The Development of a Stalemate on the Western Front

The Development of a Stalemate on the Western Front

The Schlieffen plan did not, it failed to work for various reasons,

some of these being The Russian offensive, German advance east of

Paris, the German exhaustion, Joffres leadership, British involvement,

Belgiumresistance.

In August Germany invaded Belgium and Britain stood by its guarantee

of Belgium's neutrality and declared war on Germany, within a week,

120,000 troops of the British Expeditionary Force had been secretly

shipped to France, this held the Germans up briefly and the British

the retreated to France to help the French. The Germans marched in to

France but they were forced, because of their lack of soldiers, to

sweep east of Paris and they failed to encircle Paris. The French

armies retreating from the German forces were reinforced by they

French troops who had failed to take Alsace-Lorraine under Plan XVII

The Belgium army resisted the German invasion and managed to hold up

the German advance particularly in fortresses such as liege, despite

this though Belgium's capital city fell on 20th August. Russia also

mobilised quicker then Germany had expected and it invaded Germany on

the 17th August, this forced the German commander to transfer troops

from Belgium to the east to fight Russia. The German casualty figures

were so high they were never published.

The General Joffre inspired the French armies to resist Germany and he

rushed reserve troops to the front from Paris using any means

possible. The battle of Marne exhausted Germans and threw then back

from the Marne River and began to dig trenches to defend then selves.

The Germans had failed to capture Paris and they had been stopped at

the Battle of Marne. Both sides now rushed troops north to capture the

channel ports in the 'race to the sea' the germans wanted to capture

the ports as they felt they would be good U-boat bases. The Germans

took Ostend and then captured Antwerp, despite the reinforcements of

British marines. Ypres in Belgium was the recaptured by from the

Germans and the other channel ports were al safely in allied hands.