Why did a stalemate develop on the Western Front?

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Luke la Hausse, 4 Alpha

Why did a stalemate develop on the Western Front?

In mid-September 1914 German troops dug into the high ground over looking the river Aisne, in northern France. After heavy losses in vain attempts to take the German line, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was forced into a deadlock; they could not get to the enemy.

This was the beginning of the Western Front. What followed was ‘The race to the sea’ as the BEF, the French, and the German Armies tried to outflank each other, northward, until they reached the English Channel. All three armies left complex trench systems behind them and as they became grounded, a ‘war of movement’ became a ‘war of position’. Trenches stretched from Switzerland all the way to the Channel. Sir John French, Commander of the BEF, stated in a letter to King George V, “the spade will be as great a necessity as the rifle”.

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In the early stages of the war, the conflict was fluid and fast moving with charges and counter-charges, in the way that previous European wars had been fought. Tactics such as outflanking and pincer movements could be used effectively. Trenches and the introduction of fixed positions turned this all on its head. In trench warfare there was very little room for manoeuvre, no flanks were exposed and no circling or pincer movements could be carried out. Nothing had prepared the BEF’s troops for this new type of warfare. This contributed in a large way to the development of the ...

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