Why Did A Stalemate Develop on the Western Front?

GCSE Religious Studies (Philosophy & Ethics)

18 November 2004

When the British landed in France, they slowed down the Germans advance with the help from France. This took place at the Battle of the Mons. At the Marne, the Germans had changed their plan and advanced to Paris by foot. While other countrys got their army there before them as they went by rail or taxi. The British and French stopped the Germans advancing to the River Marne but they didnt get them out of France entirerly.

The war movement had stopped and failed mainly due to the fact that half of the plans hadnt succeeded. One of these plans was the Schlieffen plan. This failed because going through neutral Belgium failed because they put up resistance, which had stopped them going around France to capture Paris. This gave the French and Russian army enough time to get their armys ready for battle.

This is a preview of the whole essay

The armies thought that the only way they would break the stalemate was to build trenches. With this it would allow them to advance to open countryside, surround and outflank the enemy. These trenches stretched all the way from Switzerland to the French coast. This idea would allow them to go on and win the war. The trenches were also built as an idea for a defensive posistion against enemy attacks. There was no way to out flank the enemy. With fighting going on around the trenches it would be made harder to put an attack on them. Thats why they had got hold of new technology and weapons that would make it alot easier for them to do this without loosing alot of men on their side. It was also impossible to take the enemy by surprise.The enemy trenches had to be overwhelmed if there was any chance of them breaking through the enemy line. The trenches stretched all the way from the border of France and Germany to Switerland and they were all filled with both armies ready to fight. But there was one problem. If they left their trenches they would be shot dead and there would be a mass slaughter and most of the new weapons would be to blame.

This meant that the tactics for battle had to change because frontal attacks on enemys would be suicidal. This would be suicidal because the machine guns could fire up to 400 rounds per minute. The old technologies they were using were also pretty useless. They were more attacking firing weapons, other than defensive weapons which they needed at the time. There knowledge of the weapons they were using was weak. They had got new weapons such as Machine guns and planes which had only just be prepared and made especially for this war alone. This meant non of the troops had any knowledge on what to do with the weapons, how they would affect the victim or how to even use them. The only technology they found was a fault was the tank. It couldnt go very fast and got stuck between the trenches and the other side of the enemy lines. The good thing it did was to crush the trenches and make it cave in on all of the people in it.

By the battle of Ypres - the race to the sea- in October 1914 all troops had the knowledge of the new technologies and weapons they were using. The number of casualties rose during the fights because of them but at least they knew the weapons were defensive and were greatly used during all the battles that took place in the months of war. This is just only one battle where breaking the stalemate failed. Many other attempts were made but also failed just like this one. More knowledge, understanding, techonolgies and improved weapons were needed if the stalemate was to ever have been broken.

By Jordan Peacock 10Y