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You are here: UK History > Britain at War > WWI > The Western Front | WWI
Because of technical advances by the start of WWI, which were not available in previous conflicts, there was much more powerful artillery, machine guns and barbed wire which dominated the battlefield and saw the start of trench warfare. In time, other weapons came into play, including tanks and gas warfare.
The First Battle of the Marne in September 1914 saw Allied and German forces unsuccessfully try to gain the upper hand in a campaign that came to be known as the Race to the Sea. By the end of the year, both sides confronted each other along a line of uninterrupted trenches that stretched from the Channel to the Swiss border. The German forces tended to hold the high ground at this time and also built much better trenches, as the Allied forces only intended theirs to be temporary....Read More
Because of technical advances by the start of WWI, which were not available in previous conflicts, there was much more powerful artillery, machine guns and barbed wire which dominated the battlefield and saw the start of trench warfare. In time, other weapons came into play, including tanks and gas warfare.
The First Battle of the Marne in September 1914 saw Allied and German forces unsuccessfully try to gain the upper hand in a campaign that came to be known as the Race to the Sea. By the end of the year, both sides confronted each other along a line of uninterrupted trenches that stretched from the Channel to the Swiss border. The German forces tended to hold the high ground at this time and also built much better trenches, as the Allied forces only intended theirs to be temporary. Chlorine gas was used for the first time the following year at the Second Battle of Ypres. Several types of gas soon became widely used on both sides and became one of the most feared horrors of the trenches.
1915 through to 1917 saw the British Empire and France suffer more casualties than German forces thanks to several unsuccessful campaigns to break through German lines. The Battle of the Somme in 1916 was an Anglo-French offensive and the first day of the battle remains the bloodiest day in the history of the British Army. An estimated 57,470 causalities were recorded, with over 19,000 dying on the first day. It wasn’t just the fighting that led to a loss of life, the living conditions meant that infection and disease were rife, and this, along with lice, trench foot, blindness and burns caused by mustard gas, trench fever and shell shock, which is now more commonly believed to be PTSD all contributed to the loss of life.
WWI wasn’t just fought on land, at the start of the war, the German Empire had a wide range of ships, many of which were used to attack merchant ships. The British Royal Navy systematically hunted them down, but were often too late to prevent casualties. Soon after the outbreak of hostilities, Britain began a naval blockade of Germany, which cut off vital military and civilian supplies. The Battle of Jutland in the summer of 1916 developed into the largest naval battle of the war, it was the only full scale clash of battleships during the war and one of the largest in history.
U-boats were also utilised by German forces and attempted to cut supply lines to Britain and North America. After the sinking of the Lusitania, a passenger ship, in 1915, Germany promised not to target passenger liners and Britain began to militarise their merchant vessels. The U-boat threat lessened in 1917 when merchant ships began to travel in convoy, however by this time, U-Boats had sunk more than 5,000 Allied ships.
WW1 was also the first time aircraft carriers were used in combat.
Following ten months of fighting as part of the Battle of Verdun, Germany attempted to negotiate a peace with the Allies, however, this was rejected. Soon after this, Woodrow Wilson, the president of the United States attempted to intervene, offering peace to both sides and asking for their demands. The negotiations failed and the war would continue for another two years.
The United States would enter the war in April 1917. Though they were a major supplier to the Allies, they remained neutral at the start of the war and only started to become more involved after the sinking of the Lusitania which killed 128 Americans. President Wilson demanded an apology but his re-election campaign prevented him from being more actively involved.
On April 6th 1917, Congress declared war on Germany, though under the guise of an Associated Power rather than as a formal Ally. It also remained outside the Pact of London and was only at war with Germany, not the other Central Powers. At the time, the US army had fewer than 300,000 men, compared to the Allied forces, many of which had several million men per army.
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