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This week, 100 years ago, the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated by a Yugoslavian nationalist in Sarajevo. You may not know much about this event or this man, but his death was the trigger for the events that would later be known as World War I. It was on June 28th 1914 that the Great War started, as it was known before World War II. More than 9 million combatants were killed, a casualty rate exacerbated by the recent technological and industrial sophistication of war.
Nearly all countries in Europe, and many others across the world, were involved in this brutal war. When it was over, in November 1918, four major imperial powers, the German, Russian, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires, ceased to exist. The following pictures from 100 years ago show us how this war was fought, how brave men lived on the front lines and powerful moments that echo to this day.
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Life in the trenches were hard and full of tension. Here, a soldier sleeps on the front lines with his gun by his side, Thievpal, France. |
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The 1st battalion of the 4th Ghurkha Rifles, an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army with soldiers of Indian and Nepalese nationalities lined up for kit inspection. |
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The war left its mark on the land, mine craters at St. Eloi, near Ypres, Belgium. |
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A group of soldiers at a signal station for the Dehra Dun Brigade (British Indian Army) in 1915. The two men in the center of the picture are on field telephones, taking messages and coordinating the war effort. |
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A small group of soldiers coming out of a trench, bayonets fixed and ready to attack. |
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A British soldier pays his respects at the grave of a colleague near Cape Helles, Turkey. This was where the amphibious invasion of the Gallipoli peninsula by British and French forces took place on April 25th 1915. |
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The Royal Army Medical Corps, which had both civilians and soldiers conscripts, distribute refreshments to wounded soldiers in France - 1916. |
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French troops throw rocks at advancing Germans from their hillside trench in the Vosges, France - 1916. When they ran out of ammo they fought with anything they could find. |
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British soldiers navigating through a shell-cratered, winter landscape along the River Somme, France – 1916. |
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Soldiers attending a church service in a field, the priest can be seen in the middle of the picture towards the back, next to the sign. |
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The First World War was the first time in human history that manufactured poison gas was used as a weapon on a large scale. The results where devastating. |
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Brigadier-General J.V. Campbell (seen standing on the bridge to the left) congratulates soldiers of the 46t Division after their successful crossing of the St. Quentin Canal in France. It was the first full breach of the German Hindenburg Defense Line and a decisive Allied victory. |
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Massed German prisoners of war at a clearing station after the successful Allied offensive near Amiens in Northern France. Described as ‘The Black Day of the German Army’, this scene shows just a glimpse of the amazing amount of man power involved in this war. |
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