November 11, 2013, was the 95th anniversary of the end of the
First World War. Over a period of little more than 4 years, mankind was
involved in a terrible massacre seen never before. Many important world powers involved
in this war where the ‘Central Powers’ led by Germany fought with the ‘Allies’.
At 11am on November 11, 1918, Germany signed the armistice, ending the war. The
First World War was meant to be ‘the war to end all wars.’ But it ended up
prolonging animosities since the world powers could not manage the peace
created by the end of the war. This ultimately led to a much more terrible
carnage during the Second World War.
01. On June 28, 1918, the heir to the Austro-Hungary throne,
Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and his wife, were assassinated in Sarajevo by a Serb
nationalist. Sarajevo was the capital of Bosnia, then a part of the Austro-Hungarian
Empire. Serbia was accused of supporting Serb nationalist group “Serb Black
Hand” which was suspected of planning and carrying out this assassination. One
event led to another and eventually the Austro-Hungarian Empire declared war on
Serbia on July 28, 1914. This was the beginning of the First World War.
Who shot the fatal bullets which killed the Archduke and his wife
in Sarajevo?
02. The First World War was the war in which several
novelties were introduced. One was the large scale gas attacks. Chlorine gas
was used to attack unsuspecting troops who suffered from respiratory problems
and irritation in the eyes as a result. Chlorine was first used in a large
scale by the Germans in April 1915. It was then employed by the Allies. As a
result, gas masks became an essential part of a soldier’s equipment, especially
in the Western Front. In which battle, fought in Belgium, was large scale gas
attacks first employed?
03. July 1, 1916, was a dark day in British military history.
It was the day when British Armies suffered the largest number of casualties in
a single day. At the start of a great battle, the British subjected the German
positions to intense artillery attack and thought the German defenders could
not escape the bombardment. Then the British charged. But, the Germans had
sheltered themselves and were ready to hit back. Their machine guns created
havoc among the British troops. About 55,000 were either killed or wounded on
the first day of the battle. What was this battle?
04. At the start of the war in 1914, Germany had four
colonies in Africa. Allied forced led by Britain occupied three of them with
little trouble. But the German commander in Tanganyika had no intention of
surrendering. The Allied forces could not defeat him and he surrendered only
after hearing about the armistice in Europe. Therefore, it could be said that
the First World War really ended in Africa a few days after the armistice in
Europe. This German General died in 1964, aged 94. Who was he?
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| Signing of the armistice in 1918 |
05. The armistice was signed in a railway carriage in a
forest area on November 11, 1918. German nationalists considered this to be the
greatest humiliation. In 1940, when France was defeated by the Germans at the
early stages of the Second World War, Hitler wanted to re-enact the scene. He
wanted the French to sign their surrender in the same place, in the same
railway carriage. Therefore, the carriage was brought there and France signed
its surrender in the same place as Germany surrendered in 1918. In which forest
did these events take place?
Answers to Quiz 02
01. Kerala
02. Manuel I
03. Afonso de Albuquerque
04. 1961
05. Macau
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