As with the great battles of 1916, the casualty ratios are not necessarily an absolute measurement, strategically speaking. In 1914 these new rail lines were rapidly approaching completion. Western Front | International Encyclopedia of the First World War (WW1) Although initially planned as another French-led battle, the Battle of the Somme became the first British-led effort. Carr, Lt.-Colonel Henri: Les Grandes Heures du Gnral Ptain 1917 et la Crise du Morale, Le Mans 1952, p. 133. Myths and Realities, Chatham 2001, p. 125. This iconic setting was the most critical arena of the Great War, a 400-mile combat zone stretching from Belgium to Switzerland where more than three million Allied and German soldiers struggled during four years of almost continuous combat. Quickly abandoning his strategy to push the British into the sea, Ludendorff instead began to attack wherever the Allied line seemed weakest. Falkenhayn, perhaps less insultingly, was given a field command again, where he conducted successful operations against Romania in 1917 and later commanded troops in Palestine in an attempt to bolster the crumbling Ottoman forces fight against the British invading from Egypt. This assault did not wipe out or push back the Germans, who sat it out in deep bunkers. Following the outbreak of war in August 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. This problem was significantly worsened by the arrival of some 2 million American soldiers in France over the course of 1918. World War 1 facts for kids | National Geographic Kids Sheffield, Forgotten Victory 2001, pp. American Expeditionary Forces in France passing British men resting on a roadside, Australian soldiers walking through the devastated Chateau Wood, near Ypres, British machine gunner explains the working of his weapon to Americans, Poison gas attack, Battle of Loos, 25 September 1915, Trees cut down during the German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line, France 1917, The Schlieffen Plan and the French Plan XVII, Concentration Areas of Opposing Armies, 2 August 1914, The stablized Western Front and major offensives in 1915. As weeks passed and 1915 began, the rush of enlistments at home allowed hundreds of thousands of reinforcements to be pumped into the area. Genre (s) Real-time strategy, turn-based strategy. For more information on usage, please refer to our Terms of Use. The region had been of critical importance for French security for centuries. They led one last-ditch gamble to try to win before their armies were ground out of existence by the sheer weight of the industrial, economic, and demographic superiority of their opponents. These battles, using sophisticated all-arms methodology, were so successful that they caused Ludendorff to have a serious mental breakdown (he later referred to 8 August as the black day of the German army, although careful examination of his writings shows that he had actually used the term to describe several different days at various points in his life). 1916 was by far the worst year that the Germans or British had suffered. Despite some early growing pains, the arrival of large numbers of fresh American troops on the Western Front ensured that the sheer numerical superiority of the Allied forces would eventually prevail over Imperial Germany. To the north, British formations were mown down, capturing very little and sustaining heavy casualties. Ultimately, it was hardly the great success Haig had desired. (This also, of course, meant that there were fewer genuine objectives to hold out before attacking troops). [16] This horrific treatment, partially a response to overstretched German logistics but also based on the belief that German troops could handle it, severely sapped German morale and fighting power. The Western Front, a 400-plus mile stretch of land weaving through France and Belgium from the Swiss border to the North Sea, was the decisive front during the First World War. 1915 March 10-13: Battle of Neuve Chapelle Douglas Haig's First army led the attack on Neuve Chapelle. Forced to march over open terrain due to the communication trenches already clogged with the dead and dying, they made easy targets for German artillery and machine guns, which sometimes engaged British infantry at ranges of over half a mile. Sheffield, Forgotten Victory 2001, pp. The fighting had begun when Germany invaded Belgium in August 1914. Peace with Russia would free up millions of German soldiers who might be able to tip the balance in Germanys favour on the Western Front. After Ypres, it became clear that the Western Front was not going to be breached or pushed back without considerable effort. Even the largest coordinated Allied battle since the Marne proved ineffective. Instead it would have to be won the hard way: through fighting and defeating the enemy at a rate they could not sustain. Recognizing that it was unlikely to be able to prevail under such circumstances, Germany knew it would have to quickly overwhelm one of its enemies before turning to fight the other. There is a similar continuity running across Franco-German conflicts from 1870 to 1940, which helps to contextualize the war on the Western Front. For Rawlinson a tactical victory was enough. Philippe Ptain, in charge of the Battle of Verdun from 26 February 1916, demanded that a strong offensive be launched elsewhere in order to draw German forces away from his beleaguered troops. The French made a similar effort at the First Battle of Artois (16-18 December 1914). Ultimately some 300,000 soldiers from each army were killed or wounded. Such an attack would best suit British interests and would make it more difficult for the Germans to launch further naval raids against British shipping. This site was updated last on May 15th 2021. In the best case scenario Germany would only be worsening its logistical and strategic problems. Doughty, Robert: Pyrrhic Victory. [19] Unfortunately, armies are forced to make war as the must, not as they would like; the attack began on 1 July 1916. This was attrition, conceived in its purest form. The United States and the First World War - U.S. National Park Service For more see Simon Houses work on the Battle of the Ardennes, in: Krause, Jonathan (ed. The final notable offensive of the year occurred in Cambrai. The Allies were able to do this by attacking with a speed that the Germans could not match. For Falkenhayn the best hope for knocking at least one of Germanys enemies out of the war lay in the West. This was in large part due to the fact that the French forces were worn down in the fighting around Verdun. He decided that it was the perfect opportunity for a counter-attack to wrestle the initiative away from the Germans and finally give beleaguered Allied forces time to rest and regroup. 161-2. Von Falkenhayn, General Erich: General Headquarters 1914-1916 and its Critical Decisions, London 1919, pp. Their objective was to prevent an enemy advance, secure supply lines and seize control of key ports and French industrial areas. [45] Ptain became increasingly pessimistic, and began openly voicing his opinion that the war was lost. [28] Through this great blood-letting, the British learned hard lessons in modern warfare.[29]. Bruce, Robert B.: A Fraternity of Arms. Such an attack would require concentrated manpower from an already-overstretched German army. Other Combatants and Other Fronts, 1914-1918, Basingstoke 2014. Most of the major battles of the war and therefore most of its casualties were fought along the Western Front. The Entente powers vacillated between policies of slow, methodical battles that gradually pushed back the enemy, and grand, general offensives that sought to win major strategic victories over the course of a few days, rather than several months. The Western Front began to take shape in the autumn of 1914 after the German advance into northern France was halted at the Battle of the Marne. In the coming slaughter, more than 50,000 soldiers were killed in just one 24-hour period. Palat, Barthlemy Edmond: La grande guerre sur le front occidental, Paris 1927, p. 98. Supported by advanced infantry and artillery tactics, the 437 tanks punched through the German lines and advanced up to eight kilometres in the most successful sectors of the attack. Namur (Province of Namur, Wallonia, Belgium) The city of Namur fell to the Imperial German Army on 25 August 1914. The Great War and the Destruction of the Russian Empire, Oxford 2014. World War I in Photos: The Western Front, Part I. For the Allies, 1917 needed to be better than 1916. This page has been archived and is no longer updated. He made immediate efforts to organise better food and more frequent leave for the troops. Greenhalgh, Foch in Command 2011, p. 396. Nivelle eagerly elaborated on his plans to fellow generals, French politicians, and even British politicians. The Artillerie Spciale, Farnham 2013, p. 37. [22] Haig, however, felt that this approach was too cautious. Entente and German forces fought over nearly the entire length of the front, making the Marne one of the largest engagements of the war, as well as one of the most important. Worse than the casualties was the deep loss of confidence that rippled through the French army. For Haig, whose position meant tackling the often diametrically opposed demands of subordinate officers, superiors in Whitehall, and the strategic imperatives of his allies (especially France), a minor tactical success could mean a strategic or political defeat. At 7:30 am on 1 July 1916, some 55,000 French and British troops went over the top in the initial wave of the assault across a sixteen-mile front, signalling the start of the Battle of the Somme. A stalemate developed on the Western Front for four main reasons, one being that the Schlieffen plan failed, another reason was that the French were unable to defeat the Germans completely at the Battle of the Marne, another reasons was the "race to the Channel" and the last reason was that . A natural pessimist, taciturn and secretive, he viewed Germanys strategic position with deep consternation. Trenches were long, narrow ditches dug into the ground where soldiers lived. Foch placed Tenth Army in charge of this counter-stroke, commanded by General Charles Mangin (1866-1925), nicknamed the Butcher. Whichever side won there - either the Central Powers or the Entente - would be able to claim victory for their respective alliance. At the personal order of the Kaiser, German generals launched a massive assault on the Allied line, using divisions of their most experienced infantry and cavalry. Despite Russias collapse after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917 and the subsequent Treaty of Brest-Litovsk on 3 March 1918, the Germans were still set to lose the war if it continued for much longer. Politically, it allied Europes most liberal state with its most autocratic. As a consequence, German military planners abandoned the Schlieffen Plan and adopted a strategy of attrition, aiming to inflict death and injury on as many Allied men as possible. Fochs plan called for the Allied troops in the area (French, British, American and Italian) to quietly retreat from their trenches so that the weight of the German attack would fall into thin air (in effect, doing to the Germans what had been done to the French before the Nivelle Offensive). After the Second Battle of the Marne, the Germans no longer were on the attack and seeking victory, but on the defensive, trying to stave off defeat. The Western Front was won quickly which allowed . Which countries did Germany fight on the Eastern Front? [46] Nevertheless, Ludendorff had managed by far the most substantial advance made by any force on the Western Front since 1914; Allied generals and politicians had ample reason to be deeply concerned. Britain and its Empire lost almost a million men during World War One; most of them died on the Western Front. Rather than hoping that the battle would win some grand strategic victory, the Second Battle of Ypres (22 April25 May 1915) was largely designed as a testing ground for a new weapon of war: poison gas. Falkenhayns desire to bleed France white[31] at Verdun failed. This faade lasted less than a month. Nivelle, however, did not get a chance to rectify the situation. Of principal importance was Russias ability to mobilize its vast armies quickly and threaten Germanys borders in the event of war. [58] In the end, the grotesque arithmetic of attrition eventually caught up with the Germans: they still had plenty of machine guns, shells, and artillery, but they no longer had the men to fire them. This meant that the former German strategy of rapidly brining in reinforcements no longer worked. This diffusion allowed the battered northern sectors to stabilize, making them far more resistant to future attacks. Verdun was the longest battle on the Western Front in 1916, but the Somme was the bloodiest; it sent nearly twice as many men to their graves in half the time as at Meuse Mill. [11] Despite some initial advances especially in Champagne by the French Second Army under Philippe Ptain (1856-1951) these efforts sputtered and failed to meet the Allied commanders lofty goals. It is easy to understand why the First World War is seen as futile when recounting incidents like these. Ultimately, the British failed to capture their main objective (Bourlon Ridge), lost over a third of their tanks on the first day alone (180 out of 437), and had their spectacular advance reversed by German counter-attacks over the proceeding days. [4] The attacks were costly failures: the infantry, attacking with limited artillery support, had no chance of success, even against the fragmentary trenches of November 1914. Rolland, Denis: Le Grve des Tranches. Similarly, Joffres stated goal of destroying the German and Austro-Hungarian armies was not achieved. 5. On 25 September 1915 the French attacked simultaneously in the Champagne and Artois, while the British attacked in the direction of Loos using the same chlorine gas tactics the Germans had pioneered months earlier. The staggering losses the French suffered in 1915 were well understood by German strategists. Scene at the French town of Barastre during World War I. 1. Led by General John J. Pershing (1860-1948), American forces were green and led by officers with little relevant pre-war experience. History of the Western Front - Anzac Centenary Victorian Government Even the grand battles of 1916 and 1917 can only be described as such because of their geography. Pedroncini, Guy: Les Mutineries de 1917, Paris 1967, p. 57. URL: https://alphahistory.com/worldwar1/western-front/ [13] Such a peace would rob Britain of its operating bases in France and likely compel them to sue for peace in their own time (or at least remove the threat posed by the growing British army). The Germans, whose focus was overwhelmingly on the Eastern Front in 1915 (where they won a series of stunning victories over Russian forces, making the largest sustained advance of the war), instigated one battle on the Western Front in 1915. Commanders on both sides began to develop grand plans to break the line or to outmanoeuvre and outflank the enemy. By 1918 the German army could no longer effectively defend itself. Ptain, as commander-in-chief of the French forces, grew so concerned that he actually ordered Mangin to scrap the counter-attack and send forces south to shore up the line. [55] These battles signalled the start of what we now call the Hundred Days, the final three-plus months of the war in which the Allies made startling advances and eventually pushed the German army to the point where peace was their only option. The results were stunning. The soldiers complained about the poor tactics in recent battles and refused to go over the top in badly thought-out and executed attacks (they would still, however, defend their positions if attacked by the Germans). The humiliation of such a resounding defeat, which led to the loss of two of Frances eastern provinces (Alsace and Lorraine), coupled with the overthrow of the French imperial government and its replacement with the Third Republic left France weak and exposed. [20] As was true of the battles in 1915, it was French-led, with British support. The consequence of this was that Germany launched fewer major assaults in 1915. 188-9. Haig managed to survive through to the end of the war, but both Joffre and Falkenhayn lost their jobs. In the southern sector French and British troops advanced rapidly, captured their objectives, and solidified their positions at minimal cost. The war on the Western Front was the decisive theatre in the First World War. The name refers to the western side of territory under the control of Germany, which was also fighting on its eastern flank for most of the conflict. It was fought by the French and British against the Germans on . Encounter battles favoured the more careful German forces; even when the French won local success, their abysmal command and control meant that successful advances petered out, were unsupported, and were ultimately pushed back by more organized German forces. If his allies or political masters felt he was not doing enough to further their strategic goals he could well find himself on the chopping block. Haig got his wish (although not in the way he had hoped) thanks to Robert Nivelle, under whose stewardship the morale of the French army finally cracked. 210-211. The Western Front became one great charnel house. French troops felt that the battle was a futile waste of lives. DOI: 10.15463/ie1418.10765. This not only marked an important change in the relationship between the two allies (Britain could thereafter rightfully demand more independence), but it was also a chance for the British army and its new commander-in-chief, Douglas Haig, to establish their reputations. How The Allies Won The Western Front | HistoryExtra Operation Michael, also known as the Ludendorff or Spring Offensive, was launched on 21 March 1918. To call the French Mutiny a mutiny or uprising is, however, not accurate. With concentrated machine gun fire, effective pre-sited artillery barrages, and barbed wire emplacements that were frequently still intact, the Germans in the northern part of the battlefield easily repulsed British attacks. Western Front WW1 | Western Front Facts | DK Find Out World Wars: The Western Front and the Birth of Total War - BBC [39] This did not, however, end the mutiny over night; it took months before the French were ready for another offensive action. World War I in Photos: The Western Front, Part I It took shape in late 1914, as fighting in northern France stalled and both sides attempted to outflank the other. This vulnerability was contrasted against the immense financial, military and industrial strength of the united German state that arose out of the Franco-Prussian War. Worried about the hurried manner in which these New Armies were trained and unwilling to commit his forces to combat before they were ready, Haig ideally wanted to wait until August. Zabecki, David T.: The German 1918 Offensives. Armistice of Mudros, (Oct. 30, 1918), pact signed at the port of Mudros, on the Aegean island of Lemnos, between the Ottoman Empire and Great Britain (representing the Allied powers) marking the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I (1914-18). Les mutineries de 1917, Paris 2005, p. 365. Indian Army during World War I The Indian Army, also called the British Indian Army, was involved in World War I as part of the British Empire. The Third Ypres also kept the Germans from being able to launch an attack against a French army still recovering from the Nivelle Offensive and internal mutinies. This problem was exacerbated by the continued French control of Reims, the major rail hub in the Champagne region. The advance was uneven, however, and lead units came under considerable flanking fire as they pressed home their advance (a recurring theme in attacks on the Western Front). National Archive / Official German Photograph of WWI. Stevenson, David: 1914-1918. For the first time in the war, in 1917 Britain acted as the senior partner on the Western Front. His objective was to inflict maximum casualties on the French and to sap this morale. Contrary to the propaganda of the National Socialists, the Western Front was won militarily, in the field. Germanys early defeats in northern France also shaped its tactical approach. Horne, Alistair: The Price of Glory. Mode (s) Single-player, multiplayer. ~4,800,000. Many of the persistent myths and stereotypes of the First World War come from the battle (or are at least attributed to it). [33] He even went so far as to announce that if the battle was not successful in the first forty-eight hours, he would call off the attack: never again would the French be subjected to the sustained blood-letting they suffered on the Somme and the Meuse. Eastern and Western fronts of World War I - Khan Academy Nationaal Archief German officers in a discussion on the Western Front. The battle, however, was never meant to be led by the British. Of those service men and women, 46,000 lost their lives and over 130,000 were wounded. Before 1917 British battles had been part of broader French efforts and under some level of French strategic direction. He announced proudly that we have the method (referring to his methodology for recapturing Fort Douaumont), and made no secret of his plans to attack the Germans. Falkenhayn knew that he did not have enough forces to pummel the French into submission or to push the British back into the sea. The old professional British army had virtually ceased to exist The Allies, who were now staging the bulk of the attacks, adopted a strategy of attrition, what General Sir Douglas Haig called wearing out the enemy, and Joffre referred to as nibbling. The only problem was that the British army, and its leader, Douglas Haig (1861-1928), did not feel ready to attack. For this showdown, the German commander chose Verdun, a small town near a heavily-fortified section of the Franco-German border. The French managed an acceptable initial advance and then spent a month relentlessly hammering against a solidified German line to no avail. Over the next week Entente forces continued to push into the gap, threatening to split the German forces and separating Alexander von Klucks (1846-1934) First Army from the rest of the German forces. Tanks were first used at Flers-Courcelette on 15 September 1916, forever changing the face of warfare. Haig wanted an ambitious strategic victory and was willing to set distant goals for his troops to meet. Of the two sides, the Germans were more keenly aware of the seriousness of their predicament. The paralysis of the French army in 1917 gave Haig the autonomy he had long sought and opened up the possibility for a large-scale offensive in the Ypres sector. The Western Front Toggle text Ever since the 1890s, Germany had feared that it would face a war on two sides, against Russia in the East, and France in the West. Culture, National Identity, and German Occupation in World War I, Cambridge 2000; Sanborn, Joshua: Imperial Apocalypse. (The man 2nd from right, in fur collar is possibly Kaiser Willhelm, the caption does not indicate). In their places, Robert Nivelle (1856-1924) took over for France (Nivelle had risen to prominence after retaking Fort Douaumont in October 1916), while the team of Erich Ludendorff (1865-1937) and Paul von Hindenburg (1847-1934) took over for Germany. Even more deadly was the Battle of the Somme (July to November 1916). The Battle of Neuve Chappelle (10-13 March 1915) stands out as the only truly independent effort. Contrary to popular belief that the Somme was purely a reaction to Verdun, the battle had in fact been agreed upon as a joint Anglo-French battle in December 1915, months before the German attack at Verdun changed the strategic dynamic of the Allied forces. Why did a stalemate develop on the Western Front? Ludendorff hoped that if he could defeat the British Army, he could negotiate a peace favourable to Germany. [43] The French and British remained in the field in the millions. The British required time to recover physically, morally, and spiritually. Genevoix, Maurice: 1915. Unlike the Somme, however, where the cautious and capable Rawlinson had tactical command, Third Ypres was commanded by one of Haigs close protges, Hubert Gough (1870-1963).[41]. Russia was by far the weakest of the three major Entente powers and Germany had already pushed Russian forces deep into their own territory. By the end of 1914, fighting on the Western Front had cost Germany 667,000 casualties, the French 995,000, the British 96,000 and the Belgians 50,000. [36] This was the beginning of the so-called French Mutiny, a period of discontent and disobedience that eventually touched 121 French infantry regiments. The French and British continued to attack vigorously through to December. Despite frequent and intensive attempts to break the line or push back the enemy, the Western Front remained relatively static until 1918. The Germans also tried different, albeit similar policies of outright attrition (Verdun) and pushing for grand strategic victories in the field (the Ludendorff Offensives of 1918). ): Battles, battlefields and campaigns, Western Front, World War, 1914-1918--Campaigns--Western Front, Guerre mondiale (1914-1918) -- Campagnes et batailles -- Front occidental, Helmuth von Moltke the Younger (1848-1916), Sbastien Le Prestre de Vauban (1633-1707). History of Britain World War One - The Western Front by Ellen Castelow The opening engagement on the Western Front was the Battle of Mons on 23rd August 1914. Many battles became household names in Australia: Fromelles, the Somme, Bullecourt, Messines, Passchendaele, Villers-Bretonneux, Hamel, Amiens and Mont St Quentin. Germany knew it would be hard to win a two-sided attack against its enemies, so they devised a plan to knock France quickly out of the war before turning to fight Russia. This would free up German forces to fight Russia in Eastern Europe, where they stood to annex enormous tracks of land: the Lebensraum that would tantalize extremist German strategists in both world wars. (1917 saw the reintroduction of unrestricted submarine warfare, which inflicted staggering losses on British shipping.) Cailleteau, Gagner la Grande Guerre 2008, p. 102. In fact, it was the huge boom of big guns, called artillery, being fired on the Western Front. To their south, French forces under Ferdinand Foch (1851-1921) and mile Fayolle (1852-1928) did better, capturing all of their objectives for the day with a loss of only 1,590 casualties. Bruce, Robert B.: Ptain. It also necessitated significant investment and financial aid for a Russian state still struggling to industrialize and modernize. [25] Attacking battalions in front of Serre suffered over 50 percent casualties, an absolute catastrophe. Determined to hold their ground in northern France, German military strategists embraced defensive positions. The casualties were enormous, although fewer than one might expect from such a battle.