WWI- Western Front

Germany attempted a version of the Von Schlieffen Plan

Their advance was stopped short at the Battle of the Marne

What was war in the West like?

It turned into a stalemate (tie)

Allies & Central Power Trenches

They dug elaborate long lines that stretched from the English Channel to Switzerland

Massive Assaults Launched on the Trenches by Military Leaders

sacrificed hundreds of thousands of soldiers for minimal territorial gains (could often be measured in hundreds of yards)

Two major battles

-Battle of Verdun

-The Somme

Battle of Verdun (1916)

-Germany attacked the French fortress of Verdun (fighting lasted ten months→longest battle of the war)

-French had 542,000 casualties

-Germany had 430,000 casualties

-French regained control of the Fortress

The Somme (1916)

-A British Offensive

-Britain captured 125 square miles (with 420,000 British casualties)

-194,000 French casualties

-450,000 German casualties

New Weapons

-airplanes, poison gas, tanks, machine guns, submarines

-machine guns made the military tactics obsolete (took military leaders almost the whole war to abandon these tactics)

March, 1918- Germany launched an attack

-They wanted to win before U.S. troops arrived

-The attack stalled when U.S. troops began arriving in May

The US sent a force to Europe (under command of General Pershing)

US troops served with distinction at the battles of Chateau:

→Thierry

→Belleau Wood

→Cantigny

Affects of the British Blockade

-Conditions were worsening in Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman Empire

-There were food riots Uprisings

11th day of the 11th hour of the 11th month

an armistice was signed to end the fighting