Fire and support trenches were divided into sections by walls known as traverses. Each section was known as a bay and was about 18-30 feet long. Traverses were usually about 9-13 feet thick. This system prevented too many men form being killed at one time. If an artillery shell hit one by, the traverses on either side would protect the other bays.
Trench warfare was always going to be prolonged because of its nature to make the attacker always have the disadvantage and the defender to have the advantage in most cases. This means that most attacks would be a failure so the tactics cannot always be at blame.
One thing that the Generals can be blamed for are that all their tactics and plans were made for a war of movement whilst the war was a war of attrition. All of the Generals could be criticised for not using their new weapons to their full potential and not following up the gaps in the trenches caused by it. For example, they wasted lots of artillery shells and not killing hardly any of the enemy as they were in deep dugouts. In addition, it just made it harder for the troops to get past the barbed wire as it just made it get more tangled up. Gas and tanks were not used effectively at first and when they finally were, the gaps that they left in the front line were not covered by other troops and hence another tactical failure.
Haig also wasted many men, which if he had not wasted so frivolously, could have attacked all at once taking the enemy trenches easily. Haig still sent the men out even if he knew that the barbed wire was tangled and therefore they would have no chance. However, it cannot be said that Haig tried to make the stalemate go on for longer or did not try to breakthrough as he did use some very good ideas like mining and he did make the final breakthrough in 1918. None of the Generals learnt that the weapons have changed and hand-to-hand combat was outdated. They were sending men over with bayonets, which had no firepower, which left them to be slaughtered by the defending army.
Haig also thought that cavalry would make the breakthrough so he sent a great deal of horses over but they were rarely used. In addition, in the Somme, Haig sent men over walking telling them that the entire enemy’s army at that area is dead so they walked over with heavy backpacks to capture and repair the trenches. If he sent some machine gun men over quickly, he would not have lost so many men because at least his army would have known the trenches were still occupied. Haig could be heavily criticised for the Somme as he kept sending men over the top to die. He said the machine gun was a much over rated weapon yet it was used to gun down thousands of his men. He refused to change his tactics even when day after day men kept going over the top to be killed. He did not make sure that all the preparations had worked before commencing the attack. Most of his attacks were like the Somme, which means the kept on losing battles and not gaining much land. However, Haig might not be to blame. The problem could well have escalated by a lack of communication, which would have meant that Haig was not made aware of the devastating losses in the battlefield. However, it can ultimately be put down to the fact that Haig was determined to stick by his tactics and be patient rather than assess their success.
Soldiers in the First World War did not spend the whole of the time in the trenches. The British Army worked on a 16-day timetable. Each soldier usually spent eight days in the front line and four days in the reserve trench. Another four days were spent in a rest camp that was built a few miles away from the fighting. However, when the army was short of men, soldiers had to spend far longer periods at the front. It was not uncommon for soldiers to be in the front line trenches for over thirty days at a time. On one occasion, the 13th Yorkshire and Lancashire Regiment spent fifty-one consecutive days in the line.
Being in the front-line was extremely dangerous. Almost every day some enemy shells would fall on the trenches. One study suggested that one-third of all casualties on the Western Front were killed or wounded while in the trenches.
Soldiers in the front line would also be hit by their own artillery. It has been estimated that British shells that had been intended for the Germans killed about 75,000 British soldiers in the war. The conditions in the trenches were atrocious, and many soldiers died from the terrible conditions in the trenches and lack of food and clean water.
The Germans pioneered two new tactical weapons in the war, the machine gun and gas, (chlorine, phosgene and mustard). The British only considered the former after suffering heavy losses at the hands of the German guns, and the latter were curtailed by the use of gas masks. Thus, once both sides had obtained machine guns, neither weapon helped gain a significant advantage, and soldiers were pinned in their trenches until the gun’s effectiveness could be reduced.
Aeroplanes were also developed during the war. Neither side had many, and due to the unsafe nature of primitive planes, they were first used for reconnaissance, and effective information could help plan offensives and locate enemy artillery. As their numbers increased, so did “dogfights” in the air. After pistols and machine guns were found to be useless, the Germans perfected synchronised firing of bullets between the propellers. This greatly increased effectiveness, as did the new bombing methods developed. First, Zeppelin airships filled with hydrogen made raids on Britain, but the effective defences of searchlights, guns and cable aprons called for the Gotha IV to be developed in 1917. The Germans dropped bomb loads of 500kg on London, killing many civilians. In 1918, Britain retaliated with the Hanley Page Type 0/100, and killed many Germans too.
First introduced in 1916, tanks could cross trenches, break through barbed wire, go over shell-pitted ground and deal with machine guns. Infantrymen were aided in destroying their increasingly difficult targets, and the sight of a tank certainly boosted morale and reassured powerless troops. The Mark I was superseded by the increasingly armoured Mark IV, but neither could beat the new German armour-piercing bullets. Apart from this problem, tanks were very hot inside, causing men to become delirious, and notoriously difficult to control.
The First World War was also the first of its kind in that it was an Industrial war and relied heavily on constant supplies of weaponry and artillery from back home. This proved difficult as the men of the nation had gone to fight in the war and very few were left to work in the factories. However, the women of Britain stepped up to the challenge and began to go out and work in the factories and kept the running of the country going. This eventually strengthened the argument of the suffragettes, who had campaigned vigorously for votes for women and after the role of women during the First World War, eventually got the right to do so. There was also a good supply of troops coming in to replace the new, many of which were patriotic young British boys, of which some that even lied about their age to go to fight for their country. This belief in patriotism and national pride was important and it gave the soldiers a willing to go on. There were also many colonial troops that came from far afield to fight for the allies. The First World War also saw a huge advance in medicine and the treatment of the wounded. Soldiers that may previously have been to hurt to continue could now be patched up and given the opportunity to carry on fighting. This meant the battles could go on for longer than until that time was achievable.
Britain and France’s chances of success were dramatically enhanced the impending fact that the United States of America had now officially joined the war. They weren´t that keen to join as President Wilson was a crusader for peace and freedom but after a number of U-boat attacks on neutral shipping he justified Americas entry into the war in a speech to Congress. The speech was greeted by with prolonged applause and many young Americans flocked to join the forces and English, French and American flags bedecked the streets of America’s cities.
By March 1918 31,000 semi-trained American troops had reached France safely, no transport ships having been torpedoed despite the fear of their occupants. When the troops reached the allied front they had to undergo more training before being dispatched to the front line. Once the Americans had been trained enough they were attached to various allied units despite the fact that President Wilson didn’t want his troops to go into battle until they were ready to form their own independent divisions. However Wilson was persuaded by his British Ambassador to let the men fight for whatever division they were in. Wilson allowed this as a temporary measure.
The Americans were invaluable on the Western Front, especially when the German reinforcements arrived, but even before they came, there were more battles on the front. General Nivelle of the French army launched several attacks during the April of 1917. The Germans expected these and so they retreated and prepared themselves. The centre of the attacks was at Arras, and although there were some successes, especially with the Canadians at Vimy Ridge, the attack was a failure overall, and so the Germans gained confidence. Later this was to prove instrumental in their downfall. At Passchendale in 1917, there had been huge losses, brought about by appalling conditions, and very little progress was made, as was the case everywhere. In November, there was a small British victory at Cambrai, brought about by the introduction of tanks, but, as with all the battles of 1917, the Germans had managed to retake most of their land lost in battle and when they had retreated, which was primarily all along the Hindenburg Line. Despite the fact that the new generals “of the very best will, but without sufficient knowledge” made Germany less effective, they were encouraged, and realised that if they were to have any chance of winning the war at all, they would have to act fast, before the Americans arrived. It was this hastiness, which made them lose.
Consequently, a plan was devised by General Ludendorff, named Operation Michael, and it was implemented on 21st March 1918. German troops had to drive through the weakest Allied lines, avoiding strong points, and an artillery bombardment and clouds of mustard gas signalled this. At first, the British scattered in a disorganised fashion, retreating at a very rapid pace, and the Germans managed to cross the Somme, and advance to the banks of the Marne. Once again, Paris was under threat. However, the tables turned, and the Germans realised that they had advanced too quickly for the supplies to keep up “stretched themselves”, and they were now cut off from them, “no reserves to call on”. The Allies joined with fresh American troops and began to push the Germans back. It was truly “The black day of the German army”, and Germany was almost defeated. Ludendorff even thought so, as he told the Kaiser that “We have nearly reached the limit of our powers of resistance. The war must be ended”. This on its own could have lost Germany the war, but it was also what this caused which lost it for them.
The German people were very unhappy indeed and the cumulative effect of the British blockade started to take affect, not only physically but it was also crushing, morale wise. They had never managed to stop the British sinking their supply ships, and so they were short of food. There were riots and mutinies in Berlin, and the people wanted a revolution. They were weary of the fighting and had lost many of their friends and relatives. Outbreaks of influenza killed many thousands of people as it swept the country. The navy mutinied, there were uprisings everywhere, and Munich and Berlin eventually fell to revolutionaries. The people were starving; lacked essential supplies, and all efforts on which they pinned every last hope had failed. Earlier victories had raised morale, but this was to be dashed in Ludendorff’s hastiness.
In October, the failure of the army, and the civilian situation in Germany caused the German Chancellor, Prince Max of Baden, to appeal to the USA. Weakened further by the collapse of their allies, Bulgaria, Turkey and Austria, spirit was broken, and he asked the Americans to put an end to the fighting. Desperately trying to restore order, the Kaiser abdicated, and then on the 11th November in a railway carriage in the French forest of CompiÀgne, the Germans finally agreed to Allied propositions for an armistice.
