In 1941 it defeated the Yugoslav and Greek armies, but did not have the needed weapons for mobile warfare. In 1941 it also defeated the huge Russian army all the way to Moscow, but because of the logistic neglect it was defeated by Russia's endless size and extreme weather, (2world). This demonstrates the strength of the German military mainly through the fact that the Germans were the first to use this effective style of warfare. It validates how the Germans could hit hard, and fast making the use of
Though the odds and numbers were against the British, it was the unorganized planning and overconfidence that led to the British army to ultimately win the battle against Germany. The invasion of France ended in June 1940; it was not until over a month later that Hitler made the decision to invade Britain, because he was unsuccessful in trying to get the British to surrender. The Battle of Britain was not an immediate, necessary battle to Hitler, but because he wanted and would benefit from air superiority, he put forth the effort to fight it anyway. The small number of British forces fueled overconfidence for Germany and
Poison Gas: Most of people assume that poison gas was used first by the German. It’s not really accurate. It was used by the French to stop the seemingly unstoppable German army advancing throughout Belgium and North-Eastern France. In one sense, it was an act of desperation but went against the 'rules' of war. However, while the French were the first to use a gas against an enemy, the Germans had been giving a great deal of thought to the use of poison gas as a way of defeating enemy.
How effective were the weapons used in World War I in breaking stalemate? With the collapse of the Schlieffen Plan and the Battle of the Marne soon after cemented the obliteration of thought that a swift and decisive victory from either Allied or Central powers could be achieved and that a war of movement has virtually come to an end. The development of trench warfare and the completely foreign concept of a war of attrition played a significant role in the path the Great War took. The development and utilisation of modern weaponry was thought to break stalemate but due to the nature of said weapons, it ensured the prolonging of a ‘static war’. Despite being crucial to the war effort, Rifles and machine guns did very little to break stalemate during World War I.
The Americans suffered weeks of heavy artillery and gas from the Germans. The Germans were very concerned about the U.S. being involved in the war, so they tried to single out American divisions for extra bombing. After surviving
By the end of 1918 there were several reasons why the stalemate was broken and allowed the Triple Entente to carry on gaining land. The first reason is they brought in new weapons and artillery; this helped us because it shocked the Germans and they knew they weren’t as well equipped as us. A new tank was developed which was much improved from the last one and it could cross trenches easily and could crush barbed wire instead of twisting it more and making it even harder to get through they were smashing obstructions’ so the infantry could advance. New technology made the tanks have a harder shell so no machine guns or grenades could penetrate its skin and the most pressing problem was how to ‘overcome the enemy’s machine guns’ which were responsible for the stalemate. For them to be effective they needed to be used in large quantities, and that’s what they did.
A Study into the Stalemate on the Western Front and the Factors Responsible for it’s End In this essay I shall explain how far I agree with this statement: 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 German offensive in March 1918 • The blockading of the German ports. The first significant advance in technology was the tank, first introduced into the war by the allies at the Somme July 1916. The tank held many advantages; it was very well armoured and most German fire could not penetrate the tanks armour, it provided constant machine gun fire, could easily move over barbed wire, the tank could protect soldiers and reduced the loss of soldiers and it provided a great boost to the morale of the Allies. However the tank equally had a number of disadvantages; it moved very slowly with a maximum speed of four miles per hour, it was very loud and the Germans were given lots of warning when a tank was coming, they were an easy target and were very difficult to manouvere, they had no gun turret so in order to aim and fire soldiers had to expose themselves, the infantry ended up advancing too fast for the tanks too keep up and eventually the Germans found that they could easily be immobilised by destroying the large steering rotor on the back of the tank and managed to penetrate the heavy armour with armour piercing machine gun rounds. Despite all these liabilities the tank did prove to be important in breaking the stalemate.
The Beginnings of Trench Warfare Trench warfare was first started by the Germans. They were using the Schlieffen plan which was to attack France whilst leaving a smaller force on the Eastern Front. They succeeded at first but then had some failures, especially at the Battle of the Marne which stopped them going forward as quickly as they wanted to. On September 10th 1914 general Moltke ordered the Germans to retreat. He wanted them to go back to the river Aisne which they did, forming a 250-mile stretch along the river.
From “War of Movement” to “Stalemate” The Schlieffen Plan: * Germans believed they could win the war quickly. 1905, General Chief of Staff Alfred von Schlieffen planned a way of preventing Germany from fighting a war on two fronts. He believed that it was a priority to defeat France quickly, forcing them to surrender before Russia had a chance to mobilise her armed forces * Helmuth von Moltke revised/modified the plan, less prepared to take risks than Schlieffen – lacked faith in elements of the original plan. * Execution of Schlieffen Plan led to Britain declaring war on Germany and honouring alliance/agreement guaranteeing protection of Belgian neutrality and territory against invasion, 4th August 1914. * Moltke changed ratio of number of troops in right wing to left wing from 7:1 to 3:1 as he thought the left wing were too small and might be over-run and forced back by French forces; weakened the main strike force by diverting more German troops reinforcing Eastern Front from right wing to support Austria-Hungary * Right wing (main attack force) of the German army would mobilise in massive strength (north) and invade France through neutral Belgium * Smaller left wing (decoy/diversion) would hold French army on Rhine border against unexpected attack through Alsace-Lorraine * French Plan 17 went to German hands.
In time, however, technology began to produce new offensive weapons, such as gas warfare and the tank. [46] After the First Battle of the Marne (5–12 September 1914), both Entente and German forces began a series of outflanking manoeuvres, in the so-called "Race to the Sea". Britain and France soon found themselves facing an uninterrupted line of entrenched German forces from Lorraine to Belgium's coast. [14] Britain and France sought to take the offensive, while Germany defended the occupied territories. Consequently, German trenches were much better constructed than those of their enemy; Anglo-French trenches were only intended to be "temporary" before their forces broke through German defences.