The war begins

1.       The allied powers Britain, France, and Russia

2.       The Central Powers Germany, Austria-Hungary, The Ottoman Empire, and Bulgaria

3.       Eventually some 30 different countries took sides in what would become known as the Great War.

4.       Germany’ war strategy called for a massive strike against France to defeat it quickly, thus leaving British forces on the other side of the English Channel    

a.       Once France and Britain were out of the way they would focus their attention to Russia

5.       German Forces determined to avoid the heavily defended French-German border tried to invade through the neutral country of Belgium

a.       Belgium forces put up a surprisingly strong resistance allowing the French and British time to rush forces into battle

b.      As result the French and British were able to put up good showing and held the German advance at the First Battle of the Marne.

c.       This battle proved there would be no quick victory from either side.

The War reaches a stalemate

1.       Early 1915 both armies occupied trenches along the battle front that reached from the North Sea to the border of Switzerland.

a.       Between them was called no-man’s land which was covered with barbed wire and land mines, thus began a new type of fighting called trench warfare.

b.      In order to fight battles began with massive artillery barrages and then soldiers would go out of the trenches to attack only to be cut down a hail of machine gun fire.

2.       Deadly new weapons were also added to the horror of  trench warfare

a.       Machine guns fired hundreds of rounds per minute

b.      Tanks were introduced to combat the machine gun

c.       Poison gases, could be released and would settle into the trenches soldiers had only seconds to slip on gas masks or they would suffocate

d.      Submarines and airplanes also found their first widespread use in World War I