Western Front in WW1

Western Front in WW1

1. Schlieffen Plan

   • Germany didn't want to fight a war on two fronts
     • France and Britain to the West
     • Russia to the East
       • Germany believed it would take 6 weeks for Russia to mobilise
   • The Plan
     • Attack France (through Belgium, Holland and Luxembourg) and defeat them before Russia could mobilise
     • Believed the Belgian army was weak and could be easily defeated
     • Believed the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) were no match for the Germans and would arrive too late to help France
       • Kaiser called then a 'contemptible little army'
   • Why it failed
     • Von Moltke changed Schlieffen's plan by sending some soldiers to fight the Russians - this weakened the German forces
     • The Belgians put up much more of a fight than was expected and this delayed the Germans
       • Slowed the German movement through France down
         • Gave the French time to move their forces to meet the Germans at the Marne
     • British Expeditionary Force was underestimated
       • Arrived in France much earlier than expected so Moltke had to call German forces from the Eastern Front to fight them
     • German exhaustion

2. Key battles

   • Marne, September 1914
     • 5th September 1914 - Germans reached the River Marne
     • Plan changed from sweeping west round Paris to going east
     • German advancing armies left a gap between them
       • French took advantage and moved to protect Paris
         • British and French sent troops into the gap
     • Lasted 1 week
     • Germans were forced to retreat to bridge the gap
       • Marked the failure of the Schlieffen Plan
   • Race to the Sea, October-December 1914
     • In response to the Battle of the Marne the German forces raced north to try to block off the Channel ports
       • Try to stop British reinforcements
     • First Battle of Ypres, October 1914
       • Britain trying to defend the Channel Ports
       • British suffered 50,000 casualties, 8,000 dead
       • Germans suffered 20,000 casualties
       • End of the Race for the Sea
         • stalemate
   • Somme, July 1916
     • Sir Douglas Haig
       • Butcher of the Somme
     • First day was 1st July 1916
       • 60,000 British casualties on this day
         • worst day in British military history
     • Finished in November 1916
       • 420,000 British casualties total
     • Why?
       • Relieve the pressure on the French at Verdun
       • Continue policy of attrition - wearing the Germans down
       • Fresh troops from the British Empire
     • Events
       • artillery barrage ineffective
         • German dugouts too deep
         • barbed wire not cut
       • walk across No Man's Land
       • Tanks used for the first time in September
   • Spring Offensive, March 1918
     • German Commander, Ludendorff, began an offensive in March 1918
       • Why?
         • USA entered the war on the side of the British in 1917
           • Allies were getting stronger - maybe too strong to beat
         • The Communists in Russia pulled Russia out of the war in March 1917
         • Allies were currently weak as 1917 had been a bad year
           • Mutinies in the French army
           • British suffered huge casualties in the Third Battle of Ypres
         • Germany's allies were talking about surrendering
         • British naval blockade of Germany was beginning to take effect
       • Operation Michael began on 21st March 1918
         • advanced 8km on first day
           • British reinforced their lines with troops from Italy and the Middle East
             • 23rd March - Haig issued the 'Backs to the Walls' order
               • French General Foche coordinated the Allied forces
                 • Germans attacked Ypres in April
                 • Germans attacked Verdun in May
                   • French retreated 60km and were close to losing Paris
                     • BUT
                       • The American soldiers started to arrive in large numbers
                       • The Germans had overstretched their supply lines
                       • The Germans had lost 880,000 men by July and morale was low
                       • The progress halted and now Germany had to defend a huge area

3. Trench Warfare

   • monotonous/boring
   • dug-outs up to 10m down
   • diseases
     • cholera
     • dysentry
     • typhus
   • lice
   • rats
   • all weather conditions
   • trench foot
   • food
     • 'bully' beef
     • bread
     • rarely had hot meals
     • unclean water
   • zig zag trenches
   • barbed wire
   • No Man's Land
     • shell craters
   • trenches
     • front line
       • reserve
         • communication
   • shell shock

4. Weapons

   • Gas
     • First used by the Germans in October 1914
     • Chlorine gas
       • First used by Germans in April 1915
         • First Battle of Ypres
       • denser than air so got stuck in the trenches
     • 63 poison gases by the end of the war
     • gas masks
       • started off as just weeing on some cloth
         • proper gas masks issued in 1915
   • artillery
     • creeping barrage was developed
       • line of artillery just in front of the soldiers moving forward
   • Tanks
     • First used during the Battle of the Somme
       • First success was at the Battle of Cambrai in November 1917
         • 474 tanks used
     • scary
     • problems
       • slow
       • hot inside
       • difficult to manoeuvre
       • got stuck in the mud
       • mechanically unreliable
       • machine gun bullets could get through
       • difficult to communicate instructions
   • Aircraft
     • aerial photography
     • direct artillery to targets
     • observe enemy troop movements
     • machine gun and bomb the enemy
     • unreliable at first
       • used effectively in Battle of Cambrai in 1917 and August offensive in 1918

5. How it ended

   • German Spring Offensive
     • Allied counter-offensive from 8th August 1918
       • Artillery bombardment, then aircraft attack, then troops and tanks
         • Forced the Germans to retreat
           • 'Black Day of the German army'
             • Had to retreat past the Hindenburg Line
   • German weaknesses
     • exhausted
     • running out of troops
     • British naval blockade was effective
   • Allied strengths
     • Fresh American soldiers
     • United control under General Foch
     • Haig's effective leadership
     • use of tanks
   • Allies surrendered
     • September-October - Bulgaria, Turkey and Austria-Hungary surrender
   • British naval blockade was starving Germany

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