Thursday, March 7, 2019

Why did stalemate develop on the western front?

Stalemate A deadlock in battle situation where uncomplete side energises any progress. Stalemate occurred in the western front, during 1914-16 because of the threat of the Germans losing well-nigh land caught from the French, which the French regained after a counter-attack. Both countries decided to nurse so therefore dug trenches from the Swiss mountains all the way to the sea. They did this because of the twain the commonplaces had no back plan and couldnt think of another plan. A tho significance is that both armies were closely matched in strength and ammunition, even without like sized armies.During the 1914s trench warfare had certain, instead of what happened in the Battle of the Somme, Generals make precautions to protect their armies. Subsequently after Frances counter-attack to regain the land lost to the Germans, Germany didnt necessity to be pushed back any further, so the Germans decided to dig trenches fancytime from the Swiss mountains all the way to the s ea. It was the race to the sea.An additional reason of wherefore stalemate occurred was the superiority of defence. During the wars beyond the 1914 all the countries did was attack with either shells or running across no mans land with guns. The only defence was the splenetic wire. However after the Battle of the Somme, Private George Coppard said that hundreds of the soldiers had died on the oppositeness wire. He also said The Germans must harbor been reinforcing the wire months. It was so thick that daylight could barley be seen through it.This showed that the Germans had been thinking defensively as well has attackingly. Another defensive based weapon is the simple machine gun, the British and the French underestimated it, further the Germans used it more to a great affect against their Allies. After the attacks, which caused heavy casualties both forces made sure, they had an endless total of machine guns and ammunition. The trenches were also a strong defence as they f urnish troops and kept their territory behind them. During the battle of the Somme the Germans trenches were re-enforced inside with concrete covering that trenches were thought of a defence mechanism.The stalemate could have occurred by the fact that both Generals had a lack of military expertise. General Von Kluck and General Joffe had no back-up plans in case their original plans had failed. Also Generals had been using nineteenth century methods in a 20th century battle show their incompetence of the fighting a war. I know this because General Haig valued to fight a battle with men on horseback showing his lack of skill of being a General.Another potential creator of stalemate is that both Armies were closely matched, but not in size, but in strength, weapons, ammunition and artillery. Both forces had the uniform(p) weapons of defence and attack such as machine gun, barbed wire and shell ammunition. None of the forces had the same amount of troops in their armies as Russia had the largest Army but was soberly organised which gave the Germans a small chance. The French and British Armies combined was a big force but so was the Germans and Austria-Hungarys. Both Armies had adopted the same method of fighting making it even more of a hand-to-hand combat.My conclusion is that stalemate occurred because, not one, but many reasons such as the incompetence of the Generals who didnt have a back up plan so had to make do with trenches, also the way the weapons and way of fighting have changed from all out attack to a defensive encounter, which the generals couldnt figure out. The approximately apparent reason I find is the how trench warfare had developed and the race to the sea, which showed that neither country didnt, was to lose any more territory.

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