The Western Front
How the Western
Word War I stretched over a period of 51 months, from August 1, 1914 until November 11, 1918. The Western Front saw most of the action throughout the war and there, the conflict was decided. The militarized zone of the front separated the Germans from the rest of France and stretched 700 kilometers from the North Sea to the Swiss border. Millions served along the Western Front which was composed of trenches, barbed wire barricades, unground shelters and blockhouses. While millions served on the Western Front, millions also perished due to the harsh conditions of the trenches, from the cold and unhealthy, parasite ridden and rotting corpses that lay in the trenches.
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In August of 1914 the Western Front was on the move, while during November 1914 to March 1918, they stay in position before returning to movement between March and November of 1918. The main goal of the Schlieffen Plan, the guide of the German military, was to take Paris and have a quick victory on the Western Front. This is not what happened, however. They were to have a surprise attack through Belgium using infantry, cavalry and artillery, thus neutralizing the French.
The two sides began, what is now called, the Race to the Sea, where each army tried to pass the other to reach the shores. The attempt took several weeks and the armies were constantly on the move, fighting huge battles and dealing with huge losses. Exhausted, both sides then proceeded to position themselves in lines of trenches. Positioning the troops also had a lot to do with the mass amounts of causalities both sides were suffering. The end of November 1914 showed the French has lost nearly a million men, with German losses, just as high. |
The Western Front |
Throughout the war of position, the Allied armies were convinced that a war of attrition would be the only way to get Germany out of France and Belgium. They launches a series of attacks involving more human and material resources then ever seen before. Until 1918, all these attempts were failures. Despite all attempts, the German Army remained high on morale, powerful and undefeated on the Western Front, improving strategies.
American support was slow to materialize. The American troops studied and learned the act in trench warfare before bringing in forces for the battlefields. They did not want to go in blindly. In 1917, the Russia Army collapsed because of the Bolshevik Revolution, turning its attention to forcing a decision from France. The German offensive was devastating to the British front due to such high losses of causalities and prisoners a day, forcing the British into a retreat. A short pause for the troops that lasted several days because of exhausted troops and low supplies left the troops at a halt. The break did not last long and they returned to trench warfare in a form of limited, tactical attacks on particular sectors of the front. The Allies then began a move along the front, known as the German Army’s “Black day,” this lasted 100 days and ended with the Allies taking the victory and the signing of the Armistice, bringing an end to the death. For 4 years, all the fighting, all the causalities, all the horrible scars that were left on the troops, the Allies finally were able to claim the victory on the Western Front over what was known as the most powerful and professional army in the entire world. France and Great Britain, both, paid a huge price in the war, with the amount of causalities and the amount of material losses, such as industry and agriculture, everything was depleted. German, on the other hand, while exhausted with causalities and finances, their territory was intact. The American military ended up forcing the German Army into a doomed offensive. |
Reference:
History.com Staff. (2009). First trenches are dug on the Western Front. Retrieved from http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-trenches-are-dug-on-the-western-front
History.com Staff. (2009). First trenches are dug on the Western Front. Retrieved from http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-trenches-are-dug-on-the-western-front