Hitler is wounded in the leg at the Battle of the Somme

Dogs are trained in Germany, by Dr Gerhard Stalling, to guide soldiers blinded in the war

The German and British fleets clash off Jutland, in a hard-fought but inconclusive encounter

Aleksei Brusilov leads a surprise Russian offensive against Germany and Austria-Hungary

A brief success in the front line against Austria prompts Italy to declare war on Germany

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

Returning to the front after being wounded in the leg, Hitler is promoted to the rank of lance-corporal

Otto Klemperer starts a seven-year spell as music director of Cologne opera, and begins to acquire an international reputation

German troops on the western front begin withdrawal to the recently constructed defences of the Hindenburg Line

The German authorities allow Lenin to travel home from Switzerland through Germany, hoping for Communist disruption of the Russian war effort

Woodrow Wilson, president of the USA, declares war on Germany

German U-boats sink 430 Allied and neutral merchant ships in this month alone

At Brest-Litovsk Lenin signs a peace treaty with Germany and Austria, ceding vast territories and valuable resources

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

Hermann Goering, a fighter ace who has shot down 22 Allied aircraft by the end of the war, becomes commander of the Richthofen Squadron

Adolf Hitler is awarded the Iron Cross, First Class, a decoration rarely given to a corporal

The Kaiser appoints a new chancellor, Prince Max von Baden, to negotiate an end to the war

The new German chancellor, Prince Max of Baden, sends a message to President Wilson requesting an immediate armistice

The British, under Douglas Haig, break through Germany's heavily defended Hindenburg Line

A mutiny in Germany's fleet in Kiel sparks uprisings in several German cities

The Allied commander-in chief, Marshal Foch, meets a German delegation in a railway carriage in the forest of Compiègne to discuss an armistice

Friedrich Ebert, leader of the Social Democrats, becomes the first chancellor of the newly proclaimed German republic

The Spartacus League proclaims a rival German republic on soviet lines

Kaiser Wilhelm II abdicates and goes into exile in the Netherlands

The Allies and the Germans finally agree the terms of an armistice at 5 a.m.