What major battles in World War 1 were pivotal for the outcome of the war?
I believe the most pivotal battle in the Western Front must be the Battle of the Marne in August 1914. The defeat of the German armies by the British Expeditionary Force and the French army in France stopped the only way to bring the war to a quick conclusion. After this the Central Powers and the Allies settled in for a long fight in the trenches, one that would eventually crush German spirits and end the war. In the Eastern Front it was the Battle of Tannenburg (Tannenberg), in which the Germans annihilated a Russian army under Samsonov. This defeat totally crushed Russian spirits that the war could be won easily, paving the way for the mentality that would eventually bring Lenin to Russia. In the final days of the War the British breakout at Passchendale (Ypres) might be considered important, as the strongest German defence – on that held out for 3 years and had cost the allies about a milliom lives – on the Western front fell in 1917. This defeat might have lowered the already low
