World War One - Breaking the Deadlock

World War One - Breaking the Deadlock

Breaking the deadlock - World War One



World War One proved difficult on several occasions, making it a far longer war than intended and a frustrating series of events that often resulted in more causalities than territory, for both the Allied and German forces. This was known as a stalemate, or the deadlock. After the war had dragged on into 1915 the optimistic attitudes began to turn to desperation, turning the war into what was known as a war of attrition. The reasons for this war of attrition, was derived from the tactics/campaigns of desperate, unprepared generals and their attitudes and the terrain and nature of warfare they had to adapt to.

Attrition was the main contributing factor as to why breaking the deadlock was so difficult as it’s aim was to eventually wear down the enemy to the point of exhaustion. However, with both forces attempting this strategy and both forces increasing their defense, the war of attrition was growing more time consuming and fatal by the day. Therefore the need for defense to be intensified on both sides was a necessity. An example of this specifically was by the french in the battle of Verdun, which saw the Germans fail to gain territory in France and over 900 000 casualties all together for both the German and French sides. Not only did the fact this time consuming war mean fatalities, it also meant it would impact of the finances and economic strength of both sides. It was costing more money to continuously provide ammunition, supplies and sliders to the front line, that the budgets predicted prior to the war didn’t account for.

As world war one was a war that was different than those previous to it, it needed new tactics and new ways of fighting. Previous 18th Century tactics, known as the offensive style of warfare, were still in use by the French and British. This certainly didn't help against the German Machine Guns. Also, the Western Allies were significantly better trained and equipped than the Russians...

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