"Mere Sideshows with no relevance to the main event"- How far do the campaigns away from the western front during WW1 justify this comment - Arthur Martin Leake History Essay 2014
The Great War was "a war to end all wars"-(Woodrow Willson, the American president during WW1), there can be no doubt about that. However, was the action on the Western Front the sole reason for the First World War's notability or were there other events which shaped the Great War? In other words, were the campaigns away from the Western Front mere sideshows with no relevance to the main event? In this essay, I will look at :the Eastern Front in 1914 , the U boat campaign ,The Gallipoli Campaign and the Arab Revolt, the Italian Alpine front and the Eastern African Campaign.
The Eastern Front 1914 - In August 1914 , the German 8 th army was attacked by Russia.
Therefore, German troops had to be deployed to fight the Russians on the Eastern front. On the 26 th to the 31 st of August 1914, the battle of Tannenberg took place and the Germans advanced to Warsaw. However, then the Japanese joined the war on the side of the Allies and Russia was able to deploy more troops to the Front. Due to the happenings on the E astern Front, General Von Moltke of Germany deployed only 2/3 of the troops originally thought to be needed for the Schliefen Plan. This meant that the BEF and French troops were able to hold back the Germans at Mons and the Western Front was created. The refore the Eastern Front in 1914 was not a sideshow with no relevance to the war. On the contrary , the Eastern Front caused the formation of the Western Front and from...