Reading a Map of the Fronts

The idea

A map of the war asks which front is which, and each has a signature. The Western Front is a line, not an area: from the Belgian coast through northern France to the Swiss border, barely moving from late nineteen fourteen to March nineteen eighteen. If the line bulges toward Paris, the map is nineteen fourteen or spring nineteen eighteen. The Eastern Front is a zone that swings hundreds of miles, Russia into East Prussia and Galicia in fourteen, Germany deep into Russian Poland by fifteen, Russia back into Austria in sixteen, and after Brest-Litovsk in March eighteen Germany holding Ukraine and the Baltic. The Ottoman fronts are three: Gallipoli at the straits, Mesopotamia up the Tigris toward Baghdad, and the Arab Revolt along the Hejaz railway toward Damascus. Italy's front runs in the Alps against Austria from nineteen fifteen. Two cautions: the Balkans have their own front, Serbia overrun in fifteen; and Africa and the Pacific saw fighting for Germany's colonies. Practice by dating a map from the Western line's shape alone.