Military History of the First World War DOWNLOAD FREE

The Pacific By the end of September 1914 Australian and New Zealand forces had captured the German South Pacific colonies of Samoa, German New Guinea, and the Bismarck Archipelago.Britain's ally, Japan, declared war on Germany on 23rd August. The British did not in fact welcome this, and their foreign secretary, Sir Edward Grey, strove to prevent it. The Japanese sought to capture for themselves the German North Pacific Empire, and in fact succeeded in doing so. The most significant engagement was at Tsingtao on the Chinese coast where the Germans had an important naval base that was well defended with 6,000 men and heavy artillery. The Japanese assaulted the base with a force of 50,000 men supported by some British battalions. They were prepared to accept heavy losses, and took the base on the 7th November at a cost of 6,000 casualties to the German 700. By October the Japanese had also occupied the German colonies of the Marshalls, Carolines and Marianas thus absorbing into theirs the entire German North Pacific empire.

Contents of Military History of the First World War 1 The Central Powers and the Entente 2 The run-up to the war: The July Crisis, 1914 3 Military Planning in Advance of the War 4 Serbia and the Eastern Front, 1914 5 The Battle for the Marne 6 The Race to the Sea and the First Battle of Ypres 7 First Battle of Ypres 8 The Pacific 9 Africa 10 The Eastern Front during 1915 11 Italy enters the war 12 The Balkans 13 The Western Front 14 Gallipoli 15 The Western Front, 1916 16 Verdun 17 The Battle of the Somme 18 The Trentino Offensive 19 The Brusilov Offensive 20 Romania 21 The Russian Front in 1917 22 Mesopotamia 23 The Nivelle Offensive 24 The Third Battle of Ypres (The Battle of Passendaele) 25 Cambrai 26 Caporetto 27 German offensive in Russia, 1918 28 Ludendorff's offensive in the West 29 Allied counter-offensive

Related articles: (1) The Third Battle of Ypres - the Battle of Paschendaele, (2) The First World War: Triggers