A World War I Fact Book

William Kloot

• Publisher: Amberley Publishing
• Year: 2010
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781445620299
• Subtopic: World War I
• Index: History

At the dawn of the information age, the First World War produced blizzards of information, contained in countless official reports. Almost anything you can think of was recorded, from how many prisoners were taken in a given battle to the number of troops in each age group who contracted a venereal disease. Yet this variety of data is indispensible for understanding how Europe became locked in a devastating stalemate for four long years, and how the Central Powers were finally defeated, only four months after they seemed on the verge of victory. The number of countries involved, the scale of the military and the civilian involvement and the all-consuming nature of this new, mechanised 'total war' make it almost impossible for traditional narrative history to interpret its many aspects in depth. The World War I Fact Book gives the reader access to the most important and revealing information available, using a variety of graphic tools to illustrate the raw data, for a uniquely concise and informative account of the 'war to end all wars'.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Acknowledgements
• Preface
• 1. The population explodes
• 2. The industrial revolution
• 3. Growth of wealth and empires
• 4. 19th century wars
• 5. Preparing for war
• 6. The opposing forces
• 7. Men and weapons
• 8. Rolling the iron dice
• 9. Mobilization
• 10. Howitzers and high power guns
• 11. Long range guns and mortars
• 12. Machine and mobile heavy guns
• 13. Causes of wounds
• 14. The West in 1914
• 15. The German armies in the West
• 16. The Schleiffen Plan
• 17. First battle of the Marne
• 18. Casualties in the West
• 19. First Ypres
• 20. Serbia in 1914
• 21. Poland, Russia, and Galicia
• 22. Tannenberg
• 23. Casualties in the East
• 24. China and Africa
• 25. 1915 in the West
• 26. Western battlefields
• 27. 2nd Ypres and Artois
• 28. Casualties in the West 1915
• 29. The East in 1915
• 30. Gorlice-Tarnow
• 31. The fall of Serbia
• 32. Casualties in the East in 1915
• 33. The Dardanelles
• 34. Gallipoli
• 35. Losses in Italy in 1915
• 36. Expanding the British Army
• 37. The British artillery
• 38. German wire and cannons
• 39. Verdun
• 40. The battle of the Somme
• 41. 1916 casualties in the West
• 42. Italy in 1916
• 43. The East in 1916
• 44. Brusilov’s offensive
• 45. The fall of Romania
• 46. Casualties in the East in 1916
• 47. Casualties in the Middle East in 1916
• 48. Improvements in artillery
• 49. Artillery shell production
• 50. Locomotives and gun repair
• 51. Workers and their products
• 52. The fall in coal and steel production
• 53. Increasing arms production
• 54. Russian small arms production
• 55. Aeroplanes
• 56. Tanks
• 57. Civilian deaths and the blockade of Britain
• 58. 1917 on the Western Front
• 59. Nivelle’s plan
• 60. Nivelle’s attack
• 61. The French recovery
• 62. Passchendaele
• 63. British and German casualties
• 64. Pétain’s attacks
• 65. The Germans move west
• 66. Casualties in the East in 1917
• 67. Caporetto
• 68. Baghdad and Jerusalem
• 69. Peace treaties in early 1918
• 70. The West in 1918
• 71. Michael
• 72. The German attacks in 1918
• 73. The response to Michael
• 74. American arms
• 75. The Germans reach the Marne
• 76. The weakening German assaults
• 77. 2nd battle of the Marne and Amiens
• 78. British shells and tanks
• 79. Gas use in 1918
• 80. French casualties
• 81. The end in the West
• 82. Casualties in Italy in 1918
• 83. Finland
• 84. The U-boats
• 85. The world shipping supply
• 86. Prices and births
• 87. Students, strikes, and profits
• 88. Sick and wounded
• 89. Returning to duty
• 90. Officer and aviator casualties
• 91. German Jews in the war
• 92. Gas as a weapon
• 93. Vehicles and horses
• 94. Total casualties of the major participants
• 95. Lesser losers
• 96. Civilian deaths
• 97. Expenditures and gold
• 98. Food
• 99. War loans
• 100. The value of an eye
• 101. The fall of empires
• 102. The emergence of Turkey
• 103. German effectiveness
• 104. Performance in the air
• 105. The residue of hate
• 106. Economic stagnation
• 107. Territorial changes in Europe
• 108. The disabled
• 109. The advance of science
• 110. Wound shock and transfusions
• 111. The Russian Civil War
• 112. German post-war military planning
• 113. Combatants killed in the two wars
• 107. Conclusion
• 108. Sources