On Sunday June 28th 1914, a nineteen-year-old Bosnian Serb, Gavrilo Princip, fired serval shots at a car carrying the heir to the Austro-Hungarian empire Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife. Both were killed outright. 37 Days later and as a direct result of Gavrilo's actions, the world was plunged into a war the likes it had never known before. What started with horses and carts finished 5 years later with tanks, aerial bombardment of soldiers and civilians and the use of chemical weapons against troops in their thousands.
20 million people died and as many again were seriously inured.
This is what happened ...
Francis Ferdinand assassinated at Sarajevo
Kaiser William II promised German support for Austria against Serbia
Austria declared war on Serbia
Germany declared war on Russia
Germany declared war on France and invaded Belgium. Germany had to implement the Schlieffen Plan.
Britain declared war on Germany
Japan declared war on Germany
The Battle of Mons. Germany invaded France
Battle of the Marne started
Siege of Antwerp
Battle of Messines
First Battle of Ypres
Turkey entered the war on Germany’s side. Trench warfare started to dominate the Western Front.
Russia decaled war on Turkey
Britain and France declared war on Turkey
The first Zeppelin raid on Britain took place aimed on Humberside but hit Yarmouth.
Britain bombarded Turkish forts in the Dardanelles
Second Battle of Ypres
Allied troops landed in Gallipoli
The “Lusitania” was sunk by a German U-boat
Italy declared war on Germany and Austria
Zeppelin raid on London
The Germans captured Warsaw from the Russians
Start of the battle of Loos
The Allies started the evacuation of Gallipoli
Conscription introduced in Britain
Start of the Battle of Verdun
British forces surrendered to Turkish forces at Kut in Mesopotamia
Battle of Jutland
Start of the Brusilov Offensive (June offensive)
Start of the Battle of the Somme
End of the Brusilov Offensive
First use en masse of tanks at the Somme
First German air raid on London
Lloyd George becomes British Prime Minister
Germany’s unrestricted submarine warfare campaign started
Tsar Nicolas II abdicates
USA declared war on Germany
France launched an unsuccessful offensive on the Western Front
Start of the Battle of Passchendaele, officially known as the Third Battle of Ypres
Battle of Caporetto – the Italian Army was heavily defeated
Britain launched a major offensive on the Western Front. Passchendaele village was taken by the Allies
End of the Battle of Passchendaele. 500,000 soldiers from both sides lay dead or injured. The Allied forces had advanced just five miles
British tanks won a victory at Cambrai
Armistice between Germany and Russia signed
Britain captured Jerusalem from the Turks
The Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed between Russia and Germany
Germany broke through on the Somme
Marshall Foch was appointed Allied Commander on the Western Front
RAF formed
Germany started an offensive in Flanders
Second Battle of the Marne started. The start of the collapse of theGerman army
Tsar Nicolas and his family assassinated
Battle of Amiens. The Allies successfully broke through from Salonika
Turkish forces collapsed at Megiddo
Germany asked the Allies for an armistice
Germany's navy mutinied
Turkey made peace
Austria made peace
Kaiser William II abdicated. Battleship HMS Britannia sunk by a U-boat. This was the last major navel engagement.
Germany signed an armistice with the Allies – the official date of the end of World War One
Peace conference met at Paris
The surrendered German naval fleet at Scapa Flow was scuttled
The Treaty of Versailles was signed by the Germans