Britain’s resistance at Mons was unexpected, as was the quick mobilisation of Russian forces; to which the Germans diverted troops from the west to the east to deal with this threat. This halted the Schlieffen plan and weakened the German power on the Western Front respectively. France did not get Alsace-Lorraine and, because of their assumptions, they nearly lost Paris. Russia was heavily defeated, but at the time, did not pull out of the war.
No one side had the outright ability to win but all sides wanted to fight. France and Belgium wanted Germany out of their territory and Germany wanted to spread her influence over Europe. Russia had signed a treaty with France and had to uphold it and Britain did not want a German dominated Europe under any circumstances. Britain would defend Belgium under the terms of the Treaty of London as well as Belgium being a key exporter to Britaint
In battle, there were also a number of reasons that led to the stalemate. The Generals were not familiar with this new type of warfare, using old tactics which were ineffective and using weapons that they had barely used before. The weapons that were used (such as machine guns, barbed wire) were much better suited for defending a fortification that attacking it. By entrenching themselves, both sides gave themselves the ability to defend but lost the upper hand when attacking. This meant that attacking the German trenches was much harder as you had poor offensive weapons against powerful German defensive weapons. The nature of this type of warfare was not advantageous to the attack side as it gave the offensive side a defensive mentality. When Britain did attack, they faced many problems. As the allies went “up and over”, German snipers were ready to shoot the allies whilst the Germany shells were continually being fired. After troops broke through barbed wire, they had to face the horrors of No-Mans Land. The terrain that troops faced in No Mans Land was very muddy and full of barbed wire, hindering most, if not all, of the infantry and cavalry that traversed it.
The Generals were not familiar with “modern” warfare and used old and basically useless techniques. One of these was to shell the enemy’s trenches before a new wave of soldiers, in an attempt to “soften them up”. However, this was useless as 1 in 3 British shells that were fired were useless, as they did not explode or jammed, and all it did was to make the enemy aware of you upcoming presence and allow them time to prepare an adequate defence. New Rapid Recoil Artillery were advanced in that they did not have to be repositioned after every shot but were slow to move when they were transported. When infantry moved out of their artillery range, they were at threat to enemy artillery. They could either wait for the guns to be moved forward or the men carried on without any cover: either way, the infantry would be vulnerable for a considerable amount of time to enemy artillery and could be killed. Nevertheless, both sides had vast quantities of men and machinery which allowed them to continue the same old processes over and over, culminating in a stalemate.
In theory, when ever a man died, there would be someone to take his place. Men were lasting longer in the field as they had better defences (like barbed wire and helmets) and food supplies were much better, stopping more men dieing of nutritional reasons.
In conclusion, the combined effects of all these reasons stated above led to a stalemate on the Western Front. The failure of all the War Plans, the ability and determination of both sides to continue to the war, the out of date tactics and battle front life all ended in a stalemate situation. The line of trenches, reaching from the Channel to Switzerland, meant any infantry or cavalry could not encircle and annihilate the enemy. The British naval blockade would have been a very good weapon, but it was one that would have taken time to come into force. The failure of the war plans meant that the two sides would just do the same process of tactics over and over again. As neither side had the offensive advantage or would surrender, senior members of military staff on both sides realised that this war would not be finished very quickly.
- The following were equally important reasons why the stalemate on the Western Front was broken:
New Technology
American Entry
War at Sea
German Offensive of 1918
Explain how far you agree with this statement.
World War One went on for much longer than anyone had ever imagined. People joined up because they didn’t want to miss any action, thinking the war would be over by Christmas. Of course, by Christmas 1914, many knew that the war would last much longer than expected, and so the necessary preparations were made. However, by 1916, a stalemate had developed. Neither side had the tactical advantage but no-one wanted to surrender. There were many times during the war that this stalemate could have ended, but for whatever reasons, it didn’t until the very end of the war.
One invention that occurred during the war was the invention of the tank. The tank could carry 3 men inside and moved at 3mph. This was increased to 8 men and they were built with guns that could hold 13,000 bullets and fire up to 208 shells. The tank helped the Allied forces to advance on the Western Front by up to 30km, but this advantage was soon lost again. New artillery was invented which could fire over 13,000 m and high explosive shells were also invented which did more damage. Germany tried to copy the allied idea of the tank but it did not work, but their gun, “Big Bertha”, could fire at Paris from over 120km away. More deadly grenades were used, which often contained deadly gasses (like Phosgene, Mustard or Chlorine) that incapacitated an enemy soldier.
But technology behind the frontline was also revolutionized: transportation was upgraded, allowing more troops to be carried to the frontline in a much quicker time and radios were advancing, allowing for contact over greater distances. All of these advances helped to strengthen the attack, as troops could now attack with more power and in more deadly ways. Heavy shelling of German troops made them retreat to the Hindenburg Line at one stage and tanks allowed for the mobilisation of troops behind enemy lines (in some cases scaring the enemy and making them flee). However, the greatest technological advance was in the navy. Ships had guns that could fire over 10km, the range, accuracy and power of torpedoes was increased and ships could use radio to intercept enemy communications, therefore surprising any German boats and attacking them. Aircraft carriers and planes were becoming increasingly more common for reconnaissance purposed and mines were also an important part of the war at sea; both sides had rows of mines to try and limit the number of supply boats coming into enemy territory.
Britain’s foreseen role in the war was to provide a naval backup to the frontline, having very little else to do with the hand-to-hand combat. During the entirety of the war, Britain blockaded German ports and attacked any merchant ships, attempting to limit food supplies. This was a long term plan but did start to cause problems in 1916: there were many food riots in Germany and she seemed to run out of supplies of shells and nerve agents. Whilst Britain had the feared Dreadnought, Germany had a plentiful supply of U-boats. These were submarines that could do extensive damage and were certainly used effectively in retaliation against the British blockade.
The Battle of Jutland was fought in May 1916 off the east coast of Denmark. The British naval power was divided into two forces of battle cruisers and dreadnoughts and it was clear that the German guns could be fired much more accurately and the British guns had a major design fault and could be destroyed with a direct hit. In the end, Germany lost less ships and men than Britain and it was clear that Germany had won; and in the making showing the full potential of the U-boats. This was the only naval battle in WWI but, before this battle, Germany sank the Lusitania off the coast of Wales in the middle of its U-boat campaign. It had 128 US citizens on it and this angered America, as they were neutral. The Kaiser was furious as he did not want the full force of the richest country in the world against him. Nevertheless, in 1918, Germany restarted the unrestricted U-boat campaign, making it more dangerous to British ships by attacking any vessel that crossed paths with a German ship. Germany knew that the USA would enter the war and took a major gamble, hoping to eliminate Britain from the war. This however did not work as Britain did not pull out of the war.
With help from the Americans, Britain was able to employ the convoy system, enabling safe passage for all its merchant ships. This meant that more British supply ships could dock and enabling the home front to keep going. American naval power also helped to complete the Anglo-American row of mines and her almost limitless number of troops raised the power of the allied attack and boosted morale a lot. The psychological affects of over 100,000 more troops helped to put the fighting spirit back into the allies and scared off many German troops. America also helped to increase the number of German supply ships that were intercepted and the “tightening of the grip” on Germany meant that her home front became rapidly weaker and more protests and revolutions took place.
These revolts were one of the factors that helped Generals Luderndorff and Hindenburg decide on what to do regarding the war. They both knew that their country could not fight the Allies for much longer: they’re homeland was being torn apart by the number of deaths from starvation and her troops were losing morale rapidly (especially after the entry of the US). However, Russia had just pulled out from the Eastern Front and therefore Germany had a plentiful supply of troops. The two Generals decided one last push to try and defeat the British before American troops overpowered the Axis troops.
The 500,000 battle-harden troops that fought on the eastern front were transported over to the western front. The German Spring Offensive of 1918 targeted the area of Cambrai: the allies knew there would be one big push and so they reinforced positions elsewhere but left this area relatively weak (the trench system was incomplete and had little or no reserve troops) and on March 21st 1918, Luderndorff launched the offensive. Over 3000 shells were fired per minute in the first 5 hours and the shelling was followed by an attack of elite storm troopers, who were lightly equipped but highly skilled in quick combat. These soldiers employed the latest weaponry and tactics to overcome any allied defence and they were certainly successful.
By the end of the first day, over 20,000 British troops had been taken hostage and the Germans had advanced over 30 miles. However, this attack could not continue in such magnitude as there were a few major flaws in the plan. As the German infantry advanced, they captured many stores which were full of luxuries that they had been denied of for 4 years and so looting halted the German offensive. Whilst the storm troopers were good soldiers, they were equipped with nothing other than weapons; they moved too far ahead of the supply lines and so got isolated from the main German units. These soldiers were alone and very tired from the almost constant fighting, and so were easily captured. The offensive was a tactical victory but one that could not be upheld, and so led to a failure.
But were any of these reasons more important than the other – was it solely the war at sea that led to an allied win or was it US entry that helped to defeat the Axis powers. The war at sea was certainly key to the breaking the stalemate: the new battleships proved very effective as the U boats did not come out of harbour a lot after the Battle of Jutland and the new weapons that the vessels were equipped with helped to maintain Britain’s dominance over the seas. The sinking of the Lusitania was the long term fuse that led to the entry of America into the war. With their help, Britain was able to complete the defences around the British Isles (disallowing German access to the Atlantic) increase the number of German supply ships. This led to the deaths of over 1 million and made the German generals act. They knew that millions of American troops would enter the war and their country could not sustain the blockade for much longer and so launched the offensive. With new weapons, tactics and troops from the Eastern Front, the offensive was successful as the frontline was re-drawn. This could not be upheld (due to looting of British supplies [slowing the offensive] and being too far ahead of the backup) and so the offensive ground to a halt. Then, in the 100 days after the offensive, the British made some remarkable tactical victories that eventually resulted in the allied victory of the war.
None of these reasons are greater than the others as they are all inter-dependant. Nevertheless, in conclusion, I think that the American entry into the war was the most important factor that broke the stalemate. Without American aid, the blockade on German supplies would not have worked as well as it did and Germany may have been able to hold out for longer or not have broken the stalemate. Nevertheless, America would not have entered without the sinking of the Lusitania or the unrestricted U-boat campaign. If America had not entered, then Germany might not have launched the Spring Offensive and the offensive might not have worked without the use of superior weaponry. Of course, without the American entry, British morale would not have been boosted and the offensive may have entirely obliterated the British Defence and break the front line. The American brought in new equipment, men and supplies that enabled the Allies to push back the Germans to the Hindenburg line. The tanks were improved and weaponry more advanced which allowed the British to take the tactical advantage that they had lacked which brought them into a stalemate. By November 11th, all of Germany’s allies had surrendered, sailors mutinied and crowds marched through the streets of Berlin, demanding an end to the war. The Kaiser had fled and the government collapsed. An emergency government was formed and immediately asked for a ceasefire.
