Meebs & Jovial's Quest for Power

[southbiochem]

6511 The frontline was stabilized along the Aisne river, but it came to the attention on both parts that controlling the Channel ports was of vital importance to keep France and the BEF supplied..

thus started the so called Race to the Sea

From September till November 1914, the Germans and Allied forces tried to outflank the other while "racing" to reach the coast and engaging in a series of Battles

it wasn't a race per se as not all armies involved started at one point.

Also, on October Antwerp finally fell, and the German forces there went quickly to aid in the race



The race to the sea culminated in the First Battle of Ypres, which was a German attempt to control the gateway to the Channel Ports, albeit unsuccessfuly

[southbiochem]

6512 The Maneuver Warfare had come to a halt.

Germany had failed to conduct the Schlieffen plan and they dug in and entrenched themselves as did the French from the Swiss border to the Somme valley, and the British Expeditionary Force from the Somme valley to the coast, including a bit of Western Belgium



This line remained largely unchanged for the remainded of the war and every engagement of both parts resulted in horrible amount of losses without any significant change in the territory held.

This stalemate would only be broken in 1918 with the action of American troops


A noticeable feature of this time was the Xmas Truce, in which some soldiers from both sides even exchanged gifts

[southbiochem]

6513 1915 saw little significant action, since the Central Powers focused their effort in fighting Russia and Serbia and neither Germans nor Allies could make a decisive breakthrough

Notable events were the Second Battle of Ypres, which saw German use of poison gases and the Vimy Ridge Battle, a failed Allied offensive.

Air warfare was beguin and both side started developing new weaponry.

Continous Allied offensives achieved little more than life losses.

[southbiochem]

6514

By the end of 1915 the Central Powers had achieved significant victories over Russia and finally crushed Serbia.

Russian defeat was so thorough that they couldn't lauch another offensive until 1916 and it was a failure..from now on Russia was not a major actor and subsequently withdrew from the war after the 1917 revolution and the subsequent chaos.


Thus, German troops were again available to be tranfered to the Western front.

1916 was renowned by 2 major battles that resulted in catastrophic casualties

[southbiochem]

Faught from February 21st to December 18th 1916

It started as an German Offensive aimed to capture Verdun and most importantly, to "bleed white" the French Army



German advance was swift but met incredibly stubborn French resistance.

The artillery barrage and frontal assault on both parts resulted in heavy casualties, close to half a millom on both sides



German advance gained territory by August, which some of it French regained by December.


The aftermath saw a German failure to achieve a breakthrough or to obliterate French forces, however, their loses were so heavy that the French Army was effectively neutralized as an offensive force.

Most of the initiative passed on to British and later American forces

[southbiochem]

6516

As an effort to relieve German pressue on the French over Verdun, British forces began an offensive on the Somme river from July 1st till November 18th 1916

As usual, the offensive saw little gain and massive losses

Only on the first day, the British forces suffered som 60000 casualties.

The result for German forces were some 630.000 causalties..

this was a heavy blow as Germany was in no condition to replace those troops

[southbiochem]

Germany and France had been thoroughly weakened in force.

France could no longer sustain large offensives and Germany could not achieve a breakthorugh.

Germany suffered from British blockade, which as a Naval Power, Britain held successfully. Things in the heartland were not going great mainly due to food and supply shortages, which woul eventually be the cause of disturbances in Germany.

Germany considered Britain as a Naval threat alone, but after the Somme, it was clear that their land army was also playing a major role. Quite in fact the initiative that was always held by French alone at the beggining now passed on to British forces.


Germans, weary of more offensives like that of the Somme, retreated back to the Hindenburg Line, thus straighening the frontline.





Also they began an unrestricted submarine warfare aimed to disrupt Britain commere and thus weakening their war waging capabilites.

[southbiochem]

unrestricted subarine warfare came to intefere with American shipping

US declared war on Germany on April 6th, 1917.

However, fresh American troops needed training first, so for now they did not play a large role.

In this year, French tried to conduct the Nivelle Offensive largely unsuccesful and which lead to mutinies within the French forces.

French went on the defensive for months and suspended large-scale attacks

On their part British conducted offensives, namely the Messines Ridge and later the Third Battle of Ypres or Battle of Passchendaele from July to November 1917.



This battle brought German troops to near destruction, but represented an Allied operational failure as Germans did not withdraw

Soon after, on November 20th the British started the Battle of Cambrai which saw the first mass tank attack. It was proved that tank could breach trenches as 2 points on the Hindenburg line were breached, however, Germans regained all ground lost

[southbiochem]

The fact that Italy was facing defeat After the Battle of Caporetto (Italy had joined the Allies in 1917 against Austria-Hungary) meant that British and French troops were sent there to help.

Thus, again, Allies could not achieve any breathrough.

Also, Russia has withdrawn, so German troops were almost completely liberated to go West.

Before Americans could turn the tides (they were arriving at a rate of 300.000 men/month) Germans deviced one last major offensive aimed at knocking French and British forces, thus starting the Spring Offensive in March 21st 1918



This offensive was successful enough to reach the vicinity of Paris again. Allies held, and the large presence of American troops hampered any futher German advance by July 1918.

The offensive came to a halt and was soon facing a counter offensive in the Second Battle of the Marne from July to August 1918

[partis]