The horrors of the all-planetary massacre of 1939-1945 made us think of the previous, World War I, as a relatively small conflict. Indeed, the losses among the armies of the warring countries and their civilians were then several times less, although they were calculated in numbers of millions. However, it should be remembered that warring agents were actively used by the warring parties , and the participation in the combat operations of submarines, surface and air fleets, as well as tanks, indicates that the nature of the First World War is as close as possible to modern ideas about strategy and tactics.
On June 28, 1914, a terrorist attack occurred in the Bosnian city of Sarajevo, as a result of which members of the august Austro-Hungarian family, Archduke Ferdinand and Sophia, his wife, were killed. The culprits were subjects of the empire, but their nationality gave rise to accuse the Serbian government of supporting terrorists, and at the same time to blame this country for inflating separatism.
When the First World War began, even those who started it did not imagine that it would drag on for four years, cover vast areas from the Arctic to South America and lead to such massive losses. Serbia, experiencing an internal political crisis and weakened by two successive Balkan wars, was an almost defenseless victim, and victory over it was not a problem. The question was which countries and how they would respond to this attack.
Despite the fact that the Serbian government accepted almost all the conditions of the ultimatum presented to it, this was no longer taken into account. When the First World War began, the Austro-Hungarian government announced mobilization, with the support of Germany and assessing the combat readiness of possible opponents, as well as the degree of their interest in the territorial redistribution. As subsequent events showed, not all factors were taken into account.
Exactly one month after the Sarajevo assassination, hostilities began. At the same time, the German Empire informed France and Russia of their intentions to support Vienna.
In the days when the First World War began, the population of both Austria-Hungary and Germany was seized by a single patriotic impulse. The citizens of the opposing countries did not lag behind in the desire to “trick” the enemy. The mobilized soldiers were inundated with flowers and refreshments on both sides of the border, which soon became a front line.
When the First World War began, general headquarters made plans for swift offensives, conquests and encirclement of enemy army groups, but soon the hostilities took on a pronounced positional character. For all the time there was only one breakthrough of the layered defense, it was named in honor of General Brusilov, who commanded this operation. The winners in such conditions were determined not so much by the quality of technology or the talents of the commanding staff as by the economic potential of the warring countries.
The Austro-Hungarian and German empires were weaker. Exhausted by the four-year confrontation, despite the Brest peace with Russia favorable to them, they were defeated, which resulted in the Treaty of Versailles. The heroes of World War I, both in Russia, engulfed in the flames of revolution, in Germany and Austria, turned out to be unnecessary human material rejected by society.