World War One The Centenary Collection is a series of video titles released to mark the one hundredth anniversary of the start of World War One in the summer of 1914. These two programmes tell the story of two very different battles in the early stages of the First World War. The Battle Of Mons, fought in late August 1914, was the first battle fought by the British Expeditionary Force in World War One. The Germans had overwhelming numerical superiority but the intense British rifle fire inflicted heavy casualties before they were eventually forced to retreat by the sheer weight of numbers. The British retreat continued for a further two weeks and gave rise to the legend of the Angels Of Mons . With the Western Front in stalemate, the Gallipoli campaign of 1915 was an attempt by the Allies to open a new front against the Ottoman Empire, allied with Germany and Austria, and to secure the passage of the Dardanelles and thereby access to Russia. The campaign was a failure with heavy casualties on all sides and the presence of large numbers of troops from Australia and New Zealand has led to ANZAC Day, the anniversary of the landing, being of particular importance in those countries.
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