This assault did not wipe out or push back the Germans, who sat it out in deep bunkers. The Somme assault began with an artillery barrage that lasted seven days and used more than one million shells. The Germans were protected by a comprehensive system of trenches and bunkers, along with defences on an elevated position. But the choice of location, the Somme River, was problematic. This campaign was to be part of a simultaneous three-way offensive, with the Russians attacking on the Eastern Front and the Italians from the south. With many French commanders occupied at Verdun, the Somme assault was planned and led by the British, particularly General Sir Douglas Haigh. The SommeĮven more deadly was the Battle of the Somme (July to November 1916). It ended with no decisive victor or strategic outcomes. The Battle of Verdun, which began in February 1916, was the longest and the second-deadliest battle of World War I, claiming between 750,000 and 1,000,000 lives. His objective was to inflict maximum casualties on the French and to sap this morale.įor this showdown, the German commander chose Verdun, a small town near a heavily-fortified section of the Franco-German border.

Verdunįalkenhayn changed tactics in early 1916, hoping to lure the French army into a gigantic battle from which it could not retreat or withdraw. Against positions fortified with artillery and machine-guns, this proved almost impossible. Because of this, they more committed to battlefield offensives and attempts to penetrate the front.Īllied troops tried to penetrate the German line at Champagne and Loos during the autumn of 1915. Allied strategyĪllied generals, in contrast, wanted to expel German soldiers from northern France and Belgium. They instead relied on weapons like artillery and poison gas to weaken and debilitate Allied personnel. The consequence of this was that Germany launched fewer major assaults in 1915. (The German chief of staff, Erich von Falkenhayn, famously declared that his goal was to “bleed France white”). Victory, they believed, would be earned by the side that could better withstand assaults and lose fewer men.Īs 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. Determined to hold their ground in northern France, German military strategists embraced defensive positions. Germany’s early defeats in northern France also shaped its tactical approach. This weight of numbers contributed to the front’s impenetrability and the stalemate that developed through 1915. By early 1915, many parts of the Western Front were thick with soldiers on both sides of ‘no man’s land’. Commanders on both sides began to develop grand plans to break the line or to outmanoeuvre and outflank the enemy.Īs weeks passed and 1915 began, the rush of enlistments at home allowed hundreds of thousands of reinforcements to be pumped into the area. The impermeable lineĪfter Ypres, it became clear that the Western Front was not going to be breached or pushed back without considerable effort. The attack was repelled at the cost of more than 40,000 men.īy the end of 1914, Western Front trenchline had grown to more than two-thirds of its eventual length. If the Battle of the Marne gave rise to the Western Front, the First Battle of Ypres (November 1914) was the first real test of the front and its defensive stability.Īt 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. Ypres A map of the Western Front, showing the location of some significant battles Their objective was to prevent an enemy advance, secure supply lines and seize control of key ports and French industrial areas. They attempted to outflank each other by reaching the North Sea coastline first. Over the next few weeks, both sides extended their trench systems further north. The Germans then retreated to the Aisne River, where they dug a network of trenches to consolidate and hold their position.īelieving the Germans were awaiting reinforcements and preparing a further assault into French territory, the Allies reciprocated by beginning the construction of their own trench system. 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.

Battle of verdun summary