History Revision

• Schlieffen Plan


  1. German forces through Belgium

  2. Quickly knock France out of the war

  3. Send all troops to fight against Russia
• The Germans were slowed down by the Belgian army


  Did not reach Paris in the expected six weeks
• The Russians moved more quickly than expected


  The Germans had to transfer troops to the east
• The French were beaten by the Germans in Alsace-Lorraine


  But they held out at the Battle of the Marne
• The British Expeditionary Force, led by Sir John French, landed in France and met the advancing Germans at Mons on 23 August
• The British troops at Mons were well led by Lieutenant-General Douglas Haig and were using Lee Enfield .303 bolt action rifles
• Walter Bloem: 'We had to go back... A bad defeat, there could be no gainsaying it; in our first battle we had been badly beaten, and by the English - by the English we had so laughed at a few hours before.'
• The French lost over 200,000 men in 12 days when they launched a direct attack on Germany through Alsace-Lorraine
• The German army's advance had been so fast


  Their supplies of food and ammunition could not keep up
• The German army was weary and overstretched


  The French were fighting to save their country
• The combined British and French forces were able to stop the German advance along the line of the River Marne
• They then counter-attacked and pushed the Germans back to the River Aisne
• Neither side could make any progress and by 8 September troops on both sides were digging trenches
• The last part of the advance was very tiring to the men and a good many fell out
• The Germans have brought up strong reinforcements and have a strongly prepared position
• The almost complete loss of the Royal Irish in Le Pilly showed the end of the advance
• The Schlieffen Plan had failed
• Germany was caught up in a two-front war
• The BEF lost around 50,000 men and the Germans probably 100,000 in the first Battle of Ypres
• By November 1914 it was a deadlock and the fighting had reached a stalemate which was to last until 1918
• Sandbags


  • Provided a stronger defence against artillery bombardment
• Features of the trench system

  • Front-line trenches
  • Support trenches
  • No man's land (the area between front-line trenches)
• The trenches are arranged in zig-zag lines, not straight lines
• Getting from headquarters behind the lines (marked X) to the front-line position (marked Y)

  Traverse the trench system
• At the beginning of the war, artillery often bombarded their own forward trenches before they got their range right
• By the end of the war, artillery was much bigger and more accurate
• Artillery tactics became extremely sophisticated by 1918
• A vast part of European industry was given over to making shells for the artillery
• Cavalry became too vulnerable to artillery and machine guns in trench warfare
• Horses and mules remained vital for transporting supplies and equipment
• The infantry charge became the main tactic used in the war
• A major assault


  1. Artillery bombardment of enemy front-line trenches (barrage)

  2. Attacking troops go 'over the top'

  3. Defenders emerge and set up machine guns

  4. Defenders sweep advancing attackers with machine-gun fire
• The machine gun was devastatingly effective against the infantry charge
• The infantry charge was the only attacking strategy the generals had
• As the war continued, the generals tried new tactics, weapons and equipment
• New camouflage techniques were used to protect troops and guns
• Artillery and infantry attacks were better synchronised
• Troops were given gas masks
• The tank was a promising late-war development
• Infantry soldiers spent much of their time on routine tasks like digging and repairing trenches, carrying supplies, sentry duty, and secret listening posts