Attack by sea was also encouraged, U-boats were made to destroy boats taking food and suplies to britain, but most of these boats turned out to be highly armed attack ships in disguise ready to destroy the U-boats. U-boats that did manage to siege successfully were in effect unsuccessful because of the rationing and recycling efforts made by the British and their allies.
Gas was a vicious discovery to the new technology; poison gas, chlorine gas and mustard gas were used to disable opposition, although, gas was only used effectively if weather conditions were right (winds affected the way the gas blew) and gas was then countered by the invention of the gas mask. Attack by air became popular, yet as new as the technology was, it was not advanced enough to be successful and was countered by air-raid precautions so the stalemate once again continued.
In April 1917 The United States entered the war because of a telegram that was intercepted by british intelligance and was called the zimmerman telegram and had been sent from germany to mexico basically telling the to take back the land that the americans had won from them in previous years which angered the americans into joining the war.
The United States entry into the war brought millions of fresh, new, eager men and plentiful supplies. These supplies were all helpful and the supplies included new weapons not seen before. This abundance of new weaponry gave Britain and the allies an edge over the Germans and their allies. The allied troops also found a new inspiration to fight because of the United States entry and so an intense morale boost swept through the troops. The americans also brought with them more medicine supplies which the allies so badly needed.
The German offensive in March 1917 was the German armies final attempt to overthrow the allies and at first the German troops seemed to have the advantage. They drove the allied troops back and Paris began to be put under threat. This manoeuvre however, resulted in tragedy for the German armies, there was a massive loss of manpower, over one million troops were put out of action by either being killed or wounded. The surviving troops suffered from incredibly low morale, severe exhaustion and depression and weapons and munitions availability declined enormously. The German army was crumbling.
The blockading of the German ports resulted in mass starvation and poverty due to the prevention of imports of essential foodstuffs and medicines. These shortages and terrible living conditions resulted in strikes and these strikes interrupted the war production, which in turn, halted the production of new technology. These strikes continued until the revolution in 1918 and this revolution was the final straw to the Germans impending submission and so the blockades helped immensely. However, this factor was maybe not as important as the United State's entry due to the fact that if we had not blockaded the ports and America had entered we still would have won due to the United State's immense manpower, yet, if America had not entered but we had blockaded the ports we most likely would not have won.
Due to America's entry the allied troops were fresh, determined, had high morale and had a complete advantage over the weak, exhausted German troops who were struggling to strategise and were severely disheartened over the apparent failure of their offensive.
These four factors were not the only reasons why the stalemate was broken, as these factors alone did not break the stalemate. The German allies were surrendering all around them until they virtually stood alone, isolated, weak and helpless. The Germans were frail and so Foch lead a combined-strategy with the allies under his command. In August 1918 Foch and his allied troops went over the top and knocked out the german front-line.
The strategy devised by Foch blew away the German's; due to the allies' united, combined attack and so the stalemate was eventually broken. The obvious defeat of the German's and the revolution in Germany eventually led to a ceasefire on the 11th of November 1918. The German's had surrendered, the stalemate was broken, and the allies had won
So, as it has been explained, the four factors said originally were not equally important, there were other major factors to consider and so those reasons were not sufficient by themselves to break the stalemate on the Western Front. The United State's entry into the war and Foch's clever strategically planned counter-attack were the reason's why the stalemate on the Western Front eventually broke and so the statement suggested previously cannot possibly be agreed with.
Ricky-Lee-Tony-Grant 9057 September 2003
