On the eighteenth of July Foch gathered all his forces for a great counter-attack. After a fortnight of heavy fighting they drove the Germans back from the Marne. Foch kept up the pressure. On 8 August he sent British forces into the attack. From that day on the Germans retreated continuously until they were back at the Hindenburg Line. The Germans big all or nothing gamble hadn’t paid off, therefore they were left with nothing. That is why I think it is one of the most important reasons why it broke the stalemate on the Western Front. Not only did it lead to Germany losing land, men and being left with nothing, it lead to another series of unfortunate events for Germany as Salonika forced Bulgaria to surrender, Italy had victory over the Austrians at the Battle of Vittorio Veneto and Turkey was defeated. This left Germany with no strong allies left to help fight against the growing strength of the Allied army. All of the above reasons make the Ludendorff offensive such an important factor in breaking the stalemate on the Western Front. Another reason why it is such an important factor is it also helped to lead to a Revolution which started with the German sailors mutinying. Without the Ludendorff offensive failing I don’t think that the war would have ended so quickly because during the time before the battle Germany, even with food shortages, were too strong to defeat. The Ludendorff offensive failure also led to a lack of morale on Germany’s part as they had put everything they had into the battle and still come out the losers, and for the second time in the war they had got close to capturing Paris and had lost it again I also think that because the Ludendorff failed it created the opening that everyone had been waiting for and therefore gave the Allies more chances and choices to execute plans to win the war.
The other event that I think was equally important to the ending of the war and breaking the stalemate was The Blockade of German Ports. The idea was to prevent Germany from getting essential supplies to soldiers, civilians and to strangle German industry. This was a very important factor in breaking the stalemate as it left the Germans with less money so it was harder for them to fund a large scale war. It strangled German industry as it meant that the Germans couldn’t export any of their produce, therefore Germany as a country wouldn’t make a gross national profit, also the fact that they wouldn’t be able to import goods would also decrease produce. German trade had decreased from $5.9 billion in nineteen fourteen to just $0.9 in nineteen seventeen. I think the other objective of the blockade to stop vital supplies to the German army on the front lines played an important part in the breaking of the stalemate as it meant that the Allied army always had an advantage as they could always get supplies from ports when ever they wanted, whereas Germany’s supplies were restricted as they could only arrive by land from Germany and from other countries that didn’t need to use the sea to deliver supplies.
Although the other aspects all contributed to the stalemate being broken I believe that the most important purpose of the Blockade was to starve German civilians in to submission, as three hundred thousand deaths were related to malnutrition during 1914-18 among civilian population. Also the adults had a meat rationing equivalent to two burgers a week and at one point a third of all pigs had to be slaughtered. I think Germany found it very hard to win the war with everyone at home being starved, because morale and doubt would start to creep into the civilians minds and this made them not support the war effort and resent it. And this all contributed to the revolution with the failure of the Ludendorff offensive. That’s why I believe they are both as equally important as without each other they wouldn’t be as effective and might not of even happened without each other because Germany most probably wouldn’t have tried the Ludendorff offensive if it hadn’t have been for lack of supplies.
I personally don’t think that the other reasons why the stalemate was broken are nearly as important as the Blockade and Ludendorff offensive.
On the sixth April nineteen seventeen Britain, France and Russia were joined by a new ally the United States of America. They declared war on Germany. British people thought the Americans should have joined the war long ago. But America could not really cut herself off from Europe. Her businessmen made huge profits from selling weapons to the Allies, and the American government was lending them money. By 1917 these war loans amounted to two billion dollars. Even though it appeared that America was helping they weren’t exactly doing charity work as some of the boats they sold the allies were so bad that they sunk before they reached Europe. So even though America was neutral it was already involved financially with the Allies. America’s ships in the Atlantic Ocean were being attacked and sunk by German U-boats. Americans had already suffered when the liner Lusitania was torpedoed in 1915, killing 128 of the American passengers on board .Anti-German feeling spread through the country and people demanded that America should go to war with Germany. After the Lusitania sinking, the Germans cut back their U-boat attacks for over a year. By 1917 they were desperate for a quick victory so the U-boats were sent out again with orders to attack ships of any nationality sailing in British waters. Within eight weeks they had sunk eight American ships. America's patience finally ran out when they found out that Germany had contacted Mexico and asked it to become their ally, and eventually attack the Southern States. I think that America joining the war didn’t really break the stalemate on the western front as the soldiers that we gained from America joining were lost through Russia pulling out in their revolution when Lenin got in to power and kept his promise to make peace. Another reason why America joining the war wasn’t an important factor is that the American army took months to get mobilised and to arrive so by the time they had arrived at the battle scene most of the important fighting had been done, therefore this means that they weren’t that influential, which suggests that they didn’t have that much importance in the war being won as battles are the main things that win wars. Although the fact that the Germans knew that they were going to join could have scared them.
During nineteen fifteen the Generals on the western front used huge numbers of weapons in an attempt to break the stalemate. Even though the new weapons were more deadly than any of the weapons used in previous wars, this didn’t help to break the stalemate on the western front in my opinion it contributed to it. I have come to this conclusion as the weapons were suited more to defence than attack, which meant that it was easier for an army to just sit in a trench and mow down anyone who tried to attack them with a machine gun. Machine guns were the most effective of all of the weapons, but they were also the weapon that helped to cause a stalemate the most as they could kill so many attackers in a minute. Tanks played quite a quiet role in the war and I think their effect was quite minimal, but they were helpful at times. Gas had a lot of potential to destroy whole lines of trenches(Before everyone had gas masks), but it had to be used effectively and I think that in the war it wasn’t used effectively except from on a few occasions like at Ypres. Out of all of the weapons heavy artillery was the most effective as it gave the ability to shell a trench for days then storm it when it hopefully had no-one left in it, but it rarely worked like that. A French gunner said “We watched Botches flying up in the air as much as three or four hundred feet and then land with devastating effect.” Even though some new weapons like tanks were invented between 1917-18 they played minimal parts in the war and so weren’t important. I think overall that the weapons were a reason for the $talemate on the western front so, I can’t really see how they helped to break the stalemate on the western front, and I therefore think that they are the least important factor that broke the stalemate.
In conclusion I think together the Ludendorff offensive and the Blockade of Germany were equally the most important things that contributed to breaking the stalemate on the western front. This is because they together forced Germany in to making rash decisions that they wouldn’t of otherwise. Also they made Germany scared which made them as a nation weaker and thus easier to defeat. I think then that America joining the war helped the most next as without them the allies would have been short of soldiers after Russia’s departure, which would have put the allies on the defensive. I think that the new technology and weapons were the least important things that helped to break the stalemate as they helped to cause the stalemate as they were so defensive in the way in which they could be used.
