On June 28, 1914, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke FRANZ FERDINAND, and his wife were murdered by a Serb terrorist in the Bosnian town of Sarajevo.

[The above was the immediate cause of the start of the war -- there were more serious reasons why this event started World War I]
Russia immediately ordered mobilization against Austria, whereupon, on August 1, Germany declared war against Russia. Russia's ally, France, then began to mobilize, prompting Germany to declare (August 3) war against France. Britain was not bound by the entente to enter the conflict (the entente powers did not form military alliances until after the outbreak of the war), but when the Germans began marching toward France through Belgium, the British government decided that it must honor its commitment to defend Belgian neutrality. It declared war on Germany on August 4. Within 2 days Austria-Hungary had declared war against Russia. Italy temporarily remained neutral, claiming that its obligations to the Triple Alliance were void because Austria had initiated the war.
[The above describes how the sides lined up at the start ofthe war.]
The German war plan had been designed by Alfred, Graf von SCHLIEFFEN, chief of the German general staff (1891-1905). Anticipating a two-front war against France and Russia, Schlieffen envisioned holding the slower mobilizing Russians in check with a minimum of force while a massive German offensive crushed France, the more dangerous enemy.
Assuming that France would attempt to recover Alsace-Lorraine, Schlieffen schemed to entice the French into a major offensive there while 90 percent of the German army stormed through Belgium and the Netherlands, encircling the French and attacking them from the rear behind their weak left flank, ultimately driving them either into Switzerland or against the German fortified positions in Alsace-Lorraine. The principal German armies would then be transported to the eastern front by rail to crush the Russians.

If carried out as conceived, this plan might have ended the war within a few weeks. Schlieffen's successor, however, Gen. Helmuth von MOLTKE, faced different conditions in 1914 and was reluctant to violate Dutch neutrality; he decided to route the northernmost German troops through Belgium. Moltke also strengthened the forces defending both Alsace-Lorraine and Germany's eastern frontier, thus putting only 60 percent of German mobile field forces in the right-wing blow against France instead of Schlieffen's 90 percent.
[The Germans were planning a “right hook”]
The French Plan XVII called for an immediate attack through Alsace-Lorraine, as Schlieffen had anticipated. The French commander in chief, Gen. Joseph J. C. JOFFRE, was relying on the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) to reinforce the French left flank. He was also depending on the ability of the Russian army to launch simultaneous offensives against Germany and Austria in the east, disregarding the fact that Russian mobilization could not be completed for 3 months.

[The French were planning on the Brits and the Russians to keep a lot of Germans busy while the French attacked in the middle.]
On August 4 a specially trained German task force of about 30,000 men crossed the Belgian frontier and attacked Liege, one of the strongest fortresses of Europe. Some of the fortifications were captured in a daring night attack led by Maj. Gen. Erich LUDENDORFF. The rest, pounded into submission by giant howitzers, surrendered on August 16. The German First Army under Gen. Alexander von Kluck and the Second, commanded by Gen. Karl von Bulow, poured through the Liege corridor and across the Meuse. Hastily mobilized Belgian field forces were brushed aside, and Brussels was occupied on August 20. The Belgians, personally commanded by King ALBERT I, retreated to Antwerp.
[Initially, the German plan worked, but they couldn’t pull the whole thing off.]
The German strategy failed because of Moltke's modifications to the Schlieffen Plan and inefficiency. After emasculating the plan, he subsequently lost all personal touch with his army commanders and their progress. Joffre, on the other hand, emerged as a decisive and capable leader whose bold counterattack was masterfully executed by the resilient French army. The BEF, a small but efficient professional army, played a role out of proportion to its size.
Casualties on both sides were enormous--the Allies lost about 250,000 men; German losses were somewhat greater. During 3 weeks of war, each side had suffered more than half a million men killed, wounded, or captured.

The First Battle of the Marne, tactically inconclusive, was a clear-cut strategic victory for the Allies as Joffre emerged as the savior of France. Moreover, the encounter ended the possibility of Germany's winning the war quickly. The Allied nations had far superior resources, and a long war gave them a definite advantage over the Central Powers.
[The French and the Brits had managed to make the German “right hook” come up just short of Paris -- the French ‘chin’]
Shortly thereafter the era of stabilized trench warfare began, as mass conscript armies used the spade, machine gun, and barbed wire to deny maneuver between the North Sea and the Swiss border. By this time operations on the western front had resulted in nearly 1 million Allied casualties; German losses were almost as great.

Increase of lethal firepower, both machine gun and field artillery, had revolutionized combat tactics. The advantage was now with the defense, which was able to bring up reserves to limit a penetration before the attackers could move forward sufficient reserves and artillery to exploit a breakthrough.

The continuous battle line on the western front prevented classical offensive maneuvers. The Germans, recognizing this change long before the Allies, had adopted an elastic defense, in two or more widely separate lines, highly organized with entrenchments and barbed wire, heavy in machine guns, and supported by artillery. Assaulting troops broke through the first line only to be almost demolished by the fire from the succeeding lines and pounded by artillery beyond the range of their own guns.

Appalling losses were suffered during 1915 on both sides: 612,00 Germans, 1,292,000 French, and 279,000 British. The year ended with no appreciable shift in the hostile battle lines scarring the land from the North Sea to the Swiss Alps.

1915 -- Submarine warfare intensified on February 4 when Germany initiated a campaign against Allied merchantmen in waters surrounding the British Isles. Neutrals were also attacked; a Norwegian ship was sunk (February 19) and--despite U.S. warnings to Germany--on May 1 the American tanker Gulflight was torpedoed, causing three deaths.
On May 7 the British luxury liner LUSITANIA was torpedoed without warning by a U-boat off the Irish coast. Among the 1,198 lost were 124 Americans. Feeling in the United States ran high, despite the facts that the liner carried a war cargo, including gold and ammunition; was under orders not to halt if hailed; and, before its departure from New York, the German embassy in Washington had publicly warned Americans not to travel on the ship.

When World War I erupted, U.S. President Woodrow WILSON declared that the United States would adopt a policy of strict neutrality. Wilson urged all Americans to be "impartial in thought as well as in action." Past loyalty to France as well as the German invasion of neutral Belgium, however, resulted in the development of a pro-Allied slant in the United States.
[The Germans had not counted on the Amiericans being so angry about sinking ships. They backed off for a couple of years. Still, the Americans didn’t care for their attitude.]
Germany announced resumption of its policy of unrestricted submarine warfare on Jan. 31, 1917. On February 3, Wilson broke off all diplomatic relations with Germany. A month later the Zimmermann note--written by Arthur Zimmermann, the German foreign minister, to the German ambassador in Mexico--was turned over to the U.S. government by British intelligence, who had intercepted and decoded the message. The note indicated that if Germany and the United States were to go to war, Germany would seek an alliance with Mexico--and offer the Mexicans Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona for their efforts against their northern neighbor. This, along with the news that more American ships had been sunk by German submarines, aroused Americans to a warlike stance. By Apr. 6, 1917, Congress approved a war resolution against Germany.
[Mr. Larsen thinks that the Z. telegram was a critical point. Mr. Moriarty thinks that the sinking of ships was more important. Historians can disagree.]
On March 12, 1917 the garrison and workers of Petrograd (now Leningrad), capital of Russia, mutinied, beginning the RUSSIAN REVOLUTIONS OF 1917. Within 3 days Tsar Nicholas II had abdicated, being replaced by a provisional government of a new Russian Republic. The new regime, bickering with the Bolshevik-dominated Petrograd Soviet (Council of Workers and Soldiers' Deputies), pledged itself to continue war against the Central Powers until Allied victory.
On March 14 the Soviet defied the provisional government and issued the notorious "Order No. 1," depriving officers of disciplinary authority. Broadcast throughout the armed forces, it produced the results desired by the Bolsheviks--breakdown of all military discipline.
The Russian army and navy collapsed as threadbare, battle-weary soldiers and sailors murdered or deposed officers. The delighted Germans, halting all offensive movements on the eastern front lest the Russians reunite in defense of the homeland, diverted their troops to the western and Italian fronts. To undermine the provisional government, the Germans smuggled Vladimir Ilich LENIN and other Bolshevik activists into Russia, where Leon TROTSKY joined them. On November 7 (October 25, O.S.) the Bolshevik leaders Lenin and Trotsky seized power. Lured by promises of "land, peace, bread," Russian soldiers deserted in droves and the revolutionary government abandoned the war effort on November 26. A truce was signed on December 15, ending hostilities on the eastern front and permanently erasing Russia from the Allied ranks.
[Getting the Russians out of the war had some major consequences: communists took over, which caused us problems for the next 70 odd years, and it allowed the Germans to concentrate their entire army against the Western Front.]

The Allied situation at the beginning of 1918 was grim. The major Allied offensives of 1917 had failed. Russia had collapsed, and Italy was on the verge of collapse. The German U-boat campaign still threatened the maritime supply route from the United States. Many months would pass before American soldiers could bolster depleted Allied manpower. Both Britain and France were on the defensive.
[The Germans tried a series of attacks. The allies, especially with fresh American troops, were just able to hold them off. The attacks exhausted the Germans, and allied counter attacks defeated the German armies.]
A German delegation, headed by civilian Matthias Erzberger, negotiated an armistice with Foch in his railway-coach headquarters on a siding at Compiegne. Agreement was finally reached at 5:00 AM, Nov. 11, 1918. The terms specified that the German army must immediately evacuate all occupied territory and Alsace-Lorraine; immediately surrender great quantities of war materiel; surrender all submarines; and intern all other surface warships as directed by the Allies. In addition the Germans were to evacuate German territory west of the Rhine, and three bridgeheads over the Rhine were to be occupied by the Allies. The armistice became effective immediately; hostilities ceased at 11:00 AM on November 11.

[11 am, 11 Nov. 1918 -- the time that World War I ended. This is a date you should remember.]

Your assignment is to write a 500 -- 750 story set in World War I.