Discuss the course of the first two years of World War I:?

Question

Why did many people expect a short war? Why was it not a short war? Why did World War I become a "war of attrition"? Why did the warring nations, worn out by the end of 1916, not make peace?

Answer 1

Absolute h**l on Earth and bloody death in no-mans land.

War as it was fought previous to the static war of WWI was generally not a very long ordeal,months sometimes weeks or days.

A result of war of maneuvere,cavalry and infantry maneuvere to outflank one another,once outflanked enemy force can be quickly surrounded and an end of hostilities follows.

WWI quickly became a stalemate with both sides entrenched for hundreds of miles,with the Central Powers at the beggining having the advantage technologically and geografically.

Large caliber machine guns and high powered highly mobile artillery made the cavalry useless and for that matter any assault by soldiers.

The resulting stalemate became a war of attrition as most any attack against well entrenched enemy would exact a tremendous loss of life and mere meters of ground gained,even then,the counterattacks would usually force the enemy back out of the captured trench.

None of the belligerent nations were ready to throw in the towel in 1916 even after The Somme and Jutland,and the horrendous loss of life and machines of war.

America was finding it increasingly difficult to retain a policy of neutrality.

Germany's policy of unrestricted submarine warfare was provoking unwanted attention from the U.S. government along with some inappropriate communications with Mexico,it was becoming inevitable that the U.S. would soon enter the war.

The allies were banking on this so they were not about to negotiate a peace and have to make compromises with the Central Powers,as they fully expected the U.S. to enter on their side.

This was not good news for Germany and they new that.After the exit of Russia from the war in 1917 Germany prepared for one last great push that would employ the entrenched armies of the western front with armies newly freed from battle on the eastern front after Russia's withdrawl.

Ludendorf's "Kaiserschlacht" "The Emperor's Battle," it was called. It was the last and one of the bloodiest series of battles of WWI. It murdered 240,000 German soldiers in the field, and almost as many on the side of the Allies. That works out to 22,500 men a day that got it between 21 March - 17 July, 1918.

Failure of the Kaiserschlacht was bad news for the central powers as fresh American forces would soon make their appearence on the battlefied.Inexperienced but in huge numbers,with plenty more were that came from,Germany, suffering as badly from attrition as France and Britian faced and allied force replenished with fresh supplies and manpower,faced a grim outcome and decided to ask for armistice.

Answer 2

Different kind of war came out of WWI.  It was no longer a battle field war.  Trench warfare (at least on the western front) ensured that gains were minimal and so the enemies had to outlast each other.

Answer 3

The German generals driving their troops into and across France, turned too early  (Schlieffen Plan) and did not surround and cut off Paris.  They were spotted by a civilian flying a 1909 Bleriot XI, who reported the invasion but was ignored by the military because after all, it was by someone in one of those new fangled airplanes. By the time the French called up their troops, the Germans were within miles of Paris.  The Germans were forced to either dig in or retreat.  They chose to dig in.  From that point on, the war became a stagnant quagmire.

The Germans thought that they could catch the French sleeping at the switch and make a short war of it.  The French had not won a war in over a century, it should have been an easy victory.  As for the Russians, they were thrown into utter confusion.  It was the time of the annual harvest and their military was out in the fields.  They'd been called up, sent home and then called again.  This too, should have been (in the German minds) an easy victory.

The war became a matter of attrition VS real estate because the combatants of all sides were so well dug in.  Add to this, the mind set of the military leaders.  They tried desparately to hold onto the days of the horse mounted calvary charge and the pike, but the dawn of the Tank and the Airplane had arrived.  And, while neither of those new weapons played much of a crucial role in the outcome of the war, it forced change upon those military leaders.  In the 1st Battle of the Somme, they shelled the c**p out of the Germans for well over 24 hours and then, believing they'd "softened them up," blew their whistles and called the common foot soldiers out of their trenches and marched them (in neat columns) into the waiting German machine gun fire.  In the first hour of battle, over 200,000 men died.  Those that refused to try to advance or those who suffered "shell shock" were summarily shot.  The Brit.s shot on average, five a day for "cowardace."  The lines of the battle field moved in inches not miles.

Those worn down by all of the blood shed did not sue for peace due to errogance and national pride.  This was still the time period of the aristocracy.  This was still "opportunity" for the ruling class to prove their metal in battle, have tea at five and still be home in time for dinner.  A classic example of this can be found in the likes of England's Montgomery, who was wounded in battle. In WW II, he was always trying to out best America's Patton.  Montgomery at last came up with Operation Market Garden.  He launched 10,000 men, did not make his objective, lost over 9,000 of those men and still somehow managed the audacity to call it a "Victory."  The French, on whose soil half the war was fought, demanded that the Germans pay with blood.

Answer 4

The tactics used were not appropriate for the weapons they had. Both sides would shell each other for a couple hours and then stop for another hour before they led an infantry charge over the top. So after the shelling stopped they knew that there would be an infantry charge soon.

The reason the war was not not over 'by christmas' as they said was because each side believed the other was weak, partly due to propoganda.

By 1916 Germany was winning against Russia, the Austro-Hungarian Empire was, albeit only slightly, winning against the Italians. The German army had excellent defenses on the Western front and were crushing on the Eastern front. The Russians surrendered in 1917.

No side made peace because they wanted the spoils of war; territory in Africa and Asia and all of its manpower and resources. To end the war and go home with no 'victory' would have for the powers that were, made the war look foolish and pointless with a catastrophic waste of life for no gain.

The war of attrition was the idea that the Allied powers against the central powers had more men and could thus launch battles of, for example a million men against half a million. If they win, they might have casualties of 600 thousand but the Central powers who could ill afford to have losses may have an irrreplaceable loss of 250 thousand.