THE WAR ON THE

WESTERN FRONT

The Reason
for
Stalemate

REASONS FOR STALEMATE ON THE

WESTERN FRONT
Faults in the
strategies and
implementation of
Plan 17

The roles of
military
commanders,
often led to small
successes in
frontier battles,
however did not
lead to mass
success

Reasons for
Stalemate on
the Western
Front

Faults in the
strategies and
implementation of
the Schlieffen plan
(including
attempts to
salvage the plan,
like Ypres and the
Battle of the
Marne
Weapons and
tactics of modern
warfare

THE SCHLIEFFEN PLAN

Developed by Alfred Von Schlieffen
The Schlieffen plan accepted the inevitability of a
war on two fronts-France and Russia
France was attacked first as it was thought that
Russia would take longer to mobilize her army. One
enemy had to be eliminated
The Plan: after a quick advance through Belgium
and Holland, the German army would encircle Paris.
It was planned that the French would have been
defeated in 6 weeks. It was thought Russia would
attack them in 8 weeks.

PROBLEMS WITH THE SCHLIFFEN

PLAN

What are some

foreseeable problems that
could be experienced with
Germanys Schliffen Plan?

THE BELGIUM ISSUE

1839-treaty signed guaranteeing Belgium as an independent nation.
This was pushed by Belgium as the Belgium coast was Britains
frontier. It was hoped that Belgium would stay neutral, or in the case
of joining the British or French they would be brushed aside.

PLAN 17 AND ITS PROBLEMS

France planned through attack
Germany through Alsace and
Lorraine. An area they had been
historically preoccupied with.
They failed to protect their
boarder with Belgium and
Britain and Belgium only had
small professional armies that
could not protect France if Plan
17 fell through.

OUT-DATED STRATEGIES
These war plans also required their soldiers to
move rapidly and quickly.
The ideas about how a war was fought and won
was not considered in light of the development of
new weapons.
They was an idea that war was always fought on
the offensive. This changed due to the nature of
war during WW1

OUT-DATED STRATEGIES
It was thought that huge armies would sweep
across Europe in four rows, one hundred men deep.
However, these traditional offensive strategies,
with the defensive firepower of new weapons like
the machine gun proved to be inadequate. The
machine gun was the changing factor in the nature
of how war was fought and had the firepower of 4050 well trained riflemen.
The use of modern weapons made progress
virtually impossible and an attack likely to fail.

EARLY ENCOUNTERS OF WAR

Before the war even started, Moltke (Schlieffens
successor in 1906) changed the plans. He wanted
Holland to remain neutral and so planned an attack
on France solely through Belgium.
Within 24 hours of the declaration of war (3rd
August 1914), Germany launched its Schlieffen
plan. The French gathered at the German boarder
ready to attack Alsace-Lorraine, troop ships from
Britain made their way to French ports.

EARLY ENCOUNTERS OF WAR

The 1st, 2nd and 3rd armies poured into Belgium and
the 4th and 5th into Luxemburg
Given Russias quick mobilisation, Moltke diverted
troops away from the armies attacking France and
repositioned them on the Eastern front against
Russia. The number of Germans in the east was
now at 200, 000. 150,000 more than Schlieffen
envisaged sending there is Russia had mobilized
quickly enough. This meant that there might have
been too few troops to encircle Paris.

THE SWINGING GATE ACTION

EARLY ENCOUNTERS OF WAR

When Plan 17 was launched on the 7 August 1917
Von Moltke again reduced the size of the German
armies attacking France to bolster the 6th and 7th
Army.
Von Moltkes weakening of the right wing as well as
the diversion of troops from the Eastern and
Western Fronts had a disastrous impact on the
Schlieffen plan and whilst there were small
individual successes of particular armies, as a
collective there was no major defeat of the French
soldiers.

REACTION OF BELGIUM
Belgium put up a fierce resistance. Belgium's army,
although overpowered continued to harass the
Germans. For example, they managed to protect
Liege, a vital rail juncture from Germanys 2nd army
for 12 days.

BELGIUM AND THE BEF

German invasion of neutral
Belgium outraged the British
public and ensured that Britain
joined the war.
The BEF (British Expeditionary
Force) formed an integral part of
the French plan to defend
Belgium. They were highly trained
and could attack in irregular
speed.
The BEF lacked heavy artillery and
so when the Germans retreated so
did them.

BATTLE OF THE MARNE, 5-9

SEPTEMBER: TOWARDS STALEMATE
Despite deviations from the plan, the Germans
proceeded to march forward to Paris and reached
the River Marne by the 4th September. They came
so close that they could see the Eiffel Tower in the
distance, it seemed that the Schlieffen plan might
work; however they individual actions of some of
the generals saw it sink.

BATTLE OF THE MARNE, 5-9

SEPTEMBER: TOWARDS STALEMATE
Kluck (an ambitious general), instead of going
west to surround Paris he moved east of Paris
towards the Marne. This left the right wing of his
army exposed.
Moltke ordered the German army to retreat back
and set up a defensive line behind the River
Aisne, 60 Km from the Marne. The Schlieffen plan
failed and the armies were left facing each other
encamped on the line of the River Aisne.
Both sides dug in and started building trenches
and machine gun posts to defend their position.

Klucks
army

RACE TO THE SEA, 14 SEPTEMBER18 OCTOBER

The Battle of the Marne and Verdun had saved the
French for the time being. Each side tried to
outflank each other-that is get around the side of
an army to cut each other off. During this attempt
to reach the English Chanel several battles were
fought.
Neither side won the race to the sea and so they
started to dig trenches to stop the other side from
advancing. There was no clear winner of loser.

BATTLE OF YPRES, 18 OCT-22 NOV

1914
Aimed to attack a weak link in the allied forces-the Belgium
army as they were small in numbers at Ypres in attempt to
salvage the Schlieffen plan
22nd October the French army arrived to reinforce the Belgium
and BEF troops
Germans outnumbered their opponents two to one and
conducted a heavy artillery bombardment.
Conditions were terrible-cold, wet and muddy and artillery fire
cut the telephone lines
The cost: Britain: 58,000 men, the French: 50,000 and the
Germans: 130,000.
Both sides dug in at this stage an there were no clear winner
or loser. A few miles of territory were gained but the attack
had been halted.

STALEMATE ON THE WESTERN

FRONT
By November 1914 trenches stretched from the French Alps to the
English Channel.
The Western from was from Flanders in Belgium to the Switzerland
in the south
With little variation in the tactics of fighting the aim of most
countries changed from attack to defence
Soldiers sought dug outs wherever possible-small dips in the
ground, the banks of canals and trenches were dug usually under
fire.
The war became a war of attrition.