On top of this, the Russians militarised far quicker than expected and managed to begin pumping men into the Eastern Front within a week of the invasion. The prediction was that the Russians would take six weeks to mobilise. This meant that the German Army now had to move two whole army corps to the Eastern Front to fight them.
Not only were there unexpectedly high levels of resistance in Belgium but it was also quite evident in France, especially at the city of Guise. The first army were called in from the extreme right flank and as a result the ‘wheeling’ movement of the German attack was cut shortened by at least thirty miles eastward. General Joffre, the French Commander in Chief at the time, struck another mighty blow on the River Marne as a counter attack pushing the Germans eastward another forty miles to the River Aisne where the Germans began to ‘dig in’. This is where the stalemate really began.
Now that the Schlieffen Plan was seriously failing there was now a ‘Race to the Sea’ and a failure of outflanking manoeuvres. This occurred immediately after the Battle of the Marne and basically represented ‘the last chance’ in the short-term to bring the war to a swift end. The key town of Ypres was of vital strategic importance as it had channel ports. If these were captured by the Germans, Britain would be unable to transport reinforcements and military supplies. It was also the gateway to capturing Calais. The first battle of Ypres between October and November proved that stalemate for the present would be unavoidable.
There were now new technological advances in defence which totally outstripped the technological capabilities of attack. Such as machine guns, barbed wire and reinforced concrete. By about 1916 the first tanks were being invented. Defence was also heavily aided by the use of barrage and observation balloons. The biggest problem for attack was that they were always preceded by a preliminary bombardment. By 1915 poison gas had been invented.
The trench systems were built in depth with reserve and support trenches which made counter attack highly successful. In 1915 counter attack proved successful at Loos and Nerve Chapelle. In 1917 at the battles of Cambrai and Somme tanks were used majorly. At the battle of Cambrai over 400 tanks broke through the German defences.
The German economy was organised extremely effectively in spite of an allied blockade. In Spring 1915 there were military supplies being manufactured all over Germany.
Finally the German defence system was generally very good as the trenches were built on excellent defensive ground which was high. In Autumn 1914 a German General, Falkenhagn committed Germany to a war of attrition. He realised that an effective military railway system must be constructed to allow large-scale lateral movement.