Era VI · 1914 to 1919
World War I
From 1914 to 1918 World War I buried the war of movement in mud and wire, and battles like Verdun and the Somme went on for months. It was fought from Flanders to Gallipoli, and in its last year American troops joined the fighting in France.
34 battles · 3 commanders
Film: a heavy gun firing during the St. Mihiel offensive, September 1918. U.S. Army Signal Corps, U.S. National Archives 111-H-1329. Public domain.
Where the battles were fought
Every battle of the era with a story in the Field Dispatch. Tap a dot to read it.
Europe in close-up
Not on the map: Battle of Vimy Ridge.
Basemap: Natural Earth, public domain. Modern coastlines.
The battles in order
- 1914Battle of Coronel
Von Spee sank Good Hope and Monmouth with all hands, some 1,600 men. Why Cradock fought and the Falklands reply.
- 1914Battle of Kraśnik
Dankl's Austro-Hungarian First Army runs into the Russian Fourth Army south of Lublin and drives it back.
- 1914Battle of Lorraine
Two French armies invade German Lorraine, are thrown back at Morhange and Sarrebourg, then hold Nancy.
- 1914Battle of Mons
On 23 August 1914 the BEF met Kluck's First Army on the Mons canal. Who won, what it cost, why the British retreated and how the Angels legend began.
- 1914Battle of Penang
SMS Emden, with a fake fourth funnel, sank the cruiser Zhemchug and the destroyer Mousquet. No German was hurt.
- 1914Battle of Tannenberg
At Tannenberg in 1914 the German Eighth Army encircled and destroyed Russia's Second Army, taking around 90,000 prisoners in a near-total victory.
- 1914Battle of the Falkland Islands
How Sturdee's battlecruisers caught von Spee's squadron off Port Stanley and sank four of its five cruisers in a day.
- 1914Battle of Łódź
A vast German and Russian battle of maneuver around the city, some 200,000 dead by Polish estimates, and why it is forgotten.
- 1914First Battle of Champagne
How Joffre's first great attack on the trench line in Champagne gained a few kilometers for tens of thousands of casualties.
- 1914First Marne
In September 1914 France and Britain halted the German advance on the Marne, wrecked the Schlieffen Plan and turned the war into four years of trenches.
- 1914First Ypres
The Allies held Ypres from 19 October to 22 November 1914 and stopped the German drive on the Channel ports. Why it ended the war of movement, with maps.
- 1914Siege of Antwerp
German siege guns smash Belgium's ring of forts, but King Albert's army escapes to fight on at the Yser.
- 1915Battle of Dogger Bank
Codebreakers sent Beatty after Hipper's battlecruisers, but a crippled flagship and a garbled signal let them escape.
- 1915Battle of Loos
Britain's first gas attack, the Scottish divisions at Hill 70, the reserves held back, the German defense and the cost.
- 1915Gallipoli Campaign
The Gallipoli campaign of 1915 to 1916, when Allied troops landed on the Dardanelles against the Ottoman Empire and became locked in a bloody stalemate.
- 1915Second Battle of Artois
Pétain's corps and the Moroccan Division reach the crest of Vimy Ridge, then lose it; six weeks cost France over 100,000 men.
- 1916Battle of Jutland
On 31 May 1916 Britain lost more ships and men, yet Scheer's High Seas Fleet never again sought a fleet battle. The full story.
- 1916Battle of Verdun
How ten months of grinding slaughter around a French fortress town became the longest battle of the First World War and a symbol of endurance.
- 1916Brusilov Offensive
Russian armies break the Austro-Hungarian front in Volhynia and Galicia at a terrible cost to both sides.
- 1916Somme
From July to November 1916 the Battle of the Somme cost around a million casualties for a few miles of ground, the enduring symbol of industrial war.
- 1917Battle of Arras
Tunnels, Vimy Ridge, the cavalry at Monchy-le-Preux and Bullecourt in the costliest British offensive of the war by daily rate.
- 1917Battle of Cambrai
476 British tanks broke the Hindenburg Line, then a German counterstroke took most of it back. Who won?
- 1917Battle of Caporetto
On 24 October 1917 German and Austro-Hungarian troops broke the Italian front at Caporetto and drove Italy's army back to the Piave. What it cost.
- 1917Battle of Messines
Nineteen British mines blew open the German ridge south of Ypres. Who won, the Irish divisions, the casualties.
- 1917Battle of Passchendaele
The story of the Third Battle of Ypres in 1917, when a British-led offensive in Flanders sank into a sea of mud in the fight for Passchendaele.
- 1917Battle of Vimy Ridge
Four divisions took the whole ridge for 10,602 casualties. A map, the German side and the myth.
- 1917Second Battle of Heligoland Bight
On 17 November 1917 British cruisers chased German minesweepers through smoke and minefields until two German battleships came up. Why no warship was sunk.
- 1918Battle of Amiens
Canadian, Australian, British and French troops broke the German line in a day. Who won, the cost, why it mattered.
- 1918Battle of Belleau Wood
In June 1918 US Marines fought a brutal three-week battle to clear Belleau Wood, helping halt the German advance on Paris and earning a lasting legend.
- 1918Defense of Lwów
How Polish volunteers, many of them schoolboys, fought street by street for the city and became the Lwów Eaglets. Full story.
- 1918Hundred Days Offensive
From Amiens on 8 August to the armistice on 11 November 1918, Allied armies under Foch broke the Hindenburg Line and drove Germany back. Battles and map.
- 1918Meuse-Argonne Offensive
In autumn 1918 over a million American soldiers fought the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, the largest and deadliest battle in US history, helping end the war.
- 1918Zeebrugge Raid
The Royal Navy raided Zeebrugge on 23 April 1918 to block the U-boat canal. Two blockships sank, but U-boats passed again within days. Why it failed.
- 1919Scuttling of the German fleet at Scapa Flow
Interned in Orkney, the German High Seas Fleet sinks itself on Admiral von Reuter's signal rather than be handed over.
Wars and nations
Wars of this era
Each war told in full: its causes, its course and all its battles in the Field Dispatch.
- Eastern Front (World War I) 1914 to 1918
- Polish independence and border wars (1914 to 1921) 1914 to 1921
- War at sea (World War I) 1914 to 1918
- Western Front (World War I) 1914 to 1918
- Polish-Ukrainian War 1918 to 1919
- Polish-Soviet War 1919 to 1921
Nations
Countries and peoples that fought the battles of this era, by number of battles. Each page tells that country's military history across every era.
Commanders of the era
Guides and lists
Film archive
Short clips from the archives, silent, as they were filmed. Every caption follows the archive's own catalog record.
Artillery tractors on the St. Mihiel front, 1918
- Shows
- A tracked artillery tractor carrying soldiers drives along a muddy forest road toward the camera, towing a gun. The film records American heavy and railway artillery moving guns and howitzers during the offensive.
- Date
- 10 to 25 September 1918, as dated in the catalog record (the St. Mihiel offensive itself ran 12 to 16 September)
- Filmed by
- U.S. Army Signal Corps (camera operator not named in the record)
- Archive
- U.S. National Archives, 111-H-1329, NAID 24832
- License
- Public domain, work of the U.S. federal government
- Catalog record
- The St. Mihiel Offensive, heavy and railway artillery activities
The 110th Infantry marches through Varennes, 1918
- Shows
- A column of American soldiers with packs and rifles walks down a rubble-strewn street past shell-damaged buildings. The catalog record opens with troops of the 110th Infantry, 28th Division, marching through Varennes.
- Date
- Meuse-Argonne offensive, 26 September to 11 November 1918
- Filmed by
- U.S. Army Signal Corps (camera operator not named in the record)
- Archive
- U.S. National Archives, 111-H-1415, NAID 24917
- License
- Public domain, work of the U.S. federal government
- Catalog record
- Meuse-Argonne Offensive, 28th Division
Shellfire over a field in the Argonne, 1918
- Shows
- A static view across a grassy field toward a tree line, where a shell burst throws up white smoke. Among its scenes the catalog record lists German shells exploding in a nearby field.
- Date
- Meuse-Argonne offensive, 26 September to 11 November 1918
- Filmed by
- U.S. Army Signal Corps (camera operator not named in the record)
- Archive
- U.S. National Archives, 111-H-1415, NAID 24917
- License
- Public domain, work of the U.S. federal government
- Catalog record
- Meuse-Argonne Offensive, 28th Division
The U.S. fleet comes home, December 1918
- Shows
- An American battleship with cage masts and heavy gun turrets steams slowly past the camera through gray, misty water. The record describes Navy ships passing a reception boat in New York harbor in December 1918, after the Armistice.
- Date
- December 1918
- Filmed by
- U.S. Army Signal Corps (camera operator not named in the record)
- Archive
- U.S. National Archives, 111-H-1224, NAID 24729
- License
- Public domain, work of the U.S. federal government
- Catalog record
- Return of the U.S. Fleet in December 1918
Test yourself
This era in the app
Echoes of Battle tells the battles of this era on the real map, with a quiz, and many of them as story scenes. The app is in closed testing: enlist below and we will send word to your inbox the day it launches.