|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The European Theater of World War I was the primary site of the fighting of this great war. While there was considerable conflict outside of Europe, Europe was the place where the war started, and where it ended. Europe was where armies, the size of which had never before been seen in world history, fought and died. Given the importance of Europe to the conflict, most histories focus the majority of their attention on the various European theaters and so the best general overview of the European Theater is the main article on World War I. This article will do little more than direct the reader to the secondary articles.
Overview
Although the United States did join the war, due to Great Britain's control over the Atlantic Ocean, the only fighting for the U.S. Army was in Europe on the Western Front. The American army was transported by ship across the ocean so it could fight the Germans in France. The Western FrontThe Western front was the scene of continuous combat from the start of the war till the last day of the war, November 11, 1918. The fighting on the Western Front was mainly confined to the north-eastern part of France as well as Belgium. Most of France was not fought over and the Netherlands remained neutral for the entire war. The Western Front involved the allied powers of France, Great Britain, Belgium, and America fighting against the armed forces of the German empire. The Eastern Front
The fighting on the Eastern Front was primarily contested by the German army and the Austro-Hungarian army on one side and the forces of the Russian Empire and Romania on the other. The Italian FrontThe Italian front covered only a small part of northern Italy and the western border of Austria-Hungary. The fighting here began in May 23 1915 and lasted till November 3 1918. Most of the fighting was concentrated on a very small bit of land between the Alps and the Adriatic, near the town of Trieste. The fighting primarily involved Italy and Austria-Hungary but also included smaller contingents from France and Britain (who fought on the side of Italy), and Germany (who was allied with Austria-Hungary). The Balkans FrontThe Balkans front covered all of Serbia, Montenegro, Albania, and Romania. It also covered northern Greece, the western part of Bulgaria, and the south and eastern parts of Austria-Hungary. Very little fighting took place in this theater for long periods of time. It was considered a lesser theater of war by the Great Powers, at least in comparison to the previously mentioned fronts. The central powers of Austria-Hungary, Germany, Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Empire were opposed by the allied powers of Serbia, France, Great Britain, Romania, Russia, Montenegro, and Greece. The Seas of EuropeBecause of the dominance of the British and French navies, only limited fighting took place in the seas around Europe. The German U-Boat fleet tried to sink British merchant ships, with some success early in the war. German U-Boats had only moderate cruising range in this war and operated mostly in the North Sea, the Irish Sea and in the Mediterranean. The German U-Boat threat was drastically reduced when the British finally adopted a convoy system in early 1917. There was one great battle in the waters near Europe: the Battle of Jutland May 31-June 1 1916 between the German High Seas Fleet and the Grand Fleet of Great Britain. This was one of the largest sea battles in world history though, in some respects, the battle was inconclusive. In the Adriatic some very limited sea combat took place between the navy of Austria-Hungary and the Allied navies of France, Britain, and Italy. The strategy of the Allies was to blockade the Adriatic and monitor the movements of the Austrian fleet. In general, this strategy was successful but the Germans and the Austrians were able to send submarines out into the Mediterranean where they did some damage. The main sea base for the Austrian and German fleet in the Adriatic was Pola (modern day Pula in Croatia). Japan, an ally of Great Britain, sent some destroyers to the Mediterranean and they were very effective in patrol and anti-submarine activity. By contrast the Italian Navy was "languid and apathetic" (Cyril Falls "The Great War" p. 295). The only significant naval battle occurred on May 15 1917 when three Austrian cruisers under Captain Miklós Horthy staged a raid on some Italian and British transports near Valona Albania. The raid was a partial success but the raiders were nearly destroyed by shell fire from Italian ships that chased them back to Pola. In the Black Sea the Russian fleet was dominant and it was lead by two skilled commanders, Admiral Eberhart and then Admiral Kolchak (who took over in 1916). By the end of 1915, the Russian fleet had nearly complete control of the sea. The Black Sea fleet was used mainly to support General Yudenich in his Caucasus Campaign. In the Baltic Sea, the Russian fleet was essentially inactive, hiding behind the belts of mines which stretched across the entry into the Gulf of Finland. So the German Baltic fleet dominated the sea and was of occasional use to the German army on the Eastern front.
|
Sites |
Searched sites for "European theatre of World War I" |
|
No sites found. |
Sorry, no matching site records were found. |
Want your site listed here?
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Submit
your site |
|
Relevant quality search results and fast easy navigation throughout the
different sections of the site, make Americola.com |