Barbarossa

This caused immediate outrage in Istanbul. The construction of the vessels was been financed by public conscription and the man on the street felt robbed by the British action. Seizing the possibility of gaining another ally, weak though the Ottoman Empire was, the Germans immediately offered to replace the ships free of charge with two of their own already deployed in the Med. This was accepted and thus the Ottoman Empire joined the Alliance in the winter of 1915. In the coming spring it launched an all out offensive in the Caucasus Mountains. This drew off sufficient troops from elsewhere so that when attacked by the Germans, the line near St Petersburg collapsed and the city fell virtually without a fight.

On the loss of the Russian capital, the Tsar offered to abdicate. The leading Russian aristocracy immediately rejected this, fearful both at the propaganda victory that it would score for the Germans as well as the damage in morale to the Russian people such an action would have.

In the west, the first British troops began to arrive just in time to support the French in an another assault. This offensive dismally failed to achieve its objective of drawing German troops from the East; the General Staff correctly judged that the existing forces were sufficient so did not transfer any division westwards. The attack did, however, force them to retreat in a number of places along the frontline. The French high command, therefore, declared it a victory pyrrhic though it was.

With the cessation of the spring rains, Germans armies in northern Russia commenced to drive towards on Moscow as well as advancing northeast to cut the railway from Murmansk. Resistance was expected to be minimal because morale in the Russian army had collapsed. In the meantime, pockets of rebellion had sprung up across the country. The pattern was the same everywhere. Local partisans would first seize arsenals then would use the captured weapons to attack Russians garrisons. Some like a Finnish uprising were quickly reinforced by German divisions. Others were left to burn on their own.

Thus with his empire collapsing into chaos, the Tsar finally abdicated. He and his family then fled to Murmansk to escape on a British battleship days before the Germans cut off any escape north. A Provisional Unity Government tried to continue the war. However, with wide spread mutinies throughout the armed forces as well as the fear of a Communist uprising in several major cities, they threw in the towel. On the 20th June 1916, Russia unconditionally surrendered to Germany and her allies and three weeks later signed the Treaty of Riga.

The terms of this document were harsh to say the least. Large areas of the Russian Empire were converted to German protectorates; the victors preferring to support anti-Tsarist leaders rather than impose direct rule that the locals might regard as hostile. What remained to be governed from St Petersburg was reduced to little more than a satellite of their former enemy.

For a while it looked as if the French government too would capitulate. However, stiffen by British resolve and increased American assistance it elected to continue to prosecute the war. More troops were sent to the frontline and a number of local offensives launched. In spite of intensive artillery bombardment the defenders held their positions and thus no ground changed hands.

Three months later, in the autumn of 1916, Germans launched their first major offensive in the west. It was spearheaded by battle hardened veterans from the war in Russia with one goal in mind, take Paris! These troops, though, did not use the wave assaults that the French and British had employed. Instead, they employed the infiltration tactics that had proved so successful against the Russian trench lines in the Baltic campaigns. Once in position, some of them would then would break out into the rear areas whilst others pinned down enemy formations and cut off them from their supplies.