| General World War I Sites
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1915 Gallipoli Campaign Begins - The Russians were in desperate need of war supplies. The only route to them was blocked by the Turkish blockade of the Dardanelle Straits. The British decided to land troops to capture the heights overlooking the straits. In a campaign that lasted eight months, the British failed to capture the straits, and were forced to withdraw without accomplishing anything. |
| 1915 Second Battle of Ypres -The Allies planned a major counter-offensive. Their attack was stopped in its tracks by the German use of chlorine gas. Although the Allies knew of German plans, they were unprepared, and there troops were forced to withdraw in disarray. |
| 1915 Lusitania Sunk -(5/12/15) Some 128 American citizens were among the 1,200 passengers of the liner Lusitania, sunk by a German submarine. The sinking of the Lusitania poisoned relations between the United States and Germany, but did not immediately result in US intervention in the war. |
| 1915 Vilnius Falls To Germans -On September 19th, the Germans ended their offensive against the Russians by capturing Vilna. Thus, they completed their capture of all of Poland. |
| 1915 Third Battle of Artois -The Third Battle of Artois was the final part of an ambitious Allied plan to force the Germans out of Northern France. The French and the British attacked between Ypres and Arras. The battles lasted throughout the fall. Tens of thousands of people died, but little ground changed hands. |
| 1915 First Transcontinental Telephone Conversation-(1/25/15) Alexander Graham Bell recreated his first telephone conversation in a call between New York and San Francisco. |
| 1915 Battle of Jutland Island -This battle, in the North Sea, was the only naval battle of the war in which the main German and British fleets engaged each other. Previously and subsequently, the naval war was a series skirmishes with German raiders and submarines. The British were successful in blockading the Germans, while the Germans were successful in blocking aid to the Russians and sinking a large number of British merchant vessels with submarines. The battle itself was a tactical victory for the Germans, who sunk twice as much tonnage as the British. The results did not change the strategic situation, however, and the Germans resorted to unrestricted submarine warfare that ultimately resulted in the US intervention. |
| 1915 Battle of Somme-The British launched a major attack against the Germans, using gas for the first time. In the first day of the battle, the British lost 50,000 soldiers. The battle lasted from July 1st until November 8th, and the allies succeeded in recapturing a total of 125 sq. miles of land. No important strategic objectives were captured. The British lost 400,000 troops, the French lost 200,000 and the Germans lost 400-500,000. |
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