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1915 :
Many had assumed that 'it will all be over by Christmas', but as the year turned, competing countries increasingly came to realise that the conflict was going to be drawn-out. They had to prepare for such a prospect and, in Britain, this was done by an extension to the Defence of the Realm Act in March 1915 and by the negotiation of loans from the United States. The DORA gave the government emergency powers to censor the press, requisition property and control workers' jobs, pay and conditions. The government was not really prepared for war and complaints from the army that they had insufficient supplies led to the formation of a coalition government in May (thus ending the last ever Liberal government in the UK). By October, women were being recruited to undertake traditional 'men's work' at home, such as working on trains and buses.
On the Western Front the stalemate continued and although innovations were introduced to warfare - such as the use of poison gas by both sides at the second Battle of Ypres (April) - little was achieved except the killing of more men. Throughout the year, battles such as Loos (September) were indecisive and led to little movement in the lines of trenches. In the east, Austria-Hungary was joined as a Central Power by Bulgaria and attacks continued on Serbia and Russia. Italy, however, changed sides and from April 1915 fought with the Allied forces. Late in April, French and British imperial forces attempted to open a new front in Turkey at Gallipoli. Although the Gallipoli campaign continued for nine months, little was achieved and, in January 1916, the battered and bloody Allied forces (largely Australian and New Zealand troops, or ANZACs) withdrew.
At sea, Britain used its superior fleet to impose a blockade on the German ports. Germany suffered shortages and, by the end of the war, food riots had occurred in a number of German towns. In response to the blockade, the German fleet embarked on a concentrated period of submarine warfare. On 7 May, the Lusitania, a luxury passenger liner travelling from the United States, was sunk off the south coast of Ireland. Almost 1,200 civilians were drowned, including over 100 Americans. The German fleet withdrew to port, fearful that a continued campaign might bring the neutral Americans (with their massive resources and manpower) into the war on the side of the Allies.
World War One was truly the first 'total war' - not only was warfare conducted on land and sea but, on 31 May, London witnessed its first attack from the air as bombs were dropped from the great German Zeppelin airships. During the course of the war, over 2,000 civilians were killed or injured as a result of such raids.
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