First World War Timeline of significant events

Austria-Hungary accuses Serbia of complicity in the assassination.

Austria-Hungary sends troops to the Serbian border.

Austrians bombard Belgrade, the Serbian capital. German patrols cross the French border.

Great Britain gives the order for troops to mobilise.

Lord Kitchener made War Secretary.

First members of the British Expeditionary Force land in France.

The call for 100,000 men to join Kitchener’s New Army is made under the slogan ‘Your King and Country Need You’. The call is answered within two weeks.

Kaiser’s alleged order for destruction of British “contemptible little army”

British Expeditionary Force starts its retreat.

The British Expeditionary Force suffer 7,812 casualties at the Battle of Le Cateau and are forced to continue their retreat. Russian army defeated at Tannenburg and Masurian Lakes.

October 19 – November 17

Off coast of Chile. A major blow to the Royal Navy with the sinking of HMS Good Hope and HMS Monmouth and the loss of almost 1,600 men.

British troops from India enter Basra and secure oil supplies to maintain the Navy.

German warships bombard the coastal towns of Hartlepool, Whitby and Scarborough, killing 137 civilians, bringing the War to mainland Britain.

A spontaneous truce breaks out along the trenches of the Western Front. Both sides leave their trenches, sing carols and songs and exchange cigarettes, chocolate, bread and other gifts. Football matches famously take place and even a hare hunt for Christmas dinner. The opportunity is also taken to bury dead…

All shipping is vulnerable, including that of neutral countries.

12,800 Allied men lost in the offensive at Neuve Chapelle. Blame attached to poor quality and lack of supply of British shells, starting the ‘Shell Crisis’. More shells fired in the single offensive than in the whole of the Boer War.

Allied troops land on Gallipoli Peninsular.

The British liner ‘Lusitania’ is torpedoed off Ireland and sunk by a German U-boat. 1,198 men, women and children drowned including 124 American civilians, causing a diplomatic crisis between Germany and the USA.

The ‘Shell Crisis’ causes discontent with the level of Government support for front line troops. The pressure forces the Liberal Government of Prime Minister Asquith to step down and a coalition government is formed.

Britain loses 6,000 men as they push inland from the beaches of Gallipoli.

British troops reach the Euphrates river in Mesopotamia.

The Germans annex Warsaw.

Start of the Battle of Loos. Britain uses gas for the first time, but it is blown over their own troops. Seven are killed and 2,625 injured.

British and French troops land in Salonika in neutral Greece to enable the aid of Serbian forces in the Balkans

Steel helmets are adopted on the British front. The design is reputedly based upon the hat used by lead and tin miners and referred to in Derbyshire as the ‘bradder hat’.

Sir Douglas Hague replaces Sir John French as Commander in Chief of the British Expeditionary Force.

A first attempt is made to relieve the besieged British troops in Kut, Mesopotamia. The British force the Turkish to withdraw, but sustain 4,000 casualties.

Military Service Act passed which imposes conscription on all single men aged 18 to 41, except those in essential wartime occupations, the medically unfit, religious ministers and conscientious objectors.

Start of the Battle of Verdun. The German plan is to ‘bleed the French dry of men and resources’. The battle lasts for 10 months and inflicts over 1 million casualties.

A third and last attempt to relieve the besieged forces at Kut, Meopotamia, sustaining 23,000 Allied casualties.

Besieged British forces surrendered to Turkish forces at Kut, Mesopotamia, after 143 days. 3,000 British and 6,000 Indian troops are taken prisoner, most die of starvation and disease in prison camps.

First day of ‘Daylight Saving Time’ scheme, British Summer Time, introduced to give longer daylight working hours, particularly for farmers.

Start of the Russian Brussilov Offensive on the Eastern Front which was meant to aid the Allies at the Somme by diverting German forces away from the Western Front.

Start of the Battle of the Somme. Three quarters of a million Allied troops advance along a 25 mile front. In one day, 60,000 British troops are wounded or dead. Very little advance is made. It is the largest single day’s loss of life in British military history.

The second Somme Offensive on the village of Pozieres. Allies sustain 17,000 casualties, mostly Australian.

First Zeppelin is shot down over Britain by the Air Corps.

The fourth phase of the Somme Offensive, the Battle of the Ancre. The village of Beamont Hamel is captured by British troops who take almost 4,000 prisoners.

Germany issues a proposal to begin negotiations to end the War. On December 30, 1916, the Allies reject the proposal, which they deem unworthy of serious consideration.

USA cuts diplomatic relations with Germany as German U-Boats continue to threaten American ships. An intercepted message also reveals that Germany is attempting to provoke Mexico into an attack on the USA.

Provisional Government formed

British troops attempt, but fail, to isolate Turkish forces from their homeland.

First phase of Battle of Arras begins. British successfully employ new artillery tactics. Canadians take Vimy Ridge. April 9 -14

After the first failed attack, a second is mounted against heavily protected Turkish positions, the second attack was a greater failure with 6,000 lost.

The attack was a precursor to the much larger Third Battle of Ypres, known as Passchendaele. It was preceded by the detonation of 19 huge mines, totaling around 500 tons, under the German lines. The explosion was the loudest man made sound in history, apparently heard in Dublin and by…

Canadian troops take a small, but strategic hill and hold out against five German counter offensives. The Allies lose 9,200 men.

British and French troops take the Poelcapelle, north of Ypres. 25mm of rain falls in two days onto already saturated ground and turns the battle field into a quagmire. Wounded men remain on the battlefield as conditions make it too difficult to remove them.

Last Zeppelin raid on British mainland over London. 5 of the 13 Zeppelins brought down.

Rain had fallen on every day since 19 October. 20,000 Canadian troops begin the advance, but quickly get bogged down, eventually retreating to within 100 yards of their starting point. A second attack took place in later days with little gain at a cost of 12,000 Allied casualties.

British troops capture 1,800 Turkish troops at the Battle of Beersheba, clearing the way for the advance on Jerusalem.

Begun on July 31, over three months of fighting saw an advance of 5 miles with 500,000 casualties, including 140,000 dead.

Britain captures Jerusalem from the Turks, ending 673 years of Turkish rule.

A peace treaty is signed between Russia and Germany; the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. This frees German troops to fight on the Western Front.

One of the largest air battles of the War takes place with 70 aircraft.

The German advance is halted, but with high casualties. The Americans play a vital role in the Battle.

Second German offensive begins in Flanders with a four-and-a-half hour bombardment of British forces in Armentieres to begin the Battle of the Lys. Germans advance quickly, punching a hole 3.5 miles wide through the British line. They also take almost 6,000 prisoners from a Portuguese division. Germans use 2,000 tons…

Three British Divisions hold off an offensive by 13 German Divisions and inflict very heavy losses.

The Largest raid of the War, with 33 aircraft, the raid kills 49 civilians and wounds 177 more. Germans also bomb British hospitals at Etaples resulting in 300 casualties.

The German 18th Army attacks in the direction of Paris. The assault is stopped as French and American troops successfully counter-attack and the offensive ceases after four days.

All lifeboats, except one, are rammed by the attacking submarine.

During the night of July 16th / early morning hours of the 17th, the Tsar, his wife, children and servants are herded into the cellar of their prison house and executed by the Bolsheviks, bringing to an end 300 years of the Romanov dynasty.

The French and British armies advance on Amiens. Trench warfare is abandoned for mobile advances and use of tanks. The German forces are in disarray as communications break down and thousands of troops surrender. August 8 -12

Battle of Samaria opens British offensive in Palestine. Turkish forces collapsed at Megiddo.

Led by the Australian 3rdLight Horse Brigade, and capture 7,000 prisoners.

Allied territorial gains continue with an advance from St Quentin to Cambria, driving the Germans back 3 miles. Over 10,000 prisoners are taken.

Allied troops advance across the River Selle. Allies also take Lille and Douai.

Advancing six miles in two days after stiff resistance. The British are now 20 miles beyond the Hindenburg Line.

Sailors in the German High Seas Fleet at Jade mutiny and refuse to obey a German Admiralty order to engage the British fleet.

Austro-Hungary signs an armistice with the Allies leaving Germany isolated in the War. German Navy mutinies at Kiel.

Revolution begins in Berlin.

Conference accepts principle of League of Nations.

At first a temporary wooden structure, it is replaced in 1920 by the current version.

The British Legion was formed on 15 May 1921, bringing together four national organisations of ex-Servicemen that had established themselves after the First World War.