Why did stalemate develop on the Western Front?

Samantha Bennett

Modern World History Coursework

Assignment 1

b) Why did stalemate develop on the Western Front?

The Schlieffen plan did not, it failed to work for various reasons, some of these being The Russian offensive, German advance east of Paris, the German exhaustion, Joffres leadership, British involvement, Belgium resistance.

In August Germany invaded Belgium and Britain stood by its guarantee of Belgium’s neutrality and declared war on Germany, within a week, 120,000 troops of the British Expeditionary Force had been secretly shipped to France, this held the Germans up briefly and the British the retreated to France to help the French. The Germans marched in to France but they were forced, because of their lack of soldiers, to sweep east of Paris and they failed to encircle Paris. The French armies retreating from the German forces were reinforced by they French troops who had failed to take Alsace-Lorraine under Plan XVII

The Belgium army resisted the German invasion and managed to hold up the German advance particularly in fortresses such as liege, despite this though Belgium’s capital city fell on 20th August. Russia also mobilised quicker then Germany had expected and it invaded Germany on the 17th August, this forced the German commander to transfer troops from Belgium to the east to fight Russia. The German casualty figures were so high they were never published.

The General Joffre inspired the French armies to resist Germany and he rushed reserve troops to the front from Paris using any means possible. ...

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The Belgium army resisted the German invasion and managed to hold up the German advance particularly in fortresses such as liege, despite this though Belgium’s capital city fell on 20th August. Russia also mobilised quicker then Germany had expected and it invaded Germany on the 17th August, this forced the German commander to transfer troops from Belgium to the east to fight Russia. The German casualty figures were so high they were never published.

The General Joffre inspired the French armies to resist Germany and he rushed reserve troops to the front from Paris using any means possible. The battle of Marne exhausted Germans and threw then back from the Marne River and began to dig trenches to defend then selves.

The Germans had failed to capture Paris and they had been stopped at the Battle of Marne. Both sides now rushed troops north to capture the channel ports in the ‘race to the sea’ the germans wanted to capture the ports as they felt they would be good U-boat bases. The Germans took Ostend and then captured Antwerp, despite the reinforcements of British marines. Ypres in Belgium was the recaptured by from the Germans and the other channel ports were al safely in allied hands. The race for the sea was over, Both sides ‘dug in’ for the winter in a line of trenches 470 kms long stretching from the north sea to the French-Swiss border.

From the late 1914 to early 1918 there was a large stalemate on the Western front as the Germans and the allies were evenly matched, Commanders on both sides were committed to a war of attrition and each side was failing to cut through the enemies barbed wire and both warned the offending side of a impending attack there were waves of attacking infantry being mown down by the defending machine gunners but neither sides artillery or infantry could breach the enemies front line to let the Calvary through. Even the development of new tanks, gas and aircrafts could not break the stalemate and despite heavy losses neither side gained much ground. The governments were using means of propaganda as a way to build morale throughout the troops, conditions were terrible and soldiers discipline was extremely harsh as deserters could be shot.

The only way it seemed that stalemate could be broken was if the Schlieffen plan had succeed, one of the German offences broke through the front line or if one or both sides were prepared to make peace.