Haig tried to make one his aims to relieve the French at Verdun as much as possible. Amongst other aims, he wanted to win more territory for the Allies, preferably as much high ground as possible, as this tends to be more advantageous ground to fight enemies on. Also, more noticeably, he wanted to inflict heavy losses on the Germans to the greatest degree possible. He felt a long process of wearing down his enemies was how the Allies should go about things, but also, on a more mental level, to show that the Germans were would lose confidence and were not invincible, unlike they thought they were.
Haig had a plan that involved certain steps of attack First he planned to initiate an artillery bombardment on the Germans lines, from the back of the British front line. It was believed that this bombardment would wipe the majority of the Germans on the frontline, including the machine guns and barbed wire. After the wave of artillery looked to have had an effect on the Germans, Haig ordered the infantry over no-mans land towards the German lines. By doing this, his aim was to cancel out of the existing infantry remaining after the previous bombardment. After this wave of attack was finished, he followed by sending in the cavalry, to finish off his opponents and rise to another victory. On paper, it looked like an unstoppable plan that would ensure an Allie victory, however, Haig, or rather his men, came across many problems along the way.
On the first day in the Battle of the Somme, 20,000 British men died and there were 60,000 casualties. Unlike Haig had originally planned, the 5 day Allied bombardment had not destroyed German men, machine guns or barbed wire. After the initial failure, the attack continued and infantry were sent across. Just be there were sent out of the trenches, they had been instructed to walk, not run. It was thought that this would ensure they would be able to overcome the muddy grounds and attack in more a less straight line, were as if the untrained volunteer troops were running, some would be faster than others and attack in completely disorganised manner. Due to the previous artillery attack failing, the machine guns where still positioned in place and where able to mow down the line of soldiers. It turned out to be a disaster, because Haig was fighting on such a wide front, due to such grand visions he had, he lost a huge amount of men. Haig’s tactics would only get the Allies anywhere depending on the effect of the bombardment.
Haig was not getting a good idea of what was going on in the frontlines, due to him being located some 40 miles distant from it. He relied upon generals to report to him from the frontline, regularly updating him what was happening. He had misplaced his trust in the Generals because they would only report back to Haig stating how well the army were doing and all was well, when in fact the situation in the front line was in a dyer state. The generals wanted to impress Haig, but in doing so, Haig was acting on inaccurate information which he was not to blame for directly, but perhaps indirectly due to his location. Haig did not change his tactics because he thought the Germans were near to collapse, so there was need for a change in plans.
The Politicians in England, namely David Lloyd George began to worry about the situation in the Somme and the figures being sent through to him from more accurate and reliable sources than Haig was benefiting from. Many were calling for Haig to be replaced but Lloyd George was more hesitant. Haig was a friend of the
King and had much respect throughout
the Army. If he replaced him, the King
would not be happy and begin to be less
supportive of Lloyd George, and may turn to opposition parties. Also, the army’s morale would very likely to reduce if they lost a leader whom which them had great respect for and were happy to serve under. Lloyd George supplied the Western front with more soldiers and ammunitions, which was gratefully received by Haig because he was just one part of the war effort. Lloyd George tried to persuade Haig to consider other tactics that could be more effective given the conditions. Haig took this on board, but always accepted that casualties would be high in the Somme, so he did not do so. As a result, Lloyd George attempted to limit Haig’s power, Britain forces on the Western Front would be placed under control of a French General.
Even though the Allies lost the battle of the Somme, Haig was not discouraged, as the Germans had lost many key officers but also because he felt the battle had been fought in the wrong place. He and the French has lost a total of 620,000 to the Germans, whilst the Germans had lost just 450,000. The Allies had gained just 6 miles, which happened to be 4 less than planned.
In 1917, the Battle of Passchendale was seen by Haig as a last opportunity to win the war on the Western Front without needing the help of the Americans. However, Lloyd George hesitated with the mission as the good summer weather had passed. Lloyd George had the power to call off the offensive but was reluctant in doing so because of Haig’s respect from the King.
Haig’s aims were to capture the high ground and to secure the Channel ports at Ostende. However, the Allies found themselves in a ‘salient’, where they were surrounded by Germans from more than one direction. Regardless of this, Haig persisted with the same tactics of bombardments, sending in of infantry followed later by the cavalry.
In Passchendale the bombardment lasted two weeks and 4 million shells were used. Although after the bombardment, the weather changed for the worst to rain, making the ground extremely muddy, Haig ordered his troops to attack over no-mans land. Again, as we saw in The Battle of the Somme, Haig continued to receive only positive reports and did not call off the campaign. This decision proved worthy as the Allies took over the Passchendale area in the same year. The soldiers who fought were experienced and more adapted for warfare conditions as an outcome of this. This was not so much of a success as first seems, because in 1918, Passchendale was taken back by the Germans.
Haig was also involved in the Battle Cambrai, which was after the Passchendale events. Haig was determined to see things through. He took advantage of the German’s commander’s fatal mistake, by pushing too far too fast. During this battle, Haig’s British troops were on top throughout, as the experience soldiers had mastered the usage of artillery at a more effective and accurate level. With Haig’s personal tactics in mind, because the artillery bombardment was a success he was sure to go on to win. With Haig’s more limited objectives, which were found to be much more achievable, the Allies won. When the Allies broke throw the final Hindenburg line, Haig was there with them. He was made to look the hero of the day.
Haig’s tactics seemed to link well on the Western Front as with War at Sea, due to the fact that they were both using up German resources. This shortage of supplies led to at state of almost civil war in Germany which eventually led to them to surrender.
War at Sea
Both Germany and Britain believed that naval warfare was going to be of utmost importance as to the outcome of the war. Even before the war there was a frantic naval race in which both sides attempted to out number the other. Both sides realised, however, that the dominance of the seas was going to remain with Britain and that it would be unlikely that the Germans would be successful in battle. For this reason the two sides both attempted to avoid such meetings and instead turned to other measures, in particular ruining each others trade with other countries. Germany’s tactic was a U-boat campaign and the British relied purely on their powerful fleet.
The Sea front acted as a major factor to the winning of the war. In January 1916, there was a change in Germany’s naval command. Admiral von Sheer was put in charge of the High Seas Fleet and he was eager for action. His plan was 2 send a small number of his ships into the North Sea to act as bait for Britain’s Grand Fleet. He would then follow, 80 kms behind, with High Seas Fleet to act as the trap when the British took the bait.
Unluckily for Sheer, his plan had already been ruined in 1914 when a drowned German sailor was washed up onto a Russian beach. In his pocket was a book containing all Germany’s radio codes. The Russians gave the book to their British allies who were then able to decode German radio messages.
In May 1916 the Battle of Jutland was soon underway. Scheer sent his bait out to sea 31 May. It was a squadron of ships led by Admiral Hipper. Scheer himself put to sea an hour and a half later. Using their captured radio code book, the British picked up his radio messages and sent out the Grand Fleet to meet him.
Never before had two such mighty fleets ever sailed into battle. Two hundred and fifty great ships were steaming at speed into the misty North Sea.
An advanced force of British ships led by Admiral bealty went out ahead of the Grand fleet to meet Hipper’s ‘bait’ squadron. They closed in on each other at a combined speed of 90 km/h. Hipper’s ships quickly sank two of Bealty’s cruisers and then chased the rest away northwards. Hipper did not realise he was heading straight for the General Fleet.
Just before six in the evening the two great battle fleets came into contact off the coast of Jutland in Denmark .Fierce fighting went on all evening. High explosive shells ripped thick armour plating open as if it was tin. Sailors burned to death or drowned as their ships were hit.
Survivors gasped in an icy sea coated with dirty oil. Then, as darkness fell, Sheer’s fleet turned away and head for home. Admiral Jelicoe, commander of the British Grand Fleet, did not try to chase Scheer for he feared that German submarines and mines were close by. He too turned around and made his way home. By daybreak the seas off Jutland were empty and the battle was over.
Who won the Battle of Jutland? If you look at the figures below it appears that the German High seas fleet was the victor.
Total Losses at the Battle of Jutland
But the British denied that they had lost the battle. It was, they said, Scheer who gave up first and fled home. Later in the war they were also able to point out that the German High Seas Fleet stayed at home for the rest of the war, not wanting to risk another great battle.
After the battle of Jutland no more battles of real significance occurred. This is important enough to be considered relevant to the outcome of the war as it meant that the German Navy did little to help its troops on the front. British dominance of the sea meant that for the rest of the war troops could be transferred across the Channel to France which resulted in Germany’s losing of the war. The battles that occurred were really irrelevant as Germany never wanted to fight at sea as they stood little chance in succeeding in any of them. Battles at sea were not the important factors, the important factor to both sides was the threat of battles at sea.
The British had little to gain by destroying the German fleets as Britain already ruled the waves. Germany did not want battles at sea as they knew they would be crushed. Battles at sea were, therefore, of little relevance. What was more important to both sides was the trade of the enemy and how they could stop it.
British naval policy was clear, to cut Germany off from all supplies by sea, and to starve her by withholding food and raw materials, and the same time, enable trading with other European Allies. This plan was executed in a number of ways, the British Fleet avoided battles and any attempt to destroy the German Fleet and mines were laid out across the English Channel as early as October 2nd. Britain acted as a barrier between the North Sea and Germany and declared the North Sea a war zone. This meant that no trade could reach Germany’s short coast by any means. For this reason Germany were cut off from all outside trade from allies or more importantly neutrals who were now solely able to trade with Britain.
Germany could do little to help themselves out of this position but they could attempt to hamper British trade. Their fleet, in order to reach the North Sea in the first place would have to pass the Grand Fleet of the British and considering the strength of the British this was an unlikely event. The possibility of German ships passing Britain was a relatively unlikely one. They had few colonies and so ships could not be brought in by them, thus making passing Britain by unnecessary. Germany had to pass Britain but at the same time be undetected if they were to attempt to cut British trade. Their answer was U-boats.
This weapon undermined all the naval defensive initiatives of Britain, the British Fleets were powerless against it. The British were caught unaware and it was now necessary for them to discover new counter-measures. The U-boats, or submarines were not used against warships but merchant ships. Millions of tonnes of shipping destined for Britain from allies and neutral countries was sunk by the German U-boats. For much of the war there was unrestricted U-boat warfare, i.e. the Germans submarines would attack if they saw a boat that appeared to be aiding Britain. Of course Germany did warn of this danger beforehand. Many people say that unrestricted U-boat warfare was disgraceful as the target were innocent sailors, but the Germans always defended themselves.
The battles proved rather irrelevant as neither side really wanted one and not enough damage was inflicted on either side to severely damage their fleets. More important than the battles was the threat of battles as this was responsible for the lack of German naval activity. U-boats have always gone down in history as being one of the real threats to the allies’ victory but really they were never threatening.
They have also been considered a controversial form of warfare, however, when we consider their motives and also how the British virtually starved the people of Germany, one cannot consider the U-boat campaign viscous or inhumane. The importance of the U-boat campaign is undoubtedly relevant in the outcome of the war but not to the benefit of the Germans. The Germans did a lot of damage to British shipping but ultimately it was one event that could easily be considered one of the most important factors in the outcome of the war, the sinking of the Lusitania.
This ship was sunk on May 7th 1915 carrying 1,198 American passengers by two torpedoes from a submarine. This event might well be considered the most important reason for the United States entering the war, which ultimately brought about the allies’ victory. For this reason we must consider the U-boat campaign relevant to the outcome of the war, not because of its success but because of its fatal error, the sinking of this ship. More relevant than the Germans attempts to defeat British trade was the British attempts to cut off Germany’s trade. It was their naval blockade that really starved the people of Germany into defeat. It was this blockade that also brought about the Germany mutiny that led ultimately the end of the War. This mutiny occurred when the German High Seas Fleet was ordered to break the blockade, an impossible mission. The War at Sea definitely played a major role in the outcome of World War One.
Technological Factors
World War one was an incentive for countries to create, design and produce new ground-breaking technology, new technology that would aid the war cause. As the War advanced as did the technology of the weapons used, and opposite sides began to learn off each other’s inventions, or in some cases, prevent the use of them. Technology wasn’t the only thing that was necessarily new, new tactics such as artillery ambushes and creeping barrages were used and found to be useful and effective. The Battle of the Somme may have been seen as a failure, but some may argue it was turning point for the creation of new equipment and machinery.
Trench Warfare
The most obvious feature of the Western Front was the system of trenches. They began as simple shelters but by 1915 they had developed into a complex defensive system e.g zig-zag shape.
Artillery
The trenches rewrote the rules of warfare. No-one had experienced war like it before. The general plans had not allowed for it. Everyone had to adapt to work round it.
In the First World War the immense power of the guns was greater than in any previous war. For much of the war, all day, every day, artillery would pound the enemy’s trenches with hundreds of shells. Artillery bombardment caused more causalities than any other weapon. At the beginning of the war the guns were not very accurate. Firing well behind their own lines, artillery often bombarded their own forward trenches before they got their range right.
By the end of the war artillery was much bigger but it was also more accurate. Throughout the war a vast part of the European industry was given over to making shells for artillery.
Cavalry
World War One saw the end of the cavalry as an effective weapon. The idea had been that cavalry would follow the infantry in attacks. Muddy and wet conditions made cavalry charges almost impossible.
Infantry
The infantryman or foot soldier was the backbone of the army. Before the war the theory was that an attack on an enemy would be led by a cavalry charge. The infantry’s job was to follow the cavalry and take charge of captured positions. They then had defended them against attack. Infantry tactics soon changed to adopt to trench warfare. Infantry rather, than cavalry led the attacks. The standard equipment for an infantry soldier would carry would include a steel helmet and gas masks which they would carry around everywhere in the trenches. At the alert they would put them on. As a result only 3,000 British troops died troops died from the whole war, which was relatively small compared to overall ‘killed’ figures at the end of the war. The main significance of gas was therefore its psychological impact. Soldiers who could bear a long bombardment by artillery often lived in fear of a gas attack.
Tanks
The tank was a British invention. Early in the war inventors came to the army leaders with the idea but the army rejected it as impractical. However, Churchill, head of the navy, thought the idea had potential and his department funded its development. Two years later the tanks were used for the first time at the Battle of the Somme. They advanced ahead of the infantry , crushing barbed-wire defences and sprating the enemy with machine-gun fire. Tanks were seen as a secret wonder weapon that would win the war for the Allies. Lots of propaganda surrounded the tank in WW1, hyping up its performance on the battlefields. In truth, 49 tanks were let out on the battlefields of the Somme and huge fraction of which broke down or found themselves completely immobile. The muddy conditions seemed to be a problem that the tanks could not overcome. IT seemed that the tank was only effecting the homefront, rather than the front lines. As the tanks were modified to survive in the conditions being faced on battlefields everywhere, it never really took off as a success in that it took many lives.
Only in the Battle of Cambrai was where the tank was found to be useful, as foot soldiers walked slowly behind the tank, using the tank as cover. The tank crushed the barbed wire protecting the German lines and let to 4000 prisoners being taken as prisoners of war, and advanced 5 miles.
The tanks vulnerability was shown in the Cambrai, when they began to counter-attack against the Allies. The tanks were useless for holding positions and many were abandoned. As the Germans recaptured some of the lost lad, they captured around fifteen tanks.
The Germans showed the penalty of leaving behind such expensive equipment by using the tanks against the Allies. Ironically, throughout the whole of the war, the Germans only manufactured twenty of their own tanks, putting their faith instead in new artillery and infantry tactics.
When the Germans were defeated, they exaggerated the effect the Tanks had on the war, in their homeland through the press. They claimed that the Allies only won because of the tank and that using such a weapon was against the civilised rules of war. This way the people of Germany did not feel let down my their men, and still felt pride for the country.
Overall, the propaganda surrounding the Tank, and way they used it to raise morale, seemed to be more useful to the Allies than using them on the battlefield.
