WWI - Timeline
- Post 1914
- The situation in Europe
- 1914
- June 28: Franz Ferdinand assassinated in Sarajevo
- The Great War breaks out
- August 23: Germany invades France
- The British Blockade
- 1915
- The "Lusitania" was sunk by a German U-boat
- April: Italy joins the war
- War in the trenches
- London attacked from the air by German Zeppelins
- 1916
- Battle of Verdun
- Battle of Jutland
- Battle of the Somme
- 1917
- Germany's unrestricted u-boat warfare
- The USA joins the war
- Russia leavs the War
- 1918
- Germany's last offensive
- The Battle of the Argonne Forest
- The First World War ends
- Treaty of Versailles
The Battle of The Somme
The bloodiest battle in human history was going to be fought from July 1916 to November 1916 near the River Somme in northern France. Here the Allied forces tried to break throughout the German lines and at the same time draw some of the German forces away from the Battle of Verdun . However with more than one million casualties in the Battle of Somme the losses would exceed those at Verdun.
The first day, 1 July 1916, was the worst and the bloodiest. The British suffered 57,470 casulties that day and this would be the bloodiest day in the history of the British Army. The Battle of Somme did not have a clear winner, but many historians believe that the Allied forces learned so much and got so much experience from this battle that it was one of the important pieces to finally win the Western front.