Expeditionary Warfare - First World War

First World War

The period of the First World War that prolonged well past its completion into the 1920s saw expeditionary warfare established as a systematic and planned type of operations with larger scope than simple transportations of troops to the theatre such as the British Expeditionary Force in 1914, Russian Expeditionary Force in 1916, and the American Expeditionary Force in 1917, and the beginnings of development in true combined operations at strategic, operational and tactical levels with the unsuccessful amphibious landing at Gallipoli. Not only did this operation combine the elements of overall war planning context, multinational deployment of forces as part of the same operation, and use of troops prepared for the landings (as opposed to disembarkation), as well as naval gunfire support that was only limited during the era of sailing ships, but also included extensive use of combat engineering in support of the infantry. One of the most extensive and complex of expeditionary operations that followed the war was the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War that saw forces deployed in the Baltic region, the Arctic region, along the Black Sea coast, and in the Russian Far East.

Other expeditionary forces during WWI included:

• Australian Naval and Military Expeditionary Force
• First Australian Imperial Force
• Canadian Expeditionary Force 1914-1920
• New Zealand Expeditionary Force 1914-1918