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The start of the Brusilov Offensive was the most successful Russian military operation during the First World War. It crippled the Austro-Hungarian Army and forced the Germans to divert troops from Verdun. But the Brusilov Offensive ultimately was a failure and cost the Russian's an enormous amount of men. What went wrong?

A remembrance mural has become the target of "mindless vandalism" for a second time. Spray paint was used between Monday and Tuesday last week to deface the artwork situated on Witham's river walk. The initial incident was reported to Essex Police, but silver spray paint was then used at the weekend to create further damage. A spokesperson from Witham Town Council said it was "just mindless vandalism". Police have been contacted for comment.

A small town lawyer from West Virginia was in for an extraordinary surprise when he discovered a 253-year-old pre-Revolutionary War fort hidden inside the walls of his Monroe County plantation home. John Bryan, 43, a self-described history buff and amateur archeologist, purchased the property in 2019 with a hunch that the large white clapboard farmhouse was built around an old log fort known as Byrnside's Fort. 'We had to buy the property first before being able to take a crowbar to it to see if the logs were inside the walls.' It was originally built in 1770 by an early...

On this date in 1917 — with the parting cry, “Je demande pardon à la France! Vive la France!” — 18-year-old Grenoble seamstress Marguerite Francillard was shot at Paris’s St. Lazare prison as a German spy. Her lover, a German agent posing as a traveling silk salesman, had induced the naive young woman to act as his courier and in this capacity she shuttled his messages treasonably between Paris and Geneva. Eventually, German intelligence sacrificed her: a nothing loss for an empire at war. The cell Marguerite Francillard inhabited while awaiting execution was subsequently occupied by a more famous (albeit...

On Christmas Eve 1914, in the dank, muddy trenches on the Western Front of the first world war, a remarkable thing happened.It came to be called the Christmas Truce. And it remains one of the most storied and strangest moments of the Great War—or of any war in history.(snip)What happened next would, in the years to come, stun the world and make history. Enemy soldiers began to climb nervously out of their trenches, and to meet in the barbed-wire-filled “No Man’s Land” that separated the armies. Normally, the British and Germans communicated across No Man’s Land with streaking bullets, with...

Many people believe this to be a myth. But entering into the winter months in 1914, everyone thought that World War I would be over in time for the holiday season. The soldiers were weary of war and homesick. Families were split apart.Then, during the month of December, when the soldiers realized they would not be home with their families for Christmas, a miraculous event happened. Singing could be heard coming across the killing fields, known as No Man's Land, from both sides of the war.That evening of Christmas Eve brings a still calm over the battlefield. Despite heavy losses...

On the second of September in 1914, the mayor of Senlis, France, was shot by the occupying Germans in the opening weeks of World War I. The beautiful ancient town, where the Carolingian dynasty met its end (King Louis V was killed in a hunting accident there in 987, enabling Hugh Capet to take the throne), unhappily found right in the path of the German army smashing its way towards Paris as France and her allies gave way. German troops reached Senlis by the first of September, and overwhelmed the city in a minor battle. On guard from the experience...

Under the Treaty of Versailles, the German emperor was supposed to be tried as a war criminal. Why wasn't he? The accusations were explosive: a head of state had not only begun an illegal war but egged his troops on to a series of horrific atrocities that left thousands dead and an entire continent in ruins. By then, the accused was one of history’s most hated and debated figures, a monarch known for making erratic decisions and doubling down on his sometimes inexplicable actions. There was just one problem: The accused, Wilhelm II of Germany, couldn’t testify. The accused had...

A complex network of tunnels located near the northeastern French town of Braye-en-Laonnois, houses the memories of thousands of World War One soldiers who left their mark on the walls the Froidmont quarry.A maze-like network of tunnels can be found near the northeastern French town of Braye-en-Laonnois.These extraordinary tunnels house the memories of thousands of World War One soldiers who left their mark on the walls of the Froidmont quarry, not far from the scene of the horrific Second Battle of the Aisne.More than 20 kilometres of limestone walls bare over 1,000 inscriptions, drawings and carvings from German, French and...

Mr. Neiberg's presentation to the National Security Seminar and the class of 2018 during their capstone week.Michael S. Neiberg - Why the US Entered the First World War and Why it Matters | 54:46USArmyWarCollege | 57.7K subscribers | 40,164 views | June 14, 2018

Despite the final horrific death toll, many believed war in Europe would be over in months, writes a leading historian.

The Christmas truce of 1914 is a story many of us have heard, but it’s well worth revisiting. It’s almost too good to be true.When the angels appeared to the shepherds outside Bethlehem on that night more than 2,000 years ago, they spoke of the great tidings of the incarnation and sang what has become the universal Christmas prayer of the centuries: “Peace on Earth and goodwill toward men.”Perhaps those same Christmas angels were singing over the Western Front in 1914, when the guns fell silent.The Christmas truce of 1914 is one of those stories many of us have heard,...

Worse Than Poison Gas? Ask the Moro.Having been the first to unleash unrestricted submarine warfare, poisonous gas, and the flammenwerfer, a one-man flamethrower, on their enemies, the Germans finally found a weapon too horrific for use during the Great War. It was the shotgun that American troops brought to the front in 1918. In 1900, during the Philippine Insurrection, Captain John Pershing saw combat against the Juramentados, fanatical Islamic Moro swordsmen who sought martyrdom while killing their enemies. The Army Colt .38 didn't stop their suicidal attacks and even the Springfield rifle didn't always do the job. In such close-quarter...

On July 21, 1918, German soldiers captured a U.S. soldier from the 307th Infantry Regiment, 77th Division, near Baccarat, France. He was carrying a weapon they had never seen: a Winchester Model 97 pump-action shotgun. On September 15, 1918, the German government officially protested the use of the shotgun.

The brutal horror of the Battle of the Somme is unveiled in colourised photos released ahead of the 106th anniversary of World War One, with July 1st marking the start of the battle. The battle was one of the most bloody of World War One which saw such figures as JRR Tolkien, British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, Otto Frank - the father of Anne Frank - and Adolf Hitler fight in the battle. Over three million men fought in the battle which saw over a million killed or injured, scarring the earth in one of the deadliest battles in human...

Private John Klopfenstein was our family member killed by German fire in France in WWI. Born April 15, 1896 in Indiana. He was employed at the Brass Foundry in Sturgis, Michigan where he entered the US Army on 9/19/1917. He was sent to Camp Custer, Michigan & was assigned to Company D, 328th Machine Gun Battalion & transferred to Camp Merritt New Jersey. He was subsequently sent overseas to Company C, 18th Infantry, 1st Division, "The Big Red One." John was killed while serving his country after being wounded on 09/13/1918, passing away 09/18/1918. He was laid to rest at...

A tough choice between Muslim Europe and Muslim Russia. Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism. Russia, with a birth rate of 1.5 children per woman, has invaded Ukraine, where the birth rate is 1.2 children per woman, to determine which nation with below replacement birth rates will go extinct the fastest. In the long run the only winners of the war to determine whether Ukraine will belong to the 1.2 or 1.5 people will be the Chechen and other Muslim soldiers doing...

RUSSIA’S CZECHOSLOVAK LEGION of World War One was an army without a country. The 60,000-man unit, raised between 1915 and 1917, was made up of Czech and Slovak patriots keen to free their ancestral homeland from Austrian rule. By taking up arms in the name of the Russian Tsar, the men of the unit hoped that after the war the great powers would reward them with statehood. But when in 1917, the Bolsheviks rose to power following the collapse of Russia’s Romanov dynasty and then made a separate peace with the Central Powers, the Czechoslovak Legion suddenly found itself trapped...

The 120-year-old crocodile is now on display at the schoolWe use your sign-up to provide content in ways you've consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info A 120-year-old crocodile has been put on display at a Rhondda primary school after being discovered underneath the floorboards of a classroom. Pupils at Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg Bodringallt, in Ystrad, arrived at school on Wednesday to see the giant saltwater crocodile, which was discovered by workmen in June 2019 when work...

Joseph Letizia’s pizza recipe, emulating the indomitable man himself, has persisted through three generations of ownership—and some astonishing twists and turns in the road. As a young man, Italian immigrant Joseph Letizia shined shoes and mopped saloon floors, honed his skills as a WWI army chef, and, determined to be a good American, attended night school for history and English. His 1936 restaurant in Westport, Connecticut, called The Triangle, lasted only one year, but a second concept in Norwalk in 1937, Uncle Joe’s (which sold pizzas on weekends only), proved an immediate success, thanks to the area’s large Italian population...