The First World War had 2 main theaters of military operations and many secondary ones; more than one hundred battles took place within its framework. But only a few of them influenced the entire further course of events. We present to your attention a list of the main battles of the First World War in 1914-1918.

Ardennes operation

August 21-23, 1914. It gave hope for implementation, the split of the Entente troops in the west and the rapid withdrawal of France from. Germany managed to deal a heavy blow to the two French armies and advance deep into French territory.

Battle of Galicia

August-September 1914. Led to the first serious defeat of Austrian and German troops on the Eastern Front and the capture of Eastern Galicia by Russia. It diverted the attention of the Triple Alliance countries from the Western Front and made victory on the Marne possible.

Battle of the Marne

September 5-12, 1914. It ended with the victory of the Anglo-French troops over the German troops. It marked the final breakdown of the “Schlieffen Plan” and the need for the Triple Alliance to fight on 2 fronts.

Battle of Heligoland

August 28, 1914. In itself, it is not significant; it showed that Germany failed to achieve superiority of its fleet over the English one. In the battle, the Germans lost 3 cruisers and a destroyer and 1000 people (including 1 rear admiral), and the British lost 77 people (killed and wounded) and not a single ship.

Second Battle of Ypres

April 22-May 25, 1915. Known for the first case in history of the successful mass use of chemical weapons (chlorine). 15 thousand people suffered from poisoning, a third of them died, and there were many cases of blindness. The battle was a major success for the Germans, as it allowed the French and British forces to be separated.

Carpathian operation

January-March 1915. A unique case of a counter offensive by two sides (Russia and Austria). The operation cost enormous casualties (1 million on the Russian side, slightly less on the Austrian side), but did not bring decisive success to either side. The Russian army failed to cross the Carpathians, and the Austrian army failed to release Przemysl.

Gorlitsky breakthrough

May 2-15, 1915. A major offensive operation by Germany and Austria on the Eastern Front. The goal was to weaken the Russian army as much as possible. This goal was not achieved, but the troops of the Triple Alliance advanced very significantly, and all the gains made by Russia in 1914 and early 1915 were lost.

Battle of Verdun, "Verdun Meat Grinder"

The most important events of the war took place during 1916, and the Battle of Verdun (February 21-December 18) is one of them. The last decisive attempt of the German troops to break through the French defense in a significant area was stopped. The operation, planned as a quick one, turned into a war of attrition. The battle cost nearly 450,000 lives and marked the beginning of the end of German military power.

Brusilovsky breakthrough

May 22-September 16, 1916 (old style). Russia's offensive operation is unique in terms of the scale of troop movements (number, distance, front length, speed). As a result, Russian troops occupied Bukovina, Volyn, part of Galicia, Austria-Hungary and Germany lost up to 1.5 million people. 34 German and Austrian divisions were transferred to the Eastern Front, which ensured the success of the Battle of Verdun and saved Italy from defeat. intended to completely withdraw Austria-Hungary from the war, but the lack of reinforcements and shortage of ammunition (according to some, organized purposefully) prevented him.

Battle of the Somme

July 1-November 18, 1916. The largest Anglo-French offensive operation. During this battle, tanks were used on a large scale for the first time. After its success, the strategic initiative completely passed to the Entente states. In Germany, the defeat at the Somme provoked serious problems in the government.

The First World War began like in the Middle Ages - with cavalry raids, saber fights and theft of cattle from the enemy

The First World War, which would become a struggle between technology and economics, began almost like in the times of Attila and Genghis Khan. In August 1914, the first to go on the offensive were huge masses of cavalry, tens of thousands of cavalrymen, for whom sabers, checkers, broadswords and even pikes were still considered the main thing.

Sabers and pikes of the First World War

The war, then not yet called the First World War, was started by the great cavalry powers. Russia had the most numerous cavalry - almost 100 thousand riders and horses in peacetime. After mobilization, mainly at the expense of the Cossacks, the number of Russian cavalry could be doubled. The second largest cavalry in Europe was the German one - almost 90 thousand riders and horses. In industrial Germany, where almost half the population already lived in cities, where engineers Diesel and Benz invented the world's first automobile engines, and the production of automobiles was already in the thousands per year, the generals still considered it impossible to do without cavalry with sabers and pikes.

The third in Europe was the French cavalry, numbering 60 thousand horsemen, among which, inherited from Napoleon, there were still cuirassier regiments, and the analogue of the Russian Cossacks were the “spagi” - light cavalry from the nomads of North Africa. By 1914, the French cuirassier's field uniform included scarlet trousers and gloves, a shiny gilded cuirass, and an equally flamboyant helmet adorned with a ponytail.

Lieutenant Winston Churchill of Her Majesty's 4th Queen's Hussars. Photo: Imperial War Museums

Already all the armies of the world were armed with machine guns, the first bombers and automatic cannons appeared, chemical weapons were being prepared, but the cavalry of the European powers was still training to attack with medieval spears. French dragoons were armed with pikes on a three-meter bamboo shaft. In industrial Germany, advanced technology meant that all the Kaiser's cavalrymen carried pikes on all-metal hollow shafts almost three and a half meters long. The newest model of pike for the Russian cavalry was approved in 1901, the same year in which the Maxim machine gun was officially adopted by the Russian army.

Even among the British in the summer of 1914, 8% of the warring army was cavalry, where, according to tradition, the scions of the highest British aristocracy served. There were no tanks yet, armored cars were just leaving the experimental stage, and the military had not yet fully appreciated the importance of tractors and cars. Therefore, for generals around the world, it was the cavalry that remained the most mobile branch of the ground forces. She was entrusted with the tasks of reconnaissance, quickly capturing key points, and pursuing the enemy. Due to the inertia of the experience of previous centuries, army headquarters still believed in the success of swift cavalry attacks with drawn sabers.

At the very beginning of the war, the cavalry had to cover the mobilization of its troops, conduct reconnaissance in border areas on enemy territory and, at the same time, protect its border from reconnaissance raids of enemy cavalry. That is why the Russian cavalry went to war even before its official announcement.

Kuban Cossacks and Hungarian Hussars

On July 28, 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia. On the same day, by order of the high command of the Russian Imperial Army, the 2nd Combined Cossack Division moved to the Austrian border. It consisted of Don, Terek and Kuban Cossacks and in peacetime was located on the right bank of the Dnieper in the territory of modern Vinnitsa and Khmelnytsky regions of Ukraine. Tsar Nicholas II still hoped to reach an agreement with the German Kaiser, and the troops stood motionless on the German border. Mobilization began only to put pressure on Austria, so the Cossack cavalry located in Ukraine became the first part of the Russian army to leave the barracks and go to the yet undeclared war.

The combined Cossack division was supposed to cover the mobilization and concentration of troops of the 8th Army of General Brusilov, which needed several weeks to receive reinforcements from the internal provinces of Russia. And in the first week of August 1914, the front line became the border river Zbruch, a tributary of the Dniester, dividing the possessions of the Austrian and Russian empires in Ukraine. The Cossacks prevented the Austrian cavalry reconnaissance from crossing the river, and they themselves tried to swim across the Zbruch to reconnoiter the situation on enemy territory.

After several skirmishes without hits, the Cossacks suffered their first losses on the morning of August 4, 1914, when two privates from the 1st Line Regiment of the Kuban Cossack Army were seriously wounded. In fact, these were the first Russian losses of the great war of 1914-18. On the same day, August 4, London officially declared war on Berlin - the conflict quickly became global. At the same time, Russia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire were not yet officially at war. Vienna's representative in St. Petersburg, Count Friedrich Szapary, half German and half Hungarian, would deliver the note declaring hostilities two knocks later.

The “Dual Monarchy,” as the Austro-Hungarian Empire was then called, was the largest state in Central Europe, whose borders ran from Western Ukraine to Italy, from Balkan Bosnia to Czech Prague and Polish Krakow. The most multinational of the Western states was ruled by the German and Hungarian aristocracy.

The Hungarians traced their ancestry to the nomadic peoples of Asia. The Hungarian “Pushta” steppe between the Danube and Tissa fed almost 4 million horses at the beginning of the 20th century; local breeds were considered among the best in Europe. Therefore, according to contemporaries, the combination of the German military school and Hungarian horsemen produced one of the best cavalry of the time. The regular Austro-Hungarian cavalry numbered almost 50 thousand horsemen, half of which were Hungarian hussar regiments.

Uhlans attack. Photo: Library of Congress

Therefore, in the first days of the First World War on the Austrian front, the Don, Terek and Kuban Cossacks from the 2nd Combined Cossack Division were opposed by four hussar regiments of the 5th Cavalry Division of Austria-Hungary, where a third of the composition was from Austrian Germans and two-thirds from Hungarians.

Two weeks after the start of mobilization and border skirmishes, the Austrian cavalrymen decided to attack the Cossacks. On August 17, 1914, the Austro-Hungarian hussars began crossing the border river Zbruch. The Cossack podesaul (in the modern hierarchy - lieutenant) Evgeniy Tikhotsky, who took part in that battle, described these events as follows: “The crossing was bold and non-stop. The Austro-Hungarian squadrons crossed under fire from our dismounted hundreds, leveled the formation and moved at a trot along the road...”

The Austrian cavalry broke through to Kamenets-Podolsky, one of the oldest cities in Ukraine, where the headquarters of the Russian Southwestern Front was then located. The advancing 5th Austro-Hungarian Cavalry Division was commanded by General Ernst-Anton von Freureich-Chabot, a half-German, half-Hungarian born in Bohemia (Czech Republic). This Austrian aristocrat turned 59 years old that year, and all his ideas about the actions of cavalry came exclusively from the 19th century.

Therefore, the general managed to break through to the Russian bank of the border river Zbruch with a dashing cavalry raid. But at 2 o'clock in the afternoon on August 17, 1914, the Austrian cavalry stumbled upon Russian Cossacks defending a village named Gorodok. It was a typical “shtetl,” as such small villages on the right bank of Ukraine at the beginning of the 20th century were called, where there were two Orthodox churches, one Catholic church, seven synagogues and three brick factories. Almost half of the 7 thousand population of the Town were Jews, a quarter were Poles.

For two hours the Austrians shelled the “town” of the town with cannons; the Austrian cavalrymen, in the spirit of the 20th century, dismounted and tried to attack, but were stopped by rifle fire from the Cossacks. And then the old General Freureich-Chabot decided not to waste time and try to take the city with a swift cavalry attack. At 3:55 a.m. on August 18, 1914, three squadrons of the 7th Hussars of the Austrian Army - almost 500 horsemen - launched a cavalry attack.

“Despite the artillery fire, the hussars galloped forward...”

They attacked the real hussars, in dark blue jackets embroidered with twisted cords, familiar to every reader from the images of 1812. The Hungarians called such a hussar jacket “Attila” - the term “hussar” itself goes back to the Hungarian Huszar, which meant light steppe cavalry, and the twists embroidered with cords really go back to the era of the Great Migration and the Huns of Attila, the legendary ancestors of the Ugric-Hungarians.

The 7th Hussars wore dark green shakos decorated with gold cords and horsehair plumes. The hussar uniform was complemented by speckled red, bright cavalry riding breeches - “chikchirs”. At the head of the German and Hungarian horsemen attacking in even ranks rode Major Bartsai, a Hungarian.

A Russian witness to that cavalry attack described it this way: “The slender lines of the Hungarian hussars in their bright uniforms presented a beautiful sight. Despite the artillery fire, the hussars moved forward at a wide gallop, maintaining complete order. The horsemen who had lost their horses quickly rose from the ground, gathered in chains and advanced on foot... Not a single shot was fired from our trenches. The shooters, placing their rifles on the parapet, calmly awaited the enemy at a distance of a direct rifle shot. When the hussars approached 900–1000 steps, on the orders of Colonel Kuzmin, bursts of rifle and machine-gun fire were opened along the entire line of trenches.”

Russian Cossacks. Photo: Agence Rol / Gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliotheque nationale de France

With weapons even from the beginning of the 20th century, the result of a beautiful cavalry attack was deadly for the attackers: “The hussars wavered, people and horses began to fall, the lines became confused, and the order of movement was disrupted. Unable to withstand the fire, the horsemen began to cluster in heaps and partly turned back, partly turned to the right and for some time continued to gallop in disorder along the front, littering the field with the bodies of people and horses. Within a short time, the lines of hussars almost completely melted away, mowed down by frontal and flanking fire... The area ahead was empty again and only riderless horses rushing across the field, and a large number of bodies of killed and wounded hussars and horses lying on the yellow stubble, were reminders of what was taking place here bloody battle episode."

Most of the attacking hussars were killed, and all of their officers were killed or wounded. Among the wounded who were captured by Russians was Major Bartsai, a Hungarian in Austrian service, who commanded the attack.

At the same time, north of Gorodok, Austrian cavalrymen tried to bypass the Russian positions. And two squadrons of Hungarian hussars collided with two hundred mounted Kuban Cossacks. The result was a typical cavalry battle - typical of previous centuries and millennia. Two lines of cavalry came together head-on, chopping each other with sabers.

The Cossacks defeated the Hungarians, the hussars fled. The fierce hand-to-hand combat lasted literally several minutes, but ended with heavy losses for both sides. All the commanders of both the Austrians and Russians who participated in that battle died, hacked to death with sabers. Cossack sabers killed captains Kemeny and Mikesh, the Hungarians who commanded the attacking squadrons of hussars. On the Russian side, both commanders of the attacking Cossack hundreds, Captain Vitaly Chervinsky and Captain Shahrukh-Mirza of Persia, were killed by Hungarian sabers.

50-year-old esaul (captain - in modern terminology, analogous to a company commander) Vitaly Yakovlevich Chervinsky came from the nobility of the Kyiv province, descendants of the Polish-Ukrainian gentry, and was the author of a number of books on the Kuban Cossacks, published in St. Petersburg at the end of the 19th century. His brother in arms who fell next to him, recorded in army documents in the Russian manner as “Persian Shahrukh-Marza Darabovich,” came from Azerbaijani nobles related to the shahs of Iran and therefore bore the official title “prince,” but served as captain of the Kuban Cossacks.

Austrian cavalry. Photo: Library of Congress

In that battle near Gorodok on August 18, 1914, about 500 Hungarian hussars died. Russian losses were lower due to the fact that the Cossacks did not attack in close formation under artillery and rifle fire. Pursued by the Cossacks, the Austrian cavalrymen began to retreat, and the return crossing of the Zbruch River turned into panic and disaster. The 5th Austro-Hungarian Cavalry Division lost its combat capability. That same night, its commander, 59-year-old General Freureich-Chabot, shot himself.

“The success was decisive. A lot of cattle and about 50 horses were stolen."

Almost a thousand kilometers north of Austrian Bukovina and Galicia, on the Baltic Sea coast near the borders of East Prussia, cavalry was also the first to enter the First World War.

On the morning of August 2, 1914, the headquarters of General Khan Nakhichevan received a telegram declaring war with Germany. 50-year-old General Hussein Khan of Nakhichevan was the grandson of the last ruler of the Nakhichevan Khanate. His grandfather was a vassal of the Persian Shah, and his father had already become a general of the Russian Tsar. Hussein Khan Nakhichevan himself successfully participated in the Russo-Japanese War as the commander of a cavalry regiment of Dagestan volunteers, conducting several successful cavalry attacks against Japanese infantry.

In August 1914, Khan Nakhichevan commanded the Combined Cavalry Corps, located in the west of modern Lithuania. The corps, consisting of selected cavalry, including two guards cavalry divisions, was to become the vanguard of the offensive of the 1st Army of General Rennenkampf. Thus, East Prussia was attacked by Russian troops under the command of a Baltic German and an Azerbaijani Turk. By the way, both of them would be shot by the Bolsheviks in just 4 years, but in August 1914 these two brave generals looked to the future with great optimism.

Having received a telegram about the beginning of the war, Khan of Nakhichevan gave a dashing cavalry order: “The army cavalry should move to Prussia in order to scout out the enemy’s location in battle and, if necessary, defeat his cavalry...”.

The main forces of Germany in those days were thrown against France; the Germans hoped to defeat its army and force it to surrender. Therefore, in August 1914, on the Eastern Front, the Kaiser had only 6 regiments of army cavalry, less than 10% of all German cavalry.

On the morning of August 3, 1914, the Russian cavalry crossed the Lipona River, beginning to advance deeper into East Prussia. The first clash with the German cavalry occurred on the evening of August 4 near the village of Eidkunen (now the village of Chernyshevskoye, Kaliningrad region). A German cavalry regiment fired on and put to flight a battalion of Russian infantry. When the Russian cavalry came to the aid of the retreating infantrymen, the German cavalry retreated without taking the fight. Pursuing the enemy, the cavalrymen captured 17 prisoners and 2 machine guns.

However, the territory of East Prussia - numerous farmsteads and villages with stone houses, forests, lakes, swamps and canals - was not conducive to the rapid advance of the cavalry masses. The combined cavalry corps of Khan Nakhichevan moved forward slowly, and most importantly, could not fulfill one of the main tasks of the cavalry - to collect information about the enemy troops.

Parade of the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment. On the left is the commander of the Guards Corps, General Danilov, on the right is the regiment commander, General Hussein Khan Nakhichevansky. Photo: Karl Bulla

The army commander, General Rennenkampf, himself had considerable cavalry experience. In 1901, commanding a detachment of Transbaikal Cossacks, he distinguished himself in the war with the Chinese rebels in Manchuria. During the Russo-Japanese War, he commanded a Cossack division in northern Korea.

In August 1914, intending to advance deep into East Prussia, Rennenkampf more than once expressed dissatisfaction with the actions of the cavalry of Khan of Nakhichevan, telegraphing to his subordinate: “Having a mass of cavalry, it was easy to cover the flanks, rear, find out everything. Report more fully and in a timely manner.” However, there was virtually nothing to report. East Prussia turned out to be not medieval Manchuria and Korea. The Russian cavalry was unable to provide intelligence collection here, while the Germans, using advanced telephone communications, had all the data on the advancement of Russian troops.

General Khan Nakhichevansky, trying to report to his superiors, on August 9, 1914, sent the 3rd Cavalry Division of General Bellegarde into a raid on the outskirts of the Prussian town of Stallupen (now the city of Nesterov, the regional center of the Kaliningrad region). Lieutenant General Vladimir Bellegarde was a descendant of a French nobleman who, at the height of the Jacobin Terror, defected to the Russian army.

General Bellegarde would not live to see the red and white terror of the civil war in Russia; he would die in battle a week after the raid on Stallupen. But that day was successful for him - the Russian cavalrymen forced the German company to retreat, cut down several telegraph poles, plundered the surrounding area a little and returned to the Russian border.

Pleased with even such a minor success, General Khan Nakhichevansky reported to army headquarters on August 10, 1914: “The enemy retreated to his fortified zone. The success was decisive. Telegraph and telephone wires were cut, a lot of cattle and about 50 horses were stolen.”

So, with horse raids, like the ancient wars of the Middle Ages, the future battle of engines, tanks, bombers, deadly chemicals, millions of armies and thousand-kilometer fronts began.

From the first victory to the assault on Erzurum
Eight largest battles of the Russian army in the First World War

The actual military component of the First World War is not very well known to the general Russian public. Here, for example, are these eight of the largest battles of the Russian army in the first half of the war...

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Battle of Gumbinnen

With the outbreak of World War I, the Russian army planned two major offensives at once. One of them was to be waged against East Prussia. As our command knew, the Germans were going to attack France with all their might, leaving only the weak 8th Army of General M. von Prittwitz for cover in the east. Hence the idea was born: to concentrate superior forces against it, during a lightning offensive, to defeat and capture East Prussia and gain operational space. If completely successful, the consequences for Germany would be unpredictable.

The operation was carried out by the forces of both armies of the North-Western Front under General Ya. G. Zhilinsky. The 1st Army of General P.K. von Rennenkampf was advancing from across the Neman (from the territory of modern Lithuania), and the 2nd Army of General A.V. Samsonov concentrated on the Narev River and moved to the south of East Prussia. Thus, the plan was to capture the enemy in a giant pincer. Success depended on the coordination of the actions of both armies, separated by the Masurian Lakes line. Under these conditions, the German strategy was to try to defeat our armies one by one, using the developed network of railways. Overall, the 8th Army was stronger than each of our armies individually, but inferior to our Northwestern Front. Therefore, mobility and the ability to concentrate superior forces on decisive sectors of the front came to the fore.

On August 17 (4), the 1st Russian Army crossed the border. With separate battles, she moved forward until, by the end of August 19 (6), she reached Goldap and Gumbinnen. The next day, a day was planned to give the soldiers a rest, and the rear troops to establish supplies and communications, but the commander of the 8th German Army, General von Prittwitz, had other plans for August 20 (7): fearing an early invasion of the 2nd Russian Army, he decided to defeat Rennenkampf's troops.

Directly on the battlefield, the Germans had superiority both in manpower and in the number of guns. Moreover, M. von Prittwitz managed to seize the initiative and establish firmer command of the units. He had all the advantages, but fate decreed otherwise.

The Germans were successful in certain sectors of the front. They managed to defeat our right-flank 28th division (taking advantage of the fact that the cavalry of Khan Nakhichevan was treacherously sitting in the rear), but then the Germans themselves came under a counterattack, confusion arose, and German artillery fired at their own units. As a result, the offensive stalled. On the left flank, the 30th Infantry Division had difficulty holding back the advance of the 1st German Reserve Corps. However, luck was with us in the center. The 3rd German Corps launched a series of fruitless attacks on the positions of our 3rd Army Corps under General N.A. Epanchin. The 27th Infantry Division of General K. M. Adaridi particularly distinguished itself. Somewhere after five in the evening, the Germans launched a final attack against the Ufa regiment, and then began to retreat, some companies fled. Judging by archival documents, no hasty flight of the entire corps was noticed at the front of the division. During a short pursuit, our division took 12 guns, 25 charging boxes, three serviceable and ten broken machine guns, 2 thousand rifles and about 1 thousand prisoners. Heavy losses (over 6 thousand people) and a huge expenditure of artillery (only one division fired 10 thousand shells) forced the command to give the order to stop. Enemy losses amounted to 8 thousand people.

In the evening, M. von Prittwitz, having received a message about the difficult situation at the front and that the 2nd Russian Army of General Samsonov had already crossed the border, suddenly panicked and ordered a retreat. His central corps was defeated; the troops on the left flank were severely exhausted and could not advance. The total losses in killed, wounded and prisoners exceeded 14 thousand people. In contrast, Army Quartermaster Grunert and Chief of Operations Department M. Hoffmann argued, not unreasonably, that the situation was favorable, and if the battle continued, the enemy would be defeated. But M. von Prittwitz, who did not have fortitude, insisted on withdrawing. PK von Rennenkampf was not pursued.

He immediately canceled the first orders to drive the enemy, for which he was criticized by a number of historians. The reproaches can hardly be considered justified, because the troops were tired, they also suffered losses (more than 18 thousand people), and the rear was not established. It is known that from victory to defeat there is only one step, and none of the Russian generals could be sure of the success of the pursuit, especially in view of the consumption of ammunition, as well as the difficult or ambiguous position of most infantry divisions.

Concentration of our and Austro-Hungarian armies by the beginning of August 1914

Battle of Tannenberg

After the victory at Gumbinnen, the 1st Russian Army stood in occupied positions for two days, and on August 23rd it moved forward without finding the enemy in front of it. The hasty retreat of the Germans, as well as the mass exodus of local residents, convinced the command that the Germans were defeated and were going to leave East Prussia, and therefore the commander-in-chief of the front, General Ya. G. Zhilinsky, began to rush the 2nd Army of A. V. Samsonov, which was advancing west of the Masurian lakes She had to prevent the enemy from retreating beyond the Vistula.

At this time, the command of the 8th German Army was changed. The new commander was General P. von Hindenburg, recalled from retirement, and the post of chief of staff was taken by one of the most talented German generals, E. Ludendorff, who had already distinguished himself by taking the strongest Belgian fortress of Liege. The newly appointed commanders arrived at the theater of operations on the afternoon of August 23 and immediately began to transfer the entire 8th Army against the troops of General Samsonov, leaving a small barrier in front of von Rennenkampf.

At this time, the 2nd Russian Army, urged on by the front headquarters, moved forward with forced marches over rough terrain in the absence of normal roads. On August 23-24, in the battle of Orlau and Frankenau, she defeated the 20th German Corps, which retreated to the northwest. Continuing the offensive, the commander of the 2nd Army decided to strike at the Allenstein-Osterode railway branch. But the blow was delivered rather strangely - with only two and a half corps, while two other corps and three cavalry divisions only supported the offensive. As a result, the army was stretched.

The front command did not act in the best way. On August 26, Zhilinsky issued an order that separated the efforts of both armies, and Rennenkampf’s attention was focused on Koenigsberg, where, as our command mistakenly thought, part of the enemy forces was going to take refuge. At this time, moving almost blindly, A.V. Samsonov did not know that the enemy had already concentrated his main forces in front of him. It is also interesting that at the same time at Headquarters the issue of the seizure of East Prussia was generally considered practically resolved.

But it was on August 26 that key events took place. On this day, the Germans attacked the right-flank 6th Corps, defeating one of the brigades. The corps commander, General Blagoveshchensky, found nothing better than to retreat, thereby exposing the central corps to a flank attack.

On August 27, the decisive battles unfolded on the left flank of the army in the Uzdau region, the position of which was occupied by the 1st Corps of General L.K. Artamonov. The reinforced 1st German Corps advanced against him. The Germans soon managed to occupy Uzdau, but at the same time Russian troops crushed their right flank. It seemed like great success had been achieved. However, the unexpected happened - the Russians began to retreat.

Historians argue about the reasons for the withdrawal. Some argue that the corps commander, Artamonov, simply chickened out. Others argue that German radio operators worked here and sent a false order to withdraw. Which, by the way, there are many reasons to believe: the Germans had previously transmitted similar “orders” in an attempt to disrupt the offensive of the 2nd Army. As a result, parts of the 1st Corps were mixed up, some of them ended up by the end of August 27 not only at Soldau (although individual regiments here were still able to take up defensive positions), but even further south. On the same day, August 27, the central 15th Corps of General Martos became involved in heavy fighting, and its neighbor on the right, the 13th Corps of General Klyuev, occupied Allenstein without meeting the enemy.

Thus, at the end of August 27, both flanks of the 2nd Army retreated - under enemy pressure and due to the lack of management of the corps commanders. The center got involved in heavy fighting. And only then A.V. Samsonov realized the gravity of the situation. It was necessary to take countermeasures. Samsonov acted as a worthy commander of a cavalry division, but not at all an army commander: he decided to organize an offensive with the central corps and for this he went to the headquarters of the 15th corps, removing the telegraph apparatus. As a result, the army lost control as a whole and communication with the front-line command.

And it finally, by the night of August 28, more or less figured out what was happening. J. G. Zhilinsky sent an order to P. K. von Rennenkampf to rush to the aid of his neighbor, and then (as soon as the situation on the flanks of the 2nd Army became clear) he ordered the commander of the 2nd Army to retreat to the border. But the telegram never reached the addressee.

P.K. von Rennenkampf began to deploy his corps and sent the cavalry of Nakhichevansky and Gurko to the enemy’s rear, and on the afternoon of August 29 he showed his readiness to personally organize an attack on the enemy’s flank and rear. True, an order to remain in place soon followed: at the front headquarters they thought that A.V. Samsonov’s troops had retreated to the border.

Nevertheless, for Samsonov on the morning of August 28, all was not lost. The Germans had not yet completely destroyed the flanks, and the central divisions had so far not only held out, but also successfully repelled the onslaught in some areas. So, in the morning at Waplitz they managed to defeat the 41st German division. However, when Samsonov arrived at the front, he was disappointed: the soldiers fought with all their strength. The army commander gave the order to withdraw. The Russian rearguards, who offered quite stubborn resistance in some areas, were eventually defeated. The retreating columns were attacked, completely scattered, captured or destroyed. A.V. Samsonov wandered for a long time, and on the night of August 30, falling into despair, he shot himself. Attempts by other units to provide assistance were unsuccessful. About 20 thousand people were able to escape from the cauldron. All the rest were captured or died. The total losses of the army, including killed, wounded and prisoners, amounted to about 90 thousand people.

Battle of Galicia

In August 1914, the Russian Southwestern Front (commander-in-chief General N.I. Ivanov, chief of staff General M.V. Alekseev), consisting of four armies, developed an offensive against Austria-Hungary. The right wing (4th and 5th armies) were supposed to hold back possible enemy attacks, while the main forces (3rd army of General N.V. Ruzsky and 8th army of General A.A. Brusilov) were gathering at in the east near Lutsk and Proskurov. By August 18, the Southwestern Front managed to deploy 33 infantry divisions, three rifle brigades and 12.5 cavalry divisions on a 400-kilometer arc-shaped front, with lagging troops serving as a strategic reserve. The main objective of the operation was to attack the flanks in order to cut off the retreat to Krakow and beyond the Dniester.

The Austro-Hungarian command, represented by the Chief of the General Staff, General K. von Getzendorf, set itself no less ambitious goals. The Austrians intended to deliver the main blow between the Vistula and the Bug in a northern direction (against our weak 4th and 5th armies) with the goal of reaching the rear of the Southwestern Front and cutting off Russian communications. On the morning of August 23, near Krasnik, the 4th Russian Army of General Salza was attacked by the 1st Austro-Hungarian Army of General Dankl. At the end of the next day, the Russian troops began to retreat - the Austrians celebrated their victory in advance. The new commander of our 4th Army was General A.E. Evert, to whose aid reserves were sent, as well as the 5th Army of General P.A. Plehve. On August 26, she entered into heavy fighting with the 4th Austro-Hungarian Army, which is known as the Battle of Tomashevsky. The battles began in unfavorable conditions for the Russian armies: the rear was unsettled, the need to perform several tasks, and the scattering of corps at the front up to 95 kilometers. The hero of those battles was the 19th Corps of General V.N. Gorbatovsky, who steadfastly withstood all attacks during the day. He managed to develop a successful offensive on the right flank and even take prisoners, but the Austrians themselves were pressing on the left.

For several days the battles were fought with varying success, but by the end of August 28, both flanks of the army were thrown back. The situation was reminiscent of the situation that arose in Samsonov’s army, but Plehve did not repeat his mistakes. He did not leave army headquarters, and on August 29 he gave the order to vigorously advance to all corps. Our corps commanders acted much better, as well as the cavalry, which managed to eliminate one of the breakthroughs. On September 1, Plehve nevertheless decided to withdraw the army, which came as a surprise to the enemy.

While the armies of Evert and Plehve stubbornly defended themselves, no less significant events took place on the left wing of the front. The armies of generals Ruzsky and Brusilov went on the offensive, which was unexpected for the Austrians. On August 26, the 3rd Army won a victory on the Zolotaya Lipa River. These days, the 10th Corps (supported by the 7th Corps of the 8th Army) especially distinguished itself on the front of the 3rd Army, in the battle of Peremyshlyany on August 29-30, defeating the enemy 12th Corps, which fled in panic, leaving 28 guns .

Unfortunately, General Ruzsky decided to move forward towards the fortress of Lvov (the capital of Eastern Galicia) instead of advancing north to the rear of the 4th Austro-Hungarian Army, which was leading attacks against the troops of General Plehve. On September 3, Russian troops entered Lviv.

On September 3, a directive was given to launch a general offensive with the goal of pushing the enemy back to the Vistula and San. On the right flank of the front, the 9th Army was formed under the command of P. A. Lechitsky. The 3rd Army received orders to strike northwest at the flank and rear of the enemy’s 1st and 4th armies (the same forces that attacked Evert and Plehwe) in the direction of Tomashev.

Since September 4, the troops of the 9th and 4th Russian armies carried out persistent attacks on the enemy’s heavily fortified position between the Vistula and the upper reaches of the Porus River, stubborn battles unfolded along the entire front. At the same time, fierce fighting took place in the Rava-Russkaya area, where the Germans tried to undertake a wide maneuver against the 3rd and 8th Russian armies. The Austrians were pressing, the forces of Ruzsky and Brusilov were running out. But, fortunately, on the right wing on September 8, the forces of the guard and grenadiers finally broke through the Austrian front at Tarnavka, and the 19th Corps at Frampol entered the rear of the 1st Austrian Army.

Under the influence of these failures, Dunkle ordered a retreat. Already on September 11, it became clear to Conrad that his plan for a concentric attack on Lvov had failed. And the offensive of Plehve’s army created a threat of encirclement of the 4th Austro-Hungarian Army. The Austrians began to retreat. After a series of rearguard battles, by September 22, they retreated to the line of the Wisłoka River, and by September 26, to the Dunajca and Bialy rivers. The Galician battle is over. Austrian losses amounted to about 400 thousand people (against our 230 thousand), including 100 thousand prisoners and 400 guns.

Warsaw-Ivangorod operation (clickable)

Warsaw-Ivangorod operation

By the second half of September, an ambiguous situation had developed on the Russian front. On the one hand, two Russian armies were driven out of East Prussia with heavy losses, on the other hand, on the southern wing, the Austro-Hungarians suffered even greater losses and, under the pressure of the Russian Southwestern Front, retreated to the Carpathians and across the San River. However, between these fronts along the middle Vistula there remained a large section of the front, not covered by troops on both sides. It provided a springboard both for an offensive deep into Germany (it was here that the shortest route to Berlin lay) and for action on the flank of both Russian fronts. It is not surprising that further operations unfolded in this area. Both sides began to concentrate troops here. Moreover, on September 28, a directive was issued from the Russian Headquarters: “The Supreme Commander-in-Chief sets the common task of the armies of both fronts to actively prepare for an offensive in as large a force as possible from the Middle Vistula in the direction of the Upper Oder for a deep invasion of Germany.”

At this time, the 9th German (General Hindenburg) and 1st Austro-Hungarian (General Dankl) armies decided to launch an attack on Warsaw. On September 28, they left the concentration areas and began to move towards the Vistula. And three Austro-Hungarian armies attacked our troops in Galicia (united under the general command of General A. A. Brusilov). By October 12, Russian units were driven out of Transcarpathia and retreated beyond San. Heavy battles began for the crossings, with both sides seeking an offensive. By October 21, the Austrians were exhausted.

At this time, Hindenburg and Dankl developed an attack on Warsaw, defeating our vanguards. All this made adjustments to the Russian plan. By October 2, the right decision was made: to deliver two blows to the enemy grouping - a frontal one, with the forces of the 4th and 9th armies near Ivangorod, and a flank one from Warsaw, where it was now decided to send the entire 2nd Army. True, General N.V. Ruzsky persisted for a long time in weakening the East Prussian front (which almost led to irreparable consequences), and only the persistence of Headquarters decided the matter. By October 3, the regrouping of the troops of generals P. A. Lechitsky and A. E. Evert had ended. At the same time, it was decided to transfer the 5th Army of General Plehve to Warsaw. Moreover, all reserves also came at the disposal of General N.I. Ivanov. It is impossible not to note the efficiency of the actions of the Headquarters and the headquarters of the South-Western Front, which managed to unravel the enemy’s plans in time and prepare a retaliatory strike. The railway troops also performed well, coping with the transfer of such large formations in a short time.

The Germans, who went on the offensive on September 28, approached the Vistula by October 3. On October 4-6, fighting began on the Ivangorod-Sandomierz front. Here at Opatov, attacked by superior enemy forces, they suffered heavy losses and units of the 2nd Rifle and Guards Rifle Brigades retreated.

Thanks to the efficiency of the Russian troops, the attempt at a flank attack turned into frontal battles. Intelligence data showed that the Russians had weak forces in the Warsaw area, and therefore this was where the main efforts needed to be concentrated. For this purpose, a group was formed from the 17th and Consolidated Corps along with the 8th Cavalry Divisions under the overall command of A. von Mackensen. It is impossible not to point out the caution of the Germans: the main blow was delivered by two corps, while two and a half corps were exclusively engaged in supporting the operation. Already on October 9, she rushed to Warsaw with a forced march through Radom and Bialobrzegi.

Russian troops stubbornly defended themselves, holding back enemy activity. On October 13, a directive was given to strike the enemy’s left flank by the forces of the Northwestern Front. For this purpose, Novikov's cavalry corps, the 2nd and 5th armies were transferred to Ruzsky. At the same time, Ivanov decided to facilitate the offensive from Warsaw by striking the right flank of the 4th Army. Already by October 14, near Warsaw, the enemy went on the defensive. The 9th German Army had to withstand fierce attacks from two Russian armies at once. The Austrians also acted unsuccessfully. The situation became even more difficult when the 5th Army of General Plehve began crossing the Vistula. On the night of October 20, A. von Mackensen began a retreat. On October 21-22, the Russians launched an offensive against the Germans and Austrians with the forces of four armies (almost one and a half times larger than the enemy). After a series of heavy battles on the night of October 27, the enemy decided to begin a general retreat.

Russian troops won a major victory. It was based on the training of troops, the strategic talent of commanders (primarily General M.V. Alekseev, chief of staff of the Southwestern Front), and closer coordination of the Southwestern and Northwestern Fronts, which was ensured by Headquarters (if compared with lower level of interaction between Austrians and Germans).

The new year of 1915 began for Russia, it would seem, under rather favorable circumstances. True, the attempts of the Russian command to carry out a second invasion of East Prussia again ended in failure. However, in March 1915, the Austrian fortress of Przemysl capitulated. 120 thousand enemy soldiers and officers were captured, and the winners received 900 guns.

And yet the situation in which the Russian army was located was very difficult. The farther, the louder he declared himself supply crisis. The colossal scale of the global armed conflict has upset all peacetime calculations regarding the army's needs for military equipment. The mobilization stock of shells turned out to be used up within four months, and it was possible to restore it with existing production volumes only within a year. The available stocks of rifles (4.3 million pieces) provided only general mobilization. By November 1914, the shortage of them had already reached 870 thousand pieces, while it was planned to produce 60 thousand monthly. In March 1915, in a conversation with the ministers who arrived at Headquarters, the Chief of Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief N.N. Yanushkevich stated that “we have absolutely no shells and what the rear sent us was an insignificant part of the needs of the front”, that “it is impossible to hold the front under these conditions” and that “the army in the near future will have to retreat and leave the conquered areas.”

Meanwhile, the German command concentrated large forces on the Eastern Front, hoping to defeat Russia and take it out of the war. In April 1915, German and Austro-Hungarian troops launched an offensive in Galicia. Having secured their superiority in manpower by two times, in light artillery by 4.5 times, and in heavy artillery by 40 times, they broke through the front. The Russian troops, experiencing a catastrophic shortage of weapons and ammunition, began to retreat to the east. They were forced to leave Galicia, and the threat of encirclement loomed over the Russian army in Poland.

The Germans, however, failed to surround and destroy the Russians in the “Polish pocket”. However, Poland had to be abandoned. Developing the offensive, German troops also occupied part of the Baltic states and Western Belarus.

Defeats at the front became one of the reasons for changes in the leadership of the active army. In August 1915, Nicholas II took over the post of Supreme Commander-in-Chief. Grand Duke Nikolai Nikolaevich was appointed governor of the Caucasus and Commander-in-Chief of the Caucasian Army.

The tsar practically did not interfere in the management of troops. The actual leadership of the active army was carried out by his replacement, N.N. Yanushkevich as Chief of Staff of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, General M.V. Alekseev, a talented military leader with exceptional efficiency.

The 1915 campaign became a real tragedy for the Russian army. The losses were extremely high. “The Germans,” noted one of the corps commanders in a letter to the Minister of War, “plow up the battlefields with a hail of metal and level all sorts of trenches and structures, often covering their defenders with earth. They waste metal, we waste human life».

Since the beginning of the war, the Russian army has lost 3.5 million people killed, wounded and captured. Passivity of the British and French contributed greatly to the success of the Germans. However, the German command failed to achieve its main goal - to take Russia out of the war. By the fall of 1915, the German offensive had run out of steam and the front had stabilized. The fighting continued, acquiring a positional character. The troops "burrowed" into the ground. The front line became continuous, turning into a chain of fortified positions, entangled in a network of wire barriers, stretching from the Baltic to the Carpathians.

The year 1916 showed that the Russian army retained the ability to inflict serious blows on the enemy. Adopted, however, with a significant delay, measures to mobilize the country's economic resources to meet the needs of the front bore fruit. The material support of the troops has improved significantly. At the inter-allied conference in Chantilly, it was decided to begin offensive operations on three main fronts in the summer of 1916 - Western, Eastern and Italian (Italy entered the war on the side of the Entente in 1915).

In May 1916, Austro-Hungarian troops at Trentino inflicted a crushing defeat on the Italian army. The Italian king turned to Nicholas II with a request for help. Under these conditions, the Southwestern Front, commanded by the talented commander General A.A. Brusilov, launched a large-scale offensive against the Austrians somewhat earlier than planned. The operation was carefully prepared. At the same time, A.A. Brusilov decided to abandon the ramming tactics previously used when breaking through enemy defensive lines - a breakthrough on a narrow section of the front with an overwhelming superiority of forces over the enemy. A.A. Brusilov intended to attack with the four armies at his disposal in four different directions, which should have prevented the Austrians from maneuvering their reserves. Russian troops were superior to the enemy in manpower (633 thousand people versus 475 thousand), in light artillery (1770 versus 1301 guns), but significantly inferior to him in heavy artillery (168 and 545 guns, respectively).

The armies of the Southwestern Front, after artillery preparation that lasted from eight to 48 hours, managed to break through the positions of the Austrians, who lost 100 thousand people as prisoners in the first three days of the operation alone. The 8th Army, which delivered the main blow, occupied Lutsk. In total, during the fighting, the losses of the Austro-Hungarian troops amounted to more than 500 thousand people. Germany's ally was on the verge of complete defeat. " Brusilovsky breakthrough"was one of the largest operations of the First World War. True, its results could have been more significant if the efforts of the Southwestern Front had been promptly supported by troops of other fronts. Nevertheless, the success of the Russian army had a significant impact on the overall strategic situation. To save their ally, the Germans were forced to withdraw 11 divisions from the Western Front and weaken the onslaught in the Verdun area, which provided the entire system of French defense on the right flank of the front and where a bloody battle unfolded from the beginning of 1916 (“ Verdun meat grinder"). The Italians managed to avoid complete defeat.

The victories of the Russian army prompted Romania to enter the war on the side of the Entente. However, Romanian troops demonstrated very low combat effectiveness. Their resistance was quickly broken. At the end of 1916, Austro-German troops occupied Bucharest and occupied almost the entire territory of the country. For Russia, the emergence of a new ally resulted in additional problems. In particular, 35 infantry and 11 cavalry divisions had to be transferred to the Romanian front.

Russian troops achieved significant success in the Caucasus in 1916. Having taken Erzurum, Trebizond, Erzincan, they advanced 250-300 km deep into Turkish territory.
The Russian army played a huge role in the armed struggle of the Entente powers with the Austro-German bloc. The enemy was dealt serious blows. During two and a half years of war, the Germans and Austrians alone lost 1,739 thousand and 2,623 thousand people killed, wounded and prisoners in the east, respectively.

The 1917 campaign began for the Russian army with the Mitau operation. It didn't bring success. At a conference of representatives of the allied armies held in Petrograd, it was decided to launch a general offensive on all fronts in the spring of 1917. The outbreak of the February Revolution, however, dramatically changed the situation both in the country as a whole and in the theater of military operations.

The First World War is one of the bloodiest in human history. The armed conflict began in 1914 with the Sarajevo massacre. On June 28, Archduke Franz Ferdinand died at the hands of a terrorist, a student from Bosnia. This caused aggression in Europe, and more and more countries were drawn into hostilities. As a result of the war, four empires were wiped off the face of the earth, 10 million soldiers and officers were killed, and five times as many were wounded. People remember the First World War as massive and merciless. The main battles of this European “meat grinder” are still striking in their scale and cruelty.

Tannenberg operation

In another way it is also called the Battle of Grunwald. During this battle in the east of Prussia, Russian troops, the first and second armies, in which there were 250 thousand soldiers, and the German army of 200 thousand soldiers came together.

Constant discord and inconsistency of actions within the Russian army led to the fact that entire divisions were defeated and severely driven back. As a result, many ordinary soldiers died. Losses on the part of the Russians were larger: 150-200 thousand, which was almost 2/3 of the total number of military personnel based in this area. Germany lost 50 thousand of its citizens who fought under its flag.

The Russian army was defeated in the Tannenberg operation. And this led to the fact that the Germans were able to transfer significant reinforcements to the Western Front. At the same time, Russia's rapid offensive cut off German troops from their allies, the Austro-Hungarian soldiers. Having received no help from Prussia, they lost another important battle, the Battle of Galicia, for which the First World War is also famous. The main battles also include this fight in their bloody list.

Battle of Galicia

It happened in the summer, in August 1914. The main stage fell on the first days of this month. As historical archival records testify, Russian and Austro-Hungarian forces met in equal numbers: 4 armies took part in the battles on both sides.

These battles also stand out, which took place near Lvov, Galich and Lublin on Ukrainian-Polish territory. The fate of the Battle of Galicia was sealed when the Russians near Tarnavka broke through and launched an offensive. This greatly influenced the further course of events and became their trump card in obtaining the coveted victory.

Austria-Hungary's losses from the Battle of Galicia were colossal: 325 thousand soldiers. This was a third of all the empire's forces on the Eastern Front. Subsequently, the fallout from this defeat was felt in the actions of the army. She was never able to get back on her feet after the crushing blow, and only achieved a handful of minor successes thanks to the help of the Germans.

Sarykamysh battle

Speaking about the main battles of the Great Patriotic War (that’s what it was called before the start of World War II), one cannot fail to mention this operation. Russia and Türkiye competed in it on the threshold of the new year 1915. At that time, the Turkish command was developing a cunning plan: to capture Karas and completely destroy the army of the Caucasus.

The Crescent Forces advanced. The Russians were surrounded in Sarykamysh, but they continued to pin down the main forces of the enemy and impede their advance. Accustomed to a milder climate, their opponents could not withstand the harsh winter. Tens of thousands of Turkish soldiers died from severe frosts and snowstorms in just one day.

The Russians were waiting at this time, which was the right decision. Soon reinforcements approached Sarykamysh, and the Crescent Army was defeated. In total, about 100 thousand people died in this operation. The largest battles of the First World War included this battle, since it played an important strategic role: the situation in the Caucasus was stabilized, and the Russians were able to curb their ardent enemy - Turkey.

Brusilovsky breakthrough

The main battles of World War 1 were not without the courage and strategic skills of General Brusilov. In the summer of 2016, under his leadership, the Russians broke through on the Southwestern Front. The Austro-Hungarian army lost many soldiers and officers. The figure is astonishing - 1.5 million killed.

The Russians occupied Bukovina and Galicia. This forced the Germans to strengthen their positions here by transferring additional forces from the Western Front to this area. Despite this, Russia's allies strengthened in this territory, the Entente was also completed by Romania, which went over to the side of the Union.

Russian troops were also missing many valiant heroes. And therefore, a new wave of mobilization was announced in the country, calling on newcomers to join the thinning ranks of the army. This unpopular step by the government caused outrage and discontent among the common people. People did not want to be “cannon fodder,” because the First World War spared neither the old nor the young. The main battles show that there were many losses both on the part of the Russians and on the part of their opponents.

Kerensky's offensive

In 1917, the Bolsheviks overthrew the monarchy, and therefore the further course of the war was dictated by revolutionary events in the country. The Russians began their offensive in June 1917, but after two days of active advance they suddenly stopped. The soldiers considered that this was enough; they had completely fulfilled their sacred duty.

Newcomers also refused to take the front row. All this disorder and general disobedience occurred against the backdrop of regular desertion that the revolution provoked. The major battles of World War I had never seen such widespread chaos and panic among the military personnel.

At this time, taking advantage of the situation, Germany attacked and pushed the Russian units back to their old positions. The once strong and courageous Russian army has virtually ceased to exist as an organized force. Germany was no longer afraid of its enemy and was able to strengthen itself on all fronts. The Russians had to conclude the Brest-Litovsk Peace Treaty, which was unprofitable and humiliating for our country.

"Goeben" and "Breslau"

The naval battles of the First World War are also striking in their scale. With the start of the battles, the parties to the conflict turned their attention to the Mediterranean Sea. It was an important component for transporting the army, especially the French. In order to transport its soldiers through the waters of the Mediterranean without obstacles, France had to destroy the German cruisers Goeben and Breslau, which were cruising off the coast of Sardinia.

In August 1914, these two German ships shelled the ports of Algeria and headed for Constantinople. No matter how hard the British troops tried, the German ships reached the Sea of ​​Marmara. Having become part of the Turkish fleet, Goeben and Breslau fired at Russian positions in the Black Sea. This changed the course of the First World War. Russia declared war on Turkey, and at the same time British and French forces began a blockade of the Dardanelles. They also believed that it was necessary to neutralize Germany's Austrian allies. The Anglo-French fleet crossed the Adriatic more than once, hoping to challenge the Austrian ships to a duel, but this did not bring the desired result.

Operation Dardanelles

Another major naval battle, stretched over the whole of 1915. The campaign included the capture of the straits and the landing of Anglo-French troops. But the First World War was characterized by unforeseen situations. Major battles did not always go according to the plan, and sometimes operations failed. This is what happened with the strategic plan called the Dardanelles. The parties suffered colossal losses: almost 200 thousand soldiers were injured in the Turkish army, and 150 thousand among the allies. These are the wounded and killed, as well as the missing.

In May, Italy joined the Entente. At the same time, German submarines were able to penetrate the Mediterranean. They managed to sink 100 merchant ships, while simultaneously losing only one piece of equipment. Thus, despite Italian assistance, the Allies were unable to achieve superiority in the 1915 naval campaign. The only positive was the evacuation of the Serbian army, which was defeated by enemy forces in the fall.

Fighting in the Baltic

The parties called this sea secondary. The First World War, the main battles of which took place not only on land, but also on water, did not rely on the Baltic. The British considered the Russian fleet exhausted after the Russo-Japanese War, so they did not count on its help. Only old ships plied the Baltic.

But in August 1914, an incident occurred on this calm and serene sea that could influence the course of the war. The German cruiser Magdeburg ran aground in the Gulf of Finland. It was soon captured by the Russians. They found the signal book of this ship, handed it over to the British - this played a major role in breaking the German naval code. Using the knowledge gained, the Allies carried out many successful operations.

This is only part of the main battles of that time. And there were a lot of them. The main battles of the First World War, the diagram, table and graphics of operations, their detailed course are described today in history textbooks. Reading them, we understand how bloody that period of time became, and how it influenced the future fate of the countries involved in it.