world war i - part #7

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In early 1917, British and French troops were launching futile offensives against German lines in Belgium and France, suffering greatly. The Central Powers were building their defensive capabilities, but launching limited offensives -- continuing a stalemate costing thousands of lives every month. Over the next year, a treaty between Russia and the Central Powers freed up German resources, but American troops began arriving in France by the thousands, and Allied command became more unified and effective.

The tide began to turn decisively in July 1918, beginning with the Battle of Amiens, followed by the "Hundred Days Offensive", where Allies pushed German and Austro-Hungarian troops beyond the Hindenburg Line, forcing the Central Powers to seek a cease-fire. On November 11, 1918, all fighting ceased on the Western Front, after four years, and some eight million casualties.

British soldier in a flooded dug-out, on the front lines, France.

A British soldier dresses the wounds of a German prisoner near Bernafay Woods. July 19, 1916

Reinforcements cross the old German front line during the advance towards Flers. September 15, 1916

A piper of the 7th Seaforth Highlanders leads four men of the 26th Brigade back from the trenches after the attack on Longueval. July 14, 1916

A German observation balloon fitted with a long-distance camera. 1917

A British observation balloon is inflated near Ypres, Belgium. Oct. 24, 1917

Men of the Border Regiment rest in shallow dugouts near Thiepval Woods. August 1, 1916

British soldiers eat hot rations in the Ancre Valley. October 14, 1916

These two tanks were knocked out of action near Tank Corner, Ypres Salient, October 1917. 

Near Ripent (Champagne). Beginning of construction of defensive measures in a newly-occupied mine crater by German soldiers. 

A British firing squad prepares to execute a German spy - 1917

Wounded British prisoner supported by two German soldiers, 1917.

Two Englishmen killed by gas near Kemmel. In April 1918, German forces shelled Armentieres, 15 kilometers south of Kemmel, with mustard gas.

A fallen British soldier lays in a flooded crater as an artillery shell explodes behind him. 1917

May 1918. Two German soldiers move through a temporarily abandoned French trench. Dead English and German soldiers lie in the trench, the area littered with gear and weaponry from both sides. 

In a British underground hospital, a wounded soldier is attended to. 1918

Royal Air Force planes being loaded with munitions in France. 

Mother and child wearing gas masks, French countryside, 1918.

German soldiers walk past fallen British soldiers, following heavy street fighting in the village of Moreuil. 1918.

Scene in Mons, Belgium when the Canadian army arrived in 1917 shortly before the Battle of Vimy Ridge. Crowds welcomed the Canadian soldiers who were piped through the streets by Canadian pipers.

A shattered church in the ruins of Neuvilly becomes a temporary shelter for American wounded being treated on September 20, 1918.

A German machine gunner lies dead at his post in a trench near Hargicourt, in France on September 19th, 1918. 

A French officer stands near a cemetery with recent graves of soldiers at Saint-Jean-sur-Tourbe on the Champagne front, eastern France.

British soldiers in a field wave their helmets and cheer on Armistice Day, November 11, 1918, location unknown.

Americans in the midst of the celebration on the Grand Boulevard on Armistice Day in Paris, France, on November 11, 1918.

The announcing of the armistice on November 11, 1918, was the occasion for a monster celebration in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The First Battalion of he 308th Infantry, the famous "Lost Battalion" of the Argonne campaign march up New York's Fifth Avenue.

A Marine kisses a woman during a homecoming parade.