Why did the Central Powers lose theFirst World War?

AS and A Level History

Jayant Mathur

17/10/04

History Essay

Why did the Central Powers lose the First World War?

The outbreak of World War One caught European politicians by surprise: the German attack on Belgium, as a prelude to their attack on France, was almost the last in a series of events that dragged the world into war. World War One officially started on the 1st of August 1914 and ended on the 11th of November 1918. Unfortunately during June, August 1914 the peace was balancing itself on a pinhead. All that was needed was one ill-fated event to knock the peace out of balance; the July Crisis, which degenerated the world into war. The Central Powers were Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey.

I think the most vital cause for the Central Powers losing the war is the failure of the Schlieffen Plan. In 1904 the French and British reached a mutual agreement of friendship, and signed the Entente Cordial (a friendly understanding). The main reason for this alliance was to counter the perceived threat of Germany. Later on Russia was also involved in the treaty. As a result the German military feared a joint assault from Russia, France and Britain. To counter this suspected plan, the Germans ordered the German Army Chief of Staff, Alfred von Schlieffen, to devise a plan to offset a pooled attack from the ‘Allies’ (Britain, France and Russia – USA would become part of the allies later on in the war.). Thus Schlieffen formulated a plan, which stated that the German army would make a hasty dash for the French Capital, Paris, through Holland, which would be of duration six weeks. Schlieffen concluded that it would take a cumulative time of six weeks for Russian forces to mobilize. So he made sure that the German forces would have taken Paris in time, in order to be transported to the eastern front to fight the primary Russian offensive attack. Even the Train timetables were carefully synchronized to efficiently transport the victorious troops from the western front to the eastern front to face the Russians. Schlieffen had allocated 90% of the German army to attack the French Capitol, where as 10% were left on the eastern front to stop the expected Russian advance.

Helmuth von Molkte replaced Schlieffen in 1906 as the new German Army Chief of Staff. Molkte proposed a change to the already devised Schlieffen plan; an attack through Belgium would be ruthlessly efficient, as the trivial Belgium army would not be able to halt the marauding German armies advances. He suggested 38 divisions be sent to Paris, and 8 divisions be kept on the eastern front to fight off the Reds progress. The Schlieffen plan was put into movement on 2nd of August 1914, and the troops were deployed accordingly. However the Belgian army did impede the German advance, and the Germans were even more shocked when the Russian army mobilized well under the envisaged time period of six weeks, and advanced into Prussia. The Germans were even more surprised by the speed with which the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) reached France and Belgium. On the 3rd of October the french order for retreat was given; the armies were to fall back to the river Seine, as they could not hold out much longer under the German onslaught. The BEF agreed to join the French army, and together they engaged the German Armies. The French 6th army marched on the German Army, who unwisely wheeled ahead to meet the 6th French army head on. This created a gap between the German 2nd army and the attacking one.

The British Expeditionary Force and the 5th French army moved into the created gap and engaged the Germans. “Victory on the Allied left in Northern France and West Flanders is confidently expected by the troops. From many quarters come reports of the high hopes entertained by the armies. Apparently the fighting is going well and the German position is becoming increasingly unfavourable.” - Manchester Guardian (22nd October, 1914). The allied forces held out for three full days during which the Germans were unable to break through the lines. “Throughout yesterday the enemy vigorously attacked the Allied front, only to be ...

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The British Expeditionary Force and the 5th French army moved into the created gap and engaged the Germans. “Victory on the Allied left in Northern France and West Flanders is confidently expected by the troops. From many quarters come reports of the high hopes entertained by the armies. Apparently the fighting is going well and the German position is becoming increasingly unfavourable.” - Manchester Guardian (22nd October, 1914). The allied forces held out for three full days during which the Germans were unable to break through the lines. “Throughout yesterday the enemy vigorously attacked the Allied front, only to be beaten back after suffering heavy losses. These tactics are one more proof of the pressure under which the Kaiser's armies are giving way.” - Manchester Guardian (22nd October, 1914). The German instruction to retreat was given on the 9th of September by Von Molkte. Ultimately the Schlieffen plan had been a mild failure, one which stunned the German Military. However all was not lost for the Germans; they would later dig themselves in, from the North Sea up to the Swiss borders and would engage in trench warfare. Did you know that on a 10 mile front in Flanders Field, Belgium in 1917 over
5,000,000 artillery shells were fired in 3 day period!

It seems to me that the second and third reason for the Central Powers Defeat is the General antiwar mood in Europe and the Lack of Germany’s resources in 1918. the central powers were suffering horrific losses. All the figures: for the dead, the missing and the wounded were too great for anyone to take. The total number of all the Central Powers forces which were mobilized was 22,850,000 where as the total number of dead, wounded and missing, for the central powers, stood at 15,404,477. The Austro Hungarians had suffered a substantial loss, and only had roughly 780,000 troops left; their war efforts were coming to an end and were soon to crash. In addition the British had launched a naval blockade against the Germans, which was proving to be extremely successful. The German population was suffering quite a bit due to the blockade; 730,000 were counted dead due to diseases which continued to spread, and a considerable amount of people were sick and nearly dead. However previously the Germans were also running a very successful U-Boat campaign. It was building up submarines to try and starve the British out of the war. Since Britain was more or less an island, it was not too difficult for the German U-Boats to cordon off Britain. This was a German attempt to destroy all the vessels bound for Britain, which might carry supplies.

The German intent was clear; they planned to starve the British nation out of the war, by cutting off their supplies by sinking their supply vessels and sinking the allied war ships. On the 4th of February 1915 the Germans launched their first offensive which was aimed at allied and neutral merchant shipping in and around the waters of Britain. At that time a warning was given that the vessel was about to be sunk and the passenger were allowed to disembark from the vessel. However one infamous example of this rule being completely ignored was on the 7th of May 1915, off the coast of Ireland where a passenger liner, Lusitania, was sunk. 1,198 casualties were suffered, out of which 124 were Americans. Three more Americans were killed when another passenger liner, Arabic, was sunk by a U-Boat on the 19th of August 1915. The American government reacted to all the killings and put pressure on Germany in order to stop the sinking of vessels without pre-warning. In an effort to stop the American killings by U-Boats, the Germans pulled their fleet out of the English Channel and its surrounding waters, on the 18th of September 1915. After some time the Germans sent their fleets back out to revive the terror on the vessels bound for Britain. Again shortly after that another vessel was sunk, once again resulting in American loss of life. The Americans twice threatened to break off diplomatic ties with Germany. Then on the 1st of February 1917 the Germans declared open season on all the vessels in and around British waters; they declared unrestricted submarine warfare. And three days later, as a result, America broke off all ties with Germany. The German U-boat campaign was proving to be invaluable until its aftermath, the American declaration of war against Germany, on the 6th of April, 1917. The Germans had brought a snarling monolithic nation, filled with hatred and spite, down on their head as a result of their U-Boat campaign.

The Fifth cause of Central Powers defeat; the entry of the USA into the war was an auspicious moment in history. The Americans had chosen to join the allied side simply because of the menacing German U-Boat campaign. Thus the Germans now had a formidable adversary to add to their list of foes. The Americans mainly wanted to protect their peoples from the Germans since unrestricted warfare had been declared. Also their policy of Isolation was of no use anymore because American lives were being taken; the perpetrators had to be stopped before they killed more Americans. America had to fight Imperial Germany as it had been derived that she was the criminal running amuck in Europe.

Personally I believe that the sixth cause for the defeat of the Central Powers was the introduction of the Tank. The tank was developed on the idea of farm vehicles using treads to cross slightly rough terrain. A Colonel Swinton, who was determined to develop this new weapon according to the image he had developed, supported the idea. He proposed the idea to the generals, some supported him however many were extremely suspicious of this new idea. Therefore in order to prove that the tank was a new effective weapon, he put forward some minimum standards for this new ‘super weapon’. These were agreed upon, and designs were in development. Some time afterwards Swinton said; "It seems, as the tanks are an auxiliary to the infantry, that they must be counted as infantry and in an operation be under the same command.". Later on these weapons were produced and on the 15th of September 1916, the General Headquarters ordered the tanks into battle. The first tanks arrived in Europe on the 30th of August however the crews faced a major problem; they had no idea about the tank! Here is what one of the tank commanders wrote; "I and my crew did not have a tank of our own the whole time we were in England. Ours went wrong the day it arrived. We had no reconnaissance or map reading....no practices or lectures on the compass....we had no signaling....and no practice in considering orders. We had no knowledge of where to look for information that would be necessary for us as tank commanders, nor did we know what information we should be likely to require."

The last cause for the conquering of the Central powers, I feel was the Ludendorff Offensive. The Ludendorff offensive, you could say, was a mad dash towards for victory on the Western Front, which started on the 21st of March and ended on the 15th of July 1918. Ludendorff only had a few months to try and break the allies in the west, before millions of Americans arrived in France, making his goal impossible. Action had to be undertaken, if the western front was to be won. And so planning got underweigh; General Erich Ludendorff planned an offensive that would either make or break their goal; victory. Ludendorff codenamed his operation which was to be launched, ‘Operation Michael’. Elite Storm Troopers were sent in after a carefully planned and synchronized bombing and gas attack had occurred on the allied lines. The elite storm troop force avoided strongpoints in the allied lines, and headed straight for the rear. This tactic worked for Ludendorff as it created a 50 mile gap in the allied lines, through which the elite storm troopers force passed. However the German forces were quite meager due to considerable casualties. The Germans tried at many points to breakthrough to reach Paris however most of them failed. On the contrary one attack and breakthrough at the Chemin des Dames, took the Germans straight to the river Marne, which was 40 odd miles from their ultimate objective: Paris. Ludendorff’s forces were running quite thin and he had to attack soon if victory were to be his. So he tried attacking the village of Reims, on the 15th of July, where the French had taken up defensive positions, and was quickly defeated.

Imperial Germany and the Central Powers had now been defeated and Europe had been retaken. Once again peace and prosperity prevailed in Europe thanks to the effort and sacrifices made by the allies. However the difficult step of agreeing on the respective treaties had arrived. Unfortunately a flaw in the Treaty of Versailles led to another World War in which millions of people were destined to die. There were however remnant forces of the Central Powers, none of which posed any real threat. The remnant forces of the Central Powers were not going to try to attack the allies because Imperial Germany (The Central Powers’ Backbone) had been crushed and American soldiers were pouring into France at the rate of 300,000 a month. The Central powers had been mainly defeated for the reasons, which I stated above (the reasons which I found most reasonable). I placed these reasons in order according to their importance.