First World War

Britain’s contribution to the war was not merely confined to the trenches of the Western Front.

Roger Hudson examines a 1915 photograph of the medieval Cloth Hall in the Belgian city of Ypres following heavy German shelling.

The presence of these two ships in the Mediterranean at the opening of the First World War gave the Germans a dangerous advantage. Their escape to the Dardanelles, writes David Woodward, had a manifold influence on Allied strategy.

The successful Battle of Guise, fought by the French Fifth Army, among many misunderstandings with their Allies and between their own commanders, was an essential prelude to the Battle of the Marne, on which the fortunes of the First World War so largely turned. By John Terraine.

The second phase of the Battle of Jutland was dominated by Jellicoe's resolve to renew the action and Scheer’s determined and successful efforts to escape. By Geoffrey Bennett.

The first news of the Battle of Jutland in 1916 startled the British public, who had looked forward to an emphatic victory at sea. Geoffrey Bennett asks, what exactly happened in the course of this momentous and controversial engagement?

At the close of the First World War, writes David Woodward, German Sailors were the forerunners of general revolt against the imperial system.

In November 1918, writes Norman Stone, a whole political and social order in central Europe came to an end.

In November 1917 a former Foreign Secretary, Lord Lansdowne, startled the British public by suggesting negotiable peace terms in the midst of war. By Harold Kurtz.

Admired by Haig and Lloyd George, General Monash was one of the most capable commanders on the Western Front during the First World War, writes John Terraine.