How Was The Stalemate Finally Broken?From Christmas 1914 until March 1918 there had been a stalemate on the western front

How Was The Stalemate Finally Broken?

From Christmas 1914 until March 1918 there had been a stalemate on the western front. Both sides had just been sitting in their trenches. The British didn’t do much but the Germans spent the time digging into the ground to create shell proof bunkers. In 1918 the stalemate was broken for four reasons:

New technology i.e. Tanks, gas and aircraft
America joining the war in 1917
The British blockade of Germany
The German Offensive in March 1918

My answer to the question will cover all four of the reasons and explore how important each was.

New Technology

Lots of new technology that had never been used or seen before was used in the war. Some helped a lot whilst others didn’t do much. I will explore the importance and how much each helped.

Tanks

Tanks were invented early in the war by the British but were rejected because they were said to be impractical. However Winston Churchill thought them to be a good idea and financed the project and two years later they were used on the battle of the Somme. The first machines moved very slowly and more than half of them broke down before they even reached the battlefield. Although they were almost invincible for infantry they were susceptible to shell fire. The conditions inside were also incredibly bad. It would be cramped smelly and roasting hot. But when they were used at first they broke through the German defences and terrified the Germans which boosted morale for the British. But by 1918 although the tanks were much more advanced and could move faster than the troops the Germans had developed armour piercing bullets to penetrate the tanks armour. I think that the tanks were fairly important but they only seemed to raise the troop’s morale rather than break the stalemate.

Poison Gas

This is a preview of the whole essay

Poison Gas

The first gas attack was made in April 1915. The Germans released chlorine gas which was blown across the battlefield by the wind to the British trenches. This caused mass panic as the soldiers tried to get away from the gas whilst watching there friends choke and try to breath. After this both sides started using gas against each other. At first it was used to distract the enemy so the infantry could charge the enemy trenches. At first the only way to protect yourself from gas would be to urinate on a rag then breath through that. After this scientists starting making more potent and deadly gas such as Phosgene. Phosgene was more potent than chlorine because that whilst chlorine caused the victim to violently cough and choke, Phosgene caused much less coughing with the result that more of it was inhaled. Although at first the poison gas was feared scientists soon produced very effective gas masks and after May 1915 death from gas was relatively rare. It has been estimated that whilst about 9% of casualties were from gas attacks only 3% of those were fatal. Although the British had 188,706 casualties from gas, only 8,109 of them died. I don’t think that gas helped to break the stalemate as it was never used to its full potential e.g. When the first gas was used panic-stricken French and Algerian troops fled creating a four-mile gap in the Allied line. If the Germans had been prepared for this they could have made a breakthrough into the allied lines. All it ever succeeded in doing was lowering troop morale.

Aircraft

In 1914 the airplanes were very unreliable and extremely dangerous. At the start of the war all they did was observation of the enemy. But as they became more advanced and faster they started being used for reconnaissance of enemy trenches. The photographs they took were sometimes incredibly useful for the opposing side. When a recon aircraft was spotted an enemy plane would be sent up to shoot it down and soon the term “dogfight” had emerged. In earth dogfights the pilots would only be armed with pistols and rifles to use to destroy the enemy craft but as the technology improved the planes became sleeker and faster and were fitted with machine guns that were synchronised so the bullets didn’t destroy the propeller. By the end of the war airplanes could drop bombs and torpedoes. This meant that these planes could perform air raids. I don’t think the aircraft really broke the stalemate and although they helped both sides they did not do much.

American Entry

The USA was officially neutral but was supplying weapons to the allies. The Germans started destroying all ships suspected of supplying Britain. This policy had the submarines destroying lots of American ships some carrying passengers. The USA also discovered that the Germans planned on allying with Mexico and on 1st April 1917 the USA declared war on Germany. But it turned out that the USA needed time to prepare their army then get them over to France so when they finally arrived the war was almost over. I don’t think that the American entry helped much because they only arrived near the very end of the war.

The British Blockade of Germany

From the start of the war both sides were trying to disable the other by cutting of their supplies. The British had been blockading the German ports since 1914 to try and cut off all supplies going into Germany. This resulted in a shortage of ammunition and rations for the soldiers. This also reduced German trade by $5.1 billion. Although this reduced the German trade and made life uncomfortable for the troops and German civilians it didn’t really damage Germany and didn’t help break the stalemate at all.

The German Offensive

By 1918 the German conditions were desperate. The British blockade was starving Germany of raw materials and all of Germany of food. The Germans knew they had to do something to break the stalemate soon. The surrender of Russia gave them a good opportunity. The Germans put into action the “Ludendorff Offensive.” The Germans started shelling and gassing the British. But instead of sending a “wave” of infantry they sent small highly trained “storm troopers” who attacked during a heavy fog along the entire front. It was very effective and the Germans broke through in many places. They could now see Paris and it was also in range of their heavy gunfire.

Although the Ludendorff Offensive had gone very well the German army had now lost over 400,000 men and had no reserves. The troops were also badly disciplined and were badly fed and supplied. But after this the Germans made no further progress as they had run out of resources. The Germans had ended the stalemate but now the allies had the advantage as their troops were well equipped and well fed. They were also supported by tanks, aircraft and improved artillery. By October the Germans were in full retreat and on the 11th of the 11th 1918 a ceasefire came into effect and The Great War had ended. I think that the German Offensive was the main reason for the stalemate being broken and if they hadn’t attacked the war could have gone on for a lot longer. But in doing this they effectively lost the war for themselves.

By the end of the war out of their original 700,000 soldiers, 5,768,000 Germans were dead or seriously injured. This meant that they had lost just over 8 times their original amount of troops.

In my opinion the reason for the stalemate bring broken was the German offensive rather than anything else and although the others contributed to the stalemate being broken. If only one of the four things happened then I think that the German offensive would be the one thing that breaks the stalemate.

Adam Merrison Page