1. Aim: Summarize Military Events on the Western Front

2. A Bloody Stalemate
Fall 1914: War turned into a long & bloody stalemate along battlefields of France
Region known as the Western Front
Facing war on 2 fronts, Germany developed a battle strategy known as the Schlieffen Plan
Plan called for attacking & defeating France in the west & rushing east to fight Russia
Russia lagged behind the rest of Europe in its railroad system & take longer to supply its front lines
Speed vital for the Schlieffen Plan
September 5, Allied attacked the Germans northeast of Paris
After 4 days of fighting, Germans retreated and left the Schlieffen plan in ruins 2

3. War in the Trenches
Early 1915: Opposing armies on the Western Front had dug miles of Parallel trenches to protect themselves from enemy fire
Became known as Trench Warfare
Space between the opposing trenches won the grim name “no man’s land”
Artillery fire brought death right into the trenches
Western Front became a “terrain of death”
Stretched nearly 500 miles from north Sea to the Swiss border 3

4. Military Strategists at a Loss
New tools of war had not delivered the fast-moving war they had expected
Machine guns, poison gas, armored tanks, large artillery
Slaughter reached a peak in 1916
Germans launched a massive attack against the French near Verdun
Each side lost more than 300,000 men
In the first day of battle, more than 20,000 British soldiers were killed
What did the warring sides gain?
Near Verdun, the Germans advanced 4 miles
In Somme valley, British gained 5 miles 4