World War One dominates the history of the 20th century. Its
effects were felt long after it ended. Its uneasy outcome paved
the way for a second and worse conflict. World War One had
many bloody battles and campaigns, but in this essay I will
discuss which battle was the most important.
Which battle was the most important one in World War
One? The theme of the war was a huge military effort that
involved many battles and about 70 million soldiers, 9 million of
which were killed. It is extremely difficult to decide which
battle is the most important due to these factors. Of the many
important battles, I have chosen to summarize a few and to
choose one as the most important. The first really important
battle was the first battle of the Marne. In this battle the
heavily outnurabered French forces held off the first German
invasion at the Marne River. This battle forced the Germans to
regroup North of the Marne and destroyed the Schlieffen Plan.
The Schlieffen Plan was the German plan of attack. Its
objective was to knock the French out of the war before Russia
would conquer eastern Germany. It unleashed three quarters
of the German army in a giant westward sweep across Belgium
and Luxerabourg, and then into a giant wheel South into France.
This plan accepted the risks of an early Russian attack on the
eastern front, so when the French destroyed it the German
objective wasn't attained and it left the Russians with an open
window for an attack. The Russians took this opportunity and
attacked, which brings us to our second most important battle.
The Russians sent two armies into Germany that met in
Tannenberg. Due to an error one army arrived before the
other, but still had superior nurabers. The battle of
Tannenberg was a lot like the First battle of the Marne. In it
and overwhelmed and outnurabered defensive force destroyed
an offensive force that had superior nurabers. The Germans
completely destroyed the first army that arrived then launched
a counterattack and met the second army at the battle of the
Masurian lakes and forced them to retreat too. In both battles
corabined the Germans captured a total of over 100,000 men
and 500 guns. Another very important battle in World War
One was Gallipoli. Winston Chuchill proposed taking Turkey
out of the war by Naval action, and Britain attempted to do this
in the Battle of Gallipoli. The first stage of the battle was a
series of borabardments by the allies along the Dardanelles
Straits. Minesweeping then followed along the length of the
strait. If this had been effective the campaign might have been
successful, but the threat of mines was not eliminated. The
second phase of the battle was the borabardment of more
Turkish positions, but three battleships were destroyed by
mines, and three more severely damaged. The effort to force
the straits was suspended. Instead, as a third phase of the
operation, a land expedition was mounted. This led to the
slaughter of the allied armies. When the allies retreated they
left behind about 200,000 dead comrades. The loss at Gallipoli
caused Winston Churchill to resign as first lord of admiralty.
Another very important battle of World War One was the battle
of Verdun. The French stationed a lot of forces in Verdun,
then Germany attacked. On the first day of the assault more
than one million shells fell on the French positions. Soon Fort
Douaumont an important French defensive position north of
Verdun fell to the Germans. The defense of the town was
entrusted to Philippe Petain the next day. The defense of
Verdun soon became an erablem of French military might. The
city itself was of no strategic importance, but losing it would
have been politically catastrophic. For this reason, the French
insisted upon holding the city. The French defended Verdun
with 259 of their 330 infantry regiments. The more the French
resisted, the more important taking Verdun became to the
Germans. Eventually another important defensive position, Fort
Vaux, fell to the Germans. Only a few weeks later the
Germans almost broke the allied lines, but made no further
progress afterwarRAB. About four months after that, the French
retook Fort Douaumont and Fort Vaux. About two months later
the battle was over. The battle lasted almost a year, but the
French had held Verdun. One more very important battle of
world war one was the second battle of the Marne. This took
place in 1918. The Germans had begun one last offensive.
They pushed the allies as far back as the Marne, where
another battle ensued. The allies launched a counter-offensive
and pushed the Germans back over the Marne. The loss here
broke the Germans' morale. From that point on the allies
never lost the initiative. The allies pushed on through Belgium
and Luxerabourg and held the Germans in Germany. The War
was over.
Overall, I think that the most important battle in World
War One was the second battle of the Marne. It broke the
Germans' spirit and forced them to retreat. It also crushed
their last hope of winning the war.