Watch World War I Every Day On The Western Front [Video]

The very impressive video above was created by Miran Božičević and shows everyday of the Western Front in World War I. (You can watch the all of World War 1 here.)

Focusing on:

Troop positions and movements 1 August 1914 – 28 February 1919, 4 days every second.

Red – Germans & German allies
Blue – French & colonial infantry
Cyan – French cavalry
Orange – British & colonials
Green – Belgians in the north; Russians, Italians, Portuguese elsewhere
Purple – US-Americans

Dark blue – reserve
Light blue – resting & training
Uneven brown – building defense works
Uneven grey – staging
Solid grey – sanitation

Maps source: Cartographie 1914 – 1918, http://www.carto1418.fr/.

The video shows the front lines, leaving out the regions further south. About 85% of the overall map area is included, and the source graphics are rendered at a 60% zoom at the highest video resolution. The infobox and the date labels are redrawn in a consistent format across all frames, closely based on the original. The credit for producing the maps goes to Jean Michel Martin, the author of the Cartographie 1914 – 1918 website.

You can watch the same video at different zoom levels and sections on this playlist.

You can also watch a sped up version below:

And finally here’s a map of all the Trenches from WW1 from the Harvard Library Collection: