At the outbreak of the WWI many enlisted because it was thought to be a great adventure, something that would change boys to men, rescue men from a humdrum life and be a test of courage. For others it was out of patriotism – as a wave of patriotic enthusiasm swept across the country most soldiers felt they would be fighting for their home and country. The belief around Britain at the time was that it would all be over by Christmas. Others saw the army as an opportunity to travel or to get away from strict parents. Lord Kitchener avoided introducing conscription by inviting men to volunteer with their friends, family and colleagues to form Pals Battalions. He knew that men would be more willing to join up if they could serve with people they already knew. Men also enlisted due to peer pressure. Some had their doubts but if everyone else was going they didn’t want to be left out. For the soldiers already in the British army the decision to go to war was not as difficult. A professional soldier takes an oath, is trained and respects the hierarchy of the Army. Throughout the war the government, as a way to get men to enlist, used women. Women were encouraged to having nothing to do with men who didn’t do their ‘duty’, but instead encourage those who did. White feathers were handed out by women to young men not in uniform. Women were used in campaigns to help persuade men to enlist. One of the major campaigns used to make men enrol was the 1915 poster with a little girl asking her Father “Daddy, what did you do in the Great War?” Trying to make men feel guilty worked and many signed up, as they believed that women would not respect them if they did not fight.
Question 2: Why was there a stalemate during the First World War on the Western front?
The Western Front was ground to a halt by the end of 1914 due to a number of reasons. The main reason for this, however, was the failure of the Shlieffen Plan. This plan was to fight a war on two fronts; first Germany would concentrate forces against France, which would knock it out in six weeks and then move soldiers across onto the Eastern front and fight the Russians, whom they expected to take a long time to mobilise. The Germans marched to invade France, and this could only be done by attacking through neutral Belgium. The Belgians heroically resisted and although they were crushed by the German advance, they slowed them down and the Germans did not reach Paris in 6 weeks.
So now, instead of surrounding Paris, the armies came towards it from the east. As the advance continued, its impetus slowed up and there were now problems with food supplies and ammunition - there were small supplies of both of those items and the troops were also very exhausted for
There was a stalemate on the western front (an area stretching from Belgium all the way down to the Alps) because by 1914 technology and industrialism had overtaken military strategy and tactics, making them obsolete. Machine guns and rapid-fire artillery had made the tactics worthless; tactics and cavalry charges were things of the past by 1914.
The real cause was the trench system but this was made worse by the Generals on both sides using the same old plans and fighting tactics day after day, week after week for years. Even when a new weapon was developed, like the tanks, it wasn’t used quickly enough, or in large enough numbers to make any difference for a long time.
The eastern front was also a major factor in causing a stalemate on the western front. Germany had always been scared of the massive land mass and population of Russia. Germany after its failure in the Shlieffen plan had to move a few millions troops back to the eastern front to fight the mobilizing Russians. This of course meant that the German western front generals had less troops to fight and attack with, (they were meant to have taken France out already) and the fact that if they loss soldiers they would have no reinforcement must have forced the German generals to decide to go onto a defensive stance leading to the Trench warfare system. This mean that the Germans dug themselves in deep and well making it hard for any western advances hence the stalemate situation on the western Front. The Russian communist revolution also had a big impact on creating stalemate on the western front, in 1917 the Russians gave up there war on Germany due to the new leadership under Lenin, this know meant that the Germans after losing some ground in the eastern front were able to bring back German troops to help reinforce the western front causing more stalemate.
First of all, enormous bombardments preceded infantry charges in which literally thousand of men ran, or sometimes even walked, across open ground towards enemy defences, often carrying a heavy pack only with a single shot rifle and grenades. As they reached the enemy, they were held up by the barbed wire, as they tried to find their way through it, they were shot down in their thousands by machine guns. Cannons were invented that could fire ten rounds a minute at a range of about ten miles.
At the Battle of the Somme, The Germans were supposed to make up ground by having strong forces held at high ground. Both Britain and Germany sent in several hundred thousand troops, who were supposed to deliver a devastating bombardment over a wide front. It meant that in the centre of the attack, his cavalry along with assaulting infantry - could drive through the gap free from interference by the enemy fire from the flanks.
