Describe the conditions that soldiers experienced on the Western Front in the years 1915-17.

GCSE- History

Coursework

Question 1: describe the conditions that soldiers experienced on the Western Front in the years 1915-17.

The trenches were basically holes in the ground, laid out in a zigzag pattern stretching all the way from Switzerland to the North Sea. On one side were the British and French, the Germans on the other. This form of defence basically brought on a stalemate on the western front, were neither side could outflank the other, and neither side could break through the other’s defences. This new from of war, ‘Trench Warfare’ was brought on by the onslaught of new military technologies, mainly the machine gun and heavy artillery. Machine guns could be handled by anyone, no skill required. The high rate of fire allowed the gun to be fired into a crowd, killing everyone there. This was used against any enemy advances, to reduce the attacking army to nothing within seconds. The ruthless efficiency of this weapon made it a popular base defence, cutting down chances of a successful enemy attack.

The heavy artillery was used to bomb enemy trenches before an attack. The British firstly thought of using this to destroy enemy trenches, but this proved unsuccessful against the superior German defences. This was likely because the Germans intended on staying put, while the British thought to use the trenches temporarily and quickly advance, however this was rarely the case. Later the heavy artillery came into use primarily in trying to destroy enemy barbed wire. This was unsuccessful as the barbed wire was simply lifted into the air, and then placed back in what could be an even bigger mess than before.

The constant use of heavy artillery in some cases gave some soldiers a mental illness, commonly referred to as ‘shell shock’. Soldiers suffering from this illness were sent back home, the most likely cause of it being the constant deafening sounds of artillery bombardment from either side. ‘Trench foot’ was another danger that was seen in the trenches. The tight boots, cold water and mud on the floor of the trenches caused this, and the way to combat this was to rub whale oil into legs and clothes. Many didn’t do this on purpose, to try and get sent ...

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Soldiers were poorly fed on the front line. Their meals usually consisted of ‘Hard Biscuit’, Canadian cheese and tinned jam. They had no bread and they used what was saved of their tea to wash their faces and shave. The conditions were terrible, worst than most third world countries. Their daily routine usually consisted of very menial tasks, like repairing a trench or dug out. They could rarely see the enemy but they knew they were there across no-mans land. They lived under constant fear of sniper or machine gun fire if they put their head above the parapet. The health services were terrible. The hospitals were far from the front line, and few survived the way there. Mass graves were commonplace, and so was the sickly sweat smell of rotting corpses.

Overall conditions in the trenches were savage and terrible, worse than what might have been in the stone ages, but people survived, until they had to go over the top. The wait was usually the worst part.

Question 2: Why was there a stalemate on the Western Front during much of the First World War?

The First World War was a war that was supposed to be over by Christmas. That was the general idea. Either side would win clearly in a decisive victory and the war would be won. In a way it was over by Christmas, four years later. The stalemate at the Western Front could be blamed for this. In three years of fighting, neither side had gained a clear advantage over the other.

The Germans had drawn up a plan before the war, the ‘Schlieffen Plan’. As they were fighting on two fronts, they thought to go through Belgium and into France, circle Paris quickly, take France out of the war then devote their full power to fighting Russia. This did not happen in the first six weeks as they had planned. Firstly, Belgium put up a greater fight than they had expected that slowed them down considerably. Their trek through Belgium brought the British’s attention, and in the interest of keeping Belgium neutral according to the 1839 treaty, the BEF was sent to help France.

Now Germany was at war with Britain as well. The BEF kept the Germans occupied at Mons, while the Russians entered the war faster than Germany had expected. But the Germans still had a chance of taking Paris, instead they fell East of their target.

While all this was going on, the Germans had a force attacking the French border to distract their attention. The French quickly defeated this force, and then marched to the Marne where they fought and repelled the German army. The Germans turned back and dug into their captured ground to defend it, building machine gun posts and trenches. To combat this situation the British and French built trenches of their own, then each side tried to outflank the other, without prevail. Trenches were dug on both sides, from the English Channel to the Swiss border.

Neither side could outflank the other now, and neither side had fought a war like this before. The generals had no idea what to do, but to stick to what they thought was the way to fight a war using outdated tactics that no longer applied because of the new weapons.

Battles turned into massacres as millions of men went over the top in battle such as Neuve Chapelle and Compiegne, where around seventy-to-eighty thousand men were lost to gain a few square kilometres of land. Worse is the Battle of Arras, where 120,000 men were lost, without anything to show for it. The tactic of going ‘over the top’ had been proved to be useless, a waste of lives, to all people but the generals. They continued to send more and more people to their deaths, only because they couldn’t think of another way to do it.

The new weapons were not of much help either. Tanks were close to useless, artillery had a worse effect on the army than the enemy, and machine guns made waves of attacking people no problem to mow down by the hundreds.

Hasan Haider, 11C