World War I questions

The battle of the Marne was a major turning point of World War I. By the end of August 1914, the whole Allied army on the Western Front had been forced into a general retreat back towards Paris. The name Taxi de la Marne was not used until the outbreak of World War I, when the fleet of Paris taxis was requisitioned by the French Army to transport troops from Paris to the First Battle of the Marne in early September 1914.

The first large scale amphibious operations, ones that were to heavily influence theorists in the decades to come, were conducted as part of the Battle of Gallipoli in 1915 against the Ottoman Empire during World War I. the purpose of the battle was to capture the capital of the Ottoman Empire (modern-day Istanbul). Although the naval attack was repelled and the land campaign failed, the campaign was the first modern amphibious landing, and featured air support, specialized landing craft and a naval bombardment.

Gavrilo Princip was a Bosnian Serb member of Young Bosnia, a Yugoslavist organization seeking an end to Austro-Hungarian rule in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The assassination led to Austria-Hungary's declaration of war against Serbia, which caused the Central Powers and Serbia's allies to declare war on each other, starting World War I.

Although the term human torpedo is usually associated with Japan during the WW II, it was actually developed much earlier. On 1 November 1918, an Italian manned torpedo nicknamed Mignatta sank the Austrian battleship Viribus Unitis and the freighter Wien using limpet mines. It was the first successful attack of its kind.

The Battle of the Somme was fought by the armies of the British and French empires against the German Empire. More than three million men fought in this battle and one million men were wounded or killed, making it one of the bloodiest battles in human history.

The Paris Gun was the name given to a type of German long-range siege gun, several of which were used to bombard Paris during World War I. They were in service from March to August 1918. When the guns were first employed, Parisians believed they had been bombed by a high-altitude Zeppelin, as the sound of neither an aeroplane nor a gun could be heard.

Big Bertha is the name of a type of super-heavy siege artillery developed by the armaments manufacturer Krupp in Germany on the eve of World War I. Its barrel diameter calibre was 420 mm.

The battle incorporated many of the newer tactics of 1918, in particular tanks. The attack was an overwhelming success with light casualties in an extremely short amount of time.

The A7V was a tank introduced by Germany in 1918, during World War I. They were used in action from March to October 1918, and were the only tanks produced by Germany in World War I to be used in combat.

Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen, also known as the "Red Baron", was a German fighter pilot during World War I. He is considered the ace-of-aces of the war, being officially credited with 80 air combat victories. The Fokker Dr I it became famous as the aircraft in which Manfred von Richthofen gained his last 19 victories, and in which he was killed on 21 April 1918.