Why Did Ww1 Last Longer Than Expected

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When WW1 started in 1914, everybody expected it to be “over by Christmas”, why wasn’t it? At the beginning of World War One everyone was expecting an exceedingly short and mobile war, which they thought it would last for two months (therefore explaining that they believed that they would be back before Christmas arrived). One of the reasons as to why the war was extended over their expectations was the use of traditional infantry and cavalry battles, the problem in using these units was that they resulted in stalemates due to the fact that these units on both opposing sides were relatively at the same level of fire power and development stage (in terms of technology, equipment and tactics). Seeing that the traditional battle concept amounted to nothing, except for large number of causalities especially when it came to the men in the cavalry, the Allies and the Germans settled down and dug out various trench systems. the Germans wisely selected ridges and high terrain for fortified defences the higher ground chosen gave the Germans tactical advantages and much better living conditions. The French British and the Canadians dug their trenches in lower terrain that was usually only a few feet above sea level so they got the rats mud lice and the worst of it. Reality set in when the trenches were dug that it was going to be a long war any chance of it being over by Christmas was dashed. While it is true that the start of World War One was greeted with vast amounts of patriotism throughout Europe and the Empire, there were those who were pacifists and refused to have anything to do with the war. The pacifists were few in number (the UK had about 16,000 in total during the war) and would have had no impact on the number of fighting men Britain had in the lead up to conscription. However, despite their lack of numbers, the military and War Office came down
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