Can the First World War be reduced to the Western Front, stretching from the North Sea to the Swiss border and the famous trenches? The British Western Front, the German Western Front, the French Front de l'Ouest, which the General Staff reduced to the north and north-east of France, was considered the most important and decisive front at the time. However, the war of 1914-1918 was not just a war of trenches, earthworks, major offensives, bombardments, mines and soldiers waiting in the cold and mud. It was also marked by major naval operations, troop deployments, expeditionary corps, raids, special operations and forward operating bases. This book aims to shed light on some little-known or hardly known military aspects of this conflict. While the deployment of thousands of African soldiers in Europe is now well documented, the conflict experienced by hundreds of thousands of Africans, thousands of Indians and a handful of Europeans in Africa remains largely unknown, at least in France. Is it well known that while the Russian army suffered heavy setbacks in East Prussia, it inflicted a crushing defeat on the Ottoman army in the Caucasus with significant consequences? That a British army in Mesopotamia was lured into a trap by the Ottomans? That the entrenched camp at Salonika was undoubtedly one of the best ideas of the First World War? Far from Verdun, the author takes us on a journey of discovery through this other Great War in Europe, Asia, Africa, in unexpected regions, from Galicia to Mesopotamia, from Namibia to China, in the mountains, deserts, forests, cities and oceans of the world.
