ANNA MACKENZIE

Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia

Germany declares war on France and invades neutral Belgium

Britain declares war on Germany; six million men are mobilised across Europe by the day’s end

Main body of BEF lands in France

New Zealand troops occupy German Samoa

Armies ‘dig in’, entrenchments gradually spreading 450 miles from Belgium to Switzerland

NZ Expeditionary Force sails for France

NZEF arrives in Egypt

Yorkshire coast bombarded by German battle cruisers; first British civilian casualties

Men in the trenches in Flanders call a truce in No Man’s Land

Aerial bombing of England begins

German submarine blockade of Great Britain begins

Battle of Neuve Chapelle; 10,000 plus casualties

Second battle of Ypres; Germans use chlorine gas for the first time

Allied troops land on the Gallipoli Peninsula; 15,000 Australians and New Zealanders are part of the 70,000-strong landing force

Passenger liner S.S. Lusitania torpedoed and sunk by German U-boat; 1200 of 2000 passengers drowned

Abortive French and Allied attacks at Vimy Ridge, Neuve Chapelle, Fromelles, Le Bassée

First aerial bombing of London kills 28 civilians

Germans achieve aerial supremacy over the Western Front using captured French technology

British and Allied forces launch an unsuccessful attack at Anzac Cove and Cape Helles

Allied Autumn Offensive launched in Loos, Artois and Champagne

Edith Cavell shot in Brussels following a German Court Martial

Allied withdrawal from Gallipoli complete; over 110,000 Turkish and Allied troops killed and 200,000 wounded; 83,000 survivors are evacuated

First conscription Act passed in the UK

War Office takes over responsibility for anti-aircraft defence of London from the Admiralty

Germans attack the Fortress of Verdun; the assault lasts ten months and ultimately fails

German naval attacks extended to merchant shipping

New Zealand troops begin to arrive in France

Universal conscription in the UK for men aged 19 to 40yrs

Naval battle off Jutland – both sides claim victory

Lord Kitchener drowned

Compulsory Military Service Bill passed in New Zealand

Battle of the Somme begins with 60,000 British casualties on the first day; in four months six miles will be gained at a cost of one million lives

Tanks deployed by the British in the Somme; results initially look promising

Snowfall ends the 1916 Somme Offensive

Lloyd George succeeds Asquith as Prime Minister of Britain

Ministry of Food formed in Britain to address shortages caused by the German blockade

USA severs diplomatic relations with Germany

Russian Revolution begins; soldiers mutiny

President Woodrow Wilson tells US Congress “the world must be made safe for democracy”

German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line complete

USA declares war on Germany

Battle of Arras: Canadian, Australian and British troops make a 3.5 mile advance in snow, the Canadians recapturing Vimy ridge; 150,000 Allied and 100,000 German casualties

Sections of the French Army mutiny; increased pressure on British and Allied forces

German daylight air raid on London

German use mustard gas near Ypres

Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) begins; Allies sustain over 300,000 casualties

Ypres offensive culminates around the village of Passchendaele where New Zealand and Australian soldiers die in their thousands attempting to advance across a sea of liquid mud for a total gain of 100 yards

Passchendaele finally captured by Canadian forces, bringing the Third Battle of Ypres to a close at a cost of around one million men

Russian Revolution; Bolsheviks under Lenin call for an armistice

German Spring Offensive launched on the Western Front

Second Battle of the Somme; the thinly stretched British army is quickly over-run

Second German Offensive; German troops advance to within 80 miles of Paris; American Third Division halt their advance at Chateau-Thierry

Soldiers from all sides begin to succumb to a deadly strain of influenza

Allied 100 Days Offensive launched at Amiens and Montdidier

Germans begin to withdraw on the Western Front

British, Australian and US units break through a 20 mile sector of the Hindenburg Line between Cambrai and St. Quentin

The Allies break through the last of the Hindenburg Line

Armistice signed at Compiegne, effective from 11am

At the Palace of Versailles a German delegation signs the Treaty formally ending the war.