The Russian Army had now fully mobilised, a lot earlier than Germany had expected. Now half their army was trapped in trenches in France whilst the other half dealt with the Russians. The Russian troops made an advance into Prussia but were swiftly crushed at Tannenberg, where 90,000 Russian troops were taken prisoner and an entire army was wiped out. Another victory at Masurian Lakes forces the Russians out of the region.
Further south, the conflict between Austria-Hungary and Serbia was going bad for Austria-Hungary due to a humiliating loss at the Battle of Cer. An offensive against Russia also fails and the Austro-Hungarians are pushed back, with a siege on Przemysl beginning not long after. The Germans, in an effort to distract the Russian forces, engaged in a series of battles at Lodz in modern day Poland.
German troops at the battle
Eventually, the Ottoman Empire, a large Middle Eastern Empire spanning Turkey, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and parts of Saudi Arabia, join the fighting on the side of Germany and Austria-Hungary, by sending some ships into the Black Sea, launching naval bombardments on the naval bases of Odessa and Sevastopol, while engaging with ground units on the Georgian border. Due to the vast length and low density of the line, trench warfare never set in like it did on the western front.
By 480BC, the Persian Empire was the largest on Earth. Persia, modern day Iran, was a shockingly progressive society for the time. Instead of being great conquerors, they were often seen as great liberators. The founder of the empire, Cyrus, famously freed the Jews from the city of Babylon, a city in modern day Iraq. There were no slaves and all labourers were paid a fair wage given their skill and contribution to a structure.
A map of the Persian Empire
19 years earlier, pro-democracy uprisings in Ionia were backed by Athens, another democratic state. In response, King Darius invaded Greece but was shockingly defeated at the famous Battle of Marathon by the much smaller Athenian Army.
A painting of the Battle of Marathon
Swearing revenge, the task of invading Greece was passed down from Darius to his son Xerxes, who soon began marching on Greece, with the largest army at the time of over 360,000 men
Leading the Greek defence was King Leonidas of the Greek City State of Sparta. Sparta is one of the most extreme societies in human history, being a eugenics based warrior state. When children were born, elders would inspect if the child was fit to fight. If not they were thrown off a mountain to die. Boys went off to school to be drilled into becoming soldiers. Men always became soldiers and lived in barracks 24/7; academics often lived in Athens rather than Sparta and all manual labour was done by the slaves called Helots. However, despite their brutal upbringing Sparta had one of if not the greatest infantry armies in the ancient world. Athenian leaders decided to stage a battle at Thermopylae to fend off the Persian Army whilst they prevented naval landings. 7,000 men opposed Xerxes massive army, lead by the famous 300 Spartans.
A map of the area
When the two sides met at the narrow strip of land, one side being a cliff and the other half being an ocean, the Persians immediately fired their arrows, making zero progress against the advanced armour of the Greeks. Eventually, Xerxes ordered his men to melee attack. Due to the hot weather, they were only able to fight in minute long bursts before tiring out. The weak Persian shields stood no chance against the longer Spartan Spears and the type of combat the Persians were used to in their conquest of the vast and open Middle East could not be applied in the narrow passage of Thermopylae.
However, their weak number soon dawned on the Greeks who turned and began to flee. Believing a victory, the Persians charged at the Spartans, breaking formation, before the Greeks turned around massacring the unorganised Persians. Some of Persia’s finest lie dead in the passage. However, a whisper came to Xerxes of another way to attack the Greeks.
An unorganised group of soldiers watched a narrow passage in the mountain. Without a Spartan officer, they had broken ranks after 2 days of nothing. Eventually, they are attacked by the elite Persian Royal Guard and run to the rest of the men. The Greeks are now trapped, the ocean to the north, the cliff face to the south, the large Persian Infantry to the West and the Persian Royal Guard to the East. Leonidas makes a very brave decision. He decides to let the rest of his men leave before the Eastern Guard can form up, whilst keeping behind the 300 Spartans to fend off the Persians, allowing them to escape.
In a last stand of gallantry, the 300 Spartans charge head on at the Persians. They fought until their spears broke and they fought with swords until they were blunt, fighting with bear hands and teeth. However, all of them were eventually wiped out including Leonidas, and Xerxes marched on. This last stand allowed the Athenians to deliver a strong naval victory and, fearing that the crossing into Greece may soon be attacked by Athenian Naval Forces, Xerxes returned home, whereupon his forces were defeated at Plataea by the Spartans.
Herodotus wrote about the battle as well as the rest of the war, in one of the first true history books that was not simply the art of myth making but actual fact. His rousing story birthed the Greek identity, portraying the Greeks as a civilised people and the Persians as evil enslaving monsters. The impact of Thermopylae impacted many wars and civilisation for centuries afterwards.
