Fromelles and Pozieres: A look back at two of Australia's bloodiest WWI offensives Updated This week marks 100 years since the World War I battles of Fromelles and Pozieres — two of the deadliest and most gruesome in Australia's military history. Media player: "Space" to play, "M" to mute, "left" and "right" to seek. Video: The battles of Fromelles and Pozieres: 100 years on (ABC News) In an attempt to feint and distract German forces who were battling the French and British on the Somme in the south, Australian forces were sent into Fromelles, about 100 kilometres north, at 6:00pm on July 19, 1916. It was Australia's introduction to the Western Front — the main theatre of the war — after spending months fighting in Gallipoli, and the results were disastrous. Fromelles: 'Don't forget me, cobber' It is estimated there were some 5,500 Australian casualties on the first day — the greatest loss in a single day in Australia's history. By 8:00am the next morning the Battle of Fromelles was over, with Australian forces forced to withdraw. Pozieres: 'My friends are raving mad'
World War I | 1914-1918 Alternate titles: First World War; Great War; WWI World War I, also called First World War or Great War, an international conflict that in 1914–18 embroiled most of the nations of Europe along with Russia, the United States, the Middle East, and other regions. The war pitted the Central Powers—mainly Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Turkey—against the Allies—mainly France, Great Britain, Russia, Italy, Japan, and, from 1917, the United States. World War I was one of the great watersheds of 20th-century geopolitical history. <ul><li><a href="/EBchecked/media/110333/A-British-soldier-inside-a-trench-on-the-Western-Front? 1920's Politics The period between the 2 world wars was characterized by world-wide tensions and saw the rise of mass political movements such as communism, fascism, and national socialism. Political Events of 1920 - The Palmer raids, the Red Scare, a drive to rid the country of "reds," (communists) began under the auspices of the U.S. Dept. of Justice. Mussolini, the Italian Premier, challenged any country to show so favorable a development as Italy has done under the Fascist regime. A lively debate ensued in 1927 when Secretary of the Treasury Mellon recommended a reduction in taxes that favored big business over wage earners. The League of Nations (forerunner of the United Nations) first council met in Paris. Then, as now, there was a major problem with illegal immigrants seeking a better life in the U.S. than their home countries and strong law enforcement efforts were made to control the problem. The 18th Amendment to the U.S. The American Socialist Party nominated Eugene V.
Caricature Map of Europe 1914 The Clanker Powers: Germany is a massive military machine with weapons aimed outwards to all surrounding countries. It points threateningly at Britain, not so much as a sign of direct aggression, but more as an indicator that it was now Germany’s turn to start a grand global Empire to challenge the world’s current one. Austria Hungary is an aggressive armoured giant, teetering on shoddy foundations. It is also the primary aggressor in a land grab against Serbia, with two bayonets piercing the border. The Ottoman empire is a teetering automaton, collapsing under the weight of a paranoid and ungainly spying network that gazes at Europe through many lenses and spy glasses. The Swiss watch ticks away the time, comfortable to wait it all out. The Darwinist Powers: Britain is an militaristic lion with a Roman Imperial italic-type helmet. Russia is a huge imperialist bear, rotting and filled with maggots. Portugal is a parrot for the Entente trying to goad a slumbering Spain into the war.
U.S. Entry into WWI - AP U.S. History Topic Outlines - Study Notes U.S. Neutrality During the summer of 1914, the tensions in Europe that had been growing for many years culminated with the assassination of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Serbian terrorist organization. Following the assassination, the Austrian-Hungary government (backed by Germany) and Serbia (strongly backed by Russia) entered into what became an intricate chain of political confrontations. As posturing between the two coalitions persisted, Russia began to mobilize its forces to strike against Germany. As war raged in Europe, President Woodrow Wilson argued that the United States should remain neutral in this conflict, urging Americans to be “impartial in thought as well as in action.” While U.S. policy remained neutral, both the Central Powers and the Allied Powers used propaganda in an attempt to sway American public opinion. However, America’s neutrality was soon tested on what the U.S. considered free international waters. Subs Germany’s pledge proved to be temporary.
PBS - JAZZ A Film By Ken Burns: Jazz in Time - Roaring Twenties Roaring Twenties excerpted from Jazz: A History of America's Music The decade following World War I would one day be caricatured as "the Roaring Twenties," and it was a time of unprecedented prosperity — the nation's total wealth nearly doubled between 1920 and 1929, manufactures rose by 60 percent, for the first time most people lived in urban areas — and in homes lit by electricity. They made more money than they ever had before and, spurred on by the giant new advertising industry, spent it faster, too — on washing machines and refrigerators and vacuum cleaners, 12 million radios, 30 million automobiles, and untold millions of tickets to the movies, that ushered them into a new fast-living world of luxury and glamour their grandparents never could have imagined. Nothing quite like it had ever happened before in America. For some, jazz simply became synonymous with noise. Jazz — and the dancing it inspired — was also said to be having a catastrophic impact on the national character.
Missed In History: The Gallipoli Campaign | Stuff You Missed in History Class Water carriers take a break from carting water to the front lines at Gallipoli during the heat of the summer months. Date unknown. (Photo by Philip Schuller/Fairfax Media via Getty Images) I’ve been watching a lot of “Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries” … and reading a lot of them, too. Thanks to Oxford University Press for sending us a review copy of “Great Battles: Gallipoli” by Jenny Macleod, which was one of the sources for the show today. Our listener mail is from Jeff, who writes about segregation in Nevada following our Harlem Hellfighters episode. Episode link: The Gallipoli Campaign My research: Australian War Memorial. You can listen to Stuff You Missed in History Class via iTunes and the Stuff You Missed in History Class RSS feed.
The Roaring Twenties Prohibition was not the only source of social tension during the 1920s. The Great Migration of African Americans from the Southern countryside to Northern cities and the increasing visibility of black culture—jazz and blues music, for example, and the literary movement known as the Harlem Renaissance—discomfited some white Americans. Millions of people in places like Indiana and Illinois joined the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. Likewise, an anti-Communist “Red Scare” in 1919 and 1920 encouraged a widespread nativist, or anti-immigrant, hysteria. These conflicts–what one historian has called a “cultural Civil War” between city-dwellers and small-town residents, Protestants and Catholics, blacks and whites, “New Women” and advocates of old-fashioned family values–are perhaps the most important part of the story of the Roaring Twenties. Access hundreds of hours of historical video, commercial free, with HISTORY Vault.
WW1 Battlefields of the Western Front The long line of battlefields that makes up the Western Front runs through a wide variety of landscapes in south-west Belgium, north-eastern and eastern France. The battle lines wind their way across the countryside from the sand dunes and flat, reclaimed sea level land on the Belgian coast in the north, to the mountain peaks at 1,400 metres (4,500 feet) above sea level in the Vosges mountain range at its southern end. From a geographical point of view the range of landscapes on which the Western Front battlefields were established include sand, clay, chalk and rock, rivers, canals, valleys and cliffs, ridges and mountains, plains, forests and swamps. Map of the 1914-1918 Western Front Battlefields The grey shaded areas on the map illustrate the battlefield areas of the 1914-1918 Western Front from its northern end on the Belgian coast to the village of Pfetterhouse on the Swiss frontier at its southern end. Belgian Wallonia: Liège, Namur and Mons Back to Western Front Map>> Antwerp
WW1 Research and Sources of Information The Great War of 1914-1918 is a vast subject. Listed here are links to our pages or direct links to other websites covering some of the more specialist areas of World War 1 archives and resources for research. You will find information on a variety of resource material for research on this subject including archives and libraries, military records, maps, museums, schools resources and what records are available to help you trace WW1 family history. Information on this page features: Academic Study Educational establishments committed to the study of the First World War can be found on our page of organizations at: Organizations for WW1 Academic Study Archives, Military Records and Publications Archives and records dating back to the 1914-1918 war are held for individuals and military units in a variety of museums and archive collections. Some public records listings are available to buy in book form or on CD Rom. Miltary Records for Tracing WW1 Family History Tracing WW1 Family History