Important reasons why the stalemate on the Western Front was finally broken.

History Coursework

World War One

Question (C): The following were equally important reasons why the stalemate on the Western Front was finally broken:

New technology like the tank
The American entry into the war
The blockading of German ports
The German offensive in March 1918

Explain how far you agree with this statement.

Many attempts were made to break the stalemate on the western front by both the allies and Germany. In the summer of 1916 the British attack on Somme started. On the first day there were 57,000 British casualties. The fighting stopped in November 1916 with a loss of 1.25 million men. Many other battles were tried such as the battle of Ypres in 1915 and the battle of Passchendale in 1917. With advances in technology both sides thought they could break the stalemate. In fact all the new technology did was continue the stalemate. This was due to both sides creating new technologies that were similar. Artillery was a very important weapon in the First World War and during it became very highly developed by both sides. Gas attacks were used for the first time by Germany, which was counter acted by the British issuing gas masks to every soldier. Airplanes were first used in the war not as bombers but as spy and reconnaissance planes and this did not help either side as it helped both sides to gain an advantage if the other was planning an attack. So neither side gained any advantage with the use of airplanes. Tanks were used for the first time in the battle of the Somme in September 1916. They weren’t very useful but were there as a morale builder for the troops. In fact all the new technology did, on its own, was extend the stalemate as both sides fought each other with the same newer and better weapons.

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Britain throughout the war had a naval blockade of Germany, stopping all supplies to Germany. Germany tried to do the same using U-boats. The only naval battle in the war was at Jutland in 1916. Neither clearly won but both suffered damages. The battle of Jutland was a failure for Germany, as it did not eliminate the blockade of Germany by the British navy. Germany’s navy stayed in port for the remainder of the war. Germany’s U-boat campaign and Britain’s blockade of Germany both had a similar objective of starving each other out of the war. Britain’s blockade starved Germany of valuable war supplies, which crippled Germany’s strength. The German U-boat campaign focused on merchant shipping to Britain. At the start of the war the German crews followed the practice of warning the crew of the ship about to be attacked that their ship was about to be sunk but in 1915 the Germans began unrestricted submarine warfare. This meant that allied shipping could now be attacked without warning. The consequence of was that the passenger ship Lusitania was attacked and sunk leading to the loss of 1200 lives, including 128 Americans.

The Russian campaign in the war was important on the Eastern Front for many reasons. It caused the German army to be split, which had to fight on two fronts, which weakened the German army fighting the British and French forces on the Western front. However In 1917 the Russian revolution took place. The new Russian government asked for peace with Germany, which would have meant that Germany, could focus it’s entire strength on the Western Front. Also in 1917 the Americans finally joined the war on the side of the allies. The American involvement was the result of a number of issues. Firstly, Germany’s unrestricted submarine warfare led to numerous ships being sunk leading to the loss of American lives. The Lusitania sinking was the prime one in which 128 Americans had died. The second reason for the American involvement was the “Zimmerman telegram”. Zimmerman was the German Foreign Minister, who sent a telegram to Mexico but Britain intercepted it. The telegram asked Mexico to attack USA and said that Germany would help with the supplies. Britain passed this news to the Americans, which finally led to the Americans declaring war on Germany on 6th April 1917. This was a major new advantage for the allies but it did not worry the Germans unduly as they believed that they could get their troops from the Eastern Front to the Western Front and hence attack in full strength before the Americans could get it’s army across to Europe.

When finally in the Spring of 1918 the Russians pulled out of the war, the Germans the moved their whole focus to the Western front, which led to General Ludendorff to launch his attack. Germany’s plan was to hit hard and fast to make land gains by the use of troops who were highly trained in these ‘shock’ tactics. The attacks had to be undertaken quickly before USA could send it’s whole army even though they were getting across 50,000 troops per month. Initial attacks were extremely successful such that on the first day alone 8 km of land was overtaken but the troops soon became exhausted and also ran out of supplies because of their rapid movement. In July supported by the fresh American forces, the allies struck back, led by the French commander Marshall Foch. The exhausted German troops, suddenly came up against fresh American troops supported by a greater number of American tanks, gave up. From here the Allies pushed the Germans back to the Hindenburg line, which was Germany’s line of strong defence. The Allies continued their push and finally on 9th November 1918 Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, who was facing a revolution, abdicated. On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of in 1918 the German government signed an armistice to end the war.

It is now clear that the stalemate was not broken by one particular event or action like the new technology but a whole series of events leading to the German government asking for an armistice. At the start of November 1918 things had gone from bad to worse for Germany because Britain’s blockage of Germany was working, as thousands of German civilians were now close to starvation. Even though the Army had launched the offensive in Spring 1918, following the end of war on the Eastern front, expecting big successes they certainly did not realise that the allies now would be hitting them back with fresh American troops and new tanks to help the Allies. By October 1918 things were so bad for Germany that the German Navy mutinied. Daily there were heavy losses on the Western Front and with defeat almost certain the German people wanted a stop to the war. This nearly led to a revolution in Germany and the Kaiser was forced to abdicate and two days later Germany had no choice but to call for an armistice. All the German plans and attacks had failed at about the same time, which finally led to the German people, who were starving due to the British blockade, to call for an end to war. All this led to the German request for an armistice, finally ending the First World War.