War on two fronts.
The First Battle of Ypres (October-November 1914)
More British troops were lost in this 2 month battle than in the whole three years of the Boer War, (over 10,000 died in the First Battle of Ypres).
The Germans attacked Ypres coming down over the ridges, pushing towards Ypres in three directions. After a short time crude trenches were built that were no more that ditches. The Germans were smashing through the allied defences until the Belgians had the idea to release the flood gates of the river Yser, the rising salt waters forced the invaders to cease their attack. The allied troops retreated and sheltered in Ypres. Germans bombarded the city with heavy attiliery. One million shells hit the city during the Battle and turned everything to rubble. This part of Medieval heritage was unrecognizable from then on.
The Second Battle of Ypres (April-May 1915)
Germanys attempts to capture Ypres and the seaports beyond. This was the first battle where gas was used and it was used by the Germans. The Germans also used flame throwers in the village of Hooge for the first time. There were three main fighting points; Hooge, Sanctuary Wood and Hellfire Corner (a crossroads just outside Ypres).
The Third Battle of Ypres (June-November 1917)
British army now run by Douglas Haig and the allies were now on the offensive. General Plumer inflicted a severe, surprise defeat on the Germans on the Messines Ridge.
Haig had a few factors against him:
- Haig had shelled the Germans giving them warning of attack so they developed strong fallback possisions.
- Because of the heavy shelling and rain, the ground had turned into a “sea of liquid mud” which was bad enough for a tank and worse for attacking men.
- Haig was attacking into the hills so he had Germans firing at him from 3 directions.
- The Germans were up high on dry ridges.
- The Germans were in concrete pill boxes rather than trenches making them much harder to defeat.
In wasn’t only British troops, Empire troops were also involved. Australians and New Zealanders were especially courgeous.
Critics say that Haig shoud have seen sense and given up the struggle (90,000 British Empire troops died and 170,000 were wounded). The Canadians captured Paschendaele finally which was no just a pile of rubble. After all this fighting and death the Allies had moved just six miles closer to Berlin.
Fourth Battle of Ypres (April-May 1918)
In March 1918 Russia admitted defeat and signed a separate peace treaty with Germany, the treaty of Brest Litovsk. The Germans could now concentrate on the western front and attacked France and Britain massively because they wanted to get them out of the way before the USA joined the war. Ludendorff, the German commander at the time, struck a 12 mile front south of Ypres and immediately broke through. Haig realized that the Germans could now easily surround them so he abandoned all the land they had made in the other Battles and retreated to the City. This was a moment of terrible humiliation for the allies. The city held and the Germans were weakened by lack of supplies but the allies were strengthened by new fresh American troops. The allies attacked the south of Ypres and sent the Germans away. In November 1918 they agreed to surrender.
The Somme
In France, Verdun held a huge place in the nation’s heart and the French commanders thought that if it was lost all morale would be lost. In the battle both Germany and France lost half a million men. France begged Britain to go along with the plans to launch a joint attack on the Somme to relieve the pressure on Verdun. The first day saw the worst British losses in history; 60,000 casualties of which 20,000 were dead.
The Somme Offensive, 1916
Bombardments: In the week before the attack they fired more shells than in the first year of war, about 1.5 million. They hoped the shrapnel shells would cut the barbed wire.
Mines: Mines were set to blow just before attack to destroy strong points.
The Attack: On the 1st July. 4 am: 60,000 British troops were lined up in the trenches. By 6 25 the final barrage started. At 7 20 the Hawthorne mine was blown and another at 7 30. The barrage lifted and the infantry attack began along the 18 mile front with an 8 mile wide French assault on the right of the British line.
Within moments the attack went disastrously wrong. German machine gun crews, who had survived the artillery barrage, emerged from their dug outs and were presented with perfect targets. Then the German heavy artillery opened fire at No Mans land, this confused the allies as they thought the guns had been taken out by their barrage. This didn’t just kill the initial attack; it also caused heavy casualties in the reserve trenches.
This continued throughout the day and some 60,000 men were committed. Orders were followed despite the inevitable failure and loss of life. A slight gain was made in the south but in the north and center of the line no gain was made at all.
Casualties: The final figured of the first day were:
Officer casualties was about 75%
German losses were about 8,000 with whom 2,000+ were prisoners.
A huge part of Kitcheners new army had been destroyed in one day, many of which in the first minute.
More Brits dies on this one day than the total of the Crimean, Boer and Korean wars.
What Went Wrong?
- The allies over estimated the destruction the bombardment. They didn’t cause as much damage as the allies had expected.
- As the bombardment of the German dugouts weren’t destroyed the Germans in them were still alive. Once the Barrage lifted it was a race to get to the German parapet. If the British got there first the Germans would have been trapped and killed, but if the Germans got their first then the allies would be out in the open. The allies were so confident that their barrage was successful they didn’t rush so they were easily beaten by the Germans to get there.
- The shrapnel had not cut the German barbed wire.
- In places the British line had been cut so the troops had to bunch up to get through gaps. Here they presented excellent targets.
- The mines were blown ten minutes early which gave the Germans warning of attack.
- The British counter battery fire failed to find and destroy much of the German artillery whose guns were trained on No Mans Land ready for attack.
- There was a lack of communication and this meant that plans made were followed through long after being made useless, artillery for example fired at the same place long after the strongholds had been destroyed.
The attack went on for rive months. After two months the German central sections of the trench systems had been captured. The Germans built 2 more fall back trench systems. Finally the allies captured the first then the second. This fight for the second one was helped a lot by the first use of tanks.
The tanks were designed to crush barbed wire and roll over trenches, and to resist small arms fire. They did their job but they weren’t reliable. Haig, instead of using them in a big group, scattered them out which lost some of the impact they may have had. He also could have used more than the 49 he used; he rushed to use them before more were sent. 29 of these broke down before they reached the battle field and the others got stuck in the mud.
With the capture of Baumont-Hamel in November the battle came to an end. Over the course of the battle over 400,000 Britons were killed or captured and 200,000 French likewise. The Germans losses were said to be 500,000. The Germans had a smaller army and therefore their losses were more and Haig claimed an attritional victory. The British only advanced 6 miles and with them and the allies put together on 15 miles at most was gained.
The Air War
Between 1909 and 1914 most of the worlds great powers had set up air forces although they were run by the Navy or the Army, and not independently. The early planes that were very primitive flew over battle fronts scouting for intelligence. Early in 1915 the longer range and much larger German lighter-that-air airships such as zeppelins launched nighttime raids on England throwing over small explosives. It took a year for Britain to shoot down a Zeppelin. The bombing of England killed only 1400 compared to the 65,000 in WW2. However the raids kept men that could have been fighting on the front line in England with no use.
Fighter planes were soon built to intercept each others scouts. The life expectancy on the Western Front was only three weeks.
In April 1918 the British took a big step to merge their Royal Flying Corps (army) and Royal Navy Air into one service; the RAF. The RAF soon dominated the skies and built big new planes to bomb Berlin, a plan only stopped by Germanys surrender.
Even after all this work and hype, the air wars never
broke the trench dreadlock below.
The Sea War
Britain thought it could break the stalemate with its navy which was huge – twice the size of Germanys. Our navy couldn’t be risked in battle though as we are an island and we need it to get any supplies or troops anywhere. It also acted as a deterrent against attack. Germany on the other hand didn’t need a Navy quite so much, with its land power it hardly needed a Navy and it also wasn’t an island, it could get to most places by vehicle or marching.
Instead of fighting with the ships, the Royal Navy set up blockades. These were across the northern and southern exits to the North Sea (Scotland and Dover). This kept navy away from Atlantic trade routes, and stopped her merchant fleet trading with the wider world. With this in place our trade could grow and prosper but Germanys would go short of imported raw materials and there would be food shortages.
The Germans roamed around in a small area of the North Sea, if the British ships found out they would rush over to intercept them, this lead to small battles like Heligoland Bight (august 1914) and Dogger Bank (January 1915) of which the British won both.