Chapter 4 ww1 1914..Battle of Mons: August 23, 1914.....First Battle of Ypres: October 19 to November 22, 1914 battle of Tannenberg: August 26-August 30, 1914....

For four years, from 1914 to 1918, World War I raged across Europe's western and eastern fronts after growing tensions and then the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria ignited the war. Trench warfare and the early use of tanks, submarines and airplanes meant the war’s battles were devastatingly bloody, claiming an estimated 40 million military and civilian casualties, including 20 million deaths. Fighting under brutal conditions, World War I battles on both land and at sea saw mass carnage, but few decisive victories, with some conflicts waging for months on end. Below is a timeline of the war's most significant battles.
The first European clash since 1815’s Battle of Waterloo, the Battle of Mons takes place in Mons, Belgium, with a British Expeditionary Force that numbers about 75,000 fighting an estimated 150,000 Germans in an attempt to hold the Mons-Conde Canal. In the final of four “Battles of the Frontier” held in the first weeks of World War I, the British forces are overpowered and forced to retreat, handing the Germans a strategic victory. Some 1,600 British and 5,000 Germans casualties are reported.
The Battle of Liège was the first battle of the war, and could be considered a moral victory for the allies, as the heavily outnumbered Belgians held out against the German Army for 12 days.
Dubbed the Battle of Tannenberg by the victorious Germans in revenge for the 1410 conflict in which the Poles crushed the Teutonic Knights, this would be the country’s biggest win against Russia along the Eastern Front. The battle begins with Russian armies attacking German troops in German East Prussia (now Poland) from the south and the east, which, at first, works. But after intercepting unencrypted radio messages from the Russians, the Germans are able to reorganize their strategy, forcing the Russians into retreat. The Germans pursued the Russians, essentially annihilating the armies with 30,000 casualties and more than 90,000 taken prisoner.The First Battle of the Marne marks an Allied victory about 30 miles northeast of Paris, where the French army and British Expeditionary Force stop Germany’s swift advance into France. With an exhausted and weakened German force that had sent nearly a dozen divisions to fight in East Prussia and Belgium, the German First Army faces a counterattack and is forced to retreat to the Lower Aisne River, where the first trench warfare of the conflict begins.First Battle of Ypres: October 19 to November 22, 1914In what would become known as the “Race to the Sea,” the First Battle of Ypres begins, the first of three battles to control the ancient Flemish city on Belgium’s north coast that allows access to English Channel ports and the North Sea. The massive conflict—involving an estimated 600,000 Germans and 420,000 Allies—continues for three weeks until brutal winter weather brings it to an end. Typical of so many World War I battles, both sides engage in trench warfare and suffer massive casualties, but neither makes significant gains.

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