By November 1918, German morale was at an all time low. Despite Russia backing out of the war, they were now losing on the Western Front. The Kaiser had abdicated and had moved to the Netherlands, with a new democratic German government taking his place. Erich Ludendorff had resigned and was replaced by Wilhelm Groener. All of Germany’s allies had all either suffered defeat or surrendered. Everyone wanted the war to end but Germany wanted it more than anyone else.
The German government eventually requested that the allies meet to discuss the armistice. They met in Ferdinand Foch’s train carriage, located in the forest of Compiègne. Foch was French General and would be one of the main representatives of the allies.
A carriage of the same design on display in a museum. The original carriage was destroyed by the SS in 1940
They handed the Germans the terms of unconditional surrender without negotiation. They commanded that the German army leave the territories that they had occupied, including Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Alsace-Lorraine. They also requested a demilitarisation of the Rhineland, an area of Germany that bordered France. They also had to surrender much of their munitions and other army supplies. The Germans had no choice to agree to these harsh terms and the Armistice was signed at around 5am local time on November 11th, 1918, with the Armistice not taking effect until 11am.
During those 6 hours, another 3,000 men died for nothing. The last soldier of the war to die was German, who died not long after the Armistice took affect.
Lenin had set up a dictatorship, but was still enacting many of his socialist policies, like giving the poor land and food. However, he had still not gotten them out of the war so began to negotiate with the Germans, with Trotsky as the middle man. Germany demanded a large chunk of territory that, if lost, would cripple the Russian Economy. Lenin called this an insult to Russia, so Trotsky thought of a new idea. If they simply stopped fighting then the Germans would see that they wanted to just stop and not fight anymore. Obviously, this plan failed and Germany advanced thousands of more troops into their territory. When peace was offered again, they demanded even more land. The Soviets had to accept.
Being in a more exposed position, the capital was moved from Petrograd to Moscow. Lenin then established the Communist International or Comintern, an effort to expand communism in other countries. However, many non-Bolshevik groups were not a fan of the Bolshevik Policies, and formed the White Army, thrusting Russia into a civil war. The two main factions were the Red Army, made up of the Bolsheviks and their militias, and the White Army who was made up of basically everyone else, mainly the regions controlled by the Russian Empire, like Poland, Ukraine, Finland and Belarus, or the anti-Bolsheviks, like the more moderate Socialists, the Monarchists and the Republicans.
Due to a lack of coordination inside the White Army and the Red Army controlling the industrial heartland, the Red Army made quick progress. However, the Tsar, who was being kept in Ipatiev House this entire time, was a concern of the Bolsheviks. They believed that if the White Army captured the Tsar, they could reestablish the monarchy they fought so hard to abolish.
At around midnight on July 17th, 1918, the Romanovs were woken up and got told they were moving to a safe location due to the war. Believing Nicholas’ cousin, King George V of Britain, had come to rescue them, they excitedly got dressed. The Romanovs were told to go into the basement and stand against the wall, under the pretext of a photograph being taken to assure that they were safe and well. The group was as follows.
Nicholas II, former Tsar of Russia
Alexandra Feodorovna, the former Princess of the Rhine and Tsarina of Russia
Their 5 children, Olga, Anastasia, Alexsei, Maria and Tatiana
Court Physician Eugene Botkin
Lady-in-waiting Anna Demidova
Footman Alexei Trupp
Head Cook Ivan Kharitonov
Then, a group of slightly drunk executioners entered the room. The leader pulled out a Colt M1911, and fired three shots at Nicholas, who fell to the floor dead. The rest of the Royal Family and the entourage were shot dead against the wall. The loud gunfire alerted others around the large house. Due to the smoke, the firing was ceased, only to find that the children were still alive, with Tatiana only being injured. They were then ordered to bayonet the children. This proved to be highly ineffective.
Alexsei, who was still in shock in his seat was shot point blank in the head. Tatiana and Olga were both shot in the head too. Maria, cowering in the corner was also killed. Anna, who survived the initial attack, was stabbed to death against the wall. The last to die was Anastasia, who cried out as the bodies were being taken away. She was hit with the butt of a rifle in her chest before being shot in the head with a revolver. The bodies were then carried out to the woods where there were put in a mass grave, covered in acid and buried. The bodies were not discovered until the 1970s and only identified in the 1990s. Boris Yeltsin, future President of Russia ordered the demolition of the house. It is unknown if they were acting on Lenin’s orders or their own.
The wall of the basement after the execution. The wall was torn apart by investigators in 1919 in search of bullets
The allied powers, wanting to not spread the ideas of Communism, sent their own troops to assist the White Army. However, with the end of WW1, the map of Europe was redrawn, and many states that the Russian Empire used to own became their own countries. Russia recognised the independence of the Baltics but the southern state of Georgia, a key point of the White Army due to its oil fields was attacking the Red Army. Lenin made a deal with one of the minor factions in the war, the Black Army and an alliance was formed. Eventually, they crushed the Southern and Western front, bringing more nations into the newly formed Union of Soviet Socialist Republics or, as it’s more commonly known, the Soviet Union by 1922.
Despite the Tsar being deposed, one of the main issues that the Russian People still had wasn’t resolved, they were still in the war. In order to concentrate the war onto one front, the Germans actively sent Lenin back on a train to Petrograd from Switzerland in order to start a revolution and get Russia out of the war.
With the Tsar gone, the Duma believed they should be in power, setting up a provisional government. However, the Soviets claimed that they were the government, setting up local establishments run by Mensheviks and the Social Revolutionaries, who would command the workers and soldiers. It was a delicate but fragile power balance. And Lenin was not a fan.
[There should be no] support for the Provisional Government; the utter falsity of all its promises should be made clear. [This government is] a government of capitalists, [and] should cease to be an imperialist government.
Lenin’s writings about the Government in his April Theses
Whilst many of their policies still left people starving and soldiers still fighting in the war, progress was slow and steady. The secret police was disbanded, a democracy was being established and the death penalty was abolished. However, Lenin thought this needed to change, promising the people everything that the Provisional Government wasn’t giving them, that being Peace, Land and Bread, and declared all power should be given to the Soviets. People began supporting his radical ideals and the Provisional Government began to panic. Instead of backing out of the war, they decided to launch the Kerensky Offensive, named after minister of war, Alexander Kerensky, believing that a victory would help support for the Provisional Government. This offensive was a massive failure and crashed the economy. The people, still starving with their husbands, sons and brothers dying out on the front, began to riot riots once more.
A photo of the July 1917 protests
A group of armed protestors went out onto the streets and were subsequently shot by the Government soldiers. Lenin and the Soviets wanted to distance themselves from the violence. However, they marched under Soviet slogans and Kerensky, now the Prime Minister decided to use this to lock up the Soviets and accuse Lenin of being a German Agent, whereupon he fled to Finland in disguise.
The violence was eventually repressed by Kerensky but the workers were still supporting Communist ideals, which worried the liberals and factory owners. In order to help ease the tension, Kerensky appointed anti-Socialist General Kornilov to Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. However, Kornilov hated the even slightly socialist policies of the Government so much that he grabbed his army and began to march on Petrograd. Panicking, Kerensky pulled Trotsky, who had defected to the Bolshevik cause, out of prison, armed them and told them to deal with Kornilov. It was a swift victory for Trotsky, by sabotaging railway and communications lines and convincing Kornilov’s men to desert. But when Kerensky asked for the guns back, Trotsky refused and Kerensky had now accidentally just armed the party that the working class were looking for. And due to the victory against Kornilov, party popularity sky rocketed.
They were eventually elected to the leader of the Soviets, allowing Lenin to return from Finland to enact his Communist Revolution. They were very loud about their uprising, alerting Kerensky who had Bolsheviks arrested. With their numbers rapidly dwindling due to being sent to prison, Lenin decided it was now or never. Trotsky got to work arming the Bolshevik Militias, who would storm government buildings, easily seizing control. They eventually seized control of most buildings in Petrograd and, as Kerensky ran out of the city, the Bolsheviks surrounded the Winter Palace.
The Bolsheviks beginning to storm the Winter Palace
Having finally come out of hiding, Lenin decided it was time to storm the palace. The guards gave up, and practically allowed Lenin and the Bolshevik Militia through, arresting the politicians inside. Lenin was now the leader of Russia, now called the Soviet Union. He decided to hold an election, the first of which he lost, called the other parties anti-Revolutionary, arrested their leaders and had no more elections after that. The Russian people began to suspect that Lenin was setting up a dictatorship.
On August 30, 1918, Lenin was speaking at a plant in Moscow. As he finished, he left the plant, when Fanny Kaplan fired 3 shots at him. Lenin survived and Kaplan was arrested and executed. This was not the first attempt on Lenin’s life, nor would it be the last. The newly established Bolshevik secret police ramped up their repression because of this. But, in the end, that was the Russian Revolution. It was not a great act of patriotism and bravery like in the United States. Nor was it a brutal, violent uprising like in France. Communist art may make you think that but ultimately, the Russian Revolution was one man with an idea, who wanted to depose a totalitarian rule and replace it with his own one, who simply did it by walking into buildings and asking what he wanted.
By 1917, soldiers began deserting, the economy was through the floor and people were starving due to the war. As Commander in Chief, Nicholas was getting even more blame than he usually did. On March 8th, or February 23rd on the Julian Calendar that Russia used at the time, a large group of women took to the streets, protesting the starvation they were going through. The next day, many of the men joined in too. They demanded to stop the food rationing and the war, whilst also deposing the Tsar.
In situations such as these, soldiers would usually take care of them, but tired of the war themselves and firing on their own people they’re meant to protect, they turned on their own generals. Members of the Duma also joined in, tired of the Tsar dissolving them whenever he wanted. All of these groups had one thing in common. They wanted the Tsar to abdicate.
As the violence escalated the Soviets were reestablished to manage riots. Nicholas decided to return to Petrograd, but was stopped on the way there, by a group of politicians and generals, who all said he needed to abdicate right now, in order to quell the violence. Eventually he agreed and three centuries of Romanov rule in Russia fizzled out like that.
Even though many people were not a big fan of the Imperialist government run by the Tsar, a Russian loss in WW1 would almost certainly mean the Tsar being replaced by the Imperialist government of Germany, lead by the Kaiser. Due to the war being against Germany, the capital of St Petersburg was renamed to Petrograd to sound less German. However, one person who did not support Russia’s success in the war was Vladimir Lenin, who despised the Tsar so much even if it meant the country was reduced to ash and ruin getting him deposed.
However, unlike the Western front, the Central powers had made a decent advance into Russian Territory, due to poor leadership and logistical problems. The Tsar declared himself Commander in Chief of the Army, leaving Petrograd to go to the front lines, leaving his wife, a German, and Rasputin, a crazy, homeless “wizard”, in charge of the country, which isn’t something you really want to do ever, especially when you’re at war and even more so a war with Germany.
Tsar Nicholas observing his troops on the Front Line
A group of nobles, tired of Rasputin’s antics, believing he was secretly destroying Russia and having sex with the Tsarina, decided to act. Some of the conspirators included Felix Yusopov, a Russian Prince and Count, and Dmitry Pavlovich, a Grand Duke and the grandson of Tsar Alexander II.
On December 29th, 1916, the pair invited Rasputin to a small party in a palace. From this moment on, the story becomes hearsay and rumours. Some believe that because of the events that unfolded, that Rasputin actually was a wizard. Once Rasputin arrived, they offered him tea and cakes, all laced with enough cyanide to kill 3-4 men. However, Rasputin ate it all and seemed fine. The Prince then gave him some wine, also laced with cyanide. Rasputin drank 3 glasses and was still perfectly fine. Tired of this, Yusopov went a bit less subtle, grabbing a revolver and shooting Rasputin in the chest.
The two then left the palace, with another conspirator wearing Rasputin’s clothes and hat, to make it seem as though Rasputin had left the palace alive. Upon returning to the palace, they were shocked to find that Rasputin was still alive, who lept up from the floor and attacked them, before running out into the snowy courtyard. He was shot twice more, whereupon he fell on the ground. Yusopov then allegedly began beating Rasputin of the head with a dumbell. Eventually, they carried him to a nearby bridge, throwing him into the icy water. It is not known if he was still alive by the time he was thrown in the water, despite rumours claiming he was thrashing around in the freezing cold water, but his body was found on January 1st underneath the ice.
Once it was found that Yusopov and Pavlovich were part of the conspiracy, Yusopov was exiled to his country estate and Pavlovich was sent to a garrison in Persia, modern day Iran. Rasputin was buried on January 2nd.
As the Ottoman Empire joined the Central Powers, the war against Russia in the Caucuses had reached a stalemate. One thing Russia desperately needed was supplies. First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, believed that they needed to secure the land around the Dardanelles Strait, which would then lead into the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea beyond, allowing a secure supply line to Russia. It could also possibly help the Western Front, by opening up a new front to divert the German forces onto 3 fronts.
A map of the area
The first attempt at securing the strait was on March 18th, 1915 via a naval attack through the straight in an attempt to take out the Ottoman artillery guns. However, Ottoman sea mines had been placed in the strait and that, combined with the Ottoman gun fire, sank 3 battleships and the ships eventually had to retreat. On the 25th of April, 75,000 troops, comprising of French, British, Australian and Kiwi troops, commanded by General Ian Hamilton landed on the beaches of the Gallipoli Peninsula. Despite not having proper landing craft, instead having to row over, a decent beach head was formed.
The Anzac forces had landed North of their intended target and were now inside a cove. Due to their valiant efforts, the cove was named Anzac Cove.
British Officers in a trench at Gallipoli
However, once the beach head was formed, trench warfare soon began to set in. What made the trench warfare here worse was the glaring sun and the dysentery epidemic. Hamilton ordered another 60,000 men to attack Suvla Bay from the water. However, due to hesitation from Allied high command, the Ottoman’s had managed to dig defences and the bay was eventually recaptured by Mustafa Kemal Pasha on August 10th. The attempt to break the stalemate was a disastrous failure.
As allied and Ottoman casualties began to increase, the stalemate was no closer to breaking. Eventually, on December 7th, an evacuation was ordered, with the last troops leaving Gallipoli on January 6th of the next year.
Despite its significance in Australian, Kiwi and Turkish history, the Gallipoli campaign is still considered to be one of the greatest catastrophe for the allies during the war. One of the main problems with the campaign was that, despite the Allied advantage, no orders were issued and due to the lack of coordination the allies could not advance. They were instead ordered to dig in, which was considered to be highly counterproductive. The campaign ultimately failed to take the pressure off Russia, which many attribute as the reason of the Russian Revolutions of February and October of 1917.
Well, I thought the same as everybody else. Everybody said ‘It’ll be over by Christmas and you’ve got to get out soon, otherwise you won’t see anything’. But I don’t know if it was my opinion, or if everybody was saying it. One certainly changed one’s mind when we found how well-organised Jerry was compared with us for instance.
Bill Haine, a British Soldier in WW1
Despite what many claimed at home, the war was not over by Christmas. Winter was setting in and the fighting had slowed even more than before. Whilst the Christmas Truce of 1914 is seen as a unique one, ceasefires had been occurring all over the Western Front. A “turn a blind eye” attitude was becoming common place, despite orders from command. The harsh winter was also getting to the soldiers. The feeling of the first Christmas away from home was beginning to set in so gifts were sent. Kaiser Wilhelm sent cigars for the officers and pipes for the ranks while Princess Mary of Harewood sent out cigarettes, sweets and cards.
On Christmas Eve, the rain that had been flooding trenches for weeks had finally stopped, and the ice froze the floor of the trenches over, reducing the risk of trench foot significantly. Soon, snow fell upon No Mans Land and the gun fire slowly but surely dwindled into silence. Filled with merriment and joy, the German’s began to sing Silent Night in their trenches. The British officers, hearing this, believed it to be a challenge and began singing their own carols back at the Germans. However, what began as a competition eventually turned into a harmonisation of English and German voices. Many officers met by the wire, agreeing not to exchange gunfire the next day. However, such friendliness was not shared with the French or Belgian troops, as they were under occupation by the Germans at the time. However, they did agree to stop shooting in order to bury their dead.
Christmas Day came. Many British soldiers looked over the parapet to see German Soldiers standing upright in No Mans Land. The two sides got out and buried their dead. The two sides found they shared a communal experience, of having had their friends die and being sick of the war. Extra gifts given to them by their wives and families were exchanged. One notable exchange was between Captain Edward Hulse of the Scots Guard and Lieutenant Thomas of the 15th Westphalians. Thomas gave Hulse a Victoria Cross and a series of letters belonging to an officer who had been killed in a German trench in a previous attack, hoping to have them returned to his family. Touched by his empathy, Hulse gave Thomas his scarf he had received the night prior. Not having anything to give back, Thomas ordered a German troop to find the gloves given to him by his family in order to give them to Hulse. Unfortunately, Hulse ended up being killed in action the following April at the Battle of Neuve-Chappelle while trying to help his commanding officer. Thomas’ fate remains unknown
German and British troops playing football together on the battlefield
The most famous part of this truce were the football matches played between the two sides. Both sides brought out their own footballs, playing kick-about between the two trenches. However, not all was done with best intentions. This time of peace was used to repair dugouts and spy on the enemy. Some were cautious, with incidents of people spotting daggers being drawn and British soldiers not wanting to smoke German cigarettes for fear of poisoning.
Eventually, high command stepped in, fearing that the war would not go on if their troops knew their enemy as people. For some, the armistice was swift and done with by Boxing Day. Others carried on, pushing until New Years Eve. German command dispatched snipers whilst the French ordered artillery barrages. For high command, they believed the war machine had to go on and all human connection must be stamped out. There was never another ceasefire like this, not just in this war but any war since then.
Initially, many trenches of World War 1 were glorified foxholes. But once the war began to set in, these trenches became more complex and became a vast system behind the front lines, including reserve trenches, dugouts and medical areas behind the trenches.
Trench warfare would tend to be very repetitive in nature. A battle would start with a large artillery bombardment from one side against the other. Many of these artillery barrages would cause Shell Shock or, as modern physcologists have called it, PTSD.
A British soldier suffering from Shell Shock
Then waves of troops would come over through an area called No Mans Land, the term for the empty land between the two trenches, which was often ravished by craters, barbed wire and dead trees. The guns from the defending side would open fire, usually massacring the wave. They offending side would then usually send wave after wave until they either gave up or captured the trench. Tens of thousands of lives would be lost, only to gain a few metres of land.
The trenches were often very crudely designed, as many suspected the war would not be long. Many had open mud on the floor, which would mean diseases such as trench foot would be spread. Rats were common place as well. However, the German trenches were considered to be more sturdy, being deeper and wider than the Allied trenches, allowing for better movement and cover. German trenches averaged around 12 feet in depth, whilst British ones averaged around 6 or 7 feet deep.
A drawing of a German Trench from a book
For when artillery fire came, bunkers were dug in, with the German ones being characterised as a lot more homely and comfortable.
By 1915, the true nature of the war began to set in and the trench fixtures became a lot more permanent. Machine gun turrets were set up and, eventually, the German’s began using the new weapon, chlorine gas. Poison gas was a key element of the war, despite it being illegal. Both sides would use this weapon on each other. Many died due to gas attacks and those who survived suffered later in life.
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.
Tsar Nicholas ordered the mobilisation of troops on July 29th and Kaiser Wilhelm mobilised theirs on the 30th. Because Russia had such a large army to mobilise on such a large border, Germany believed they had to take out France first. Luckily, they had planned for this.
In 1906, Alfred Von Schliefen had devised a plan in case they needed to invade France. He proposed a plan of going through the Lowlands, of Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, before attacking France from it’s northern border, encircling Paris, assuring a swift victory. The front could then be moved to Russia and their large army to focus on that front.
A photo of Schlieffen, 1906
The invasion of Belgium began. Having reassured it’s safety, Britain joins the war against Germany, sending troops down to France. However, the advance slows at the heavily fortified city of Liege. Once the city was captured, the German’s committed brutal war crimes against the civilian population. The Triple Alliance spread propaganda, denouncing the German’s actions in the Belgian cities, making many neutral countries opinions of Germany turn sour.
France began to make a push into the German territory but were pushed back at a heavy cost in the Battle of the Frontiers
A French army at the battle
The British troops eventually make an advance and fight with German troops at Mons. However, they were vastly outnumbered and had to retreat to the French frontline at the Marne River. It seemed as though the Schlieffen Plan would be a swift success.
However, the German’s needed to secure a naval port. The Allied Armies and the Germans quickly ran to the coast trying to flank one another, forming a full frontline, colliding at the First Battle of Ypres. However, due to some light tinkering from Helmuth von Moltke, the German line was under supplied so could not advance past this point for the meantime. The two lines began to dig in, building a network of trenches across the frontline.
Many believed that the plan itself was flawed and was destined to never work. Others claim that due to Moltke’s meddling, the plan failed. But no matter what you think was the cause for the Schlieffen Plan’s failure, the era of Trench Warfare had begun.
