters, “First Battle of the Marne”; HISTORY.com Editors, “First Battle of the Marne begins”; National Army Museum, “Timeline”; HistoryNet, “1914”; Musée de l’Armée, “Marne taxi”. ↩
- National Army Museum, “Timeline”; HistoryNet, “1914”. ↩
- National Army Museum, “Gallipoli campaign”; The Gallipoli Association, “Campaign”; Anadolu Agency, “Turkey marks 105th anniversary of Canakkale Victory”. ↩
- National Army Museum, “Gallipoli campaign”; Australian War Memorial, “Atatürk (Mustafa Kemal)”; The Gallipoli Association, “Campaign”; Australian War Memorial, “Gallipoli”; HISTORY, “Allies retreat from Gallipoli”. ↩
- Australian War Memorial, “The Anzac Day Tradition”; Anadolu Agency, “Turkey marks 105th anniversary of Canakkale Victory”. ↩
- Mémorial de Verdun, “The Battle of Verdun”. ↩
- Mémorial de Verdun, “The Battle of Verdun”; Portal Militärgeschichte, “Falkenhayn und Verdun”. ↩
- National WWI Museum and Memorial, “They Shall Not Pass | 1916”; Mémorial de Verdun, “The Battle of Verdun”. ↩
- National Army Museum, “1918”; National WWI Museum and Memorial, “The Hundred Days Offensive”; Australian War Memorial, “8 August 1918”. ↩
- National Army Museum, “1918”; National WWI Museum and Memorial, “The Hundred Days Offensive”; Deutsches Historisches Museum, “Die Dolchstoßlegende”. ↩
- Veterans Affairs Canada, “The Last Hundred Days”. ↩
- National Army Museum, “Battle of the Somme”. ↩
- National Army Museum, “Battle of the Somme”. ↩
- National Army Museum, “Battle of the Somme”. ↩
- Deutsches Historisches Museum, “Schlacht bei Langemarck (10. November 1914)”; National Army Museum, “Timeline”; National Army Museum, “1914”. ↩
- Deutsches Historisches Museum, “Schlacht bei Langemarck (10. November 1914)”; National Army Museum, “1914”; EBSCO Research Starters, “Battle of Ypres”; National Army Museum, “Timeline”; Last Post Association, “The Last Post”. ↩
- National Army Museum, “1914”. ↩
- National Army Museum, “Battle of Passchendaele”; Veterans Affairs Canada, “Battle of Passchendaele”. ↩
- Veterans Affairs Canada, “Battle of Passchendaele”; National Army Museum, “Battle of Passchendaele”; EBSCO Research Starters, “Battle of Ypres”. ↩
- Mental Floss, “Annihilation at Tannenberg”; HISTORY, “Battle of Tannenberg begins”. ↩
- Mental Floss, “Annihilation at Tannenberg”; HISTORY, “Battle of Tannenberg begins”; Deutsches Historisches Museum, “Tannenberg”. ↩
- Deutsches Historisches Museum, “Tannenberg”. ↩
- HISTORY.com, “Battle of Caporetto”; Storia e Memoria di Bologna, “La ritirata al Piave”; EBSCO Research Starters, “Battle of Caporetto”. ↩
- HISTORY.com, “Battle of Caporetto”; EBSCO Research Starters, “Battle of Caporetto”; Storia e Memoria di Bologna, “La ritirata al Piave”; Treccani, “Caporétto”; Il Post, “La più grande sconfitta mai subita dall’esercito italiano”; Encyclopedia.com, “A Farewell to Arms”. ↩
- Anzac Memorial, “Megiddo”; National Army Museum, “Battle of Megiddo”; Australian War Memorial London, “Megiddo”. ↩
- Australian War Memorial London, “Megiddo”; National Army Museum, “Battle of Megiddo”; HISTORY.com, “Ottoman Empire signs treaty with Allies”; Anzac Memorial, “Megiddo”. ↩
- EBSCO Research Starters, “Battle of Jutland”; Royal Museums Greenwich, “Remembering Jutland”; Royal Museums Greenwich, “Who won the Battle of Jutland?”. ↩
- Royal Museums Greenwich, “Remembering Jutland”; EBSCO Research Starters, “Battle of Jutland”; Royal Museums Greenwich, “Who won the Battle of Jutland?”. ↩
- National Army Museum, “1918”; HISTORY.com, “First stage of German spring offensive ends”. ↩
- National Army Museum, “1918”; HISTORY.com, “First stage of German spring offensive ends”. ↩
- HISTORY.com, “Brusilov Offensive, one of the most successful ground operations of WWI, begins”; dzieje.pl, “Prof. Szlanta”; Mental Floss, “WWI Centennial”. ↩
- HISTORY.com, “Brusilov Offensive, one of the most successful ground operations of WWI, begins”; dzieje.pl, “Prof. Szlanta”; Mental Floss, “WWI Centennial”. ↩
- Canadian War Museum, “The Battle of Vimy Ridge”; The Canadian Encyclopedia, “Battle of Vimy Ridge”. ↩
- Canadian War Museum, “The Battle of Vimy Ridge”; The Canadian Encyclopedia, “Battle of Vimy Ridge”; Canadian War Museum, “Vimy Memorial”. ↩
- EBSCO Research Starters, “Analysis”. ↩
- EBSCO Research Starters, “Analysis”; Chemins de mémoire, “27 mai - 6 août 1918. La deuxième bataille de la Marne”; National Army Museum, “1918”. ↩
- dzieje.pl, “Prof. Szlanta”. ↩
- Il Post, “Perché il 4 novembre è festa”. ↩
- U.S. Army Center of Military History, “Meuse-Argonne, 26 September-11 November 1918”. ↩
- Veterans Affairs Canada, “2nd Battle of Ypres”; The Canadian Encyclopedia, “Canada and the Second Battle of Ypres”; Canadian War Museum, “In Flanders Fields and John McCrae”. ↩
- National Army Museum, “1914”; Australian War Memorial, “Angel of Mons”. ↩
- Mémorial de Verdun, “The Battle of Verdun”; National Army Museum, “Battle of the Somme”. ↩
- National Army Museum, “Timeline”; Ardennes tourist board, “The Forts of the Province of Liège”; Commonwealth War Graves Commission, “Remembering the Battle of Mons”. ↩
- Ardennes tourist board, “The Forts of the Province of Liège”; Land of Memory, “City of Visé”; National Army Museum, “Timeline”; National Army Museum, “1914”; Commonwealth War Graves Commission, “Remembering the Battle of Mons”; HISTORY, “Battle of Tannenberg begins”. ↩
- National Army Museum, “Battle of the Somme”; dzieje.pl, “Prof. Szlanta”; HISTORY.com, “Brusilov Offensive, one of the most successful ground operations of WWI, begins”; Mental Floss, “WWI Centennial”. ↩
- National Army Museum, “Battle of the Somme”; Mémorial de Verdun, “The Battle of Verdun”; National Army Museum, “Battle of Passchendaele”; National WWI Museum and Memorial, “The Hundred Days Offensive”. ↩
- National Army Museum, “Battle of the Somme”; Imperial War Museums, “First Day of the Battle of the Somme”. ↩
- National Army Museum, “Battle of the Somme”; Imperial War Museums, “First Day of the Battle of the Somme”; Imperial War Museums, “Battle of the Somme”. ↩
- National Army Museum, “Timeline”; Mémorial de Verdun, “The Battle of Verdun”; National Army Museum, “Battle of the Somme”; EBSCO Research Starters, “Battle of Ypres”. ↩
- Mémorial de Verdun, “The Battle of Verdun”. ↩
- Royal Museums Greenwich, “Remembering Jutland”; Imperial War Museums, “Battle of Jutland”. ↩
- Royal Museums Greenwich, “Remembering Jutland”; Imperial War Museums, “Battle of Jutland”. ↩
- National Army Museum, “Timeline”; HISTORY.com Editors, “First Battle of the Marne begins”; National Army Museum, “1918”; Imperial War Museums, “From Amiens to Armistice”. ↩
- Australian War Memorial, “8 August 1918”; Canadian War Museum, “Amiens”. ↩
- HISTORY.com, “First stage of German spring offensive ends”; National WWI Museum and Memorial, “The Hundred Days Offensive”. ↩
- National Army Museum, “1918”; EBSCO Research Starters, “Analysis”. ↩
- National Army Museum, “1918”; Canadian War Museum, “Amiens”; Imperial War Museums, “From Amiens to Armistice”; U.S. Army Center of Military History, “Meuse-Argonne, 26 September-11 November 1918”. ↩
Sources
- National WWI Museum and Memorial, “The Hundred Days Offensive”
- National Army Museum, First World War, “Timeline”
- EBSCO Research Starters (Samuel K. Eddy and Marguerite R. Plummer), “First Battle of the Marne”
- HISTORY.com Editors, “First Battle of the Marne begins”
- HistoryNet (Holger H. Herwig), “1914: Marne in the Balance”
- Musée de l’Armée, “Marne taxi”
- National Army Museum, “Gallipoli campaign”
- The Gallipoli Association, “Campaign”
- Anadolu Agency, “Turkey marks 105th anniversary of Canakkale Victory”
- Australian War Memorial, “Atatürk (Mustafa Kemal)”
- Australian War Memorial, “Gallipoli”
- HISTORY (A&E Television Networks), “Allies retreat from Gallipoli”
- Australian War Memorial, “The Anzac Day Tradition”
- Mémorial de Verdun, “The Battle of Verdun”
- Portal Militärgeschichte (Holger Afflerbach), “Falkenhayn und Verdun” (in German)
- National WWI Museum and Memorial, “They Shall Not Pass | 1916”
- National Army Museum, “1918: Year of victory”
- Australian War Memorial, “8 August 1918: The Black Day of the German Army”
- Deutsches Historisches Museum, LeMO, “Die Dolchstoßlegende” (in German)
- Veterans Affairs Canada, “The Last Hundred Days”
- National Army Museum, “Battle of the Somme”
- Deutsches Historisches Museum, LeMO, “Schlacht bei Langemarck (10. November 1914)” (in German)
- National Army Museum, “1914: Mons to Christmas”
- EBSCO Research Starters, “Battle of Ypres”
- Last Post Association, “The Last Post”
- National Army Museum, “Battle of Passchendaele”
- Veterans Affairs Canada, “Battle of Passchendaele”
- Mental Floss (Erik Sass), “Annihilation at Tannenberg”
- HISTORY (A&E Television Networks), “Battle of Tannenberg begins”
- Deutsches Historisches Museum, “Tannenberg” (German and English)
- HISTORY.com, “Battle of Caporetto”
- Storia e Memoria di Bologna (Museo civico del Risorgimento), “La ritirata al Piave: le cifre della disfatta” (in Italian)
- EBSCO Research Starters (Charles L. P. Silet), “Battle of Caporetto”
- Treccani, Vocabolario on line, “Caporétto” (in Italian)
- Il Post, “La più grande sconfitta mai subita dall’esercito italiano” (in Italian)
- Encyclopedia.com (Gale, Novels for Students), “A Farewell to Arms”
- Anzac Memorial, Hyde Park, Sydney (NSW Government), “Megiddo”
- National Army Museum, “Battle of Megiddo”
- Australian War Memorial London, “Megiddo: Allenby's Masterstroke”
- HISTORY.com, “Ottoman Empire signs treaty with Allies”
- EBSCO Research Starters, “Battle of Jutland”
- Royal Museums Greenwich, “Remembering Jutland”
- Royal Museums Greenwich (Andrew Choong Han Lin), “Who won the Battle of Jutland?”
- HISTORY.com, “First stage of German spring offensive ends”
- HISTORY.com, “Brusilov Offensive, one of the most successful ground operations of WWI, begins”
- dzieje.pl (PAP, interview with Prof. Piotr Szlanta), “Prof. Szlanta: sukces ofensywy Brusiłowa mógł zapobiec rewolucji bolszewickiej” (in Polish)
- Mental Floss (Erik Sass), “WWI Centennial: Russians Resume Brusilov Offensive”
- Canadian War Museum (Tim Cook), “The Battle of Vimy Ridge”
- The Canadian Encyclopedia, “Battle of Vimy Ridge”
- Canadian War Museum, Canada and the First World War, “Vimy Memorial”
- EBSCO Research Starters (Bethany Groff), “Analysis: The Second Battle of the Marne”
- Chemins de mémoire (French Ministry of the Armed Forces), “27 mai - 6 août 1918. La deuxième bataille de la Marne” (in French)
- Il Post, “Perché il 4 novembre è festa” (in Italian)
- U.S. Army Center of Military History, “Meuse-Argonne, 26 September-11 November 1918”
- Veterans Affairs Canada, “2nd Battle of Ypres”
- The Canadian Encyclopedia, “Canada and the Second Battle of Ypres”
- Canadian War Museum, Canada and the First World War, “In Flanders Fields and John McCrae”
- Australian War Memorial, “Angel of Mons”
- Ardennes tourist board (visitardenne.com), “The Forts of the Province of Liège”
- Commonwealth War Graves Commission, “Remembering the Battle of Mons: Britain’s first major battle of World War One”
- Land of Memory, “City of Visé: Regional Museum of Archaeology and History”
- Imperial War Museums, “First Day of the Battle of the Somme”
- Imperial War Museums, “Battle of the Somme”
- Imperial War Museums, “Battle of Jutland”
- Imperial War Museums, “From Amiens to Armistice: The Hundred Days Offensive”
- Canadian War Museum, “Amiens”
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