Military History of the First World War DOWNLOAD FREE

Africa In South Africa the declaration of war between Britain and Germany provoked a brief civil war - a section of the Afrikaners rebelled. The government, let by Louis Botha and Jan Smuts, but down the rebellion and then invaded the German colony of South West Africa (now Namibia) which the successful took on 9th July 1915 with very few casualties. At the outset of the war the Allies quickly overran the German colony of Togoland. However, in the Careroons, the other German colony in West Africa, the Germans employed a combined force of German troops and natives and it was not until February 1916 that colony was taken. In German South-East Africa the British met with determined resistance lead by German General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, who twice defeated British invasions initiated from Kenya. Von Lettow-Vorbeck then opted for guerrilla tactics. Finally overwhelmed by superior British numbers he retreated into Mozambique from where he returned to German South-East Africa and made an invasion of Northern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). He was never in fact defeated and was the last German commander to surrender - on 25th November, 1918.

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