After the assassination of Franz Ferdinand, Austria-Hungary is determined to put a lid on Serbia once and for all. Germany wanted to go to war with Russia sooner than later, because it was a afraid of a strong Tsar Nicholas II. In our first episode, Indy explains how the various European conflict...

Austria-Hungary starts the bombardment of Belgrade. What follows is a deployment race of armies between all major powers in Europe. Nobody wants to be unprepared in case of an attack. Germany is implementing the Schlieffen-Plan. The idea is to avoid a two front war by conquering Paris via Belgium...

The first few days of war were a combination of failed organisation and chaos. The Austro-Hungarian supreme command lacks combat experience, and their irrational actions in Serbia are causing turmoil among the Germans. At the Eastern and Western Front, early signs of problems can be seen, too, wh...

The war showed its new and cruel face for the first time. Episode of a series where we follow the events of World War 1 week by week 100 years later - "A New War With Old Generals – Carnage on the Western Front".

During their advance through Belgium, the German Army is committing atrocities against Belgian civilians - justified as response to resistance and sabotage against their advancement. The Austro-Hungarian Army is perpetrating massacres against the Serbian civilian population to retaliate against S...

While the Germans on the Western Front are very close to reaching Paris, the Eastern Front proves to become a disastrous failure for the Austro-Hungarian forces. Conrad von Hötzendorf overestimated his skills and the strength of his troops. And after his too complicated plan in Galicia failed, th...

The German Army is so close to Paris that French soldiers are brought to the front by taxis. Together with the British Expeditionary Forces, the French are fighting the German advance near the Marne river. Meanwhile, the Austro-Hungarian army is retreating to the Carpathian Mountains after a cata...

After the advances and retreats during the early weeks of war, the front is coming to a grinding hold after the Battle of the Aisne. The German Army is digging itself in on one side of the river and a new, horrible chapter of World War One begins: trench warfare. To be prepared for this new kind...

Episode 9 of a series where we follow the events of World War 1 week by week 100 years later.

The autumn rain turns the battlefields into muddy landscapes. Mud in which the soldiers are hardly able to dig trenches and in which no artillery gun will stand. The first change of seasons is proving to be a big new challenge for the armies in Europe. While at the time, the longest siege of the ...

In the trenches on the Western Front and in the mud on the Eastern Front, hundreds of thousands of soldiers die and with them dies the illusion of a short war. After heavy casualties, the armies are adapting to a longer conflict and are looking for new recruits. To convince them to fight they are...

After defeating the Russian Army in the early weeks of the war, the German and Austrian generals hope to push the Russians back with combined forces. But, like Napoleon 100 years earlier, they underestimate their enemy and his tactics and so the tides are turning on the Eastern Front. On the West...

The first weeks of war already took hundreds of thousands of lives and the daily struggle to survive in the trenches on the Western Front has nothing to do with the promised glory. Back home, propaganda is already working and grotesquely distorting the public's opinion about the war. While the Br...

After some heavy casualties during the first months of war, the armies had to look for new recruits. While Great Britain undertook soldiers in military service to fill up their ranks, Germany was relying on reservists and inexperienced recruits. This fatal German mix was sent against smaller, but...

Three months after the outbreak of the war, another world power enters the conflict: The Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman war minister Enver Pascha, a supporter of a new Turkish self confidence, wants to gain advantages for a future Turkey by declaring war. Meanwhile, another ship of the German East A...

The German army dug in at the Western Front and waited for the next Russian attack at the Eastern Front. Even though the Germans outnumbered their opponents, they barely stood a chance against machine guns in No Man's Land. They realize: to defend a position is a lot easier than to attack and con...

Episode 17 of a series where we follow the events of World War 1 week by week 100 years later.

Four months after the outbreak of the war, a new objective develops: the fight for the most valuable resources. The modern warfare and its war machines need one thing more than anything: Oil, iron, steel or cole can be a matter of life and death. The British advance into the Ottoman Empire and c...

During the first week of December, Austria manages to capture Belgrade. Thereby Austria is the first nation to achieve one of its war aims. The victorious Austrians are joyful, but the Serbs strike back and the Austrian euphoria takes a sudden end. Meanwhile, the Russians fight against the German...

Near the far away Falkland Islands the story of the German East Asia Squadron is coming to an end: in a naval battle nearly the entire squadron is sunk and Maximilian von Spee dies together with over 2000 German seamen. Meanwhile, the war of attrition is still going on in Europe and Austria-Hunga...

German admiral Franz von Hipper reluctantly carries out his orders to bomb British costal towns. And indeed, this attempt to intimidate British civilians only unites them. British propaganda gets another opportunity to portray Germans as bloodthirsty and brutal. Meanwhile, the French start a new ...

Right before Christmas the allied powers begin the Champagne offensive, which will last several months. In snow, mud,and under horrible living conditions not only the soldiers suffer. The images of a war fought with honour and glory are finally over as even the white flag is used for ambushes now...