Major battles of World War i
- Battle of Verdun- an attempt to "bleed the french white"by attacking a sentimental strip of land which contained 20 major forts and 40 smaller that historically protected that border. The germans outnumbered the french by 110,000 troops, also had artillery and the worlds largest concentration of planes at that point, 168. It was a true version of trench warfare that turned into a war of attrition that lasted 300 days.
- Battle of Ypres- wasn't really one battle, but five battles. These battles consisted of nothing but back to back trench warfare between the germans and the british where for the first time gas was used in addition to artillery, mines, machine guns and bombings. By the end of the war ypres had been reduced to all but a few standing walls and mud.
- Battle of Somme- also known as the somme offensive, was one of the bloodiest battles in history. The result of this offensive led to no known results in changing of sides but a devastating loss of life with 57,000 british dying the first day and 1.5 million lives lost in total for the allies and central powers.
- Battle of Marne- an allied victory that ended a month long german offensive. It forced the german army to retreat northeast near paris, and allowed the french and british to recapture lost ground, setting the stage for stalemate and years of trench warfare on the western front. This battle ended any hopes that the germans had of bringing the war on the western front to a swift ending.
- Battle of Meuse-argonne- had the largest frontline commitment of us troop,s consisting of 1.2 million american soldiers. It was one of a series of attack, by the allies, known as the hundred days offensive, which essentially brought the war to and end.