Fighting on the Front

World War I had turned into a stalemate by the end of 1914 The bulk of the fighting took place on the western front

The Nature of the War Generals of the day learned the Napoleonic tactics They assumed that the new technologies would favor the traditional offensive The reverse turned out to be true 9.2 million Europeans were killed during World War I

Once the Western Front settled down to a stalemate Each side entrenched positions and fortified them with barbed wire In between stood No Mans Land Attempted to soften up enemy positions with artillery bombardments as a prelude to a run through no man’s land to overwhelm the enemy

Important technologies Tanks Airplanes Flamethrowers Submarines High powered artillery Grenades Poison gas Barbed wire Zeppelins Aerial bombardment

The War of Illusions Germany gambled that its Schlieffen Plan would allow it to defeat France before Russia could mobilize Violation of the Belgian neutrality brought Britain in the war on the side of the entente Belgium put up an unexpected resistance to German forces

As the Germans advance, the French regrouped and hit the German flank at the Marne River The Western Front had settled down by Christmas to a stalemate Trenches 300 miles in length The more open and less populated Eastern Front was where the Germans were more successful

Stalemate: 1915 The Central Powers vs. the Allies Expanded the war by bidding for new allies Turkey joined the Central Powers Allies bribed Italy with a promise of Austria territory Bulgaria, Romania and Greece all entered the conflict

In April 1915, the British launched the poorly planned Gallipoli campaign Germany and Britain both attempted to blockade the other and starve it into submission The German navy’s reliance on the submarine made blockades dangerous

Slaughter 1916-1917 By 1916, the effects of total war were exhausting all nations involved In February 1916, the Germans launched an attack at the key position of Verdun The longest battle of the war French and German army combined for 1.1 million casualties

The British launched the Somme offensive in July Proved a disaster for the British army The Russian army surprised the Austrian army with the Brusilov Offensive One success for the Central Powers was their victory over Serbia

The large battleships that had provokes such animosity between Britain and Germany generally stayed in port The only major naval engagement occurred in 1916 at Jutland

Exhaustion and Revolution In 1917, the Allied forces lost a key nation, Russia Gained an even greater force, the United States In late 1917, the Bolsheviks pulled Russia out of the war Germany bet that it could knock Britain and France out of the conflict before the U.S. could effectively mobilize

Germany’s U-boat campaign, combined with the Zimmerman Note, drew the U.S. into the war By mid 1917, it looked as if the Central Powers might prevail By March 1918, the Germans imposed on the Bolsheviks the Treaty of Brest Litovsk

In the spring of 1918, the German High Command launched one last major offensive on the Western Front Despite its initial success, American troops began to inject fresh manpower and morale into the Allied cause American and French counter offenses pushed the German lines back by early fall 1918

The German High Command asked for an armistice on November 11, 1918