Beginning Of The War:
- Royal Flying Corps only had 63 aircraft in France in 1912.
- At the start of the war pistols were used by the pilots and co pilots!
End Of The War:
- In 1918 the RFC had 22,000 aircraft around the world.
- The speed, range and weaponry of aircraft improved considerably during the war. Top speeds had doubled since 1914 and the interrupter gear allowed machine guns to be fired through the propeller. Long distance bombers such as Britain’s Handley Page and Germany’s Gotha were developed.
- Their role was largely restricted to a supporting role (e.g. strategic bombing behind enemy lines and reconnaissance).
Artillery had also greatly improved by 1918. Below is a list showing some of the weaknesses of using artillery and of the improvements made to artillery by 1918:
Beginning Of The War:
- Inaccurate
- Poor communication and inaccurate range finding means barrage become ‘disconnected’ from advancing infantry.
- Artillery moves according to a prearrangement programme.
- Shell Shortage
End Of The War:
- Quantity and quality of shells improved. The German gun, the ‘Big Bertha’ had a range of 120km.
- Improvements in the accuracy of artillery enabled armies to adopt a ‘creeping barrage’.
- Improvements in communications between artillery and infantry (radio) means artillery better able to support artillery.
- Generals learn to use artillery more effectively. At Somme it was spread too thinly, later it was concentrated on specific targets.
- However, artillery was heavy and difficult to move. This slowed down the speed of advance and allowed the enemy to bring up reserves to slow down the advance.
A German advance in technology was the U-boats. They were used to try and starve Britain into surrender. There were developed to blockade British ports and destroy cargo and transport ships. Their main role in breaking the stalemate was the fact that they were one of the main reasons that the Americans joined the war. The Germans nearly succeeded in starving Britain, but they blew a boat called the Lusitania in May 1915. 124 Americans were aboard the ship, all were killed. The Germans stopped the attack on the boats for a while after this, but started once again in 1917 in another attempt to starve Britain. They sunk 9 U.S ships. Initially the U.S was happy to stay out of the war and sell weapons to both sides. The U-boat attacks made them less eager to stay away. The final straw for them was the fact that on the 1st of march, Britain released a document that was intercepted, travelling between the German foreign minister Zimmerman and the German Embassy in Mexico. It offers an alliance with Mexico promising them parts of Texas if they were to declare war on America. On the 6th of April 1917 the U.S joined the war. This boosted morale amongst the allies after several major setbacks as it provided fresh troops and supplies. The initial impact of America joining the war is not that great, as their standing army was quite small, their troops needed training and it took time to get them to the western front. The Germans became agitated at the entry of America into the war, and they started their final push before the bulk of the American troops arrived. The spring offensive started off going Germany’s way, but the development of tanks, planes, and the addition of American troops helped the allies fight back. As the battle went on, more and more American troops turned up at the western front and they were eventually able to stop the Germans. Now the German troops were all diverted to fighting for the spring offensive, this meant the Royal Navy could get its ships out and attempt to blockade the German ports. The volume of U-boat attacks increased, so the blockades were stepped up and mines were laid around the German ports. Not only was this starving the German population and causing unrest, it also meant that the German troops did not have ready access to supplies.
The breakthrough of 1918 was partly down to an improvement in tactics and increased mobility. Generals learnt how to improve battle plans through bitter experience.
Armies ability to take the offensive were improved due to the development of tanks, lighter machine guns and mobile mortars such as the stokes mortar. This is why the Germans pioneered storm trooper tactics which involved using small, mobile heavily armed groups of soldiers to attack weak points in the enemy line.
Conclusion
New Technology such as the tank, artillery, machine guns, mortars and the introduction of gas all contributed to the breaking of the stalemate, but there were still limitations to this technology; aircraft and tanks were still in their infancy and artillery was still largely immobile. Fully mechanised warfare would not arrive until the Second World War when the ‘Blitzkrieg’ saw rapid offensive operations. However technology was not the only factor which caused the stalemate to break. Improvements in battle tactics, communications and the American entry into the war were all just as important because many of the factors relied on each other in order to help break the stalemate. (e.g. because American troops helped the allies fight back this diverted the Germans into fighting for the spring offensive, which in turn allowed the Royal Navy to blockade German ports).