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1 World War I

Forces

Mass conscript armies, the Grand Fleet and war economies of 1914-1918.

Educational history. Casualty figures are documented ranges. This is not operational advice, a ranking of nations, or a how-to for weapons or coups.

Peacetime armies of hundreds of thousands became millions. Rail timetables were mobilisation plans.

Navies enforced blockade and convoy; they did not refight Trafalgar, except in the inconclusive clash at Jutland (1916).

Systems

Triple Entente / Allies

France, Russia, Britain, later Italy, the US and others -- a coalition that grew as the Central Powers shrank.

Central Powers

Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria -- never as integrated as Allied shipping and finance became.

Mass artillery

The dominant casualty-maker; shells per yard of front became a planning unit.

Blockade and U-boats

Economic war at sea, including the Lusitania sinking (1915) as a propaganda hinge.

Staff and rail

Mobilisation was a railway problem before it was a battlefield problem.

Medicine and psychiatry

Casualty clearing stations, facial reconstruction, and the contested category of shell shock.

Meters

Geographic reach
86
Industrial attrition
92
Memorial density
95
Naval blockade weight
80
Political shatter
90
Tech leap (relative)
78

Hotspots

1

Western Front

Flanders and northern France: Ypres, Somme, Verdun, Hindenburg Line.

2

Eastern Front

Tannenberg to Brest-Litovsk -- movement, then Russian collapse.

3

Gallipoli

April 1915-January 1916; ANZAC legend and Ottoman defensive success.

4

Mesopotamia/Palestine

Kut, Baghdad, Jerusalem, Damascus -- empire war with a long afterlife.

5

North Sea

Grand Fleet vs High Seas Fleet; Jutland 1916; blockade as daily strategy.

Materials

Shells and steel

The 1915 "shell scandal" in Britain showed industry as politics.

Nitrates and explosives

Haber-Bosch and Chilean nitrates -- chemistry as a strategic commodity.

Horses and fodder

Still a horse-powered war in logistics, even as tanks appeared.

Food and blockade

German turnip winter (1916-17) and Allied rationing as weapons systems.

Colonial and dominion formations -- Indian Army, ANZAC, Canadian Corps -- were not extras. They were part of the force.

This is a historical force picture, not a modern ORBAT or a training syllabus.

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