The Germans gain ground at Ypres after the first significant use of chlorine gas

The Germans make their first effective use of a new weapon, the flame thrower, in an attack on the British in the second batte of Ypres

The English nurse Edith Cavell is court-martialled and executed by German forces in Belgium

A German thrust against the French begins the year-long battle of Verdun

An Allied advance in the valley of the Somme launches a four-month battle with very heavy casualties

Eleven British tanks go into pioneering but ineffective action at the battle of the Somme

Baron von Richthofen, the 'Red Baron', shoots down the first of many Allied aircraft

Wounded at the front on the Somme, the poet Wilfred Owen is invalided home to Britain

Haig sends British troops over the top in the third battle of Ypres

Suitable ground is selected by the British at the battle of Cambrai for the first serious deployment of their new tanks

Wilfred Owen, having returned to the front, is killed by machine-gun fire a week before the end of the war

The German air ace Baron von Richthofen is finally shot down, after himself destroying 80 Allied planes

US troops are by now fighting in large numbers on the western front

German tanks cross the borders into neutral Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium

Only two days after crossing the Netherlands border, a German division reaches the coast near Rotterdam

Queen Wilhelmina and the Dutch government escape just in time to Britain

The caretaker government of the Netherlands surrenders to the German invaders

The Belgians surrender to the German armies encircling them north and south

The hiding place in Amsterdam of Anne Frank and her family is discovered by the Gestapo

British forces liberate Brussels and on the next day reach Antwerp

7500 British troops, trapped on the far side of the Rhine at Arnhem, are captured by the Germans