Key Battles of World War One

World War One is the watershed moment in modern history. The Western World before it was one of aristocrats, empires, colonies, and optimism for a future of unending progress. After four years of hellish trench warfare, shell fire, 10 million combat deaths, and another 10 million civilian deaths, the world that emerged in 1918 was irrevocably changed. Nation-states came out of the rubble, along with a push for universal rights. New technologies emerged, such as tanks and fighter planes. But something was lost permanently in the Great War: a sense of optimism in mankind. In this series, history professors Scott Rank and James Early look at the 10 key battles that determined the outcome of the war between the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire) and the Allies (Britain, France, Russia, United States).

Episodes

1: Europe in 1914 Had Absolutely No Idea They Were About To Enter The Most Hellish War Ever

October 2, 2020 • 52 mins

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2: Europe's Pre-WW1 Alliances Were a Doomsday Machine That Pulled the Entire Continent Into War

December 9, 2020 • 48 mins

An impossibly complex web of alliances that maintained a fragile peace in Europe (and surprisingly held it together since the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815) always threatened to unravel. The 1914 assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austrian throne, by Serbian nationalists, made Austria declare war on Serbia. A doomsday machine kicked into gear: Russia mobilized against Austria. Germany mobilized against ...

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3: Germany So Completely Annihilated Russia At the WW1 Battle of Tannenberg That A Russian General Committed Suicide

December 10, 2020 • 50 mins

The Battle of Tannenberg was the first major battle of World War One, fought between Germany and Russia, who surprised everyone with its fast mobilization. This muddled the plans of Germany, which sought to quickly fight a two-front war against France and Russia, knock France out of the war, then focus its resources on Russia. The plan didn't work, but Germany issued a crushing blow against Russia, largely due to its fast rail move...

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4: Germany's Plans For Total French Defeat in 1914 Failed at the Battle of the Marne

December 11, 2020 • 59 mins

The beginning of World War One was marked the breakdown of the western powers’ war plans. Leaders on both sides experienced surprises, shocks, and the failure of plans. The first few months saw shocking violence on a scale never experienced before, at least not in Western Europe. During the first few months of the war, an average of 15,000 lives were lost each day. (five times as much as the worst day in the Civil War). This happen...

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5: The Average WW1 Soldier Was a 110-Pound Villager Who Suffered Disease, Hunger, and PTSD

December 12, 2020 • 49 mins

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6: World War 1 Trenches Were A Labyrinth of Rats, Disease, Decaying Flesh, and the Omnipresent Threat of Death

December 13, 2020 • 48 mins

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7: The Battle of Gallipoli (1915) How Ataturk and the Ottomans Hurled the Allies (Including Winston Churchill) Into the Sea

December 14, 2020 • 45 mins

The Allies desperately wanted to take control of the Dardanelles (the straights connecting Constantinople with the Mediterranean). They were crucial to Russia and would make it possible for Russia to (in effect) have a warm-water port. The only problem is the Ottomans had controlled the Dardanelles for five centuries and were backed by Germany and the rest of the Central Powers. The Allies wanted to open the Dardanelles, open a sec...

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8: How 1915 Became World War One's Year of Poison Gas, Genocide, and Millions of Refugees

December 15, 2020 • 43 mins

In 1915, the Central Powers and Allies dug in their heels and tried desperately to break the stalemate of the war, still hoping for a short conflict on the scale of a few months. Poison gas was used for the first time. Germans experimented with flamethrowers and armored shields, while the French began using hand grenades. In April, Germans began the Second Battle of Ypres and used 168 tons of chlorine gas. On the Eastern Front, A...

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9: Verdun - The 299-Day Battle That Killed 300K Soldiers And Still Scars The Earth With Unexploded Shells

December 16, 2020 • 48 mins

The Battle of Verdun--fought from February 21-December 18 1916 in the Western Front of France--was horrifying and hellish even by the standards of World War One. Over a 299-day-period, there were 1 million total casualties. The French were bled white, but so were the Germans.

Of these, 300,000 were killed, which is about 1 death for every minute of the battle. The French most likely lost slightly more than the Germans. About...

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10: WW1 At Sea: The Battle of Jutland (1916)

December 17, 2020 • 54 mins

Although overlooked today, the war at sea was a crucial part of World War I overall. The German use of the Unrestricted Submarine Warfare (in which non-military ships could be blown up by submarines without the latter surfacing, making it impossible for innocent men, women, and children to abandon ship) against commerce not only threatened the Allied war effort, but also drew the United States into the conflict. In addition, the Br...

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11: The Brusilov Offensive: Russia's Mortal Blow to Austria-Hungary

December 18, 2020 • 29 mins

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12: The Flying Aces of World War One

December 19, 2020 • 41 mins

Since the first successful flight of an airplane, people had imagined and dreamed of airplanes being used for combat. H. G. Wells's 1908 book (The War in the Air was an example. When World War One broke out, there were only about 1000 planes on all sides. Planes were very basic. Cockpits were open, instruments were rudimentary, and there were no navigational aids. Pilots had to use maps, which were not always reliable. Getting lost...

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13: The Battle of the Somme Caused 1 Million Casualties But Was a Turning Point for WW1

December 20, 2020 • 46 mins

The 1916 Battle of the Somme caused a total of 1 million casualties on all sides. the total is over a million casualties. The Allies had gained very little ground. At the end of the battle, they had gained only 7 miles and were still about 3 miles short of their goal from the first day of the war. The Somme, along with Verdun and the Brusilov Offensive, were among the bloodiest in world history up to that point. According to John K...

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14: Why WW1 Was the Graveyard of Empires (Russian, Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian)

December 21, 2020 • 45 mins

World War One shattered the empires of Russia, the Ottomans, and the Austro-Hungarians, which had all existed in one form or another for centuries. That's because it broke the fragile alliances that kept these Empires alive. In this episode, we explore the Southern Fronts of World War One in 1916-1917. Starting with Italy, since Italy’s entry into the war, Italy and Austria had fought several battles along their border in the Alps....

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15: The Russian Revolutions of 1917-1923--A Bigger Threat Than the Kaiser?

December 22, 2020 • 43 mins

We’ve looked at many battles in this series, but we’ve only tangentially touched on how this war fundamentally altered European society. The Great War is the watershed between the pre-modern and early modern era. As an example, all we have to do is look at Russia. Before World War One, it was an autocracy, very conservative, very religious, and only a few decades away from serfdom, which the rest of Europe abandoned in the Middle A...

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16: The Slog of War -- the Passchendaele Campaign of 1917

December 23, 2020 • 37 mins

The best way to describe the Third Ypres (Passchendaele) Campaign of 1917. It’s ‘slog.’ When you think about a drudging act that seems to accomplish nothing, this battle is it. Mud. Mud to your waist. Everything sinks down several feet into mud. Tanks, Cars, guns, horses, everything stuck in mud. Images of a battlefield landscape with pockmarked holes and mist rising from the plains with shattered trees is characterized by the thir...

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17: The Yanks Are Coming -- America Enters World War One

December 24, 2020 • 50 mins

Most Americans are indifferent about the nation's involvement in World War One (under half say the U.S. had a responsibility to fight in the war; one-in-five say it didn't). Many figure it entered the conflict too late to claim much credit, or intervention was discreditable. Some say the U.S. had no compelling national interest to enter the Great War; worse, U.S. intervention allowed Britain and France to force on Germany an unjust...

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18: Tank Warfare--How Military Tech Took a Quantum Leap at the Battle of Cambrai (1917)

December 25, 2020 • 21 mins

The British developed the tank in response to the trench warfare of World War I. In 1914, a British army colonel named Ernest Swinton and William Hankey, secretary of the Committee for Imperial Defense, championed the idea of an armored vehicle with conveyor-belt-like tracks over its wheels that could break through enemy lines and traverse difficult territory. The men appealed to British navy minister Winston Churchill, who believe...

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19: The Empire Strikes Back -- Germany's Final Push to Win WW1 in Spring 1918

December 26, 2020 • 43 mins

Many thought that Germany was capable of winning World War One until the very end. Unlike World War 2, in which the Allies believed that victory was inevitable as early as 1943, this was not the case with the Great War. It is also easy to assume that German defeat was inevitable at the hands of an Allied coalition richer in manpower, weapons and money. Yet Germany nearly captured Paris in 1914, crushed Serbia and Romania, bled the ...

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20: The 1918 Battle of Meggido Shattered the Ottoman Empire and Created the Modern Middle East

December 27, 2020 • 38 mins

The Battle of Megiddo was the climactic battle of the Sinai and Palestine campaign of the First World War, with Germans and Ottomans on one side, and British and French forces on the other (with Arab nationalists led by T.E. Lawrence). The actions immediately after it were a disaster for the Ottomans. They now had permanently lost control over their Middle Eastern possessions. Historian Edward Erickson writes “The battle…ranks with...

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Key Battles of World War One

Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}1: Europe in 1914 Had Absolutely No Idea They Were About To Enter The Most Hellish War Ever

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}2: Europe's Pre-WW1 Alliances Were a Doomsday Machine That Pulled the Entire Continent Into War

3: Germany So Completely Annihilated Russia At the WW1 Battle of Tannenberg That A Russian General Committed Suicide

4: Germany's Plans For Total French Defeat in 1914 Failed at the Battle of the Marne

5: The Average WW1 Soldier Was a 110-Pound Villager Who Suffered Disease, Hunger, and PTSD

6: World War 1 Trenches Were A Labyrinth of Rats, Disease, Decaying Flesh, and the Omnipresent Threat of Death

7: The Battle of Gallipoli (1915) How Ataturk and the Ottomans Hurled the Allies (Including Winston Churchill) Into the Sea

8: How 1915 Became World War One's Year of Poison Gas, Genocide, and Millions of Refugees

9: Verdun - The 299-Day Battle That Killed 300K Soldiers And Still Scars The Earth With Unexploded Shells

10: WW1 At Sea: The Battle of Jutland (1916)

11: The Brusilov Offensive: Russia's Mortal Blow to Austria-Hungary

12: The Flying Aces of World War One

13: The Battle of the Somme Caused 1 Million Casualties But Was a Turning Point for WW1

14: Why WW1 Was the Graveyard of Empires (Russian, Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian)

15: The Russian Revolutions of 1917-1923--A Bigger Threat Than the Kaiser?

16: The Slog of War -- the Passchendaele Campaign of 1917

17: The Yanks Are Coming -- America Enters World War One

18: Tank Warfare--How Military Tech Took a Quantum Leap at the Battle of Cambrai (1917)

19: The Empire Strikes Back -- Germany's Final Push to Win WW1 in Spring 1918

20: The 1918 Battle of Meggido Shattered the Ottoman Empire and Created the Modern Middle East

Popular Podcasts

1: Europe in 1914 Had Absolutely No Idea They Were About To Enter The Most Hellish War Ever

2: Europe's Pre-WW1 Alliances Were a Doomsday Machine That Pulled the Entire Continent Into War