27 March 2013 was the week eleven and it was the second last week for us; and this week we were showing a video about a great war. The video is interesting but I could not understand more about that video. However, because of that it make me want to understand and know about that therefore, I did a research on this issue.
World War I begin at 1914, which World War I stuck in Sarajevo, Bosnia, where Archduke Franz Ferdinand , nephew of Emperor Franz Josef and heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire was shot to death or assassinated along with his wife by the Serbian nationalist, Gavrilo Princip on June 28, 1914. In addition, the assassinated of Franz Ferdinand and his wife make many countries around the world blamed the Serbian government. Furthermore, on July 5, Kaiser Wilhelm secretly guaranteed his support; giving Austria-Hungary, a so-called carte blanch assurance of Germany is backing in the case of war. In addition, on July 28, Austria-Hungary declared war in Serbia and the shaky peace among Europe’s great powers collapsed. After that, within a week Russia, Belgium, France, Great Britain and Serbia had lined up against Austria-Hungary and Germany and World War I has begun.
Besides that, according to an aggressive military strategy known as the Schlieffen Plan, Germany began fighting World War I on two fronts, invading France through neutral Belgium in the west and confronting mighty Russia in the east. Further, on August 4, 1914, Germany troops under Erich Ludendorff crossed the border into Belgium, in violation of the country’s neutrality. In the first battle in World War I, the Germans attacked the heavily fortified city of Liege, using the most powerful weapons in their arsenal in order to capture the city by August 15. Tragically, leaving death and destruction in their wake, including the shooting of civilians and the deliberate of Belgian priest, whom they accused of inciting civilian resistance, the German advanced through Belgium towards France.
Moreover, in the First Battle of the Marne, fought from September 6-9, 1914, French and British forces confronted the invading German army, which had by then penetrated deep into northeastern France, within 30 miles of Paris. Under the French commander Joseph Joffre, the Allied troops checked the German advance and mounted a successful counterattack, driving the Germans back to north of the Aisne River. Besides, the defeat meant the end of German plans for a quick victory in France. Both sides dug into trenches, and began the bloody war of attrition that would characterize the next three years on World War I’s Western Front. Further, particularly long and costly battles in this campaign were fought at Verdun (February-December 1916) and the Somme (July-November 1916); German and French troops suffered close to a million casualties in the Battle of Verdun alone. However, only this much can I reflect from what I read.
As a conclusion, I was enjoying watching the video even though I could not understand some of the scenes. Besides, because of that, I did a research about this and I was enjoying reading the article about the World War even not so much but it is really interesting.