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Thislist of military engagements of World War I covers terrestrial, maritime, and aerial conflicts, including campaigns, operations, defensive positions, and sieges. Campaigns generally refer to broader strategic operations conducted over a large bit of territory and over a long period of time. Battles generally refer to short periods of intense combat localized to a specific area and over a specific period of time. However, use of the terms in naming such events is not consistent. For example, theFirst Battle of the Atlantic was more or less an entire theatre of war, and the so-called battle lasted for the duration of the entire war.[1]
TheWestern Front comprised the fractious borders between France, Germany, and the neighboring countries. It was infamous for the nature of the fight that developed there; after almost a full year of inconclusive fighting, the front had become a giant trench line stretching from one end of Europe to the other.[1]
1914
TheBattle of Liège was the first battle of the war, and could be considered a moral victory for the allies, as the heavily outnumberedBelgians held out against theGerman Army for 12 days. From 5 to 16 August 1914, the Belgians successfully resisted the numerically superior Germans, and inflicted surprisingly heavy losses on their aggressors. TheGerman Second Army, comprising 320,000 men, crossed intoneutral Belgium in keeping to theSchlieffen Plan, with the ultimate goal of attackingFrance from the north. Liège was key strategically as it held a position at the head of a pass through theArdennes, which made it the best possible route into the heart of Belgium itself.[2]
The city was surrounded by a ring of 12 heavily armed forts, garrisoned by 70,000 men under the command ofGérard Leman. A night attack on 5 August was repulsed with heavy losses to the Germans to the extreme surprise of the supremely confident German army.[citation needed] The next day, rather than confront the forts in battle, the German commanderErich Ludendorff attacked the city through the back, through a break in the line of fortresses that the Belgians had intended to fortify, but never did so. Although they succeeded in capturing the city, the Germans knew that they could not continue advancing troops into Belgium without first breaking down the forts. Aided by 17-inchHowitzers, the Germans finally succeeded in bringing down the forts on 16 August.[2]
The unprecedented Belgian resistance seriously prolonged the opening German assault at the outbreak of World War I, allowingFrance andBritain time to organize themselves and a defense ofParis. In addition, it was an important moral victory for the Allies.
The early French initiative, to capture territory lost to the Germans in the 1870–1871Franco-Prussian War, which France had started, was played out in a series of frontier battles between the Germans and the French, known collectively as theBattle of the Frontiers. The battles atMulhouse,Lorraine,the Ardennes,Charleroi, andMons were launched more or less simultaneously, and marked the collision of the German and French war plans, theSchlieffen Plan andPlan XVII, respectively.[1]
TheBattle of Mülhausen was the opening attack by theFrench against theGermans. The battle was part of a French attempt to conquer the province ofAlsace, which had been lost as a consequence of having lost theFranco-Prussian War of 1870–1871, as it had a majority of ethnic Germans. A French force under GeneralLouis Bonneau detached from theFrench First Corps and invaded the frontier on August 8, 1914. Opposing them was theGerman 7th Division. The capture of the area, preordained by the FrenchPlan XVII, was to boost national pride—and to provide a guard force for the flank of subsequent invasions.[4]
The French quickly captured the border town ofAltkirch with abayonet charge. Bonneau, suspicious of the little German resistance, was wary of a carefully planned German trap. However, under orders the next day he advanced toMülhausen, capturing it with little effort, for the Germans had already abandoned it.[4]
In France, the conquering of the German cityMülhausen, without a fight, was celebrated greatly. However, with the arrival of German reserves fromStraßburg, the tides were turned, and the Germans mounted a counterattack on nearbyCernay. Unable to mount an all-encompassing defense, and unable to call on reserves of his own, Bonneau began a slow withdrawal from the region. Support troops hastily sent by the Frenchcommander-in-chiefJoseph Joffre arrived too late to prevent Bonneau from retiring. Joffre was immensely angry with Bonneau, charging him with a "lack of aggression" and immediately relieving him of command. Realizing the psychological magnitude of the loss, he assembled a force, led byPaul Pau, which tried unsuccessfully to recapture the province.[4]
The invasion and recapture ofLorraine formed one of the major parts of the French pre-war strategy,Plan XVII. The loss ofLorraine (andAlsace; see above) to thePrussians in the 1870–1871Franco-Prussian War was seen as a national humiliation by the public and military alike, and was at the forefront of their minds for the next war against the Germans.[5]
The battle was initiated by the FrenchFirst andSecond armies. The First, led byGeneral Auguste Dubail, intended to takeSarrebourg, whilst the Second, led byGeneral Noel de Castelnau, intended to takeMorhange. Both towns were well fortified, and the task of defending them fell toCrown PrinceRupprecht, who had overall control of the GermanSixth andSeventh armies.[5]
Rupprecht adopted a strategy in which he would fall back under the French attacks, then counter-attack once he lured the French all the way to his fortifications. As the French army advanced, it met stern resistance in the form of Germanartillery andmachine-gun fire.Army Chief of StaffHelmuth von Moltke authorized a more aggressive tactic soon after, and on August 20, the German army started to roll back the French. Caught by surprise and without the assistance of entrenched positions, the Second Army was pushed back quickly, eventually into France itself. A gap was exposed between the forces inMulhouse and those inLorraine; the forces in Mulhouse were withdrawn to keep the gap from being taken advantage of by the Germans.[5]
Diverging from theSchlieffen Plan, Rupprecht received reinforcements and attacked the French line near theTrouée de Charmes; however, through the use ofreconnaissance aircraft, the French spotted the German buildup, and were able to build an adequate defence. Thus the German gains were minimized, and were eradicated by a following French counter-assault on the 25th. Fighting continued there until the end of August, and quickly ground into a stalemate andtrench warfare.[5]
TheBattle of Ardennes, fought between 21 and 23 August 1914, was another of the early frontier battles, conducted during the first month of the war. The battle was sparked by the mutual collision of French and German invasion forces in the lowerArdennes Forest.[6]
The pre-war French strategy expected German forces in the area to be light, and the French light, rapid firing artillery was expected to convey an advantage in forested terrain over the bigger German guns. Instead, it became increasingly apparent to all of the commanders in the region that a significant enemy presence was gathering, for the Germans had planned an offensive through the area.[6]
The sets of armies joined battle on both sides. GeneralPierre Ruffey'sThird Army to the south andFernand de Langle de Cary'sFourth Army to the north, fighting Germany'sFourth, led byDuke Albrecht, andFifth army, led byCrown PrinceWilhelm.[6]
The German troops started moving through the forest on 19 August. Conditions worsened, and by the time the two armies met, the forest was covered in a deep fog, resulting in the two forces stumbling into one another. At first, the French took the Germans as a light screening force; however, in reality the French were heavily outnumbered. The first day of the battle consisted of light skirmishes; the main battle did not begin until 21 August.[6]
According to the pre-war French strategy document,Plan XVII, German forces in the area were only expected to be light, with French light, rapid-firing artillery proving advantageous in a wooded terrain such as that found in the Ardennes. However, what emerged was totally opposite; the French eagerly charged at German positions in the woods, and were mowed down by machine-gun fire. The French armies retreated hurriedly in the face of superior German tactical positioning, and the Germans chased them all the way back into the French border. In addition to losing a key strategic position, the French forfeitediron resources in the region as well.[6]
TheBattle of Charleroi, another of the frontier battles, was an action taking place 12–23 August 1914. The battle was joined by theFrench Fifth Army, advancing north towards theRiver Sambre, and the GermanSecond andThird armies, moving southwest through Belgium. The Fifth army was meant to join the Third and Fourth armies in their attack through the Ardennes. However, this plan was put into effect assuming the Germans were not considering an assault further north, through Belgium—which was the German plan all along.Charles Lanrezac, commander of the Fifth Army, was strongly against the idea, fearing an attack from the north. HoweverJoseph Joffre, chief-of-staff, rejected any such idea; after much persuasion, Lanrezac finally convinced him to move the Fifth Army northwards.
However, by the time the Fifth Army arrived, units of the German Second Army were already in the area. Joffre authorized an attack across the Sambre, predicting that the German force had 18 divisions, comparable to Lanrezac's 15, plus another 3 British reinforcements (theBritish Expeditionary Force). However, Lanrezac predicted much higher numbers, closer to the actual number—32 German divisions. He preferred to wait for reinforcements, however that same day the Germans attacked across the river and established two beachheads, neither of which fell despite several French counterattacks.
The next day, the main attack began; the fighting carried on through the day, and into the next. The French centre suffered severe losses and retreated; but the west and east flanks both held their ground. However, the retreat of cavalry divisions to the far west exposed the French west flank. With news of his situation, and the fact that his flanks could give and be completely enwrapped, Lanrezac ordered a general retreat into northern France.
The French town ofMaubeuge was a major fort on the French side of the border. With a junction of no fewer than five major railway lines, it was recognized as a key strategic position by both sides; hence the construction of 15 forts and gun batteries ringing it, a total of 435 guns, and a permanent garrison of 35,000 troops. These were further bolstered by the choosing of the town as the advance base of theBritish Expeditionary Force. However, when these and theFrench Fifth Army retreated following the events atCharleroi, the town was cut off from allied support, and subsequently besieged on August 25. The German heavy artillery succeeded in demolishing the key forts around the city, and General Joseph Anthelme Fournier, in command of the garrison in the city, surrendered to the Germans some 13 days later.[7]
1914
1915
1916
1917
1918
Campaign of 1914 (Entente victory; Russia captures Galicia, part East Prussia and part of the Carpathian Mountains, And also knocks out the Germans from Poland, disrupting their plans to destroy a group of Russian troops. As well as disrupts the Schlieffen plan, forcing Germany to fight on two fronts)[8][9][10]
Campaign of 1915 (Central powers victory, however, the Germans are unable to bring Russia out of the war. Russians return a wide strip to Galicia[18])[19][20]
Campaign of 1916 (Russian victory; recapture Galicia and Bukovina; the Russians are forcing the Germans to stop the attacks on Verdun by their actions)
Campaign of 1917 (Central powers victory)
(Central Powers victory, End of the eastern front and Central Powers occupation of Western Russia)
(part of Eastern front)
1916
1917
1918
1914
1915
1916
1917
1918
TheGallipoli Campaign (also called the "Dardanelles Campaign"), was a number of battles fought between 1915 and 1916.
World War I was the first war to see major use of planes for offensive, defensive and reconnaissance operations, and both theEntente Powers and theCentral Powers used planes extensively. Almost as soon as they were invented, planes were drafted for military service.
Battles:
See also the following articles:
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=http%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion. You can help byadding to it.(April 2025) |
Due to the huge number of such events, only the most important ones or those that have their own article or section within the article should be listed.
Note: The term Hunger Storm (inCzech: Hladová bouře) means civil unrest caused by hunger.
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Events that were not battles but the killing of defenseless people but not executions. (Masacres, Mass murders, looting, etc.)
These conflicts are considered part of the First World War because one or more of the combatants were aligned with a main belligerent power which may have provided materiel, military, financial, or political support.
(Some are already mentioned above in the article)
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