Masuria Masuria comprised the southeastern portion of the German province of East Prussia, the part of the Reich that was most exposed to a threat from Russia. Two great battles took place here and immediately across the border in Russian Poland in 1914/15. The Russian Army occupied Masuria at the beginning of the war, and remained there until it was defeated at Tannenberg at the end of August 1914. After this battle the remnants of the Russian Second Army, which had entered Masuria from the south, withdrew across the border into Poland.…

South Africa The Union of South Africa came into being on May 31, 1910, with the coming into force of the South Africa Act, a common constitution for the British Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Natal, and Transvaal. Ruled by white settlers, the Union was granted the status of a self-governing dominion within Britain’s African Empire. South Africa was thus constitutionally bound to adhere to British foreign policy, including the event of a war. Although the question of the country’s joining the Fir…

Colonial War The war against the German colonies of Africa, Asia, and the Pacific, led by the forces of Japan, Great Britain, France, Belgium, and their respective colonies. The spread of the war to the colonies was undertaken by Great Britain and France, primarily for strategic reasons. By occupying the German colonies, their respective ports would be closed to the German navy. Also, the German worldwide communications network, which depended upon the wireless stations erected there, would be dis…

Colored Troops German war propaganda described the nonwhite colonial troops employed by the Entente Powers in the First World War in general terms as “colored auxiliaries.” The very use of such units in Europe caused a considerable sensation. All in all, some 485,000 nonwhite soldiers from the French colonies and 160,000 from the British colonies fought in the ranks of the Entente Powers in the European theater. Important contingents came from Algeria (173,000), India (153,000), French West Africa…

Students Students were clearly overrepresented among the soldiers of the First World War. The mention of exclusively or predominantly student-recruited military units in wartime and postwar literature, however, belongs to the realm of fiction. Its origins must be sought in the frequently politically motivated idealizations that were characteristic of journalistic publications and commemorative events. The most famous German example is the myth that “student regiments” singing the German national …

Samson, Anne - The Impact of the East Africa Campaign, 1914–1918 On South Africa and Beyond Keywords: Africa | East Africa | The French and British Empires | Politics | Literature | Portugal | Legacy | India The World in World Wars Heike Liebau, Katrin Bromber , Katharina Lange , Dyala Hamzah and Ravi Ahuja , (2010) Publication Editor: Brill, The Netherlands, 2010 e-ISBN: 9789004188471 DOI:10.1163/ej.9789004185456.i-618.118 © 2010 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands Samson, Anne

Ahuja, Ravi - The Corrosiveness of Comparison: Reverberations of Indian Wartime Experiences in German Prison Camps (1915–1919) Keywords: India | Politics | Home fronts | Prisoners of War | Literature | The French and British Empires | Experience of combat The World in World Wars Heike Liebau, Katrin Bromber , Katharina Lange , Dyala Hamzah and Ravi Ahuja , (2010) Publication Editor: Brill, The Netherlands, 2010 e-ISBN: 9789004188471 DOI: 10.1163/ej.9789004185456.i-618.33 © 2010 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands Ahuja, Ravi

Birdwood, Lord William Riddell (September 13, 1865, Khadki, India – May 17, 1951, London; from 1919 First Baron Birdwood of Anzac and Totnes), British field marshal. After his training with the Scots Fusiliers, in 1885 Birdwood served as an officer with the 12th Lancers before being transferred to the 11th Bengal Lancers at the end of 1886. He served on Kitchener’s staff during the Boer War and established a personal connection that would be an advantage to him in his career. He went to India as Kit…

Vandervort, Bruce - New Light on the East African Theater of the Great War: A Review Essay of English-Language Sources Keywords: East Africa | Military organisation of combat | Published memoirs and biographies | Literature | Africa | The French and British Empires | Germany | Legacy | India | Portugal | Belgium Abstract: The marine officers interest in the exploits of Colonel Lettow-Vorbeck reflects an earlier period, now superseded, at least as far as academic military history is concerned, in the historiography of the East Africa…

Roy, Kaushik - The Army in India in Mesopotamia from 1916 to 1918: Tactics, Technology and Logistics Reconsidered Keywords: Great War | Indian Army | Mesopotamia | tactics ISFWWS-Keywords: India | Military organisation of combat | Middle East | Experience of combat | The Ottoman Empire and the Middle East | Medicine | Britain | Published memoirs and biographies | Soldiers and Combat Abstract: The Great War or the First World War was the worldís first ëTotal Warí. The main focus of academic military history since the last decade has been on war and…

Australia Australia entered the First World War as a federal dominion of the British Empire (Commonwealth of Australia), having achieved that status in 1901. Although the Australian colonies had sent troops to the Boer War between 1899 and 1902, there was no military tradition in the sense of a high-echelon military leadership and administration and a defense policy, and precious little national experience of war. Yet, by the end of the First World War, almost seven Australian cavalry and infantr…

Suez Canal A ship canal in Egypt, running between Port Said in the north and Suez in the south. The Suez Canal links the Mediterranean Sea with the Indian Ocean, via the Gulf of Suez and the Red Sea. The canal was the target of Ottoman/German offensives launched from the Sinai Peninsula in 1915 and 1916, and from the beginning of 1917 the starting point for British operations against Palestine. It was of great strategic importance to the British Empire, as it was the shortest route between Britain and its colonies in East Africa, India, and Southeast Asia. After the Ottoman Empire’s entry in…

Troop Strength The initial numbers of soldiers mobilized for immediate wartime service. The peacetime strength of the individual armies before 1914 provided the foundation for troop strength in the war. A cadre of commanders for reserve units and an attachment of reservists for these troop units were included in their mobilization plans. This would make it possible to raise units to wartime strength once the mobilization was begun. The troop strengths planned in the event of war, and the troop str…

German East Africa Situated on the coast of the Indian Ocean, between Portuguese Mozambique to the south, British East Africa to the north, and the Belgian Congo to the west, German East Africa comprised the modern states of Tanzania, Rwanda, and Burundi. Declared a territory of the German Reich in 1885, with 7.5 million inhabitants the country was the most populous German colony, and at 995,000 km2 also the largest. Some 5,300 Europeans lived in the colony in 1914. The British government decided to capture German East Africa as early as August 1914. As with t…

Das, Santanu - Ardour and Anxiety: Politics and Literature in the Indian Homefront Keywords: India | Home fronts | Literature | Society | Religion | Women and War | The French and British Empires | Visual Arts | Masculinity The World in World Wars Heike Liebau, Katrin Bromber , Katharina Lange , Dyala Hamzah and Ravi Ahuja , (2010) Publication Editor: Brill, The Netherlands, 2010 e-ISBN: 9789004188471 DOI: 10.1163/ej.9789004185456.i-618.82 © 2010 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands Das, Santanu

George V, King of Great Britain and Ireland (June 3, 1865, London – January 20, 1936, Sandringham), king of Great Britain and Ireland (from 1910; from 1921 “of Northern Ireland”; from 1911 also “Emperor of India”). Grandson of Queen Victoria; originally third in succession to the throne. He received military training in the Royal Navy before succeeding his father Edward VII on the throne in 1910. After the outbreak of the First World War, George won great popularity with several visits to the front (on …

Liebau, Heike; Bromber, Katrin; Lange, Katharina; Hamzah, Dyala; Ahuja, Ravi - The World in World Wars Keywords: Politics | India | Africa | Culture | Middle East | East Africa | Western Front | Society | Experience of combat | The French and British Empires The World in World Wars Heike Liebau, Katrin Bromber , Katharina Lange , Dyala Hamzah and Ravi Ahuja , (2010) Publication Editor: Brill, The Netherlands, 2010 e-ISBN: 9789004188471 DOI: 10.1163/ej.9789004185456.i-618.5 © 2010 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands

Roy, Kaushik - Introduction: Warfare, Society and the Indian Army during the Two World Wars Keywords: colonial India | Indian Army | World Wars ISFWWS-Keywords: India | Soldiers and Combat | Legacy | Military organisation of combat | Middle East | Western Front Abstract: The Indian Army was the largest government employer in colonial India. During the two World Wars, the Indian Army numbered more than a million. The Indian Army played an important role as an imperial reserve. This chapter introduces the essays in this book…

Armed Forces (Great Britain) The First World War was a highly unpleasant experience for the British. The perception of this war in public opinion was once summed up by the historian A.J.P. Taylor in the disparaging words “brave, helpless soldiers; blundering, obstinate generals; nothing achieved.” This negative view was primarily the consequence of the losses of human life, as the number of casualties among the soldiers was without precedent in the history of Great Britain. The majority of these los…

Syk, Andrew - Command in the Indian Expeditionary Force D: Mesopotamia, 1915–16 Keywords: Baghdad | First World War | Indian Army commanders | Indian Expeditionary Force | Mesopotamia ISFWWS-Keywords: India | Middle East | Military organisation of combat | The Ottoman Empire and the Middle East | The French and British Empires | Experience of combat Abstract: The growth of German influence within the Ottoman Empire, after the turn of the century and manifested in construction of the Baghdad Railway, threatened British influence and trade in…

Dumdum Bullets Bullets having their lead core left uncovered at the point (semi-jacketed bullet), or having an unjacketed, but cylindrically bored point (hollow-point bullet). Owing to their construction, the bullets have a somewhat reduced power of penetration. At a short distance, however, they produce large wounds that heal with difficulty. The bullets are named after the Indian town of Dum Dum, where a munitions factory first produced semi-jacketed bullets for the British forces in the 1890s. …

French, Sir John (September 28, 1852, Ripple Vale, Kent – May 21, 1925, Deal), British field marshal and British Army Commander in Chief on the Western Front 1914/1915. French’s early career included the usual colonial postings in Egypt and India. He first gained a reputation as a courageous and energetic officer as commander of a cavalry division in the Boer War (1899–1902). The war led to further key posts, not least owing to the fact that French mixed easily with politicians, especially liberal …

Mesopotamia The territory between the Euphrates and the Tigris, which now lies in Iraq, belonged to the Ottoman Empire from the 16th century onward. For the British, the occupation of this barren and remote territory, which was only weakly defended by the Turks, held interesting prospects for a variety of reasons: the exploitation of the region’s oilfields offered promising economic perspectives, while the geographical situation of Mesopotamia at the crossroads of a land route connecting India, s…

Gardner, Nikolas - Morale of the Indian Army in the Mesopotamia Campaign: 1914–17 Keywords: Indian Army | Indian Morale | Kut-Al-Amara | Mesopotamia campaign ISFWWS-Keywords: India | Middle East | Experience of combat | The French and British Empires | Soldiers and Combat | Middle East | The Ottoman Empire and the Middle East | Published memoirs and biographies Abstract: This chapter use the contractual model to explain the morale of Indian soldiers during the Mesopotamia campaign, focusing in particular on the period prior to the surrender of…

Mazumder, Rajit K. - From Loyalty to Dissent: Punjabis from the Great War to World War II Keywords: Ghadar | Punjabis | rural loyalty | World War II ISFWWS-Keywords: India | Home fronts | The French and British Empires | Politics | Soldiers and Combat | Violence against civilians Abstract: This chapter discusses the unique relationship between communities recruited from Punjab and the colonial state in British India between c.1914 and c.1947. It demonstrates the loyalty of enlisted groups, reciprocating decades of favourable tre…

Uniforms At the beginning of the war, the armies of most warring states were outfitted with a special field uniform, camouflaged to blend into the terrain, in addition to their colorful parade uniforms. Such a camouflage uniform was necessary because of modern weapons technology including smokeless powder. This was already well known from the Boer Wars and the Russo-Japanese War. Still, camouflage uniforms dated back to the colonial wars of the 19th century. Based on experience in India, Great Br…

Armed Forces (United States) During the First World War the armed forces of the United States were crafted by national politics. The Russian Provisional Government of 1917 had promised resolutely to continue the war in the East. On the Western Front, the Germans were unequivocally on the defensive. In no way was America itself directly threatened. Nevertheless, the pattern developed in the World War would guide the United States in 20th century warfare. Politics would determine the strategy, the org…

Markovits, Claude - Indian Soldiers’ Experiences in France during World War I: Seeing Europe from the Rear of the Front Keywords: India | Western Front | Culture | French society during the war | Women and War | Religion | Literature | Politics | The French and British Empires The World in World Wars Heike Liebau, Katrin Bromber , Katharina Lange , Dyala Hamzah and Ravi Ahuja , (2010) Publication Editor: Brill, The Netherlands, 2010 e-ISBN: 9789004188471 DOI:10.1163/ej.9789004185456.i-618.9 © 2010 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands Markovits, Claude

Naval Blockade During the World War, the Allied naval blockade brought German foreign trade practically to a standstill, especially after 1916. It contributed significantly to the serious subsistence problems in Germany. On the eve of the World War Germany was one of the most important economic powers in the world. Obviously, accomplishing this required extensive trade relationships. This left the German economy highly vulnerable during such a long-lasting war. Indeed, Germany had to import 30% of all processed iron ore. The …

India In August 1914, the Indian subcontinent was the most important pillar of the British Empire. After the start of the First World War India’s importance to the war effort was apparent in the considerable numbers of Indian soldiers employed on the Allied fronts in Europe, Africa, and Asia. By the end of 1918, some 1.5 million Indians had been mobilized for the war. Of these, almost 900,000 belonged to fighting units. More than 60,000 Indian soldiers died in the war and about the same number suffered wounds. It was originally envisaged that only restricted use should be made of I…

Soldiers’ Jargon In all armies in the First World War there developed during the war a vocabulary specific to the group. Soldiers’ jargon related primarily to soldiers’ immediate environment at the front and in rest areas; at its center were duties, equipment, and weapons. In general, soldiers’ jargon followed a minimizing tendency: for example, describing large caliber artillery shells as “coal boxes,” hand grenades as “pineapples,” and an artillery attack as “calico” or “music.” Onomatopoeic ele…

Hamilton, Sir Ian (January 16, 1853, Corfu – October 12, 1947, London), British general. After attending private school, and graduating from the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, Hamilton entered the army in 1873. His early career was marked by his participation in colonial wars, among them the Afghan War (1878–1880), the Boer War of 1881, the Nile Expedition (1884/1885), the Burma Expedition (1886/1887), the Relief of Chitral (1895), and the Tirah Campaign (1897/98). He gained not only battle e…

Kenyon, David - The Indian Cavalry Divisions in Somme: 1916 Keywords: France | Indian Cavalry divisions | Somme ISFWWS-Keywords: India | Western Front | Military organisation of combat | Experience of combat | Soldiers and Combat | Published memoirs and biographies | Britain Abstract: A 'fact' that is often quoted to support the status of the Indian soldier as exploited victim is that the Indian regiments arrived in Marseilles in late 1914 still dressed in tropical clothing and without warm winter kit. This chapter aims to…

Das, Santanu - Imperialism, Nationalism and the First World War in India Keywords: empire | First World War | imperialism | India | Nationalism | nationalist leaders | sepoys | Western Front ISFWWS-Keywords: India | The French and British Empires | Politics | Western Front | Experience of combat | Published memoirs and biographies Abstract: This article explores the relationship between empire, India and the First World War, by examining both the responses to the war within India, and the experience of the sepoys in the Western Front. In …

Liebau, Heike - Kaiser kī jay (Long Live the Kaiser): Perceptions of World War I and the Socio-Religious Movement Among the Oraons in Chota Nagpur 1914–1916 Keywords: India | Religion | Home fronts | Politics | The French and British Empires | Germany | Literature The World in World Wars Heike Liebau, Katrin Bromber , Katharina Lange , Dyala Hamzah and Ravi Ahuja , (2010) Publication Editor: Brill, The Netherlands, 2010 e-ISBN: 9789004188471 DOI: 10.1163/ej.9789004185456.i-618.59 © 2010 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands Liebau, Heike

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire entered the First World War on the side of the Central Powers in November 1914. The real decision to take this step was not made by the cabinet, but by an inner circle of Young Turk politicians on October 25. Two days later, on the orders of minister of war Enver Pasha, a Turkish naval force under the command of the German Admiral Souchon attacked the Russian Black Sea Fleet in its bases. The Turks later sought to justify this unprovoked attack by claiming that th…

Singha, Radhika - Front Lines and Status Lines: Sepoy and ‘Menial’ in the Great War 1916–1920 Keywords: India | Religion | Military organisation of combat | The French and British Empires | Literature | Experience of combat | Pre-war period The World in World Wars Heike Liebau, Katrin Bromber , Katharina Lange , Dyala Hamzah and Ravi Ahuja , (2010) Publication Editor: Brill, The Netherlands, 2010 e-ISBN: 9789004188471 DOI:10.1163/ej.9789004185456.i-618.13 © 2010 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands Singha, Radhika

Anderson, Ross - Logistics of the Indian Expeditionary Force D in Mesopotamia: 1914–18 Keywords: British officers | IEFD | Indian Army | Mesopotamia ISFWWS-Keywords: India | Middle East | Military organisation of combat | The Ottoman Empire and the Middle East | The French and British Empires | Experience of combat Abstract: On 6 November 1914, the landing of the Indian Army's 16th Infantry Brigade at Fao, in the Vilayet of Basra in Mesopotamia initiated land hostilities between the British and the Ottoman empires. Part of the IEFD, these 4,700 soldiers…

Roy, Kaushik - Indian Cavalry from the First World War till the Third Afghan War Keywords: First World War | France | Indian cavalry | Mesopotamia | Palestine | Third Afghan War ISFWWS-Keywords: India | Military organisation of combat | Experience of combat | Legacy | Soldiers and Combat | The French and British Empires | Middle East | The Ottoman Empire and the Middle East | Published memoirs and biographies Abstract: This chapter argues that it is ahistorical to analyze the evolution of armies and warfare by using universal concepts like modern warfare.…

Flanders A province in northwestern Belgium. Western Flanders was the theater of three major battles in 1914, 1915, and 1917, and to these must be added the battles fought during the course of the German spring offensive in 1918. For the British, the battles are inseparably associated with the market town of Ypres. It is accordingly not surprising that the British commission charged after the war with naming the battles and engagements designated the battles fought here as the First, Second, and …

Showalter, Dennis - The Indianization of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, 1917–18: An Imperial Turning Point Keywords: British Army | Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) | Great War | Indian Army | Sir Edmund Allenby ISFWWS-Keywords: India | Middle East | Military organisation of combat | The Ottoman Empire and the Middle East | The French and British Empires | Experience of combat | Aviation | Religion | Science | Technology | Medicine Abstract: When Sir Edmund Allenby ceremonially walked into Jerusalem on 11 December 1917, he symbolized the end of the Britis…

Kitchener, Horatio Herbert (June 24, 1850, Crotter House near Listowel [County Kerry, Ireland] – June 5, 1916, off the Orkney Islands; from 1914 the First Earl Kitchener of Khartoum and of Broome), British field marshal (minister of war). Kitchener’s early military career took him predominantly to the Middle East, where in 1892 he became Sirdar (commander in chief ) of the Egyptian Army. In this function he conquered the Sudan, and in 1898 led the successful military expedition to Khartoum (Battle of Omdurman). This brought Kitchener the status of …

North Africa Geographical area stretching from the Atlantic coast of present-day Morocco in the west to the Suez Canal and the Red Sea in the east. The territories in question experienced various phases of political and military subjugation by the European colonial powers before the outbreak of the First World War. The North African territories were subject to differing external and internal political arrangements, and were then administered under direct and indirect forms of rule. France claimed formal sovereignty in Al…

Kitchen, James E. - The Indianization of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force: Palestine 1918 Keywords: Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) | Indianization | Palestine | Turkish defences ISFWWS-Keywords: India | Middle East | Military organisation of combat | Experience of combat | The Ottoman Empire and the Middle East | Religion | The French and British Empires Abstract: By the time the campaign ended in Palestine in October 1918, the majority of Britain's imperial army, known as the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF), was made up of units dr…

Kipling, Rudyard (December 30, 1865, Bombay – January 18, 1936, London), English writer. This extraordinarily successful author was for his whole life a prominent advocate of the ideals of British imperialism. Liberal critics in particular associate him with the Victorian and Edwardian culture of imperial “jingoism,” or belligerent nationalism. Kipling spent his early childhood years (until 1871) in Lahore, India, the son of a museum curator, before being educated in English boarding schools. The …

Jarboe, Andrew - Indian and African Soldiers in British, French and German Propaganda during the First World War ISFWWS-Keywords: Soldiers and Combat | Home fronts | The French and British Empires | Germany | Western Front | Africa | India | Politics | Culture | Visual Arts | Legacy World War I and Propaganda Troy R.E. Paddock , (2014) Publication Editor: Brill, The Netherlands, 2014 e-ISBN: 9789004264571 DOI: 10.1163/9789004264571_010 © 2014 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands Jarboe, Andrew

Rawlinson, Sir Henry (February 20, 1869, Trent Manor [Dorset] – March 28, 1925, Delhi), British general. Rawlinson’s remarkably successful prewar career included command of a mobile column in the Second Boer War (1899–1901), of the Army Staff College (1903–1906), and of the 3rd Division (1910–1914). As commanding general of the IVth Corps, he played a vital role in the battles of 1915. Named commander in chief of the Fourth Army in February 1916, Rawlinson planned the British attack in the Somme Of…