There was also a battle at Gallipoli. One part of the Allies’ campaign in the Dardanelles was successful. Submarines did get through the minefields of the strait to attack Constantinople harbour. Turkish warships, troopships and merchant vessels were sunk in such numbers that the Turkish war effort was seriously affected. But the main fleet never again attempted to get through. In December, eight months after the landing, it was obvious there wasn’t any chance of success. Tens of thousands of soldiers lay dead around the coasts of Gallipoli. The decision was taken to pull out. The withdrawal was very organised and was a complete success. The campaign was seen as a failure and Churchill was humiliated. Gallipoli wasn’t important to the outcome at all and all it did was cause embarrassment for Churchill.
Fighting took place across a vast area of land on the Eastern Front. There were some trenches, but warfare did not get bogged down in the same way as on the Western Front. At the start of the war, Russia surprised everyone. It quickly mobilized two massive armies and invaded East Prussia in August 1914. The Germans had to take an extra 100,000 troops away from the Western Front to fight them. This helped to ruin the Schlieffen plan. The failure of the Schlieffen plan was important to the outcome of the war. Because if the Schlieffen plan had succeeded the Germans might have won the war. The Russian armies enjoyed some early successes but at the Battle of Tannenberg they suffered a shattering defeat by German forces. The Russian soldiers were badly led, poorly equipped and underfed. Most of them had walked to the front. They were up against well-trained, well-equipped soldiers transported to the battle areas by rail.
As well as battles on land, there were battles at sea.
The sea campaigns of the First World War were unusual in that, although they were crucially important, relatively little fighting took place between warships. The key objective was to gain control of the seas so the enemy would find it difficult getting supplies into their country. The British blockade of the German ports which halted supplies reaching Germany was a vital factor in the Allied victory over Germany. It was just as important as any military victory on land. Both sides knew how important it was to have control over the sea, and the war at sea became a cautious war. The British Commander Admiral Jellicoe said that he ‘could lose the war in an afternoon’ if he made any mistakes. I think this shows the importance of the naval war because if any mistakes were made it could lose the war for Britain. I can conclude from this it was important that Britain didn’t make any mistakes at sea.
The Germans realized that if they were to win the war they would have to concentrate their efforts on the Western Front against the more economically strong France and Britain. Although the Eastern Front occupied over a million German troops, the bulk of the troops and material was sent to the Western Front to try and achieve victory there. The Germans did hold the advantage on the Western Front. After all they were occupiers of much of Belgium and Northern France. They had also generally managed to secure the higher ground being in a position to decide where to withdraw if necessary.
Ultimate victory over Germany would have to come in the fighting on the Western Front. Although several attempts were made to open up other fronts against Germany’s allies between 1915 and 1917 (e.g. using the Italian forces to attack the Austrians; attempting to land troops in Turkey in 1915 to open a route to assist the Russians; attacking Bulgaria through Greece all these proved to be mere ‘ side shows’ compared to the fighting on the western front.
