The First World War
c) The Following were equally important reasons why the stalemate on the Western Front was finally broken:
new technology like the tank
the American entry into the war
the blockading of German ports
the German offensive in March 1918
Explain how far you agree with this statement.
All of the reasons suggested above do play a part in why the stalemate on the Western Front was finally broken. Although, each reason stated is not equally important and there are other reasons as to why the stalemate did break and these must be considered also.
The first suggested reason to be considered was the use of new technology, yet, however advance the technology was,
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Attack by sea was also encouraged, U-boats were made to destroy import boats, unfortunately most of these boats turned out to be highly armed attack ships in disguise read to destroy the U-boats. Ships that did manage to siege successfully were in effect unsuccessful because of the rationing and recycling efforts made by the British and their allies. So overall, the new technology helped but none of the new weaponry was war winning and most definitely not as important as the other factors to the ending of the stalemate.
The United States entry to the war in April 1917 was due to the Zimmerman telegram intercepted by the British intelligence and this telegram was from Germany to Mexico encouraging Mexico to reclaim states taken from them by America.
The United States entry into the war brought millions of fresh, new, eager men and plentiful supplies. These supplies were all helpful and most of the supplies (as America was and still is a highly technologically advanced country) were of the new technology mentioned earlier. This abundance of new weaponry gave Britain and the allies an edge over the Germans and their allies. The allied troops also found a new inspiration to fight because of the United States entry and so an intense morale boost swept through the troops. America also had immense amounts of money (being the richest country in the world), which they lent to the
It was challenging for the armies to continue the war while having a huge loss because of the guns, thus there was a need of the methods, like trench warfare. Trench warfare reached to its peak usage in WWI and one of the factors affecting that was the achievement in the weapon technology. Specially, MG 08, which is the German version of Maxim machine gun was forced people for trench warfare, otherwise just one machine gun was able to destroy one army of the opposite side. Moreover, in order to defend against the the military ships that has extended range tanks they were using the trenches that are a bit far from the shore, like it was in Dardanelle war. Furthermore, the use of bombs and gas made some issues on the trenches. For instance, with the use of gas, from mid-1915, every trench had some form of warning of gas attack. We can imagine these situations from the memories of Paul Baumer from “All Quite on the Western Front”: Paul mentions that soldiers cannot define bomb sounds from the other sounds and were dying because of shrapnels; This is terrible that because of the limited time, they could not have trainings and they were dying in front of their eyes, because of the lack of experience. Under those circumstances, it is possible to see how the technology caused the transition to trench warfare and how it
The factors that made the Allied victory happen include the Germans beginning to effectively organize industrial production at the very least six months too late to give them a chance at victory. By the time they got the production to be swiftly working on weapons such as fighter planes, the Allies were in firm enough control of the air space. This meant that the Allied bombing prevented the German economy from reaching it’s full potential. Another flaw in the German production meant that tanks such as Tigers and Panthers, of which dominated tactical situations on the battlefield, had logistical and maintenance nightmares. If the Germans were to overcome their problems in production then it would have stood them in much greater stead, giving them an advantage over the Allies.
The help of the United States was the determination on how the war was going to go for the Allies. With the U.S.’s help, the Allies (Britain, France, and the U.S.), were able to come together to defeat the Central Powers. Document 5 was a journal entry written by Corporal Elmer Sherwood, on September 12, 1918 describing the sequence of events in the American offensive and how their victory represented great progress for the Allies. Document 5 says, “Our artillery fire in the first place demoralized enemy resistance, and the Boche [Germans] are surrendering in droves...In the air we are supreme...This time the tables are turned. We see our aviators flying over the retreating enemy, dropping bombs and creating havoc.”. This victory represented progress for the Allies because it shows that they are becoming stronger and more resourceful. Meaning that they are starting to become more capable of defeating other enemies. Leading them to successful victories such as this
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In World War One there were 2 types of warfare that were essential to the outcome of the war and that were a huge benefit to the winning side - war in the air and war at sea. These benefited the allies during the war because they had a superior set of skills in dog fighting but also they had a larger navy to protect and fight against the enemy. But not every aspect of the war was gifted toward the allies, in fact a lot was not. There were many upsets that troubled the allies including the Red Baron and the blockade in England. These other types of warfare also affected the economy at the time, during the war.
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The influence of various theories and concepts on the conduct World War I has generated a range of studies in an attempt to understand how and why World War I was fought. Specifically, Clausewitz’s theories on warfare have come under a considerable amount of scrutiny with regards to their influence on World War I. This scrutiny has led to the ascertation that the protracted and bloody stalemate of World War I was largely due to a stubborn reliance on Clausewitz’s theories. The question that this paper attempts to address is weather the cause of the bloody and protracted
When most people talk about World War I, they typically only talk about the Western front. The Eastern front was entirely different compared to the Western front but equally as ghastly. Nonetheless, the one thing both fronts had in common was the vitality of the German army, which was the only country that fought a two-front war, as it had to fight in the West against the Entrance powers of France and Great Britain and in the East against the Russia. Germany had to bear the brunt of the fighting on both fronts as Austria-Hungry proved incapable of resisting Russian offensives without German support. The support of the Entrance and Central powers’ home fronts were essential to the war efforts and came in multiple forms such as economic assistance or social acceptance. For instance, the West proved to be an effective adversary against the Central Powers as the Entrance Powers’ approach to economic warfare disheartened the Central Powers’ armies and helped undermined their ability to wage total war. Total war demanded total mobilization of all a nation's resources, but what the most important resources were, differed between the two fronts. For example, vast munitions industries had to be built to provide supplies for the stalled armies on the Western front but in the East, providing transportation and the mobility of such transportation was the most significant challenge. While both fronts faced their own unique challenges, overcoming such challenges was key to military
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