WORLD WAR 1

WAR ON THE WESTERN FRONT

1A: The reasons for the Stalemate on the Western Front

The Western Frontà Belgium coast through Northern France to

the Swiss Border.

-The war affected everybody.-

Defining traits of the war on the Western Front:

-Trenches
-Artillery
-Barbed Wire

WW1 was a battle of Attrition.

An Argument:
-WW1 was the first time every that people from the lower classes were
talking about what life was like. This was the first time social history
emerged, effectively changing literature and the way people thought
about war.

Sheet Summary:

§ In the early 20th century, many people saw war as a heroic

endeavour. (Facilitated by propaganda and the perception of war as
a short and distant battle).
§ These views were unrealistic à only one side could win, after initial
German advances the war developed into a stalemate that
lengthened the war for years, not months.
§ Once Russia began mobilising its troops, five German armies
advanced quickly, in keeping with the Schlieffen Plan, aiming to
capture France in six weeks and avoid fighting a war on two fronts.
§ The stalemate emerged largely from the failure of the Schlieffen
Plan.
§ Helmuth von Moltke (1948-1916), was worried that strict
implementation of the Schlieffen Plan would leave German armies
 vulnerable in battle (against Russia on the Eastern Front and on
Germany’s border with Alsave and Lorraine).
§ He deviated the plan by ordering troops to Russia and the Alsace
Lorraine area à their absence weakened the impact of the German
armies in France and created communication difficulties between
the armies that remained.
§ When the war broke out, the French implemented Plan 17 and
advanced into their former territory in Alsace and Lorraine.
§ General Alexander Von Kluck (1846-1934), leader of the first army,
became concerned at the long distance separating his army from
the other German armies. He sent his soldiers to the east instead of
the West of Paris.
§ Belgian, French and British responses also prevented the fulfilment
of the Shlieffen Plan.
§ From 4th of Sep 1914 onwards, the British and French fought the
Germans in the Battle of the Marne. By this time, the German
troops were exhausted.
§ The German retreat from the river Marne in mid-September cost
Germany the quick victory over France It had expected. (If the
German’s kept on marching, they might have won, but they
overestimated the British and French Armies.
§ ‘The Race to the Sea’ à Britain and France went on the offensive,
trying to outflank German forces in a race to secure territory on the
way to the English channel.

Reasons for the continuation of the Stalemate:

• The Allied and Central powers all attempted to break the stalemate in
1915:
French- through unsuccessful campaign at Champagne
British- March at Neuve Chapelle (heavy losses for only short term
gain)
Germans- unsuccessfully at Ypres in April (poison gas for first time)
British- Loos in September.

• In 1916- German’s attempted to destroy the French at the Battle of

Verdun and the British responded at the Battle of the Somme.

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• Battles focused on attrition (wearing down) than on achieving a
breakthrough at the resumption of a war of movement. à
breakthroughs were rare.

The stalemate continued until 1918 because:

Mechanisms of trench warfare (barbed wire, artillery and machine gun

fire) more suited to defence than offence.

The continuation of trench warfare made cavalry charges of previous

wars impractical,

The reconnaissance (military observation of a region to locate an

enemy) of enemy positions was poor.

Opposing armies had equivalent access to reinforcements and supplies

through railway networks.

Neither side developed either a method or weapon of warfare that

would force the resumption of a war of movement.

Reasons for creation of Reasons for continuation of

stalemate
-Russia mobilised faster than
expected and Britain had sent an
expeditionary force to France
(slowing German advance at
Mons).
-Schlieffen Plan modified and
failed.
-German advance stopped
along the Marne and Aisne where
they and the Allies dug in for the
winter.
-The ‘Race to the Sea’ saw
trench lines extended North and
South (stretching form English
stalemate
-The mechanisms of trench
warfare – barbed wire, artillery
and machine gun fire, more
suitable to defence.
-Trench warfare meant cavalry
charges used in previous wars
were impractical.
-Poor reconnaissance of enemy
positions.
-Opposing armies equivalent
access to reinforcements and
supplies.
Neither side developed either a
method or weapon of warfare that

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 Channel to Switzerland). would force the resumption of a
-New technology facilitated war of movement.
defensive war.

1B: The Nature of Trench Warfare

Terms:

No Man’s land- disputed ground between the front lines or trenches

of two opposing armies.
• Firing trench/frontline trench-a trench especially constructed for
the delivery of small-arms fire
• Support trench- held the back-up forces that could help repel an
enemy attack or move quickly to the front to support a friendly attack.
Reserve trench-
Strong point-
Communication trenches-
Saps and listening posts-
Salient-

INDUSTRIALISATION CHANGED EVERYTHING

• Trench warfare was the main form of warfare used during WW1.

The trench system:

• Comprised of three parallel lines of trenches:

§ The front line (attack and defence)

§ The support line (soldiers could retreat during bombardment).
§ The reserve line (troops waited for leader’s call to battle).

• The distance between each of the trench lines differed from army
to army, varied from about 60-90 metres between front line and

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 support trenches and 300-500 meters between support and reserve
trenches.
• The distance between allied and german trenches was generally
from about 100-300 metres (no mans land).
• Trenches formed a zig zag or square tooth lineà layout a defensive
measure.

• German trenches generally stronger, more complex and better

equipped than the Allied ones. This was because the German army
unlike the British, viewed trench warfare as a long-term rather than
a short term proposition.
• Individual nations manned their trenches differently.

GERMAN BRITISH FRENCH

Stronger, more Focused on mobility. Utilised trenches
complex and better Ill-constructed reinforced with
developed than allied compared to German barbed wire as a
trenches. trenches (not trench warfare tactic.
reinforced by
concrete).
Ranged from 3.6m – 2.4-4.8 m in depth. Relied on artillery
3 stories in depth. and surprise attacks.
2/3s of men on the Most men placed in French commanders
frontline. frontline trenches. heavily manned
sections of the
frontline.

• British commanders put most of their men in the front line trenches.
• French commanders heavily manned some sections of the front line.
They left other sections with small numbers of soldiers and reinforced
the barbed wire in front of them.

• In 1916, the German commanders, General Paul von Hindenburg and

Erich Ludendorff, began development of the Hindenburg Line, a trench
system that they believed would be impregnable.
• The Hindenburg Line shows how the German’s were accepting
the longevity of war.

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Methods of Trench Warfare
• War on the western front evolved into a war of attrition rather than
break-through.
• New weapons of warfare- machine guns, poison gas, tanks – were
either more effective for defence than attack or, at least initially, not
used effectively.
• Technological improvements to tanks and improved use of them in
1918 enabled armies to break through trench lines, engage in
offensive tactics and reinstate a war of movement.

For most of the war, commanders continued to rely on:

-Massive artillery bombardments of enemy positions.
-Use of infantry to defend (existing entrenched positions).
-Infantry advances ‘over the top’ (armed mainly with rifles, bayonets
and grenades against their entrenched opponents).

• These resulted in massive casualties and failed to achieve significant

breakthrough.

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1B. Life in the trenches: life in the trenches dealing with
experiences of Allied and German soldiers.

• Experiences of trench life differed according to nationality, ran, role

and the nature of fighting at any given time.

Officers and Men:

Soldiers NCOs Junior Officer Senior Officer

-The bulk of any -Non- -Officers -Prestigious but
army. commissioned traditionally from safe jobs at
-Traditionally officers: upper class. headquarters,
peasants or sergeants or -Received an always well
working class corporals. education behind the front.
youth w/ little -Promoted from intended to train -Some historians
education. the ranks of them to lead suggest
-As the war experienced men and make remoteness of
progressed men private soldiers. decisions on the generals
from all classes battle field. from fighting
and backgrounds -WW1- often soldiers
volunteered or young upper (distance and
were conscripted class men social class), was
into the army. expected to lead a reason why
by example. they were so
-Suffered the little influenced
highest death by the impact of
toll of any rank their decisions.
(inexperience
and
exuberance).

The routine of trench life

• Trench life combined feelings of boredom, comradeship, extreme

discomfort, endurance and fear.

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• Hard and often dangerous physical labour, hunger, thirst, disease,
poor sanitary conditions, mental breakdown and incidences of
extraordinary self sacrifice and heroism.
• Soldiers spent differing amounts of time in each of the different
sections of the trench system. A common pattern across the entire
period of war was: 15% of time in the front line, 20% of time in the
support trench, 30% of time in the reserve trench and 20% of time in
the rest area. Remaining 15% was other activities such as training,
travel, leave and hospitalisation.

MONTH DAY NIGHT

-Four days in the -Standing for an hour -Most activity
front line trench. and a half before occurred.
-Four days in the daylight waiting on the -Dangerous trench
support trench firestep. maintenance (outside
-Eight days in the -Stood down at dawn. or above trenches).
reserve trench -Breakfast scarce and -Patrols sent to no
-Remainder in other consisted of rations. mans land to listen for
positions. -Officers inspection. enemy movements.
-1/3 of men given -Pairs of soldiers sent
maintenance jobs to check on enemy
(removing water, trenches at night.
digging latrines- in -Trench raids
ground toilet areas), occurred, volunteers
filling and moving would raid enemy
sandbags etc. trenches to invoke
1/3 men sent for fear and gain
rations. intelligence on
1/3 given sentry duty. enemy’s situation.
-Majority of time:
watching/waiting for
enemies, writing
letters and diary
entries, socialising.

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Dangers
• Onslaughts conducted at times of poor visibility
• The deafening noise of shellfire and sniper fire was an ongoing physical
and psychological threat to the soldiers.
• Soldiers became distressed/suffered trauma through the dangers of
frontline duty.
• Constant exposure to shellfire invoked paranoia and fear causing many
soldiers to suffer shellshock from the very early months of the war.
• Shell shocked soldiers who wouldn’t or couldn’t obey orders sometimes
deserted and even suicided.
• Gas warfare was another source of danger and fear. After some early
French and German uses of gas warfare in 1914, the German army
began firing cylinders of chlorine gas in 1915.

By the end of the war, 91 000 soldiers had died as a result of gas warfare
and 1.2 million suffered it’s effects.

Rations
• By 1916, the impact of blockades meant that both Allied and German
commanders struggled to provide soldiers with good diets in both meat
and calorie intake.
• Most men received less than half of the allocated calories per day.
• Food was often stolen in the ranks, butter and milk a rarity and never
met with the common soldiers.
• Hot food unheard of until 1916.
• Rations so poor that teeth were recorded to be broken by army
biscuits.
• Germans suffered greater trouble with food as Allied Blockade blocked
all transit of sustenance.
• British soldiers survived on daily rations of corned beef (bully beef),
days old bread and stale biscuits.
• A rum ration was given to British soldiers at the standing for an hour
and a half or “stand to” as well as before going “over the top”.
• French and German soldiers had wine rations.
• Food parcels from family/friends supplied the majority of decent food.
• Officers ate far more nutritious and tasty meals than common soldiers.

Health and sanitation issues

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• The combination of the cold, wet, vermin and poor diet led to sickness
and disease in the trenches.
• In the first winter of the war, the British army had to deal with 20 000
cases of trench foot (due to prolonged exposure of the feet to wet
unsanitary conditions causing the foot to become numb and eventually
gangrene through reduced blood flow)à unless they dried their feet
and changed their socks frequently, soldiers might not realise they had
a problem until it was too late to treat it.
• Trench fever was a common disease that affected 1/3 of British forces,
1/5 of Germans and many French troops. Caused by lice faeces in
wounds causing infections and eventually fever.
• Soldiers suffered continual infestations of body lice and often spent
their spare time discussing and implementing delousing strategies for
getting rid of ‘chats’.
• Scabies à disease where itch mites lay eggs underneath the skin of a
soldier causing skin irritation and rashes.
• Venereal disease (sexually transmitted infections) à illegal and
punishable.
• Dysentery, resulting from poor sanitation of the latrines (communal
toilet pits). When water supplies were inadequate, soldiers drank the
often contaminated water from shell holes. The danger of dysentery
was that soldiers could die as a result of becoming dehydrated.

Casualties
• On the Western Front, five out of every nine men were casualties.
About a third of these died.
• Even though only one in three soldiers serving on the Western Front
were fighting in the trenches, overall casualties were 56%, with 12%
being killed.
• The infantry accounted for the overwhelming majority of casualties.
• During the war the British identified 80 000 men suffering from shell
shock, a psychological or emotional condition caused by prolonged
experience of artillery barrages.
• In 1922 Great Britain had 50 000 registered Great War ‘mental cases’.
• Major offensives and artillery bombardments accounted for the
horrendous casualties on the Western Front.

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• Even when there was no major action, the frontline remained a very
dangerous place due to the commanders insistence on maintaining an
aggressive attitude towards the enemy.

WEAPONS AND TACTICS DEPLOYED:

• Evidence of weapons development à in 1914 the BEF used 70
grenades per week, by July 1916 the BEF was issued 800 000
grenades per week.
• ‘Patrols’ and ‘raids’ ordered on a regular basis ‘to harass Germans in
every possible way.’

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1C: OVERVIEW OF STRATEGIES AND TACTICS TO BREAK THE
STALEMATE INCLUDING KEY BATTLES: VERDUN, THE SOMME,
PASSCHENDAELE
• War on the western front was largely a war of attrition. The static
nature of trench warfare made it difficult for any nation to achieve
victory.
• A variety of tactics – artillery barrages, infantry assaults, ‘bite and
hold’, ‘leapfrogging’ and infiltration were employed to attempt to break
the stalemate.
• New technology also used- machine guns, gas and tanks.

Attempts to break the stalemate on the Western Front

Major Offensives:
• After the failure of their initial strike in 1914, Germany occupied parts
of Belgium and France and could afford to defend these while
attempting to defeat the Russians on the Eastern Front. With some
exceptions (eg. Verdun offensive), the Germans remained defensive
until 1918.
• The onus was on the Allies to break the stalemate because offensive
strategy was forced upon them due to the occupied territory by the
German’s that the French and British wanted to claim.
• The offensive strategy adopted by the Allies required large frontal
attacks on Germany’s trenches. (artillery bombardment followed by an
infantry advance with a cavalry charge to complete the breakthrough).
• Throughout the period 1914-1917, such offensives failed to achieve a
significant breakthough. The general’s plans went wrong at every
stage: (eg. Artillery bombardment did not destroy all enemy defences
esp. barbed wire. German defenders could survive bombardment in
secure dugouts in their trenches. After artillery bombardment German
machine guns were set up).
• The generals responsible for planning and organising these assaults
have often been condemned for a seemingly callous disregard of the

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 casualties that resulted. [Hindsight judgments are usually harsh –
historical context – we need to keep in mind the challenge imposed
upon the generals by the need to break the stalemate.]

QUESTIONS:

What are the characteristics of the major offensives in WW1?

The major offensives focused on attrition, aiming to gradually wear down
the opposition until they ran out of men, supplies or the will to
continue. Characteristics include large frontal attacks launched by the
allies which utilised a method of artillery bombardment to destroy
enemy defences, followed by an infantry advance which would deal
with the surviving enemy and take over their trenches, completed by a
cavalry charge which would complete the breakthrough. However also
a major characteristics of these offensives were their failure due to
flawed and overly-ambitious generals’ plans.
Were there any offensives that would aid in breaking the
stalemate?

What judgements are unfair to make as historians in the 21st

century?

NEW WEAPONS
• Poison gas- used in attacks to clear defences. (remained a weapon of
terror however the provision of gas masks reduced impact as a
weapon of assault).
• Improvements in artillery on both sides added to the horrors and
carnage of trench warfare, however neither side gained a significant
advantage.
• The tank- developed in large numbers only by the British. Had
potential for great destruction (to cross no mans land, crush barbed
wire, shield forward moving soldiers, clear enemy trenches etc),
however when first used in 1916 they proved unreliable. By 1918
through technical improvements and better tactical use they became
an effective assault weapon giving the Allies a distinct advantage.

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QUESTION

Providing evidence, which weapons would help break the

stalemate?

Attrition
• Beyond the Western Front, the war of attrition involved maintaining
the effort on your own home front while attacking the enemy’s home
front through economic blockade and propaganda. à mass
propaganda is an element of total war.
• The strategy of attrition is best demonstrated in 1916 with the Battle
of Verdun and the Battle of the Somme.
• A strategy of attrition ignored the fact that wearing down the enemy
through major offensives also sacrificed your own men.
• On the other hand Haig’s commitment to offensives on the Western
Front did force the German’s to expand conscription and devote more
of their economic effort to the war (eventually putting pressure on
German home front).

New Tactics
⇒ While the allied generals, in particular, persisted with large frontal
assaults long after they had proven disastrous, both sides eventually
developed new tactics:

ALLIES
⇒ The Creeping Barrage (Britain)-
Infantry would advance just
behind where their own artillery
shells were landing, rather than
waiting for artillery barrage to
stop before advancing (allowing
enemy defenders time to come
out of deep bunkers.
⇒ In late 1918 the Allies combined
creeping barrage with the use of
tanks and planes to support
advancing infantry. (Resumption
of a war of movement possible
GERMANY
⇒ Storm troopers- specially
trained, used in 1918, advanced
in small groups rather than
massed attacks. Quickly moved
on past the frontline trenches to
cause confusion in the rear.
Helped the Germans to break the
stalemate in 1918 and make
large advances before they ran
out of reserves and the Allies
recovered.

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 at this time).

THE BATTLE OF VERDUN Feb-Dec (1916)

• At Verdun, von Falkenhayn, the German commander, stated that the
aim was to kill Frenchmen, to ‘bleed the French white’. (possible
quote).
• The Battle of Verdun was a fight for French identity.
• The French won a strategic victory (because they held the land they
were on and depleated the German’s).

• In 1916 von Falkhenhayn decided to attack Verdun, confident that the

French would defend Verdun at all costs because of it’s symbolic
importance to France.
• German strategy to attack Verdun and ‘bleed’ the French of manpower.
à Germany’s attempt to win the war by ‘attrition’.
• Germany launched assault on 21 Feb, capturing the defensive lines
around Verdun in 3 days.
• At the beginning of attack, France thought about abandoning Verdun in
order to shorten frontlines.
• Verdun quickly became symbol of French pride and will to resist.
• In one week in March, 190 000 Frenchmen marched from Paris to
Verdun along ‘the Sacred Way’.
• The Germans called of their attack in December. Verdun still held by
French.
• French casualties à 360,000 German casualties à 330,000

SIGNIFICANCE
⇒ Germany stopped (mass artillery use).
⇒ French Morale
⇒ Falkenhayn isolated
⇒ Germany weak in morale
⇒ German morale is cracked for the first time
⇒ Platform for France à reinvigorated to break the stalemate.

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THE BATTLE OF THE SOMME June-Nov 1916
BEF Vs Germany
Key Points:
• The objective of the Battle of the Somme was used to draw German
resources from Verdun and was thus considered a victory as it aided
French efforts.
• An initial week long artillery bombardment intended to weaken
German trenches was hindered by rain.
• Due to diminishing numbers, much of the British Infantry were not
properly trained for battle so war tactic involved marching forward in
straight lines with fixed bayonets, this was mostly ineffective.
• The tank was used but were mechanically unreliable and broke down
or were bogged.
• 400 000 British, 200 000 French and 600 000 German casualties.
• There was no breakthrough and Germany was never able to replace
quality of infantry.

In more depth:
• Led by Sir Douglas Haig, the British forces wanted to launch a 14 day
offensive which would open up German lines, flanking them, then
cutting the Germans off from supply lines and force a German
surrender. It was like rounding up sheep.
• The British had assembled and trained a New Army recruited by Lord
Kitchener in an unprecedented national campaign.
• On the 24th of June the Allies began week long artillery bombardment
from 1350 guns.
• Bombardment intended to drive German defenders from their trenches
and destroy barbed wire laid infront.
• German frontline trenches destroyed yet most underground and
bunkers survived, after barrage troops able to set up machine guns to
surprise advancing British.
• On 1st of July, 14 British divisions (approx.. 280 000 men), went over
the top and forward on 28km front, marching forward in straight lines
with bayonets fixed (as it was decided that they were not trained well
enough to operate in any other way).
• Few men returned. As the British advanced, they were mown down by
German machine guns when halted by the barbed wire.

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• The New Army suffered 60 000 casualties on the first day. There were
20 000 casualties in the first hour.
• There was no breakthrough. Once the British failed to achieve initial
breakthrough, Haig justified the continuation of the battle in terms of
wearing down the Germans.
• However if saving Verdun and relieving the drain on France’s resources
were the strategic objectives of the Somme, then it was a success. à
clearly demonstrated Britain’s commitment to victory on the Western
Front.
• Ludendorff claimed Germany was never able to replace the quality of
infantry they lost in the battle.

SIGNIFICANCE
⇒ The Battle of the Somme became the symbol for the entire war,
immense casualties and loss of youth.
⇒ The Battle of the Somme demonstrated Britain’s commitment to
victory on the Western Front.
⇒ Ludendorff claimed that Germany was never able to replace the quality
of infantry they lost in the battle.
⇒ During 1916 the German government felt compelled to introduce
economic measures that would contribute to the long-term collapse of
the German home front.
⇒ It has been argued that British commanders learnt from the Somme
and this eventually contributed to their successes in 1918.

THE BATTLE OF PASSCHENDAELE (Third Ypres) July-Nov 1917

Key points:
• General Haigs decided to launch a major offensive near Ypres with the
aim to shorten allied lines in Ypres salient and knock out German
submarine bases in Belgium. (thus ceasing sinking of British ships).
• It rained heavily after the first major action and the battlefield became
a sea of mud and water-filled shellcraters.
• After numerous advancements of small gains and heavy casualties, the
Allies captured the ridge East of Ypres.
• Germans forced off high ground from November.
• Some believe that despite heavy losses, Passhendaele was essential to
ensure that the British war effort did not collapse and was a
breakthrough battle as German morale was severely weakened.

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• 310 000 British casualties, 90 000 British and Australians never
identified, 42 000 never found, 260 000 German casualties.

RESULT
• Tactical Victory
• Strategical allied victory
• Operational Allied failure (they lost a lot of men).

• The allied forces suffered over 300 000 casualties and the Germans
suffered 260 000.
• The German submarine bases on the coast remained but the objective
of diverting the Germans from the French further south while they
recovered from the failure of the Niville Offensive.

In more depth:
• General Haig decided to launch a major offensive near Ypres in late
1917 (probably encouraged by British success at Messines Ridge) and
aimed to both shorten Allied lines in Ypres salient and knock out
German submarine bases in Belgium (the toll on British merchant
shipping in 1917 becoming a major problem).
• The French army had been wracked by mutiny since the Niville
Offensive à it was important that Germans got no hint of the problem
and an offensive would distract them
• It was also important to act before the threatened Russian withdrawal
from the war freed up a million German troops for service in the west
• It became the ultimate act of attrition as Haig, believing the German’s
were near collapse, attempted to strike a blow against their will to
continue the war.
• Battle began with a 10 day preliminary artillery strike. Heavy rain
aided the initial bombardment to destroy German training systems.
The battlefield became a sea of mud and water-filled shell craters.
• Men carrying 45 kg packs went forward on duckboard paths, if they
slipped and fell they would most likely drown in the mud.
• Battle of Langemarck- four days of heavy fighting secured small gains
and heavy casualties. New commander General Herbet Plumber
adopted new tactic of ‘bite and hold’.
• Eventually Allies captured the ridge east of Ypres, rain commenced.

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• On 10th of November Germans forced off the ‘high’ ground above
Ypres.

SIGNIFICANCE
⇒ Passchendaele synonymous for ‘pointless slaughter’ however may have
been essential to ensure the Allied war effort did not collapse.
⇒ The German verdict was that this battle damaged Germany’s war
effort.
⇒ Sustained pressure on German economy.
⇒ German military leaders noted impact on the battle front à soldiers
worn down and losing will to continue.
⇒ General von Kuhl later concluded that this battle ‘wore down the
German strength to a degree at which the damage could no longer be
repaired.

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d1D: CHANGING ATTITUDES OF ALLIED AND GERMAN SOLDIERS
AT WAR OVER TIME.

• Prior to the outbreak of WW1 there was a widespread view that war
was acceptable and even necessary à such views based on
romanticised notions of small-scaled wars involving dramatic cavalry
charges and brief infantry engagements.
• The carnage of trench warfare on the Western Front confronted Allied
and German soldiers with the new reality of large-scale warfare in the
industrial era.

The following outline suggests how attitudes changed:

August 1914: Reaction to the outbreak of the war

• Most young men marched willingly towards war in 1914, many
believed themselves and their nations to be superior to their enemies
and that ‘might’ and ‘right’ were on their sides.
• For some motivation arose from peer pressure, a sense of adventure,
the desire to escape family problems or need to gain employment.
• Only a minority in any country actively opposed the war: socialists
(opposed to the idea of fighting other workers), conscientious
objectors (opposed the war itself) and those with conflicting religious
values.

Christmas 1914
• Just over four and a half months later à experiences of warfare
modified nationalistic, pro war attitudes and created a shared sense of
empathy among soldiers.
• Soldiers sought refuge from the horrors and discomforts of the
trenches and longed to experience the comforts, goodwill and
camaraderie traditionally associated with the xmas season.
• On Christmas day 1914 the Germans and Allied soldiers met in no
mans land to exchange gifts of cigarettes, show photos of their families
and loved ones and communicate through song and words.
• Reports of such meetings concerned leaders on both sides who feared
that being on good terms would make it harder to kill each other

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1915: disillusionment grows
• By 1915, experienced soldiers and newly arrived volunteers could no
longer automatically associate participation in war with ideas of ‘glory’
and national ‘greatness’.
• It was often easier to make fun of hardships than focus on grim reality,
expressed attitudes in cartoons, newspapers and comedy skits.

1916: ‘Lions led by donkeys’

• Attempts to achieve breakthrough in 1916 caled into question skilles of
the commanders.
• Contemporary journalists had voiced similar thoughts, often
characterising officers (making war plans from the comfort of a French
chateau) as largely priviledged, incompetent and uncaring of how
many lives they lost. à reinforces liberalism and dangerous thinking,
reinforces how evidence can lad to civil unrest).
• Evidence includes novels like Erich Maria Remarque’s ‘All Quiet on the
Western Front’.
• The battles of 1916 were a turning point in relation to the soldiers
attitudes, from questioning leadership many turned to questioning why
they were there and who indeed was the real enemy.

1917: Mud and Mutiny

• The failure and high costs of the 1917 Niville Offensive had a
devastating and lasting impact on the morale of the French army à
French morale was at an all time low.
• Military failure and oss of life of the Nivelle Offensive also increased the
hostility towards the autocratic and inflexible discipline exerted within
the French military.
• At the beginning of the war, military law allowed the death sentence
for offences including sleeping or being drunk on guard duty, self-
inflicted wounds, disobeying orders, assaulting an officer, desertion,
mutiny and communication with the enemy.
• The British imposed the death penalty on 304 soldiers between 1914
and 1918, mostly for offences committed on the Western Front.

1918: Victory and Defeat*

  21  
• War weariness affected soldiers of all armies in 1918.
• It resulted from: the long period of time that nations had been
engaged in war, the apparent futility of many of the tactics used,
increased difficulties in maintaining supplies to the battlefront as the
home fronts of various nations were at or near collapse.
• French commanders could no longer rely on troops to ‘go over the top’
on order.
• Increasingly, soldiers engaged in munitious behaviour or chose to
desert.
• By 1918, the German homefront was no longer either able or willing to
support the war effort. Soldier morale hard to maintain in an
atmosphere where many had come to question what they were
fighting for and why their leaders had not yet made peace.
• By late 19118, it was clear that Germany was facing defeat and that
the nation was on the brink of a revolution.

EARLY ATTITUDES LATTER ATTITUDES

♦ Excitement, patriotic fervour,
value of noble self sacrifice.
♦ Some pacifist groups and those
opposed the war (socialists,
conscientious objectors)
♦ Generally people put aside their
political opinions, overwhelmed
by patriotism and nationalism.
♦ Many women reluctant in
wanting men to go to war-
accompanied with feelings of
pride that brothers, husbands
and sons were fighting for their
nation.
♦ Poets such as Wilfred Owen and
Rupert Brooke, many war songs,
news reports expressed these
ideas. à evidence of attitudes of
the time.
♦ Changed as a result of the huge
casualties of 1916-17 and no
gains, the realisation of the
horrors of trench warfare.
♦ People became disillusioned and
cynical- new recruits were not as
fit and healthy and lacked
enthusiasm.
♦ British people still held some
enthusiasm having not
experienced total devastation of
a war being fought on their
front.
♦ Many people in Russia and
Germany became disillusioned
and dissatisfied with war
because of the blockades.
♦ As the war progressed and
women became more involved in

  22  
 total war, they began to develop
a sense of independence.
♦ Anti war poets and painters
included Sassoon, Owen and
Nash. Diaries and memoirs of
thousands of soldiers
corroborate this change in
attitude. à evidence.

  23  
THE HOME FRONTS IN BRITAIN AND GERMANY 2/04/2014 8:10 A

2A: TOTAL WAR AND ITS SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACT ON

CIVILIANS IN BRITAIN AND GERMANY.

• The expression ‘total war’ is used to describe WW1 because each

nation became totally involved in the war effort.
• The mass conscript armies had to be kept supplied with both men and
the vast quantities of ammunition and resources consumed in an
industrial war. In these circumstances, it was important to maintain
the unified support of the civilian population in the face of hardship,
shortages and the seemingly futile progress of the war.
• Indeed, success or failure on the home front was crucial to the
outcome of the war.

Impact on social life (government regulations).

• Civilians tolerated and supported measures that limited their freedom,
even denied their democratic rights, because it was in the interest of
the nation and victory to do so.

Britain
• On the 27th of Nov 1914 the government passed the Defence of the
Realm Act (DORA).

DORA:
• Nationalised coal mines
• Government control of railways
• Introduced censorship in newspapers, books and letters
• Introduced daylight savings
• Restrictions on alcohol consumption.
• To increase loyalty it was mandated that God Save the Queen be
played after theatre and cinema performances.

Other prohibited activities:

• Loitering near railway bridges and tunnels
• Flying kites
• Keeping homing pigeons
• Whistling for taxis
• Owning and using binoculars
• A curfew was introduced- lights out at 10pm.
• Cinema, Music Hall and theatre performances were to end by
10.30pm.
• By Nov 1915, drinking hours were reduced to 12-2.30 and 6.30-
9.30pm.

Germany
• Even before the outbreak of the war, Germany was a more
authoritarian society than Britain. Conscription, for example, gave the
government immediate control over the military-age population. This
control was gradually extended over the whole population.
• The authoritarian system tightened restrictions on civil liberties-
censorship was imposed and opposition to the war suppressed.
• Economic reorganisation saw the formation of a War Raw Materials
Department, created to control raw materials and production.
• The Hindenburg program- decision by Erich Ludendorff to double
German industrial production to greatly increase munitions which
meant that men, horses and fuel were taken from agricultural
production for the army and munitions à resulting in food shortages
and high food prices. (which by 1918 saw Germany on the verge of
starvation).
• The National Service Law- gave the government power to control all
adult males and to direct them into any part of the economy or
military.

Impact on the economy

• In Britain and Germany economic control was centralised under the
national government. All production was directed towards the war
effort. This created shortages in other areas that had to be managed
by rationing.
• Governments also attempted to control prices, wages and trade
unions.

Britain
• The Ministry of Munitions (est. 1915) was given the power to
requisition raw materials and took control of key factories.

  25  
• The War Munitions Volunteer Scheme gave the government power to
‘direct’ workers, by 1918, 60 000 staff were directing 3 mil workers.
• Five new departments of state established- Shipping, Labour, Food,
National Service and Food Production. Each had substantial power to
control there area of the economy à the war led to food shortages and
price increases (biggest cause for complaint from ordinary people,
controversy about price control and rationing).
• General food rationing was introduced in February 1918 for London
and gradually extended throughout the country.
• Income tax was increased during the war. To pay for the war income
tax was increased from 2.5% to 12.5%.

Germany
• A new War Raw Materials Department (KRA) centralised control of all
raw materials so they could be used for war production. It also
organised the production of synthetic materials to replace imported
sources such as rubber.
• In 1916 the Hindenburg Program, which gave the government
increased control of labour, led to many more men being taken out of
agriculture and transferred to war industries or the military.
• There was a relative neglect of the consumer sector and food
production à made worse the shortages created by British blockade
and Germany’s lack of support.
• Rationing was introduced in 1915 and the years 1916 to 1917 had bad
seasons and poor harvests.
• The ‘Turnip Winter’ of 1917 was followed by further privations and
starvation in 1918. à potatoes and coal were in permanent short
supply.
• In the end the German homefront collapsed due to poor planning and
mismanagement on the part of the military dictatorship.

HSC QUESTION:
Outline total war and its social and economic impact on civilians in
Britian and Germany during World War One. (8 marks).

Total war refers to the mobilisation of the population and entire resources
of the state for the war effort. In order for the mass conscript armies to

  26  
be kept supplied with equipment, weapons, ammunition, transport, food
and men it was necessary that the home front effectively maintained
unified support as success or failure of the home front was vital to the
outcome of qthe war.
Both nations recognised this and responded with tightening of
government regulations and restrictions which socially impacted civilians
in Britain, the Defence of the Realm Act (DORA) placed restrictions on
Civil Liberties, this included restrictions on alcohol consumption,
introduced a curfew of 10pm, harmless activities such as kite flying were
prohibited and new taxes brought in.
In Germany, as an already authoritarian government also tightened
restrictions on civil liberties and increased censorship. Conscription took
control over the entire military aged population which then extended over
the whole population. The Hindenburg program which gave the
government increased control of the labour greatly diminished the
workers in agriculture as they were transferred to the war industries,
leading to neglect of food production and worsening food shortages.

KEY QUESTIONS TO BETRACHTEN:

What is ‘total war’?

‘Total War’ refers to the mobilisation of all civilians and the entire
resources of the state for the war effort.

What is the ‘home front’?

The ‘home front’ refers to the civilian population and their activities of a
country at war.

What are the social and economic impacts on civilians on both the
British and German home fronts?

  27  
 BRITAIN GERMANY
SOCIAL • Women entered the • Tighter restrictions
workforce on a on Civil liberties.
mass scale. • Conscription
• Anti-German • Women entered the
hysteria and feeling. workforce on a
• Class barriers mass scale.
reduced/not as • Decline of male
separated. dominance in
• Rationing/meatless society.
days • Censorship imposed
• DORA (See above). and opposition to
• Birth of the ‘queue’. the war suppressed.
à regulation of
meals in hotels,
restaurants clubs
etc.
ECONOMIC • Economic • War Raw Materials
reorganisation Department created
became a priority as to control raw
all production was materials and
directed towards the production.
war effort. • 1916 Patriotic
• The ministry of Auxiliary Service
munitions Law gave gov.
established in 1915 control of labour à
(power to men moved into war
requisition raw industries (food
materials and est. production thus
national factories). suffered).
• Strikes banned, new • Food shortages,
taxes introduced 1916 and 17 bad
and existing taxes seasons and poor
increased. harvests – the
Turnip Winter.

  28  
2B: RECRUITMENT, CONSCRIPTION, CENSORSHIP AND
PROPAGANDA IN BRITAIN AND GERMANY
Recruitment and Conscription

Britain
• Britain, unlike most of the European powers, did not have conscription
for military service prior to the war.
• Only the BEF could be sent to France in 1914, with the BEF soon
decimated and the Western Front stalemated, it became apparent that
Britain would quickly have to recruit and train a much larger army, this
became one of the major tasks on the home front.
• On 5th of Aug 1914 Lord Kitchener was appointed Secretary of State of
War. He immediately launched a recruitment campaign, by late
September 1914, 750 000 men had volunteered to enlist in Kitchener’s
New Army à these numbers highlighted the support for the war in
1914.
• Despite this relative success, the number of volunteers was still not
enough to meet needs. Young, able-bodied men were put under
considerable pressure to ‘do the right thing’ and enlist.
• Cowardice was expressed at the use of ‘pursuasion’ when young
women of London and England were targeted in posters that suggested
cowardice and irresponsibility on both parts for men who did not enlist
and women who associated with them.
• The existence of large numbers of ‘eligibles’ who had not enlisted and
the continuing demands of the military now made the introduction of
conscription inevitable. Conscription was eventually introduced on 5th
January 1916 with the passing of the Military Service Bill.
• Conscription created a new small group in British society-
conscientious objectors. These were men who were pacifists or who for
personal or religious reasons were opposed to war.

Germany
• In Germany there was no need to embark on a recruitment campaign
Conscription had traditionally been accepted in Germany in peacetime.
• Consequently, there was a large standing army and pool of trained
reserves when war broke out, In the beginning Germany had large
reserves of manpower but this situation changed as the war
progressed.

  29  
• Moreover, because so many men had been diverted into the army or
essential war industries, German architecture suffered.

Propaganda
• This was the first modern propaganda war.
• Externally the US was the major target of propagandaà both sides
wantng to gain support for their war effort.

BRITAIN
⇒ Recruitment: before
conscription introduced,
recruitment posters were a
major part of Britain’s
propaganda effort. They targeted
not just eligible men but those
who might influence them such
as young women.
⇒ War funding: Civilians
encouraged to contribute to the
war effort by investing in
government war bonds.
⇒ Anti-German propaganda:
Invested considerable energy in
spreading anti-German
sentiment. Eg. Atrocity stories
spread, events like sinking of
Lusitania exploited to
demonstrate evil.
⇒ Practical messages: Some
posters focused on practical
messages. Eg. Appeals to not
waste food.
⇒ Morale boosting: Much effort
devoted to sustaining morale
and passing on positive news
from the front.
GERMANY
⇒ War funding: desperate need to
raise funds for war effort.
⇒ Anti- British propaganda: A
national hate campaign launched
against Great Britain. Germans
taught to recite the ‘hymn to
hate’ . The motto Gott Strafe
England (God punish England)
was stamped on envelopes,
engraved on Jewellery, stamped
on pots and pans etc.
⇒ Morale boosting: As the war
progressed, the Germans
focused less on anti-British
messages and more on
celebrations on the efforts of
their military. Myth-making
devoted to creating a national
hero out of Hindenburg.

  30  
Censorship
• Both sides imposed censorship to ensure that only information helpful
to their war effort was spread.

BRITAIN GERMANY
• The Defence of the Realm • High command maintained an
Consolidation Act (DORA), 1914, even tighter control over
gave the government the right to information. Good news (like
regulate mail and newspaper early German victories over
reports. Russians) highlighted while bad
• Media censorship: Official news kept supressed.
historians, photographers and Misinformation was thus fed to
artists limited in what they could the people.
report or portray.
• Soldiers forbidden to keep
diaries.
• General public fed a sanitised
version of the war to avoid onset
of war weariness. German
victories emphasised, while grim
realities and defeats not
truthfully told. à Eg. the
‘illustrated war news’ created to
inform the public did not always
report truthfully or fully.

HSC QUESTION:
Describe the importance of recruitment, conscription, censorship
and propaganda on civilians of Britain and Germany during WW1.
(8 marks)

  31  
2C: THE VARIETY OF ATTITUDES TO THE WAR AND HOW THEY
CHANGED OVER TIME IN BRITAIN AND GERMANY
• Prior to WW1 there was widespread view that war was acceptable and
even necessary.
• Subsequently, the prolonged conflict, horrendous casualty lists and the
hardships imposed by total war saw change of attitudes on the home
fronts.
• Political systems became strained as war weariness spread leading to
serious consequences, particularly in Germany.
• There was a surge in support for pacifism and internationalism.

Politics
• The war put enormous strain on the political systems of all countries.
Britain’s democratic system withstood the change; in Germany there
was breakdown and revolution.

Britain
• Shortage of guns and shells at the start of the Somme offensive
created a political scandal in Britain. à as a result Lloyd George
replaced Asquith as PM in 1916.
• Lloyd George proved to be an effective wartime leader.
• There was tension between him and General Haig over the latter’s
costly strategy on the Western Front à nevertheless the traditional
balance between political (Lloyd George) and civilian (Haig) roles was
maintained.
• Lloyd George also proved to be effective in dealing with unions and
strikers, he favoured a conciliatory approach in dealing with industrial
unrest (he appeased the people).

Germany
• Unlike Britain, Germany had not been fully democratic in 1914. The
elected Parliament, the Reichstag, had little influence over the head of
government, the Chancellor who was appointed by the Kaiser.
• The army held a special position, responsible only to the Kaiser.
• The High Command assumed enormous power and was able to bypass
the Chancellor and, eventually, even the Kaiser.
• By 1918 Ludendorff was virtual head of a military dictatorship.

  32  
• As disillusionment with the war gradually spread, extreme socialists
broke away from the Social Democrats (largest party in the Reichstag)
and began to call for peace and socialism à they provided the
leadership for the revolution that broke out at the end of 1918.
• Thus, pre-existing war tensions contributed to the collapse of the
German home front.
• While the High Command was military efficient, it was not suited to
dealing with the political and economic challenges of the home front.
The civilian food supply was neglected.

War Weariness

Britain
• In Britain the burden of sacrifice was carried by the working class.
Costs had risen but not wages à increasing number of strikes.
• In 1917 there were 688 industrial disputes in Britain, involving 860
000 workers and the loss of 6 million working days.

Germany
• In Germany war weariness proved to be an even more serious
problem. The strain became evident in 1916 and gradually worsened.
• In August 1916 the government introduced the Hindenburg program à
tigther controls on society and the economy. Created resentment and
eventually led to complete starvation.
• The influence of radical socialists showed increasing industrial unrest à
On 1 April 1917 Germany experienced major strikes in metal working
and munitions centres.
• In Jan 1918 a dozen major German cities suffered widespread strikes.
• On 29th of October 1918 mutinies broke out in the German navy. A
socialist republic was declared in Bavaria. In these circumstances the
Kaiser abdicated and the High Command advised the new government
to end the war.
• War weariness contributed to the collapse of the home front, a number
of reasons can be suggested for this:
-Economic hardship, starvation.
-The German High Command’s mismanagement of the economy à
they failed to balance the needs of industry, the military and
agriculture.

  33  
 -The High Command had little skill in dealing with political opposition.

Peace Movement
• As the war went on a number of groups and individuals made attempts
to arrange peace between the belligerents.
• The international women’s movement was a consistent voice for peace.
• In August 1917 Pope Benedict XV made a peace proposal based on
compromise.

HSC QUESTION
Outline the variety of attitudes to the war and how they changed
over time in Britain and Germany (8 marks).

  34  
2D: THE IMPACT OF THE WAR ON WOMEN’S LIVES AND
EXPERIENCES IN BRITAIN

WW1 created feminism àled to women championing feminism

and social equality.

• ‘Total war’ brought a re-evaluation of the role of women in civilian life.

• The number of women in employment in Britain increased from just
over 3 million in July 1914 to nearly 5 million by January 1918.
• As women were mobilised into the workplace, they gradually took
positions traditionally regarded as ‘mens work’, particularly in war-
related industries.

Employment
• The highly dangerous munitions industry was the biggest employer of
British women.
• There was also demand for women to do havy work à unloading coal,
stoking furnaces, building ships etc.
• Women worked as conductors on trams and buses.
• A quarter of a million British women worked on the land, with another
half a million employed as clerical officers in private businesses and
government departments.
• Women were also employed in fields of banking, education and
medicine.
• Female doctors and policewomen increased in numbers.
• Women were increasingly used in the armed forces in non-combatant
roles such as transport work and nursing.
• The three sections that women could join were agriculture, timber
cutting and forage.
• A range of services also applied to nursing à women could work in the
Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD).
• By the end of the war, over 80 000 women had served in the British
women’s forces.

WOMEN’S JOBS
⇒ Nursing
⇒ VAD (voluntary Aid Detachments)
⇒ Women’s Armed Forces

  35  
⇒ Women’s Land Army
⇒ Munitions industry (Munitionettes)
⇒ Heavy work – unloading coal, stoking furnaces and building ships.
⇒ Conductors on trams and buses.
⇒ Working on the land (1/4 million)
⇒ Clerical officers in private businesses and gov. departments. (1/2 mil).
⇒ Fields of banking, education, medicine.
⇒ Increase in doctors and police force.

Unions and job protection

• Male trade unionists resisted women taking the place of men in
industry because they feared the jobs would be lost to men in
eacetime.
• The government and unions made wartime labout agreements to
protect men’s jobs and ensure they would be returned to them
• For those jobs not rotected by trade union agreements, the
government passed a special Act of Parliament in 1919 called the
Restoration of Pre-War Practices Act. The Act directed women to leave
their jobs when war ended.
• Women’s participation in the workplace boosted the war effort but did
not bring long-term changes to gender-stereotypes and roles in British
society.

Financial Freedom and Social life

• For many women, the new responsibilities of war and financial
independence combined with a wartime atmosphere to redefine ideas
about acceptability for women.
• Women now had a disposable income for leisure.
• War encouraged romance and leisure activity: dance halls and
nightclubs proliferated, ragtime music, jazz and cinema became
popular à there was new sexual freedom.
• For practicality in the workplace, skirts became shorter and women
wore trousers. The brassiere replaced the corset.
• The workplace changes and wartime shortages of fabric led to changes
in women’s fashions.

A Lasting Impact?
• To what extent did the war have a lasting impact on women’s lives?

  36  
 -Women retained some of the social independence they had acquired
during the war. The change in women’s fashion became more or less
permanent. à the ‘roaring twenties’ are a manifestation of what the
war created socially.
-Little permanent change in area of employment. In most cases
women had to give up ‘male jobs’ they had once taken on. Secretarial
work was one area that women retained, war confirmed this as a
‘female job’.
-In 1918 the British Passed the Representation of the People act,
giving women the right to voite à this suggests that the vote was
given to women as a reward for their war effort. [Vote only given to
female householders over the age of thirty].
-In ‘The Female Eunuch’, Germaine Greer highlights the fact that in the
aftermath of WW1 the number of women represented in parliament or
the professions remained very low. For the vast majority ‘the pattern
of female employment had emerged as underpaid, menial and
supportive’.

HSC QUESTION:
Assess the impact of WW1 on women’s lives and experiences in
Britain (8 marks).

  37  
TURNING POINTS 2/04/2014 8:10 AM

3A: IMPACTS OF THE ENTRY OF THE USA AND OF THE RUSSIAN

WITHDRAWAL.

• The year 1917 marked two turning points in the course of the war: in
April, the United States broke its policy of isolationism and entered the
war on the side of the Allies in November. Russia’s Bolshevik party,
having staged a successful revolution, fulfilled its promise to withdraw
Russia from the war.

Impact of the Russian Withdrawal

• At the outbreak of war in 1914, Russia had the largest army in the
world (12 000 000-14 000 000) but was also a nation plagued by
serious internal problems.
• The inadequacies of Russia’s logistical planning became a catastrophic
short-coming when faced with a highly industrialised and organised
opponent.
• With soldiers sent to their deaths on the Eastern Front and economic
collapse at home, discontent among the Russian people grew stronger.
• By February 1917, the demoralised Russian army had suffered eight
million casualties and one million more Russian soldiers had deserted.
With the Tsar’s authority shattered, the government collapsed and
Russia was in revolution.
• The allies felt betrayed at Russia’s withdrawal, having not honoured its
military obligations to its French and British allies.
• In October 1917, a second revolution gave the Bolsheviks power. The
Bolshevik leader, Lenin, called for a separate peace and signed an
armistice with Germany in December 1917.

Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
• The Russian government’s withdrawal from WW1 in 1917 and the
subsequent treaty of Brest-Litovsk effectively ended the war on the
Eastern Front.
• Lenin demanded a peace without annexations or indemnities and
based on Russia’s right to self-determination.
• Germany was determined to assert its authority over Russia and
dictated harsh conditions for peace.
• On 18th of Feb 1918, the German forces resumed their advance on
Russia and the Bolsheviks were forced to accept the punishment meted
 out by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. The treaty was a national
humiliation for Russia.
• Russia lost a quarter of its European territory which meant: 34% of
population, 89% of coal mines, 32% of the agricultural land.

• The Russian collapse enabled Germany to shift its military divisions –

comprising one million men – and resources from the Eastern to the
Western Front.
• The Allies predicted they would face a reinvigorated German military
attack in the spring of 1918.

Impact of the US entry into the war

• At the outbreak of the war in 1914, America declared its neutrality:
public opinion did not favour one side, while its isolationism reinforced
the idea that the war was a European conflict.
• In 1917 the German High Command in an effort to break the power of
the Allies at sea, declared unrestricted submarine warfare on merchant
trading ships.
• Merchant ships were sunk in an effort to deprive Britain of food and
munitions.
• British supply lines and sea routes were secured when a convoy
system was established that was supported by US destroyers.
• On 2nd April 1917k President Woodrow Wilson appeared before the
American Congress and asked the to make the ‘world safe for
democracy’ by declaring war against Germany. America thus entered
the war.
• America’s massive industrial and economic resources were now
available to the Allied war effort (although it was not immediate).
• The American decision to declare war on Germany was evolutionary,
and not triggered by a single event.

Culminating Factors for US entry

⇒ U boat sinking of British liner Lusitania (May 1815) à Anti German
feeling, 1924 lives lost, 128 of them Americans.
⇒ Unrestricted warfare infringing the freedom of the seas and the loss of
further American lives from sinking American ships by German U-

  39  
 boats.
⇒ Large sums of money loaned by the Americans to Britain (British
defeat would result in financial loss for the US).
⇒ Allied propaganda (presenting Germany as aggressor).
⇒ Release of the ‘Zimmerman telegram’ – German attempt to negotiate
an alliance with Mexico and Japan against the US.
⇒ With German victory, Mexican territories would be restored to Mexico.

American Expeditionary Force

• American forces were given a mandate to cooperate with Allies, but
fought under their own flag under American leadership.
• The build-up of American forces and strength in Europe was slow and
did not provide the immediate Allied salvation that many had hoped
for.
• President Wilson’s declaration of war committed American supplies,
extended loans, supply of naval power and the call-up of half a million
American conscripts.
• However, America was not a military force on the Western Front until
1918, so their contribution to fighting was limited.

  40  
3B: LUDENDORFF’S SPRING OFFENSIVE AND THE ALLIED
RESPONSE

Ludendorff’s Spring Offensive (Kaiserchlacht – the ‘Kaiser’s

Battle’)
• Germany’s last major offensive was timed to take advantage of the
‘window of opportunity’ provided by Russia’s surrender of the arrival of
German reinforcements in the months before the large numbers of
American troops could be trained and put into the Allied frontlines.
• Ludendorff abandoned the straight line of advance, instead specially
trained and equipped storm troops were used à objective to destroy
specific objectives and then move on quickly without any attempt to
consolidate.
• Ludendorff’s offensive comprised five major attacks launched between
March and July.
• Each attack was initially successful: German troops advanced 65km.
They were closer to Paris in August 1914 and Allied casualties were
heavy as were Allied POW’s.
• The Kaiserschlact series of offensives had yielded large territorial gains
for the Germans, in First World War terms.
• However, victory was not achieved and the German armies were
severely depleted, exhausted and in exposed positions. (They were
exposed due to their decisiveness).
• The territorial gains were in the form of salient which greatly increased
in length of the line that would have to be defended when Allied
reinforcements gave the Allies the initiative (the Germans have
stretched themselves too thin along the line).
• In six months, the strength of the German army had fallen from 5.1
million fighting men to 4.2 million.
• German manpower was exhausted.
• German political ambitions remained extravagant until the very end.
• The German army still believed they could gain all the territory they
needed.
• The Allies had been badly hurt but not broken.
• American troops were for the first time used as independent
formations and had proven themselves greatly. Their presence
counterbalanced the serious manpower shortages that Britain and
France were experiencing after four years of war.

  41  
The Allied Response (Hundred Days Offensive) (July 18-November
11, 1918).
• The stalemate on the Western Front had been broken by the great
German offensives of the spring and summer of 1918, which ha
dpushed the Allies back up to 65km and created a series of huge
salient in the Allied line. (German objective)
• They had failed to achieve their main objective, which had been to
separate the British from the French and capture the channel ports,
and had drained much of the strength out of the German army.
• The American Expeditionary Force was now present in France in large
numbers, and their presence invigorated the Allied armies.
• Their commander, General John J. Pershing (Johnny Pursestrings) was
keen to use his army in an independent role.
• The British Army had also been reinforced by large numbers of troops
returned from campaigns in Palestine and Italy, and large numbers of
replacements previously held back in Britain by PM David Lloyd
George. [Counter offensive = The Big Push]
• A number of proposals were considered, and finally Foch agreed on a
proposal by Field Marshal Douglas Haig, the commander of the British
(BEF), to strike on the Somme, east of Amiens and southwest of the
1916 battlefield of the Battle of the Somme.
• The BEF’s objective = drive German army away from Amiens-Paris
railway.
• The Allies chose battlefields and areas where they could use tanks and
target weak German positions.

Amiens
• The Battle of Amiens (with the French attack on 8 August 1918, with
an attack by more than 10 Allied divisions including Australian,
Canadian, British and French forces with more than 500 tanks).
• The Allies achieved complete surprise through careful preparations.
• The attack broke through the German lines and tanks attacked
German rear positions, sowing panic and confusion.
• The Allies had taken 17 000 prisionors and captured 330 guns. Total
German losses were estimated to be 30 000 on 8 August, while the

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 Allies had suffered about 6,500 killed, wounded and missing. This
marked collapse in German morale.
• The advance continued for three more days where the Allies had
managed to gain 19km and the Germans began to pull out of the
salient back towards the Hindenburg line.

Second Somme
• On 15 August 1918, Foch demanded that Haig continue the Amiens
offensive, even though the attack was faltering as the troops outran
their supplies and artillery and German reserves were being moved to
the sector.
• Haig refused and instead prepared to launch a fresh offensive by the
British Third Army at Albert (the Battle of Albert), which opened on 21
August. The offensive was a success, pushing the German Secon Army
back over a 55km front.

Battle of the Hindenburg Line

• Foch now planned a series of great concentric attacks on the German
lines in France (sometimes referred to as the ‘Great Offensive’) with
the various tactics of advance designed to cut the German’s lateral
means of communications, intending that the success of a single attack
would enable the entire front line to be advanced.
• The first attack of Foch’s ‘Grand Offensive’ (launched 26th Sept by
French and American Expeditionary forces) involved attacking over
difficult terrain, resulting in the Hindenburg Line not being broken until
the 17 October.
• Two days later, the Allied army launched an attack near Ypres in
Flanders (the Fifth Battle of Ypres). Both attacks made good progress
initially but were then slowed by logistical problems.
• By the 5th of October, the Allies had broken through the entire depth of
the Hindenburg defences over a 31 km front.
• Subsequently (on October 8), led by Canadian Corps, the 1st and 3rd
British armies broke through the Hindenburg Line at the Battle of
Cambrai. This collapse forced the German High Command to accept
that the war had to be ended.
• The evidence of failing German morale also convinced many Allied
commanders and political leaders that the war could be ended in 1918.

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à “had the Germans not shown marked signs of deterioration during the
past month, I should never have contemplated attacking the Hindenburg
Line. Had it been defended by the Germans of two years ago, it would
certainly have been impregnable…”

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ALLIED VICTORY
4a. Events leading to the Armistice, 1918

• American President Wilson had been exploring a peace-making role for

much of the war. At the start of 1917 he was promoting the idea of
‘peace without victory’.
• Finally on 8 January 1918, he announced his Fourteen Points as a basis
for world peace.
• Ludendorff’s ‘Peace Offensives’ from March to July 1918 dominated
German affairs.
• It was their belief that they could force the Allies to accept their terms
if they could win enough territory or threaten victory. The successful
Allied offensives that followed in August changed German attitudes
quickly.
• With the Allies rapidly gaining the upper hand on the Western Front,
the German High Command was now forced to consider Wilson’s
demands that they evacuate all occupied territory and install a new
government before there could be peace.
• The choice now seemed to be a ‘just peace’ based on Wilson’s
proposal, or a ‘punitive peace’ at the hands of a vengeful Britain and
France if they were made to fight their way into Germany.
• In October 1918, the German High Command requested that the
politicians seek an armistice and peace negotiations based on Wilson’s
proposal.
• With unrest and eventually revolution spreading on the home front, the
Germans sought an armistice from the Allies. On 9 November Kaiser
Wilhelm II abdicated and a new provinsional government was formed
with Social Democrat leader Freidrich Ebert as leader.
 WILSON’S FOURTEEN POINTS
v No secret agreements between nations
v Freedom of the seas
v Removal of economic barriers
v Disarmament
v An impartial adjustment of colonial claims
v The evacuation of all Russian territory
v The evacuation of all Belgian territory
v The evacuation of French territory and the restoration of Alsace
Lorraine.
v The adjustment of Italy’s borders.
v An opportunity for the various people of Austria-Hungary to seek
autonomy.
v The evacuation of Romania, Serbia and Montenegro; Serbia given
access to the sea and issues in the Balkans resolved.
v Autonomy for different nationalities within the Ottoman Turkish
Empire.
v An independent Poland
v The formation of ‘…a general association of nations…’ to ensure that
all nations had protection against aggression.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

  46  
4b. Reasons for Allied Victory and German Collapse

Strategic Advantages and Disadvantages

At the outbreak of war Germany had a number of advantages:

• It had the strongest economy in Europe; its factories were well
suited to producing massive quantities of armaments demanded by
an industrial war.
• It had a large standing army that was well equipped, well trained
and well led.
• It occupied a position on Central Europe that was strategically
compact and relatively easy to defend. From the first days of war
the fighting took place on Allied territory and the challenge was
always for the Allies to find a way of forcing Germany to retreat. On
the Western Front German generals could adopt a largely defensive
strategy that often saw them holding the high ground and building
complex trench lines with secure dug-outs.
• By contrast, Allied powers such as Britain and Russia were relatively
poorly prepared for a land war in Europe. Moreover, forced to take
the initiative on the Western Front, Allied generals adopted costly
offensive strategies and took a long time to come to terms with
trench warfare.

On the other hand, Germany faced a number of disadvantages that

became more significant the longer the war went on:
• Germany had planned on the success of the Schlieffen Plan to
achieve a quick victory. Once this plan had failed it faced a long war
on two fronts. Even though the German Army dominated the
Eastern Front, it was not able to force Russia out of the war until
early 1918. Any advantage this might have given Germany at this
late stage was more than cancelled out by US entry into the war on
the Allied side.
• While Germany had a strong industrial economy, the British naval
blockade effectively cut off its world trade. By contrast, while
Germany’s submarine campaign against Britain’s merchant vessels
resulted in enormous British losses, the end result was to ensure US
entry into the war rather than Britain’s defeat.

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 • Whereas Britain and France could rely on their global empires to
provide significant military an economic support, Austria-Hungary,
Bulgaria and Turkey provided limited military or economic support
for Germany. And, even before it entered the war in 1917, Us trade
had massively favoured the Allied Powers.

• In the long term, Germany was unable to match the technological

and industrial potential of the Allies and their empires.
• The longer the war, the more the blockade on raw materials would
disadvantage Germany.
• When the Allies began to produce tanks and aircraft in large
numbers, for example, the Germans were unable to match them.

Collapse of the German Home Front

• The demands of a war economy, Allied blockade and inflation led
to food shortages by 1916 à led to starvation in 1918.
• The German High Command’s control of the economy meant that
it was able to insist upon shifting manpower away from
agriculture to industry and military à Disatrous impact on the
production of food in the long term.
• At the outbreak of war a political truce (Burgfrieden) had been
declared in Germany with all parties offering support to the war
effort. However old political tensions between socialists and the
conservative government re emerged and the truce broke down
à In 1917 the Reichstag supported a Peace resolution.
Subsequently influenced by the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia,
revolutionary socialists emerged to lead strikes and mutinies. By
late 1918 à Political breakdown and revolution on home front.
• Evidence of the growing discontent can be seen in a dramatic
increase in the number of stikes in Germany: from about
1000/month in 1915 ti 100 000/ month in 1918.

US Entry Into the War

The entry of the USA on the side of the Allies was perhaps the most
critical factor In the war. The industrial might of the USA with its massive

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potential for the provision of resources both material and human, was a
major blow to German morale.

Other Considerations
The most prominent reasons for the Allied victory are:
• The US entry,
• the successes of the Allied counter Offensive in 1918
• The collapse of the German Home Front
• Germany’s long term strategic disadvantage.

It is suggested that victory in WWI was a close rung thing:

• It was Ludendorff’s Spring Offensive that broke the stalemate on
the Western Front à it threatened Paris and the whole Allied
position on the Western Front.
• Even though the US declared war on Germany in April 1917, only
187, 928 American troops had landed in Europe by the end of 1917
as they took time to mobilise. This was a ‘window of opportunity’ for
the Germans to force the issue before the American reinforcements
could mobilise and overwhelm them.
• While the German Home Front had collapsed so had Russia’s.
Moreover, it became evident in the 1920s that the Great War had a
devastating effect on the Allied economies.

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 4c. The roles and differing goals of Clemenceau, Lloyd George
and Wilson in creating the Treaty of Versailles
 

The Paris Peace Conferece

 
• Following the conclusion of WWI, the Allies faced the challenge of
making peace with their former enemies. This task was begun on
18 January 1919 when the Paris Peace Conference was convened.
• Delegates from all of the victor nations attended the conferece but
it was dominated by representatives of the Big Three à President
Woodrow Wilson of the US, PM David Lloyd George of Britain and
Premier Georges Clemenceau of France.
• The aim was to deal with the defeated nations and establish
conditions for world peace, it was made more complex by the
circumstances of Europe and the world in the immediate aftermath
of WWI:
• The Russian and Austro-Hungarian empires had collapsed.
There was a need to redraw boundaries and create new
nations in a way that would satisfy the many ethnic groups
inhabiting the area.
• Yugoslavia (new nation created in the Balkans) was unstable
in the long term.
• Poland was established as a homeland for the Poles, at the
expense of dividing Germany.
• Germany resented the fact that Austria and Germany were
not aloud to unite. This appeared the Germans denial of the
right to self determination.
• In Russia, following the Bolshevik revolution of 1917, there
was a new communist government à Western powers feared
the spread of this doctrine.
• The Ottoman Empire had collapsed and Germany had lost it’s
colonies
• The war had caused widespread suffering and even Allies
were close to economic collapse.

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The Big Three

THE BIG THREE – MOTIVATIONS AND GOALS

WILSON LLOYD GEORGE CLEMENCEAU
PERSONAL- v An academic v Shared some of v Fierce
ITY with genuinely Wilson’s French
internationalist farsighted Patriot
vision. concerns, v Sought
v Limited however also revenge for
appreciation of practical and both WWI
the complexity of influenced by and Prussian
European the home front invasion
disputes and and need to 1871.
border issues. compromise.
WAR v ‘Winning the v Lost 761,213 v Lost
INFLUENCE War’ gave Wilson lives 1,358,000
enormous v War pensions at lives.
influence. enormous cost v War
v US enriched by v War almost pensions
the war. ruined economy enormous
v Lost 114,095 for Britain. cost.
lives. v War
destroyed
factories,
farmland,
forests.
HOME v Republicans won v Just won Khaki v France had
FRONT recent Election end of suffered
INFLUENCE Congressional 1918, more than
elections à not highlighting Britain à
strong support in victory in War, more
US strong mood to pressure to
v Isolationism ‘make Germany punish and
undermined his pay’. weaken
own Germany.
internationalism.
SECURITY v US under no v Once German v Germany
threat. navy was was a long

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 v Agreed to the destroyed, term threat.
return of Alsace Britain had little v Sought to
and Lorraine to to fear. weaken
France. v Did not want to Germany by
v Offered France see Germany setting up
security weakened to Rhineland
guarantee. France could border
v Felt that League dominate. region as
of Nations would v Opposed the separate
safeguard all separation of state.
nations against Rhineland v France was
aggression. v Offered to largely left
support Wilson to defend
in safeguarding itself.
French borders.
NATIONAL- v Wilson gave way v In carving up v New borders
ISM AND to Britain and Germany and seen as a
INTERNATI- France in many Turkey’s former way of
ONALISM matters but colonies weakening
insisted on the between them, Germany,
establishment of Britain and creating new
the League of France largely allies or
Nations. followed on building
national buffer zone
interest. between
communist
Russia and
the rest of
Europe.
v Little faith in
League of
Nations.
REPRARA- v Recognised that v Sought v Demanded
TIONS Germany should reparations reparations
pay according to from Germany, to cover war
‘capacity to pay’ partly in order damage,
to pay US war pensions and
loans. debt.

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 v Reparations
were also
designed to
punish and
weaken
Germany.

The Versailles Treaty

• Germany was not admitted to the Paris Peace Conference. European
peace decisions were made by a Council of Five (USA, Britain
,France, Italy and Japan), US, Britain and France made most
decisions. Deliberations were mostly in secret.
SOME OUTCOMES:
v Demanded Germany’s full acceptance for starting the war.
v Germany lost around 13% of its territory, millions of ethnic
Germans left living in new nations like Poland and
Czechoslovakia.
v Alsace and Lorraine returned to France.
v Rhineland demilitarised and occupied by Allies for 15 years.
v German colonies awarded to the League of Nations which
distributed them as mandates to various Allied nations.
v Allies assumed control of German fleet.
v German army limited to 100,000.
v Denied heavy artillery, planes and submarines.
v Reparations levied on Germany. First payment was surrender of
merchant fleet, all overseas owned property and coal deliveries.
v Germany and Austria not allowed to unite. Direct contradiction of
Wilson’s ‘right to self-determination’.

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