Chapter 7 Chapter 6 1915: At an impasse

At the beginning of the new year, Germany and Austria decided to launch offensives in the north and south directions of the eastern battlefield. On January 22, in order to force the Russian army back and rescue the defenders of the besieged Przemysl Fortress, Germany and Austria fought bloody battles with the Russian army in the Carpathian Mountains for two months, forcing the Russian army to retreat to Prutt. River and Transnistria retreat.Due to the arrival of Russian reinforcements, the advance of the German and Austrian troops was blocked. On March 22, the Russian army captured the Przemysl Fortress, which had been standing for half a year, and 120,000 Austrian troops surrendered.Neither side met expectations in the Carpathians.

The Russian Northwest Front is preparing to launch an offensive in late February to occupy East Prussia.The 10th and 12th armies on the right were the main attackers; the 1st, 2nd, and 5th armies on the left were on standby on the west bank of the Vistula River.The German army also plans to launch an offensive in this area in early February, with the 10th and 8th armies in charge of the offensive.The German army acted first, and on February 7 and 8, the 8th and 10th armies successively entered into the encirclement operations against the Russian 5th army.After the Russian army was hit by this accident, it quickly retreated to the Neman River and the Bober River. The German army quickly inserted into its rear and surrounded the 20th Army of the Russian 5th Army in the Augustov Forest. On the 22nd, the Ministry was wiped out. On March 2, the Russian 1st, 12th, and 10th armies switched to a counter-offensive, and the German army was stopped on the line of the Central Neman River, Bober River, and Narev River, and the winter battle ended.The Russian army's offensive plan to East Prussia was aborted, and the German army failed to achieve the goal of encircling and annihilating the right wing of the Russian Northwest Front Army.

Ludendorff and Falkenhayn disagreed on the issue of operations on the Eastern Front. The former insisted that a large detour should be taken from the direction of East Prussia to bypass the northern flank of the Russian army on the Baltic coast, insert the Russian army's deep rear through Vilna, and cut off the communication there. Several main railway lines to Poland, with the cooperation of German and Austrian troops in Galicia, encircled the main force of the Russian army's eastern front protruding in central Poland.Chief of Staff Falkenhayn believed that Ludendorff's pincer offensive with a distance of 400 miles from north to south would not be effective. With the support of the Kaiser, Falkenhayn decided to implement a central breakthrough against the Russian army. attack in between. On May 2, the 11th Army of the German Army Mackensen, after being reinforced by 4 armies transferred from the Western Front, broke through the defense line of the Russian 3rd Army in Goerlitse in one fell swoop. In the middle of the war, the Russian army suffered heavy losses and retreated steadily.The German and Austrian troops crossed the San River and the Dniester River, recovered the Przemysl Fortress, and occupied Lviv on June 22.The Russian army suffered heavy losses and was forced to withdraw from Galicia.Mackensen became famous and was promoted to marshal.

In order to cooperate with the continued eastward advance of Mackensen's troops, on July 13, the 12th Army of the German Galwitz began to attack in the north. After 10 days of fierce fighting, the Russian army retreated. Seidelzer.The 10th Army of the German Belo also attacked the 5th Army of the Russian Army in the direction of Mitava on July 14. The German army occupied a large area of ​​Lithuania, but the German army did not achieve the goal of annihilating the 5th Army of the Russian Army Preve. It was pushed back onto the West Dvina.The frequent successful attacks by the German and Austrian armies made the situation on the battlefield very unfavorable to the Russian army. The German army in the north has already threatened the rear of the Russian army's central group. The Polish area occupied by the Russian army protrudes to the west. .As a result, the Russian High Command had to order a full retreat. On August 5, the German army occupied Warsaw, but Falkenhayn's goal of destroying its main force was not achieved. Launch a roundabout attack.Ludendorff, who had been impatient for a long time, cut off the railway line from Vilna to Dvesk in lightning speed, but at this moment the Russian army's battle line has shrunk. Pulled into a straight line, so there were enough reserves to deal with Ludendorff's attack.However, the German offensive gradually weakened due to its distance from the rear base, and the autumn fighting on the Eastern Front also came to an end.

The failure of the Russian army was mainly due to the serious shortage of weapons and ammunition. The quality of the soldiers and officers was not as strong as that of the German army. After the victory in Galicia, they marched a long distance.On the front lines, thousands of unarmed soldiers waited in trenches to receive the guns left behind by other people's deaths and injuries.Artillery was a decisive weapon on the battlefield at that time, but when it came to a key battle site, the Russian artillery was at a disadvantage in the distance.When the Russian army was approaching the German border, the German army just gave full play to the good railway traffic network in the border area to carry out effective strikes against the enemy. However, the correct strategy at this time seems to be to adopt Ludendorff's suggestion, and to attack the East that is too deep. The main force of the Russian army encircled the front line. Judging from the effect of Ludendorff's September offensive, if Falkenhayn had made up his mind to do so, it might not have been possible.In fact, although the Russian army retreated, they were not wiped out. Their retreat was like a snowball rolling backwards, getting bigger and tighter. The line cannot get out.

For more than a month after the Battle of the Marne, both sides tried to circumvent the other's flank from the west, which turned into a "race" between the two sides towards the sea. The battle line extended to the coast of the North Sea. mobile warfare. On October 8, the Germans captured Antwerp, and King Albert retreated to the Iser River (where he remained for four years until the American entry into the war). On October 20, Falkenhain, the new Chief of Staff of the German Army, mobilized heavy troops to attack the British positions in the Ypres salient. The onslaught failed for 10 days.This is the so-called "First Battle of Ypres". The German army lost about 130,000 people, the British army lost nearly 80,000 people, and the French army lost about 170,000 people.The reason for the huge number of casualties was that the tactical concepts of the commanders on both sides could not keep up with the development speed of modern firepower. In a narrow space, they used the traditional dense infantry formation to attack the opponent's position composed of a dense firepower network without stopping.These phenomena were repeated again and again in the following years.

By the beginning of 1915, the Western Front was facing off in a typical position. The first line of defense generally consisted of two or three trench lines spaced 100 to 150 meters apart. The front and sometimes flanks were surrounded by barbed wire.Bunker shelters, shelters, machine guns and artillery firing points are built on the defense line positions. The bunkers are connected by densely distributed traffic trenches vertically and horizontally, and individual sections of the defense line are built into ring defenses.In important directions, a second line of defense was constructed 3.5 kilometers behind the first line of defense, and oblique positions were established to cover the flanks.Set up a fortified barracks far behind the defense line, and the troops assembled here can reinforce the front line at any time.

In order to break the stalemate and force the German army to retreat to the border between France and Germany, the French High Command launched the Battle of Chambani from February 16 to March 17. Even the first German line of defense did not break through.During this period, in order to cooperate with the French army's operations, the British 1st Army also launched an offensive southwest of Lille and occupied a small German position, but finally stopped the operation because it could not expand the breakthrough. From April 5th to 17th, the French 1st Army launched an attack on the Wevre Valley on the right wing of the front, in an attempt to wipe out the German army in the Saint-Mihiel salient with sudden and fast actions.After 12 days of fighting, the French army suffered 64,000 casualties, but gained nothing.

The French offensive had just been contained, and the German Fourth Army began its offensive at Ypres on April 22.Taking advantage of the favorable wind, the German army used chemical gas canisters on the battlefield for the first time. After the poison gas was released for 5 minutes, thick yellow-green smoke as high as one person rolled towards the position of the British 5th Army. Witnesses said: "When the first burst of thick smoke Covering the whole ground, the people were suffocating, and when they struggled desperately, the first feeling was surprise, then fear, and finally there was panic in the army. Those who could still move ran away, trying to run after them directly Chlorine gas front, but most people are in vain.” The German army relied on the poisonous gas to make a surprise victory and opened a gap 3.5 kilometers wide, but the German reserve team did not catch up in time, so they failed to develop a breakthrough until the end of the battle on May 12. Even though huge casualties were paid, the breakthrough was only slightly expanded, far from reaching the goal.

In retaliation for the German actions in Ypres and at the request of Russia, which was retreating on the Eastern Front, the British and French allied forces launched the Battle of Artois on May 3. The areas of Arras and Nève-Chapelle attacked in the general direction of Douai in order to achieve a central breakthrough and create conditions for the development of positional warfare into mobile warfare.The other troops of the coalition army, like in the past battles, took feints in their respective positions to confuse each other.The battle lasted intermittently for 6 weeks. As a result, the French army captured a small piece of land 7 kilometers wide and 3.4 kilometers deep, and the British army captured a land 6 kilometers wide and 900 meters deep.The British and French allied forces suffered 132,000 casualties, but they were far from reaching the goal of the battle.The German army also suffered 73,000 casualties in this battle.

After the failure of the above operations, France and Britain are determined to launch another large-scale offensive in Chambani and Artois in the autumn. At the end of August, the High Command of the French Army made the British government recognize through its own government that the Commander-in-Chief of the French Army has the priority of commanding the combat operations of all coalition forces in France.The British Commander-in-Chief had the right to choose the means of carrying out the plans drawn up by the French. On September 25, after two and a half months of secret preparations, the French 2nd and 4th armies launched an offensive in Shambani.The strength of the two sides is that the French army has 42 divisions and 3,000 artillery pieces against the German army's 21 divisions and 1,500 artillery pieces.At the same time, the 10th Army of the French Army and the 1st Army of the British Army also opened the battle in Artuwala. The strength here was 32 British and French divisions and 2,500 artillery pieces against 16 German army divisions and 1,200 artillery pieces. In mid-October, both sides were exhausted, and the British and French allied forces stopped the offensive in the two places. The outcome of the battle between the two places was: the French army occupied the first German line of defense in Chambani, 22 kilometers wide and 3.4 kilometers deep. A small piece of land on the 12-kilometer front approached the German second line of defense.In Artois, the French army captured a section with a frontage of 9 kilometers and a depth of 2 kilometers, and the British army captured a section with a frontage of 6 kilometers and a depth of 3 kilometers.The French suffered 200,000 casualties, the British 74,000, and the Germans 141,000.Compared with the goal of the French High Command to implement a major strategic breakthrough and liberate the entire French territory, the gains of the Allied Forces are really insignificant. In the autumn battle, both sides used chemical gas bombs and incendiary bombs. Before the infantry attacked, they carried out continuous bombardment for several days, consuming millions of shells.Artillery fire was corrected by radio from balloons and aircraft.In order to determine the position of the opponent's artillery, technical arms such as sound measurement and topographic survey also appeared on the battlefield.Generally speaking, the battle is beneficial to the defensive side, and the attack is often not worth the loss.Once there is a breakthrough in the defense line, the reserve team or friendly troops on standby at the rear immediately come up to block the attack. Since the infantry of both sides fighting fiercely at the breakthrough is very close, the artillery fire of the attacking side cannot help each other, so it is difficult for the attacking infantry to develop in depth.It is almost impossible to carry out a complete breakthrough on a solid defensive line with a strong deep configuration.After the failure of the autumn offensive, the British and French troops stopped offensive operations on the entire front and switched to positional defensive operations. Italy is poor and has great ambitions, which determines that it will play the role of a speculator of territorial expansion. In 1882, Italy's participation in the German-Austrian Alliance was aimed at France. Afterwards, the two countries reached a compromise in exchange for mutual benefits in the African colonies, and signed a secret agreement. The two sides promised that in future wars, if one side is attacked, the other One side should remain neutral.So France is no longer an imaginary enemy of Italy.Italy's main territorial expansion direction is the Mediterranean Sea and North Africa under the leadership of Turkey. Its colonial policy needs to rely more on Britain, which has powerful sea power, rather than the continental power-Germany.Although it signed the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria, it was only an expedient measure to strengthen its momentum. Later, Germany and Austria also knew that this ally was unreliable.The Triple Alliance stipulates that if Germany and Austria are attacked, Italy has the obligation to assist.The Covenant also stipulated that if Austria-Hungary occupied the Balkan territories, an agreement on Italian compensation must be reached in advance.When the Great War broke out, Germany was the attacker rather than the attacked, and Austria-Hungary never discussed compensation issues with Italy before attacking Serbia.Therefore, Italy declared its neutrality at the beginning of the war, and waited and watched, so as to wait for the price.Italy expressed to Germany and Austria that "compensation conditions" were required to maintain neutrality, including requiring Austria-Hungary to cede Trento, South Tyrol, and Trieste to Italy.In order to deal with this "jackal who is used to following beasts", Germany intervened and persuaded Austria-Hungary to accept Italy's conditions in exchange for its strict neutrality and not joining the Allies to fight, but was rejected by Austria-Hungary, which had always looked down on Italy. Italy's territorial claims could not fulfill its wishes, and at the same time, seeing that Austria-Hungary was losing a row and was about to collapse, it was feared that if it did not join the Allied Powers to participate in the war, it would not be eligible to participate in the partition of Austria-Hungary in the future.So they turned to bargaining with the Allied Powers, which of course were much more generous than the Allied Powers. On April 26, 1915, Italy signed a secret treaty "London Treaty" with Britain, France, and Russia. Trento, South Tyrol, Trieste, Dalmatia and the Turkish Dodecanese Islands occupied three years ago.In addition, Italy will enjoy privileges in the newly established Albania. If Turkey is partitioned after the war, Italy should also get the southern part of Asia Minor; if the German colony is partitioned, Italy also has the right to territorial compensation.In exchange, Italy must join the Allied Powers to fight within 30 days after the signing of the "Treaty of London". On May 26, Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary, but the declaration of war on Germany was not announced until August 27, 1916. Italy has launched 4 armies on the Italian and Austrian borders, with a total of 12 armies (36 divisions), about 870,000 people.Austria-Hungary countered it with 20 divisions, and soon added 5 more.The nominal commander of the Italian army was King Emmanuel II, and the actual command was in charge of General Cadorna, Chief of Staff.The general strategic intention of the Italian army is to cross the Isonzo River, enter the Austrian plains through the low hills at the eastern end of the Alps, and enter Vienna.This is also the only possible offensive route for Italy, which is severely restricted by the terrain of the Alps in the north. On the night of May 23, the Italian army launched a full-line attack without waiting for the assembly to be completed. After more than a month of fierce fighting, they gained little and seized a small position on the other side of the Isonzo River, Montenero Heights and several positions in front of Trento. . From June 23 to July 7, the Italian army launched the first Battle of Isonzo, with 19 Italian divisions and 1,200 artillery pieces against 13 Austrian army divisions and 700 artillery pieces.The Italian army tried to forcibly cross the Isonzo River and surround the Austrian army on both sides. After 11 days of fierce fighting, the Italian army made no progress. From July 18 to August 3, the Italian army used the reserve force to launch the second battle of the Isonzo River with a force of 250,000.The Austrian army defended with only 78,000 people. The Italian army carried out a breakthrough in the center this time and succeeded for a while, but was repeatedly counterattacked by the Austrian army and retreated.In the end, the Italian army ran out of ammunition and stopped attacking. From October 18th to November 4th, the Italian and Austrian armies started the third battle of the Isonzo River. The Italian army gained nothing except the loss of troops. From November 10th to December 2nd, the fourth battle of Isonzo started again.The Italian army tried its best and only squeezed into three small protrusions on the Austrian defense line, and the important military strongholds along the Isonzo River were still in the hands of the Austrian army.In the four battles of the Isonzo River, Italy lost a total of nearly 180,000 troops, and Austria-Hungary also lost about 120,000 troops.In this way, Italy, together with the losses elsewhere, lost a total of about 250,000 people during the six months of the war without gaining anything.Its only contribution was to ease the pressure on Russia, allowing Austria-Hungary to draw 10 divisions back and forth from the Russian front to deal with the Italian front.The country's ambitions and abilities are out of proportion, as described by former German Prime Minister Bismarck: Italy has the appetite of a lion but the teeth of a rat. Germany and Austria are determined to conquer Serbia in order to open up land links with Turkey.In order to contain the Allies in the Balkans, Britain, France, and Russia also strongly supported Serbia.As a result, Bulgaria's movements played a decisive role in the Balkan situation. Both sides tried their best to win her into their camp, but the crux of the problem was which side was willing to pay a high price to meet Bulgaria's territorial requirements for Serbia.Although the Entente had persuaded Serbia to make considerable concessions, it still could not satisfy Bulgaria, and the attitude of the Allies in this regard certainly satisfied Bulgaria.In addition, because Germany provided huge loans to Bulgaria, it also prompted the latter to eventually fall to the Allied countries.Just before the signing of the Treaty of Alliance, King Ferdinand of Bulgaria, known as the "Fox", blackmailed countless people, saying that he had private property worth millions of pounds in London, and that once he declared war on the Allied Powers, it would be confiscated by Britain. Germany promised that even if the war failed, Germany would also guarantee compensation for his losses, and Germany had to agree.Until the post-war 1930s, Germany was still paying him back the money. On September 6, 1915, the chiefs of staff of Germany, Austria, and Bulgaria, Falkenhain, Konrad, and Gansev signed a military cooperation agreement in Pres, under the unified command of Marshal Mackensen of the German army to invade Serbia. It is: the Austrian and German troops pressed out from the north and northeast, and the Baojun cut in from the east, encircling and annihilating the main force of the Serbian army. Serbia had considered the issue of a separate peace, and the first thing it was going to do was try and shoot Dimitrievic, the mastermind who assassinated Crown Prince Ferdinand, to appease Austria-Hungary.But time was running out, and the German and Austrian armies were overwhelming.Serbia immediately put forward a bold plan to the Allied Powers, intending to defend the north with a small number of troops, concentrate the main force on the east, preemptively annihilate the Bulgarian army while it was still in the mobilization stage, and occupy its capital Sofia, forcing it to surrender, and then Put all the troops into the battle against the Austrian and German armies.However, the Allied Powers were still obsessed with the fantasy of Bulgaria joining their own side, and rejected this plan. When they understood the real intention of the Bulgarian army's mobilization, they agreed to the Serbian army's combat plan, but it was too late.Due to the changing attitude of the Allies, Serbia did not even implement a clear plan and deployment when the attack was imminent. On October 6, Mackensen commanded a total of 14 divisions of the German and Austrian Allied Forces to cross the Sava River and the Danube River, and occupied Belgrade on October 9.Beginning on October 8, General Putnik, the commander of the Serbian Army, was forced to transfer the main force from the east to the north. On October 15th, Bulgaria went to war without declaring war. The 1st Army of the Bulgarian Army and the 2nd Army of Todorov, with about 300,000 people, drove straight from east to west, and cooperated with the German and Austrian coalition forces in the north to start encirclement operations. . After tenacious resistance, the 200,000 Serbian troops were outnumbered and retreated while fighting.As early as the beginning of October, the three divisions of the British and French expeditionary forces landed in Thessaloniki, a neutral country in Greece. At the end of October, they began to move northward in an attempt to join up with the retreating Serbian army, but were strongly blocked by the Bulgarian 2nd Army. Seeing that there was no hope of joining forces with the British and French expeditionary forces, the retreating Serbian army was afraid of being encircled, so they turned to Montenegro and Albania in the southwest direction.The Serbian army has gone through untold hardships, jumped out of the encirclement of the German army twice, and finally reached the Adriatic coast after losing 50,000 soldiers and countless weapons. At the beginning of January 1916, the Serbian army relied on allied ships to withdraw to Corfu Island and Binzet. At this time, there were only about 100,000 Serbian troops left. In May 1916, this Serbian army joined the expeditionary force in Thessaloniki, and then participated in the battle for the liberation of the motherland. After the defeat of Serbia, Konrad, the Chief of Staff of Austria-Hungary, ignored the opposition of his German allies and continued to march towards Montenegro and Albania. On January 25, 1916, Montenegrin was defeated and surrendered, and its king Nicholas I committed suicide and became the only head of state who committed suicide due to defeat in the First World War.The Austrians then invaded Albania, repulsed an Italian force, and reached the Adriatic coast.Although the Allies had landed at Thessaloniki in Greece and opened up a new front in the Balkans, the armies of Germany, Austria, and Bulgaria still did not cross the border into Greece to prevent Greece from officially joining the opposing camp. The British and French governments and military dignitaries were bewildered by the confrontation of positions on the Western Front, and they were eager to break this seemingly endless deadlock.At this time, in order to reduce Turkey's pressure on the Caucasus, Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia asked Britain and France to launch a diversionary attack in the Dardanelles.Churchill in the British cabinet also advocated attacking Turkey from the sea earlier, occupying its capital Constantinople and controlling the Dardanelles and the Bosporus Strait, opening up maritime traffic links with Russia, and providing it with much-needed combat materials .Defeating Turkey will prompt some spectators in the Balkans, Bulgaria, Greece, and Romania to join the Allies. In addition, the Dardanelles were the focus of attention of Britain and Russia before the war. The British naturally hope to control the strait before Russia in the melee , so that after victory in the future, it will be used as an important bargaining chip against Russia. In early January 1915, the "War Council" of the British government passed a plan to attack Turkey and decided to implement a large-scale naval operation.Russia quickly felt the "overtones" of this large-scale operation by Britain and France, and expressed strong dissatisfaction with the two countries, insisting that Britain and France guarantee that once the war was won, Constantinople, together with the The coast of the nearby strait would be incorporated into Russia.Britain and France delayed at first, and later agreed to Russia's request after they failed to forcibly pass through the Dardanelles during the course of the battle. The battle plan of Britain and France is: first clear the minefields in the strait, then completely destroy Turkey's coastal defense system with naval gunfire, and then the naval fleet passes through the Dardanelles, captures Constantinople, and forces Turkey to surrender.The battle is scheduled to begin on February 19, under the command of General Carden, commander of the British Mediterranean Fleet.The Turkish garrison was commanded by three German navy and army generals, Utzendom, Merten and Zenders.Since the British cabinet held many meetings for this battle, the news was leaked and the time was delayed. After learning the news in mid-February, the Turkish side quickly assembled 200,000 troops in the Strait area to strengthen the defense. Before the battle began, The Turkish army has deployed 9 mine barriers south of the channel of the strait, and has specialized artillery units to protect the minefields.As far as Britain and France are concerned, the effect of the surprise attack has been lost. The Battle of the Dardanelles was divided into two phases. The first phase was from February 19 to March 18, 1915. The British and French fleets fought alone without the support of the army, trying to force their way through the Dardanelles; 4 The second phase is from January 25th to January 9th of the following year, when the army troops landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula and fought. In the early morning of February 19, six battleships and one battlecruiser from the British and French fleets began shelling the forts outside the strait, thus opening the first act of the battle.Although the British and French navies had seven or eight times the superiority in firepower, due to continuous days of heavy fog or storms, little was achieved. On February 25, the British and French navies resumed shelling and suppressed most of the firepower of the Turkish army. The destroyer sailed to the entrance of the strait and began to clear the mines. Three battleships followed behind and suppressed the Turkish artillery protecting the minefields to cover the minesweeping action.However, they were driven back by heavy artillery fire from the Turkish army.Then the British and French troops adopted single-ship bombardment and night minesweeping, but they were also unsuccessful. On March 18, Britain and France invested all their troops to launch a general offensive, and Robick replaced the sick Cardon as the commander-in-chief.The entire fleet was organized into 3 squadrons, and all the ships performed their duties. While engaging in fierce artillery battles with the Turkish army, they cleared mines in an attempt to forcibly pass through the 37-mile-long and 2.5-mile-wide strait.During the battle, the battleships "Guardian", "Invincible", and "Oshin" were sunk by mines or shelling; , and then unable to fight for a long time.The fierce battle lasted until dusk, when fleet commander Robick saw heavy losses and it was difficult to win, he sent a signal to leave the battle. After the disastrous defeat of the British and French navies, they decided to use the army to land on the Gallipoli Peninsula on the north coast of the strait in an attempt to capture the Turkish coastal defenses from behind on land and let their fleet pass through the strait.The landing force included the 29th Division of the British Army, the Australian and New Zealand Army, the Marine Division, the 1st French Colonial Division, and a Greek Volunteer Corps. The landing force was commanded by General Hamilton, and the number was about 81,000.Confronting it is the Turkish 5th Army commanded by General Zanders of Germany with about 60,000 people, 20,000 people are deployed on the Asian side of the strait, and 40,000 people are deployed on the European side. On April 25, the coalition landing force landed on the coast in both the main attack and the feint direction, and consolidated the beachhead, but lost nearly 20,000 people in two days.In the fierce battle until the end of May, the British battleship "HMS Holleit" was sunk by a Turkish destroyer, and the battleships "Victory" and "Majesty" were sunk by German submarines.The land battle was stalled by slow movement and serious mistakes in command.Lord of the Navy Winston Churchill and Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Fisher were forced to resign due to another failure. Belfort took over as Secretary of the Navy and Jackson took over as Chief of Naval Staff.Despite these changes in personnel and the reshuffle of the government, the British were on the verge of riding a tiger and decided to send more troops to the Gallipoli peninsula. On August 6, the coalition forces landed at Suvla Bay on the Gallipoli Peninsula. For the next two days, the Goddess of Victory kept opening the door to the coalition forces, but the frontline commander of the British army, General Stoff, refused to enter. Troops lolled on the beach like Boy Scout camp.And the Turkish reinforcements are rushing towards the front line with a forced march.The British commanders were ignorant of generals. If the supreme commander Hamilton or Stov, who was in charge of the front line command, could go ashore with the troops and develop in depth in time, victory would be within easy reach.However, Hamilton was on an island waiting for news, and Stoff sat on a warship happy with the landing of troops.And their opponent, Xanders, rode about looking for troops before dawn.The critical moment has passed, and the two armies have waged a tug-of-war on the peninsula for several months.The coalition forces came from afar, and the climate was not acclimatized, the disease spread, and the advantage was to fight quickly.Now it has been unable to attack for a long time, and the situation is getting worse.Stouff and Hamilton were successively replaced, and Monroe took over as supreme commander.Two days after taking office, he suggested to Prime Minister Asquith to retreat from Gallipoli.At this time, Bulgaria has joined the Allied Powers to fight, Serbia is completely occupied, the land transportation between Germany and Turkey has been connected, and various sources of combat materials have been transported to the front-line Turkish army. On November 27, a cold current swept across the peninsula, and the coalition forces frostbited 5,000 people in two days, which accelerated the crisis.After several debates, the British cabinet finally decided to withdraw. On January 9, 1916, the British and French allied forces completed their retreat, and the Battle of Gallipoli ended.The reasons for the failure of the Allied Powers were: there was no unified and coordinated command, and Hamilton and Robick were not convinced; there was no complete plan; there was no awareness of time, and the aging and obsolete methods of combat and command. The losses of both sides in this battle were: 252,000 British and French troops and 218,000 Turkish troops.It was one of the saddest events in history for Britain, which had never suffered such great losses in any previous campaign, and gained nothing.The Germans and Turks celebrated with joy.Great celebrations were held in Constantinople and Berlin.Zanders was hailed as the "Hindenburg of the Eastern Front", Enver was hailed as the "Napoleon of Turkey", and Sultan Mehmed V was called "The Invincible". In addition, the situation in the Near East battlefield in 1915 also included: the Turkish Third Army and the Russian Caucasus Army continued to confront each other on the Caucasus front.Beginning in January, the Russian army repeatedly attacked. By June, it had advanced 80 to 100 kilometers, eliminated the Turkish army in Azerbaijan, and achieved great results. On July 9, the Turkish army turned to counterattack and launched the Arash Celtic Battle. On August 3, due to lack of ammunition, the Russian army's attempt to encircle the Turkish army in the Arash Celtic Valley failed, and the Turkish army retreated to the Mergemir Pass. In October, the Russian Baratov's cavalry army crossed the Caspian Sea and set foot on Iran to attack pro-German and pro-Turkish Islamic groups. In December, the Russian army occupied Hamadan, its main stronghold, which bankrupted the attempts of Germany and Turkey to instigate Central Asian countries to get involved in the war against Russia. On December 9 of the year when the Great War broke out, Britain sent troops to Mesopotamia and occupied Khulna, where the Tigris River and the Euphrates River intersect.By March 1915, the British army had grown to 2 infantry divisions and 1 cavalry brigade, under Nixon's command. At the end of May, the British army attacked Baghdad along the Tigris River and the Euphrates River in two ways. The British Army Townsend East Column advanced along the Tigris River, and won consecutive battles at first. On November 22, the Turkish 6th Army under the command of Marshal Holz of Germany fought a fierce battle with Townsend's German troops in Ketaiqifeng, and the British army retreated to the city of Kut. On December 7, the Turkish army surrounded the city, and the British army waited for help.Towards the end of 1915, there was still no winner.