Why Did Stalemate Develop On The Western Front?
Assignment 1.2 Why Did Stalemate Develop On The Western Front? Stalemate in war is when there is a deadlock and neither side can win. There are many reasons for the stalemate of World War 1. Was the stalemate because the Germans knockout blow failed, the nature of weapons as both sides were at the same technology level or was it too ambitious? In fact it was all of these reasons. There wasn't just one. The plan was also based on too many assumptions: 1. Russia would take 6 weeks to mobilise even though she had been building railways for the last 10 years, railways and transport was crucial for fast mobilisation 2. The men of the 1st and 2nd Armies could easily walk the large arc in the middle of summer with the heat and other conditions 3. Soldiers would get all the food they needed off the land, they would "Live off the land" 4. They thought that the Belgium's and BEF (British Expeditionary Force) would be a pushover if they resisted. These are only a summary though. I am now going to through the plan and point out which bits made the stalemate occur. On the 4th August Germany put the Schlieffen Plan into action and attacked Belgium. The first resistance they came up against was the fortress town of Liege. The Germans tried to capture the 12 fortress' surrounding Liege which controlled the entire railway and main routes the Germans needed. The first German