An Unpredicted New kind Of Warfare Essay

World struggle iodin continued for four age across a vast and stretching from the English Channel to the northerly Swiss border. In 1914 the prediction was that the war would be over by Christmas. At the beginning of the war, The Germans thought they could capture France ahead invading Russia so preventing a war on two fronts. But because of the failure of tactical maneuver they couldnt succeed, and this was unrivalled of the main reasons the war lasted for such a gigantic period. It was no longer each fount trying to capture the former(a) in the war entirely stopping the enemies movements in trench war and using new technology to s frequently up enemy, if it didnt posterior fire.Defense was now the key to winning the war and was far overlord than the offensive. The trenches were hard to capture by advancing soldiers because of increasing fire power from work guns. Crossing no-mans destroy was committing suicide for the troops as machine guns could chaffer enormous d amage on advancing infantry.The realization of the advantage of vindication resulted in the enhanced rate of advancing technology. This was one of the core reasons for stand upon the Western Front because technology was advancing at such a rapid rate and new inventions were being introduced in a hasty manner. M either of the new inventions were not sufficiently tested and many another(prenominal) of the ideas were not thoroughly thought through which resulted in unnecessary delays. Aircraft at the starting snip of the war was employ primarily for reconnaissance work, spotting enemy trenches and movements before a possible coming. But this alerted the enemys attention and gave them time to prepare resulting in the attackers job being more(prenominal) costly and difficult to undertake. Barbed fit was massed produced on an industrial case by both(prenominal) sides as barbed wire entanglements were unbreakable for troops, stop cavalry in their tracks, and behindhanded troo ps down completely.Attempts were made to destroy barbed wire with shellfire but the barbed wire is just lifted and often ends up in a bigger mess than before. chlorine bobble was first introduced in April 1915 by the German army against the french army. Chlorine gas destroyed your respiratory organs and you had a long slow death. But poisonous gas was an extremely unreliable method of attack as the direction of the wind may change at any time and return the poison in the direction of the attacker killing your own troops. Also, as with many former(a) weapons that were developed it can just be used once to an advantage, as their element of surprise is lost. shove along masks were quickly distributed to both sides and gas was not such a expectant fear as it was first thoughtTanks were invented to be the technical firmness of purpose to the major problem of both barbed wire and machine guns. They had an armor plate to protect troops whilst attacking and caterpillar traction to suffer them to cross-hilly and muddy ground. But the first Mark I tank was a weak and variable weapon. It was used at the Somme in 1916 but incomplete their performance nor numbers could help win the battle. It was not until Cambrai in 1917 that tanks were used on a large scale. They crunched their way over the barbed wire and German trenches creating a grand hole in the German defenses.A General on horseback commanded his armies in battle up until 1914. afterward 1914 telephones were working. Battles could be safely won from far away behind a desk. But though this development in communications may take care a great supremacy, but telephones in reality were useless in attack, because the commanders didnt have a good perspective of the war and didnt know everything as they would be if they were sitting on horse and autocratic the battle which led to troops often pulling back because of miss of communications and broad view of the battle.In 1914 neither the French nor the Briti sh armies were trained for trench warfare. They had to adapt which took them several years and accounted for several of their failures and delays. French generals felt infantry charges were a necessity to win the war in spite of the huge advances in technology. And Germen generals thought that with enough ammunition and man power and gradually wearing down the enemy they would win the war.Eventually in 1917 the French army refused to attack any more, exactly to defend because of the offensive numbers of casualties lost for only a few miles gained. A term to explain this was the cannon fodder. The battle of Somme in 1916 is a good precedent for a shocking case of awful miscalculations by the leadership of both sides Britain lost around 419,000 men for only a strip of land about 25 km long and 6km wide. These huge loses were due to poisonous planning. The men were untrained and sophisticated towards the enemy walking and carrying heavy packs on their backs. These big pushes whic h was a belief shared by British Kitchener and Haig were untarnished execution of sides troops as they were walking corking into machine gun fire.The first World War was the first war between two vastly industrialized economies and factories on both sides mass-produce inconceivable amounts of artillery and ammunition. Industry was under an incredible amount of color and it was not until 1917 that the munitions industry was able to produce adequate quantities of ammunitions. Railways played a major part in the transportation of troops form one area of the western front to the next along with food and other supplies. Both sides were also both able to keep passing play because of the huge numbers of men and supplies continuously brought by trains and trucks. Basically both the primeval powers and allies were never in a drought of resources.At the irruption of war on the Western Front, the Allies and the Germans were relatively equal in their strengths and weaknesses. Bad leadersh ip held up many of the British and French attacks resulting in unnecessary numbers of casualties. Germany spread its men out over many of the fronts not only in the eastern front, but also in the Western Front. One argument is that if perhaps they had concentrated on only one front they may have had a chance of success as opposed to spreading out the troops over a large area.The dead end ended in 1918 when it was broken by eventual(prenominal) collapse of the central powers. It was ultimately attrition that proved the crucial decider but it was a series of events and inventions that had not happened before which gave way to the end result. The molar campaign was important as it brought America into the war with fresh troops and much needed resources and resulted in a huge blow to the German morale.In conclusion, there was no one true reason for deadlock on the western front, but that it was due to several problems. Technology advanced too rapidly, generals were not adequately trai ned for trench warfare. As one quote would say The great war was fought with 20th century weapons and nineteenth century tactics. The war was able to be kept going due to the fact they were both vastly industrialized economies and neither side was able to eliminate the other since and the governments of both sides directed the industries towards mass achievement of uniforms, ammunitions, ships, explosives etc