World War 1

(DEEP TRENCH SYSTEMS)

By: Augusto Perez

Stalemate: Trench Warfare on the Western Front

A continuous 750-kilometer front line ran from Switzerland to the English Cannel.
The Western Front was between the French and the Germans as the Germans tried to get to Paris.

Stalemate: Trench Warfare on the Western Front

The western front had millions of casualties, which caused neither side to break through the remainder of the war.

This was a big OPPURTUNITY for the Germans!

German Forces started a surprise march to Paris with in the next nine months from when the Western Front war took place.

Since, the Germans had taken the "lead" many of the Military leadrers assumed that the World War I would be over quickly.

Machine guns

The first reason of the war is the development of military

technology . The machine gun was developed in the

1880s–90s, but technological improvements in the

decade prior to the First World War made it vastly

more lethal, and military strategists had not yet

accounted for this powerful new weapon.

machine guns facts!!!

1) By 1914,

machine guns could fire six hundred bullets per

minute with a range of one kilometer.

2) Manufacturers

found ways to mass produce the guns at low cost

and to make them less cumbersome by reducing their weight through innovations like replacing

heavy water cooling systems with lighter air-cooled

barrels

Military Strategies: Mobility

Mobility was the key to offensives.
Horses could not be protected from machine guns or infantry men : Men with good rifle or machine gun could hit a horse from a mile away.
Feeding and transporting horses was very expensive for the troops.
Horses had been one of the most important aspects of military success for centuries until World War 1.

Technological Advances In Field Artillery

Artillery could clear barbed wire and damage trenches , but it took so long to do so it would lose the element of surprise.

Deep Trench Systems

One of the German's strategies was to dig trenches when fighting at close range which led to stalemates .

Further use of trench warfare

The German Chief of Staff Erich von Falkenhayn, informed the German Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg that the war could not be won, and in order negotiate a peace treaty with Russia, the Chancellor refused, yet Falkenhayn took the defense with the trenches.

Trench Systems were also used by the Germans in the battle of Marne, these trenches were built along the north bank of the Aisne river.