On the 23rd August the battle of Mons took place, the British Expeditionary Force slowed the Germans down further. The German army continued its advance, but the plan changed again. Instead of sweeping West of Paris to take control of the ports, they went East to try to make up time and because they lacked soldiers. France had now received word of the Germans advancing into Paris, so the French armies that had failed to take Alsace Lorraine joined the retreating French armies in the North. Joffre the French leader inspired French Armies, he ordered that if a French unit could no longer advance at all costs they must retain the ground it had gained and rather than retreat, be killed.
The German army continued to advance on Paris but at the battle of Marne the British and French armies managed to push the Germans back to the river Aisne where they began to dig trenches to defend themselves. Advancing allies hesitated and stopped. One man and a machine gun protected by mounds of earth was a very powerful weapon.
The Schlieffen Plan had failed. By October the Germans had failed to capture Paris and had been stopped at the battle of Marne. Both sides now rushed troops to the North to capture the channel ports in the 'race for the sea'. On October 8th the Germans took Ostend and on 15th October they captured Antwerp. On October 18th Ypres in Belgium was recaptured from the Germans and the other channel ports were safe in allied hands. The race for the sea was over and both sides were 'dug in' for the winter in a line of trenches stretching from the North Sea to the French Swiss borders.
The stalemate also developed because of Trench warfare. During the winter of 1914 both sides dug trenches and waited for the weather to improve before launching their new attacks in the spring. This was not what was expected, as trenches were very difficult to capture since a trench system consisted of at least three lines of trench. Each trench was protected by barbed wire up to 30 metres deep. Trenches were usually 'zig zagged' so if the enemy captured one, they could not fire down the length. Also the shape restricted the impact of explosions in the trenches themselves. Both generals believed in a war of attrition, which is the wearing down of the enemy regardless of casualty figures, until moral collapses. The war of attrition started with the barrage of the enemy's trenches followed by an infantry attack. The accuracy of the artillery fire during the bombardment was critical. The 'creeping barrage' system had been developed in which infantry advanced immediately after its artillery shelling their own soldier by mistake. An example of a war of attrition is Verdun. Where the Germans drew the French to its defence and then destroy them in such numbers that the French would lose the will to fight, but French morale held on. The battle of Verdun represented the strategy of the First World War generals at its most bloody and desperate. Generals were far from the front: they followed rigid plans that allowed no freedom to officers at the front. Simple effective ideas were ignored, for example, trick the Germans by stopping a barrage early before dawn, wait till they fill the trenches and then start again. Also running tactics by the French were dismissed like, dodging shells, running through 'No-Man's Land' after a barrage. This was not needed because German positions would be destroyed.
The battle of Somme was another example of war of attrition in which Haig led a major attack on the German lines. The French were only just hanging on at Verdun and Haig planned to relieve the pressure on the French. The German trenches were bombarded a week before the attack. However the Germans had prepared dug outs, so all the bombardment did was warn the Germans a major attack was on its way. The battle lasted for five months and loses on both sides were tremendous and at the end of the battle the allies had only gained a few miles of territory. The war of attrition contributed to the stalemate because no breakthrough could be made with the normal offensive methods.
Another reason why the stalemate continued to develope was the lack of technology. Technology was not advanced enough to lead to a breakthrough; tanks, gas and aircraft were not effective enough. As the war dragged on new weapons were developed on both sides; the most unpleasant was gas. The wind blew lethal gases over the British trenches. This had no real impact. At first it was a nasty surprise but quickly developed counter measures. Cloth soaked in urine, and lighting fires along the trenches and gas masks prevented the gases from causing serious damage. Aircraft would have been useful as a weapon of attack, although they were useful as spotters. The spotters informed how successful the artillery fire had been. But communication was slow dropping messages from the sky. The aircraft was also useful for reconnaissance, which discovered enemy movements. Also the tank was used, Winston Churchill promoted the idea of using armoured machines driven on caterpillar tracks. These vehicles were labelled water tanks to fool Germans spying. They were first used at the battle of Somme. The Germans were initially very shocked at the slow crawling monster, but the initial advantage was lost because too few were used in this attack. The early disadvantages were the crews were poorly trained, they were noisy and gave off suffocating fumes. Also they were extremely hot and only moved at 4 mph, and finally the tanks were an easy target for shellfire.
The last reason for the stalemate developing was the morale of each army was high. Good morale lead to the belief of their country cause. The civilians at home were equally as important, many young men were volunteering under the age of 18, as they saw it as an adventure. Both armies kept fighting for a better future, belief that the war couldn’t last much longer, a sense of duty and humour introduced to make the suffering bearable. British regiments produced field newspapers that contained jokes; cartoons, stories and the trenches were given humorous names.
The stalemate lasted for so long because it was much easier to defend the trenches than attack them, for the following reasons. The weapons were much better for defending than attacking, 'No-Man's Land' was often deep in mud and covered with barbed wire making it difficult for men and horses to charge quickly. Both sides had large reinforcements of men and guns, which could easily be brought up to, support trenches under attack. In addition the generals were not used to fighting this type of warfare. They could not think of any tactics other than to keep sending men across 'No-Man's Land'. Also before an attack the enemy trenches were always bombarded with heavy artillery. However this simply warned the enemy that an attack was coming and took away the element of surprise.
