An lllustrated History of the First Year of the Great War 1914

IT WAS said that Europe sleepwalked into war in the summer of 1914. Whilst the great Powers had been arming throughout the early years of the twentieth century in expectation of a European conflict, when war was actually declared on 4 August it was still a shock. Even greater shocks were to follow as the people of the United Kingdom responded to the threat they faced and adjusted to the prospect of a prolonged world war. Very quickly a British Expeditionary Force was shipped to France to take part in the great offensive that would knock the Germans out of the war. Almost from the start the Allied plan began to fall apart. The overwhelming might of the most populous nation on the Continent compelled the British and French forces to withdraw. Then came the "miracle" of the Battle of the Marne. The Germans were held. They retreated to the line of the River Aisne and began to dig in. There they would remain for four more years. The British Empire stretched around the globe and from its colonies and dominions volunteers joined the colours to fight for the mother country. The colonial troops attacked the German territories of Togoland and South-West Africa and from India an expeditionary force captured the oilfields of the Persian Gulf.

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