The First World War, 1916-1918.

II Answer all of the following:

        1.     The course of the war in 1916 and 1917 was very bleak when looking at it from the Entente powers perspective.  Two major battles resulted in a staggering loss of manpower from the British and French Armies.  The first of these two battles was the battle Verdun.  The Battle of Verdun was a ten month long ordeal between the French and German armies. The battle was part of an unsuccessful German campaign to take the offensive on the western front. Both the French and German armies suffered an incredible loss of life and no strategic advantages were gained for either side. The Battle of Verdun is considered to be one of the most brutal events of World War I, and the site itself is remembered as the "battlefield with the highest density of dead per square yard."  As a response to the German threat of invasion, France built a continuous line of sunken forts in the hopes that an invading army would not be able to maneuver through it. The line of fortifications extended from the Swiss frontier to the French city of Verdun, thus making Verdun a vital strong point for the French war effort.  After the attack upon Verdun the war was at a stalemate with both sides suffering heavy loss of life.  

        The same was true with the battle of the Somme.  The battle of the Somme was a collaborative battle with the British and the French orchestrating a planned attack upon the German army in order to regain some territory and to destroy much of the German manpower.  At first Joffre intended for to use mainly French soldiers but the German attack on  in February 1916 turned the Somme offensive into a large-scale British diversionary attack. General  now took over responsibility for the operation and with the help of General Sir  he, came up with his own plan for attack. Haig's strategy was for an eight-day  that he believed would completely destroy the German forward defenses.  

        The battle ended with the British suffering 420,000 casualties and the French suffering 200,000 casualties.  The German dead reached around 500,000 and the allied powers only gained about 20 kilometers of land.  This resulted in yet more of a stalemate

        The course of the war began to sway towards the side of the Axis powers during 1917.  One important allied victory helped to change the tide of the war for the Axis powers.  This victory occurred at Caporetto.  This battle is known as one of the most glorious battles fought in the war.  During this battle the German and Austria-Hungry armies forged together to push through the Italian lines along the northern Isonzo.  This maneuver caught the Italian armies by surprise and it gave a great advantage to the German war machine.

        2.    Each country suffered many different struggles on the home front during the First World War.    In 1914 at the outbreak of the First World War there were nearly 5,900,000 women working in Britain, out of a total female population of 23,700,000. The most common job was Domestic Service. About 1,500,000 women worked as Domestic Servants. About 900,000 women also worked in Textiles and another 500,000 in the Sweated Trades. Women were normally paid two-thirds of a man’s wage, or even less, and were rarely promoted above men.  In 1916 the need for women workers became even greater after the passing of the Military Service Acts. These introduced conscription into Britain for the first time. The government finally realised the importance of the contribution that women could make to the war effort and they began to take up a whole host of occupations.

        Germany perhaps suffered the greatest problem of them all.  Germany itself was being starved of food and all goods as a result of the British Navy's blockade of her ports in the north. With such a small coastline, the British Navy found it a relatively easy task to blockade her. German troops were poorly equipped and what food there was went to the war effort leaving the people of Germany very short of food. The Food shortages in Germany itself pushed many civilians to the brink of starvation. Farmers were short of laborers to bring in the harvest because the young men had been drafted into the military. By the winter of 1917, the supply of potatoes had run out and the only real alternative was turnips. This is why the winter of 1916 to 1917 is known as the "Turnip Winter". Turnips were used as food for animals on the farm and the thought of eating them disgusted many, as they were the food of cows. Lack of food had seriously weakened the ability of people to fight off disease. Flu had a terrible impact on Germans as the people had little bodily strength to fight the illness. It is thought that nearly 750,000 died of a combination of flu and starvation

3.     The entry of the United States into World War I during the previous year had made the arrival of U.S. Troops certain.  The withdraw of Russia during the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk and the Italian defeat at Caporetto made it easier for the German troops to transfer to the West.  This made it easy for the German troops to travel west to confront the newly arriving American troops that deployed in France.

Upon the German entrance into France, the German began to fight with much more zeal than ever before.  They figured out ways to storm the trenches and were making excellent progress during their march in Paris in March of 1918.  The success led to the appointment of the Allied Commander Ferdinand Foch.  Foch controlled all of the Allied forces in France then eventually all of the forces throughout Europe.  This was a major factor to the Allied victory.  After the appointment of Foch as the Supreme General of the Allied forces, the tide of the war began to turn.  Soon after the appointment of Foch the American Expeditionary Forces arrived in Paris.  The AEF was led under General John Pershing and he brought with him a significant number of troops. Including the United States Marine Corps that helped to dispose of most of the German threat in Paris.

It wasn’t till July that the American and French forces went on the offensive and the tide of the war had officially changed. By November of 1918 the German and Austria Hungary armies had surrendered and the armistice signed.

III.    The First World War has been labeled as one of the most devastating in history.   It also is labeled as the first industrial war history.  It was the first industrial war, with endless technological advances, mass production and the general mobilization of all human, economic and mechanical resources.  Many new developments came for this war, which would always change the methods of fighting wars.  One of these industrial changes came with the growing popularity in the use of the Tank.  At the beginning of the war the tank was used very scarcely but the further on the war lasted, the more the tank was used.  Due to this the tank became manufactured by all of the major players in the war.  

The British and the Germans kept up with this section of the industrial revolution more than any other country.  They developed the tank in vast quantities.  This became good for both countries because it took more steel to be manufactured and it took workers to manufacture the tanks.  The only failure to this plan was for the Germans.  German men who could work in the factories became few and far between due to the fact that they were all fighting in the war.  This made it difficult to manufacture goods at the same rate as some of the other countries.