Why did a stalemate develop on the Western Front?

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GCSE History Coursework

Assignment 1: The First World War

Question b) Why did a stalemate develop on the Western Front?

In my opinion there are two main points to consider when attempting to understand why a stalemate developed on the Western Front. These are

) Defence was more effective than attack and

2) Incompetent generals adopted misguided tactics.

The war coincided with the peak of European industrialisation. The war, when it came, would be a product of that same industrialisation process. Heavy industry would produce mechanical weapons on a huge scale. Never before had factories been turned over to war in this way. The weapons that these factories were churning out proved to be far more effective in defence than in attack.

Historians have often said that a soldier on the Western Front's main friend, apart from his comrades, was his shovel and there is certainly evidence to suggest that this was the case. Men dug in along the whole of the Western Front. They built networks of trenches which ran in a web like fashion along the whole line. First line trenches linked by communication trenches to second, third and even fourth lines of trenches. The trenches made it difficult for the attacker to locate and hit the enemy with shells or bullets. Deep dugouts protected the men from enemy artillery bombardment. Simple but effective inventions like barbed wire took on a new meaning in trench warfare. Huge amounts of wire were manufactured to guard the entrance into the trench networks. When offensives were mounted, the wrong type of shell was often used to try and cut through this barbed wire so if the men managed to make it across No Man's Land without getting hit by machine gun fire, then they were not able to make there way through the barbed wire with anything like enough speed. Gaining access across this area, and then to enter the enemy trench, could only be done by attrition, or at least, this was the only tactic that the generals seemed to adopt.

Weapons of mass destruction could be used much more effectively by the defender than the attacker. The artillery, the main weapon, defensively or offensively, of WW1, was not very accurate at the beginning of the war. Poor communications as well as inaccurate range finding meant that the artillery often became disconnected from the advancing infantry. That is, that the artillery often got too far ahead of the infantry and therefore provided them with no cover. At this stage of the war, the artillery fire moved according to a pre-arranged timetable which took no account of changes in circumstances. The artillery was very immobile due to its vast weight. This meant that the artillery could not be moved up with the attack and this very much limited the range of the offensives. It was not just the artillery itself but also the shells that the artillery fired that limited its success. Because the majority of the skilled workers who used to work in the munitions factories were fighting the war, unskilled people had to not only work in the factories but also produce a much larger amount of shells than had been produced before. This led not only to a serious shortage of shells in 1915 but it also meant that up to 50% of the shells produced were duds. On top of all this, artillery fire was very effective against attacks! A very good example of the failure of the artillery as an effective offensive weapon during the early years of the war was the Battle of the Somme in June 1916.
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After a week long artillery bombardment of German trenches, which, it was thought, no living thing could survive, British troops advanced. It was disastrous. 30% of the shells used were duds and the wrong type of shells were used to cut the German barbed wire- shrapnel shells rather than explosive shells were used and these were completely ineffective. There were massive communication problems throughout. The barrage proved to be completely useless in the end as the Germans simply went into their dugouts and stayed there whilst the barrage was going on. The shelling stopped for a full 2 ...

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