Introduction to World War I in 1916
Two great battles were fought on the Western Front in 1916—at Verdun (February 21-July 11) and the Somme (July 1-November 18).
The Eastern Front, 1916
Strengthened by increased industrial productivity, the Russians planned to launch an offensive in the summer of 1916. However, because of the emergency at Verdun, the French pressed the Russians into an attack before they were fully prepared.
In the north, Russian commanders halfheartedly attacked in the Kurland and Vilna regions, with negligible results. In the south, however, General Brusilov achieved a stunning success against the Austrians, causing them to withdraw some of their forces from the Italian front for defense on the eastern front. The Germans diverted some of their reserves from Verdun to Austria.
The reason for Brusilov's success was his tactics. He trained elite shock troops to capture enemy strongholds, with the aid of short, pinpoint artillery support. Though the artillery fire forewarned the enemy of the exact location of the attack, it did not last long enough for them to prepare their defenses. These tactics enabled the masses of infantry to advance with fewer casualties. Brusilov's results were spectacular. Attacking along a 300-mile (480-km) front, in 10 weeks his forces advanced 30 to 60 miles (48 to 96 km). The Austrians and the Germans suffered 750,000 casualties.
In September and October, Brusilov tried to exploit his summer success by attacking with large numbers of troops. He abandoned his earlier tactics and the offensive became a battle of attrition. In November, hampered by inclement weather and by ammunition shortages, he ordered his troops to entrench and prepare for another winter of defensive warfare.
The Italian Front, 1916
Fighting was resumed in the hill country on the Italian front about the middle of March. While the Italians were preparing for a new offensive against Gorizia and Trieste, they were caught by surprise in an Austrian attack in the Trentino region, beginning May 15. The goal of the Austrian attack was Padua, a major Italian railway center, 45 miles (72 km) away.
Within two weeks, the Austrians had captured Asiago and Arsiero. However, they broke off the attack on June 3, some 35 miles (56 km) short of Padua, because all available Austrian reserves were needed on the Russian front because of Brusilov's offensive.
In August, the Italians, under General Luigi Cadorna, carried out their long-prepared offensive against Gorizia. They captured the town on August 9, and then focused the offensive on Trieste. Though the Italians kept pressing their drive, strong Austrian defenses and the difficult terrain brought them to a halt. Three separate battles were fought—the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth battles of the Isonzo, in September, October, and November. These actions achieved nothing at the cost of thousands of lives. Winter weather brought an end to the Italian attacks for the remainder of the year.
The Balkan Front, 1916
Early in the year the Austrians and Bulgarians overran Montenegro (now part of Serbia and Montenegro) and the Austrians took Scutari (Shkodër), Albania. The Italian fleet evacuated the remnants of the Serbian army to Corfu (Kérkira), a Greek island in the Ionian Sea occupied by the French.
The Greek SituationIn Salonica, the Allies increased their forces under General M. P. E. Sarrail of France. Meanwhile, on May 26, King Constantine of Greece allowed Bulgarians and Germans to occupy Fort Rupel near the Greek-Bulgarian border. The Allies began a blockade against Greece on June 8.
Near the end of August there was a revolution in Greece. General Sarrail took over the telephone and telegraph lines. Eleutherios Venizelos, a former Greek premier, and Admiral Pavlos Koundouriotes, chief of the Greek navy, established a provisional government on Crete. By October the Allies had taken charge of the Greek fleet, the Greek railways, and the port of Piraeus, and had landed at Athens. The provisional government declared war on Germany and Bulgaria on November 28. King Constantine, whose rule extended only through the areas not under control of the Allies, remained neutral, but with sympathies for the Central Powers.
Romania Enters the WarThe remnants of the Serbian Army were landed at Salonica in June and awaited a chance to reconquer Serb territory. General Sarrail now had 700,000 troops on a front 125 miles (200 km) wide. Romania had been courted as an ally by both sides. Encouraged by the successes of the Brusilov offensive, Romania declared war on Austria-Hungary on August 27.
Romania had an army of 500,000. Believing that Sarrail's forces would hold the Bulgarians in check, Romania left only a single army to guard the Bulgarian frontier. With three armies, Romania invaded Transylvania (southeastern Austria-Hungary) on August 28. On September 1, Bulgaria declared war on Romania and an army under Mackensen promptly crossed the frontier into Dobruja (eastern Romania).
Meanwhile, instead of invading Serbia, Sarrail's forces were driven back. General Falkenhayn took command of the Ninth German Army and began driving the Romanians out of Transylvania. The Romanians were caught between the forces of Mackensen and Falkenhayn. By November 27, the two forces had met and encircled Bucharest. Both Bucharest and Ploesti fell on December 6. By the end of the year, all of Romania except for Moldavia, in the northeast, was occupied by the Central Powers. In the south, the Allies held small portions of Albania and Serbia and the Central Powers held a small section of northeastern Macedonia (in Greece).
The Turkish Front, 1916
British forces spent most of 1916 building a railway and water pipeline across the Sinai Peninsula in preparation for an invasion of Palestine from Egypt. The invasion began in November. Meanwhile, in April General Townshend had surrendered Kut-el-Amara to the Turks after a siege of 143 days.
Naval Operations, 1916
Surface ActionThe greatest naval battle of the war, the Battle of Jutland, was fought May 31-June 1 off the west coast of the Jutland Peninsula, Denmark. The battle began when German battle cruisers under Hipper were met by a British battle-cruiser squadron under Beatty. Hipper sank two British ships. Beatty then sighted the German High Seas Fleet under Admiral Reinhard Scheer and drew it northward toward the British Grand Fleet under Admiral J. R. Jellicoe. In the action that followed, both sides lost six ships, but the British losses in tonnage were nearly twice those of the Germans. The German fleet, which had performed brilliantly in maneuvering and marksmanship, returned to its base at Heligoland.
The battle was a tactical victory for the Germans, since their lesser force engaged the Grand Fleet and inflicted greater losses (in tonnage). In the long run, however, it was a strategic victory for Britain because the German fleet would never again risk leaving port and engaging the British.
No operations of importance occurred in the Baltic during 1916. The only naval incident of note was the sinking of the British cruiser Hampshire, June 5, probably by a mine. Lost with the cruiser was the British Secretary of State for War, Lord Kitchener of Khartoum, aboard the ship on a secret mission to Russia.
Submarine WarfareOn March 24 the French cross-channel steamer Sussex was torpedoed and several United States citizens on board were killed. The United States government once again demanded that the Germans cease sinking liners and freighters without warning and without regard to the safety of persons on board. These demands were backed with a threat to break diplomatic relations with Germany. Germany yielded and on May 4, for the second time in less than a year, promised to restrict the use of submarines.