Timeline: How the Great War unfolded

1914

June 28: Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, are assassinated in Sarajevo, Bosnia.

June 29: Austria-Hungary accuses Serbia of being involved in the assassination.

July 5: Kaiser Wilhelm II promises German support for Austrian empire against Serbia.

July 20: Austro-Hungarian troops sent to the Serbian border.

July 25: Serbia starts to mobilise its army and Russia, an ally of Serbia, stations troops on the Russo-Austrian frontier.

July 28: Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia.

July 29: Great Britain warns Germany that it cannot stay neutral and calls for a political solution to the crisis. Austrians bombard Serbian capital Belgrade, while German patrols cross the French border.

August 1: Germany declares war on Russia. The French order mobilisation and Italy and Belgium announce neutrality.

August 3: Germany declares war on France and invades neutral Belgium. Britain sends Germany an ultimatum to withdraw from Belgium and gives order for troops to mobilise.

August 4: USA declares neutrality and Germany declares war on Belgium. Britain gives Austria-Hungary an ultimatum to stand down from hostilities. This is rejected and a state of war is declared at 11pm.

August 6: Royal Navy cruiser HMS Amphion is sunk by German mines in the North Sea, with the loss of 150 men and the first British casualties of war.

August 7: The first British troops land in France with 120,000 trained members of the regular British Army forming the British Expeditionary Force (BEF).

August 11: ‘Your King and Country Need You’ slogan is published, calling for men to join Lord Kitchener’s new army.

August 23: The Battle of Mons was the BEF’s first major action of the war. British troops were vastly outnumbered and forced to retreat deep into France for the next two weeks.

August 25: The Royal Flying Corps, who were the air arm of the British Army claimed their first ‘kill’ as three aircrafts from 2nd Squadron forced down a German reconnaissance plane.

September 6: The First Battle of Marne. This halts the German advance but it comes at a heavy cost with 13,000 British, 250,000 French and 250,000 German casualties reported.

October 19: First Battle of Ypres. The Germans launch a major attack on Ypres in Belgium. Despite heavy losses British, French and Belgian troops fend off the attack.

October 29: Turkey enters the war on the side of Germany.

November 22: The Battle of Ypres came to an end after a month of fighting. The First Battle of Ypres had taken the lives of more than 5,000 British and 5,000 German soldiers, marking the start of trench warfare on the Western Front.

December 8: The Battle of Falkland Islands. A Royal Navy task force sinks a German squadron of Admiral Graf Von Spee in the South Atlantic off the coast of Argentina, with only the SMS Dresden escaping.

December 16: The war comes to our shores. The German navy bombards coastal towns including Whitby and Scarborough. The attack killed 137 civilians and wounded many others, proving that the British mainland is vulnerable to attack.

1915

JAN 19: The first airborne attack on British soil, with Zeppelins bombing Great Yarmouth and King’s Lynn, killing five civilians. Part of a two-day bombing mission against Britain.

FEB 18: The blockade of Britain by German U-boats begins. All vessels, including those from neutral countries, are considered targets.

FEB 19: British and French battleships launch a massive attack on the Dardanelles. The British, and especially Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill, become convinced it is possible to win control of the strait just through the Navy.