August 3, Germany started World War I by invading neutral Belgium using the Schlieffen Plan. The Belgians surprised the Germans by fighting back from ancient castles, slowing their progress.
The German army had to wait for huge rail guns to be brought up. When they finally came, they smashed the Belgian castles, but the Germans had lost the element of surprise. The French and Brits were on the move.
The Lineup:
At the Battle of the Marne in September, French and British troops stopped the Germans short of Paris. Since the Germans are unable to advance further, the Schlieffen Plan has failed.
Isn’t this guy a little old to be fighting in a war?
After flanking attempts failed, both sides started digging into the ground to avoid bullets and artillery fire. The trench system that developed is the main feature of World War I. Many soldiers lived for over four years in these overgrown ditches.
The trenches themselves flooded and stayed wet,
…they were full of rats, lice, and human waste,
…men slept in caves they dug into the walls of the trenches called "dugouts,"
…they were riddled with dead bodies,
…and they collapsed repeatedly and had to be re-dug.
The guy has to be 70. Right? Is that his age on his helmet?
The trench system that developed over the four years of World War I was extremely complex. There were four kinds of trenches, front lines, support trenches, reserve trenches, all connected by communication trenches. Trenches were not straight lines. They had kinks called "traverses."
Between opposing trenches was "No Man's Land," a desolate wasteland full of shell holes and bodies. Entry into no man's land was extremely dangerous, as enemy snipers waited for clear head shots.
Across the front were machine gun nests, and heavy artillery was kept far to the rear. A massive tangle of barbed wire lay in front of the front lines.
What was combat like in World War I? Both sides were living in trenches, so new tactics had to be developed. Both sides started an attack with an artillery barrage, which could last from a couple of hours to 7 straight days.
At the end of the barrage, the attacking armies went over the top of the trenches, and tried to cross no man's land, where they were usually blown to bits by artillery and machine guns.
One of the largest battles of World War I was the Battle of the Somme. The Brits fired a 7-day artillery barrage, then charged over the top. The battle raged from July to November, 1916, and resulted in 1.5 million casualties. On July 1, the British alone suffered over 57,000 killed, wounded, and missing. By the end, the Brits gained less than 2 miles and lost 420,000 men.
At the Battle of Verdun, the Germans tried to “bleed the French white:” they wanted to kill so many French soldiers they would have to drop out of the war. In February 1916 the Germans attacked. By November, they had gained only a few miles. They lost 337,000 men. The French lost 370,000.
At the Battle of Ypres in April and May, 1915, the Germans unveiled a new weapon: poisonous chlorine gas. They released the gas on the French trench, opening up a large hole in the lines.
British and Canadian troops fought through the gas, however, and drove the Germans out. This was the first time poison gas was used as a weapon of war.
Remember that World War I was a TWO FRONT WAR: the Western Front and the Eastern Front. On the Western Front, the Germans were fighting against France and Great Britain.
On the Eastern Front, the Russians were fighting in several different places against the Germans, the Austrians, and the Ottomans. The Russians lost the Battles of Tannenburg and Masurian Lakes to the Germans, but managed to hold on. They pushed the Austrians and Ottomans back, and dug trenches just like on the Western Front.
But the year 1917 would bring big changes, however, and Germany would see its best chance to win World War I when half of the French army refuses to fight, and Russia drops out of the war. What will save the Allies? Hmmmmm…
Didn’t they have rules against this kind of thing? Come on, Germany! He’s an old man!