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Australia and the Western Front 1914-1918 Download Australia and the Western Front 1914-1918 The great in ter natio nal con flict wh ich we now c all World War I began w ith a seri es CENTRAL P OWERS 1914 ALLIES 1914 of milit ary mob ili satio ns a nd d ecl arati ons JOINED CENTRAL of war bet ween 28 Ju ly a nd 4 Au gust 1 914. POWERS (YEAR OF JOINING) JOINED ALLIES (YEAR OF JOINING) On 28 June 1 914, a S erb ian nationa lis t, NEUTRAL Gavr ilo Pri nci p, as sassina ted Arch duke Fr anz Fe rdi nan d, heir to the throne of NO RTH the Au stro-Hungar ian Emp ire, in Sar aje vo, SEA the capi tal of the Aust rian ad min istered BRI TAIN RUSSIA provin ce of B osnia. Se rbia was a cen tre EASTERN FFRRONT of Slav nat ion alism, and its governm ent GERMANY was wor king to influ ence the sout her n BELGIUM pa rts of Au stria -Hu ngary to join i t.The WESTERN Au stro- Hun garian governm ent saw t he FFRRONT AUSTRIA- as sas sin ation as a cha nce to c rush this HUNGA RY FRANCE mo vem ent, by de clari ng w ar on Serb ia on ROMANIA (1916) 28 July 1 914. BL ACK I SEA TA SERBIA BULGARIA Se rbia appe aled to Ru ssi a, seen as t he LY (1915) (1915) protec tor of a ll t he S lav p eop les, for h elp. A s ystem of a lli anc es now m eant th at GREECE TURKEY ot her nat ions be came in volved. If Russi a (1917) foug ht Aust ria -Hungary, Fr ance wou ld be bound to s upp ort R ussia. If Au stria- Hu nga ry fou ght, Ge rmany wou ld s upp ort it MEDITERRANEAN SEA ag ain st R uss ia and France, so on 1 Augu st 0km 500km Ge rma ny d eclared war on R uss ia. Ge rma n mi lit ary lea ders f elt that the coun try co uld not survi ve a war on two f ronts.To prevent this th ey pla nned to invade Fr ance throu gh B elg ium, sweep int o Pa ris, quic kly sec ure t he s urrender of France, and t hen focus all Ger many’s forces on defeating Russia (which would not be ready to fi ght for several weeks aft er a declara tion of war). On 3 Augu st 1 914, Ge rmany dec lared w ar on France a nd d ema nded p ass age for its troo ps through Belgi um. Br itain had gu ara nteed the ne utrality of Belgi um, so a Ge rman inva sion of Be lgium would le ad to Bri tain’s in vol veme nt as well. On 4 Augu st, Ge rmany inva ded Bel gium and Brit ain dec lared war ag ain st G erm any. In 1914 Au str alia w as s till a young nation c omposed of sta tes that until 1901 had been sel f-governi ng c olo nies of Great Bri tain.The new Com mon weal th Co nst ituti on of 1901 gave the new Fed eral go ver nme nt g reat p owers, Portrait of Lieutenant J C D Reid in clu ding p owers over ext ernal affai rs if it c ared to use the m. However, AWM H06659 Au str alia, si mil ar to other Brit ish Dom ini ons like New Ze ala nd a nd C anada, felt c lose to Britain – the great ma jor ity of t he p opula tion in the early de cad es of t he 2 0th cen tury were e ith er i mmi grants from Great Bri tain o r Ireland or t he d escen dan ts of s uch imm igran ts. Moreover, Au str alia w as mo st c onc ern ed that the B ritish wou ld con tinue to assi st wi th Au stralia n defe nce in the Pacific area against the e xpansion of oth er g reat po wers in the region su ch as the G erm an E mpi re a nd Jap an. So, when Britain decla red war against Germ any on 4 Augu st 1 914 it would h ave b een u nth inkab le to Au str alians at the time that Au str alia w as not also a uto matic ally at war, st and ing sho uld er to shou lder wi th G reat B rit ain and the interests of th e Br iti sh E mpi re as a whole. Portrait of Sergeant Eric Hall AWM H06000 1 While the war was fought on many fronts — in Russia and eastern Europe , in Tur key and in the Middle East — the cent re of the war was in western Eu rop e, in France and Belgium .This ‘Western F ront’ st retched f rom the No rth Sea on the Belgium coast to the F rench–German–Swiss bo rder near the Swiss t own of Basel (Basle). For either side — the Allies (Franc e, the British Empi re, the Russian Empi re and , ev entual ly, the United States) , and the Central Powers (the German Empire, the Austro–Hungarian Empire , the Ottoman Empi re) — to win the wa r, victo ry had to be achi ev ed on the Western F ront. (See page 16 for a map of the Western F ront.) The ear ly war of mobility in the west, during which Germa ny tried to deli ver a r apid knock-out bl ow to Franc e, quickly came to an end .The Germans failed The re n ow to overwhelm the Allies in a series of actions fought in no rthern France and in Belgium. By st ret ched a late 1914, most of Belgium, except for a na rrow fortified line Portrait of Dri ver Eric Bed ford strip bet ween the t own of Yp res (Ieper) in AWM H05557 West Flanders and the coast, was occupied between the two by Germa ny. Large sections of eastern France also l ay in German hands .The re no w side s, f rom the st retched a fortified line bet ween the t wo sides , from the No rth Sea to the Swiss bo rde r. North Sea to the For the next four years, both sides sought to break th rough the ene my’s positions with a Swiss bo rde r. wa r-winning campaign that would lead to victo ry in the west . During 1915 and the early months of 1916, a number of attacks were launched seeking this elusive break-thro ugh. The British Expediti onary Force (BEF) launched offensives at Neuve Chapelle, Aubers Ridge and Loos, while the French undertook even bigger offensives in Artois and Champagne. None of these attacks gained significant ground, and casualties were heavy. For 1916 , Britain and France planned a joint major offensive in the Somme area, but the Portrait of Lieutenant Charles Germans struck in February with a huge attack on French forts at Verdun . Teasdale Main AWM H05741 Here, the Germans aimed at nothing less than ‘bleeding France white’ and bringing Britain, a country which depended on impor ts by sea to wage war, to her knees by institu ting unrestricted submar ine warfare. As the Verdun battle progres sed, the French were obliged to pull many of their forces out of the proposed Somme offensiv e, but they urged the British to go ahead with the attack, to take the pressure off Verdun. It was at this point in the war that the divisio ns of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) began arriving in France from Egypt . After the evacuation of Gallipoli, the AIF had reg rouped and retrained in Egypt . The force expanded g reat ly to four divisions — 1st , 2nd , 4th and 5th Divisions — each with 12 infantry battalions of approximately 1200 men , along with a rtille ry, transpo rt, supply and medical units . Another division , the 3 rd, was formed in England but did not enter se rvice until late 1916. In Ma rch–April 1916, the AIF m oved to no rthern France and went into the line south of the t own of Armentiè res. He re, the soldiers learned about the a rt and weaponry of static trench warfare — conducting raids, manning trenches , sniping and di rected a rtille ry actions .Then on 1 July 1916, the British opened their great offensive on the Somme to the north-east of the town of Albert . Portrait of Private Frank Pooler The opening attack , which cost 60 , 000 British casualties , failed to achi eve a AWM H05523 breakth rough , but because of the need to keep suppo rting France at Verdun , Note: all men on pages 11-14 were killed in action during 1917. the British p ressed on .The AIF was soon pulled into this titanic struggl e. 2 On 19 July 1916 , the 5th Division AI F, along with the British 61st Division , launched an attack at F romelles, well to the no rth of the main Somme battlefield .The aim at F romelles was to dr aw German rein forcements away from the Somme a rea, but the attack was a complete failu re.
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