Within a single 'Black Week' the British forces in South Africa suffer three defeats, at Stromberg, Magersfontein and Colenso

The Japanese defeat a larger force of Russians at Mukden in the final land battle of the Russo-Japanese War

The British Expeditionary Force fights a rearguard action to escape encirclement by the Germans at Mons

A German army encircles and almost annihilates a larger Russian force at Tannenberg

A Germany army crosses the river Marne in an advance towards Paris

A French army halts the German advance, just 30 miles from Paris

After a four-day battle, the French drive the German forces back over the river Marne

from October - there are heavy casualties on both sides, and a small advantage to the Allies, in the fighting round Ypres during the 'race to the sea'

The Germans attempt an advance on the western front, launching the second battle of Ypres

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 British use chlorine gas for the first time in an attack on Loos, but in places it is blown back over the British lines when the wind changes

A British and Indian force is defeated by the Turks at Ctesiphon, on the bank of the Tigris

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

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

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

Canadian troops take Vimy Ridge, subsequently the site of Canada's most important war memorial

T.E. Lawrence and an Arab force surprise the Turkish garrison at Aqaba and win an overwhelming victory

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

Ocxtober 24 - a victory at Caporetto enables the Austrian army to penetrate far into northeast Italy

British and Canadian infantry, slithering through a morass of mud, capture the village of Passchendaele

The Allies hold the Germans on the Marne and begin a successful counterattack with tanks

After a victory at the historic battle site of Megiddo, Allenby captures the city of Damascus

The German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee is scuttled after a battle with Allied ships near the river Plate

The Battle of Britain reaches its most intense phase, with 1500 German planes involved in a single day's assault