From the outset things went wrong for the German army. The schlieffen plan was a big gamble and sure enough things went wrong. Firstly, Belgium put up a heroic resistance to the German advance, this then allowed British and French troops to mobilise and give Germany a nasty shock.
Despite early success, the British were hugely outnumbered and the Germans began to advance. However, to Germany’s surprise Russia mobilised quickly and 100,000 German troops had to be sent to the Eastern Front to fend off Russia.
Germany abandoned their original plan of swinging round Paris so they went streight towards the city. In the Battle Of The Marne the German army was weary and outstretched and was pushed back to the river Aisne where the Germans dug trenches. Trench warfare had now began. As the Schlieffen plan had failed Germany tried to capture the sea ports. At the Battle Of Ypres the deadlock was well and truly established, neither side could break through the lines of the other and thousands of lives were lost, mainly German. In 1915 the French, British and Germans all tried and failed to break the deadlock, and the Germans were driven back from Ypres in April.
In 1916 the German’s began a determined battle to capture French ports in Vendum. By July 1916, 700,000 men (mostly German) had fallen. The French held out however, by the summer of 1916 they were close to breaking. To relieve the pressure, the British, led by Haig launched their long planned offensive of the Somme. On the first day there were 57,000 British casualties. The fighting continued until November 1916 with a loss of 1.25m men. Above all the German losses were huge. The Battle of the Somme was a military disaster.
The USA joined the war in April 1917. In July the Third Battle Of Ypres began. The British detonated huge mines that destroyed German artillery positions and killed 10,000 German soldiers in a stroke.
In 1917 Russia was out of the war due to a revolution that resulted in the Treaty Of Brest-Litovsk being signed. Germany could now transport thousands of troops back to the western front.
Germany’s last offensive, the “Ludendorff Offensive” had gone well for Germany. However, the Allies held their nerve. They retreated allowing the Germans to stretch themselves. Consequently, the German army lost 400,000 men and had no reserves to call on.
The German army made no futher progress and the American army had arrived in full force. On 8 August the Allies counter-attacked along much of the Western Front and by October the Germans were in full retreat. On 8 November the Armistice came into effect and the war was over.
In reality Germany’s allies: Austria-Hungary, Italy (who were unreliable and wanted to remain neutral) and later Turkey and Bulgaria, were weak compared to the countries that formed the triple Entente. Therefore this could have led to Germany losing the war on land.
However, having weak allies would not have effected the outcome for Germany for most of the war. This is because Germany had such a huge, powerful and well trained army in the first place, which could probably cope with France and Britain put together. Germany proved this throughout most of the war. However, Germany struggled towards the end of the war due to Russia stretching the German army and America getting involved. At this point the German army was exhausted and did not have the reserves it needed in which to fight the Allies, who had huge reserves in the American army.
Before the war both Britain and Germany raced to build as many Dreadnought battleships as possible. However, there was only one major sea battle during the First World War, the battle of Jutland.
The key objective was to control the seas to stop supplies getting to your enemy. This is exactly what Britain did in the British Naval Blockade which stopped supplies reaching Germany. The blockade kept the German surface fleet in port for most of the war therefore, this contributed to food shortages in Germany, particularly towards the end of the war. This lowered German morale. The blockade also enforced inactivity among the German surface fleet crews. It lowered their morale and contributed to their revolutionary activity and mutiny in late 1918. The British blockade was a crucial factor in the Allied victory over Germany. It was just as important as any military victory on land.
In 1915 the Germans tried to enforce their own blockade of Britain using U-boats to sink merchant ships. This was highly effective but also dangerous. An example of this came in 1915 when U-boats sank the Lusitania, with a loss of 1000 passengers.
After Jutland the war at sea continued below the surface. The Germans adopted unrestricted submarine warfare. The German U-boats sank all shipping and by 1917 Britain’s supplies of food had reached crisis levels. This campaign was one of the reasons why the USA declared war on Germany in April 1917. However, U-boats could not keep up their level of activity and the introduction of convoys made merchant ships easier to defend.
Over all, the British Blockade was a key factor in the defeat of Germany. Starved of supplies the German army was weakened and the German people lost some of their will to support the war. The war at sea was therefore arguably as decisive as the war on land. In addition, the U-boats’ tactics also brought the USA into the war, which was a bad move for Germany. As in other areas, the Germans gambled and lost.
From the outset, and for most of the war Russia played an important role in the defeat of Germany. Firstly, the Eastern Front did not become bogged down in trench warfare because of the enormous open spaces which armies had to move in.
On 19 August Russia invaded Germany, much sooner than the Germans had expected. For Britain and France this was significant as the Germans had to pull 100,000 troops out of France to fight the Russians. The German army was now stretched over two fronts, this helped ruin the schlieffen plan.
However, in general the Russian soldiers were no match for Germanys. They thought well but they were badly led, poorly equipped and undeterred. They were up against well-trained soldiers who were transported to the battle zone by rail and were well supplied. The Russians were steadily driven back in the course of 1915 after a shattering defeat at Gorloce in May 1915.
However, after Gorlice the pressure was off Russia for a while because Germany had to help their Allies were in trouble. Turkey needed help in the Dardenelles and the Austrians were having trouble with Serbia.
Meanwhile Russia had found the resources to mount a stunning and damaging counter-attack under General Brusilov in June 1916. Austrian and German troops were steadily driven back, however, the strain of war was beginning to tell back in Russia. In 1917 Russia collapsed into a revolution. There was a second revolution in November and Russia pulled out of the war by signing the treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany in March 1918.
Russia was now out of the war and Germany’s troops on the Eastern Front could now be transported back to the Western Front. Therefore, in reality Russia had mostly acted as a bit of a distraction and had not made much impact for the Allies.
However, things were not looking up for Germany. As a result of their U-boat campaign America had entered the war. Consequently, Russia had just been replaced, but by a bigger and more powerful country.
Governments on both sides were constantly searching for new methods of breaking the stalemate, or deadlock and ending the human slaughter.
The first tank design appeared in January 1916. Tanks were first used in battle on 15 September 1916, when British general Sir Douglas Haig ordered them into action at Flers during the Battle Of The Somme. On first impressions the effect was stunning, with the German soldiers fearing for their lives. However, the initial advantage of surprise was lost, as there were too few tanks and not enough back-up troops.
The first tanks also had many disadvantages. The eight-man crews were poorly trained, and they had to work in noisy conditions, suffocating fumes and temperatures of up to 38oC. The tanks could only move at 4 miles per hour and they were steered using a “tail” at the back of the tank which was an easy target for shellfire. The Germans were slow to produce their own versions. However, they did build anti-tank ditches to defend themselves from tank attacks.
Over all the tank did not contribute to breaking the stalemate in the war until November 1917 when tanks actually achieved great success. Unfortunately the tanks blasted through enemy lines so quickly that the infantry could not keep up. It was made clear that the war would only be won through sheer hard work and determination.
In my opinion I think there two or more combined reasons that resulted in Germany losing the war. Firstly, I think the Naval Blockade of Germany was one key reason. This is because with Germany starved of supplies, the German army was consequently weakened and the German people lost most of their will to support the war. Therefore this would be one long-term reason which resulted in Germany losing the war.
My second reason is the German army losing the war on land. With this happening Germany would, and did not have any chance of winning the war what so ever. In addition, I don’t think that America joining the war won it for the allies. This is because the war was practically won by the allies because the German army was so exhausted. Therefore, really America just speeded up what was inevitably going to happen.
