The Western Front - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

The Western Front

1914 – 1918Sonja, Bella and RobbeSlide2

Opening up the Western front in 1914

Germany established the Western

front in

1914

This

move was a part of Germany's

Schlieffen

Plan

Reason for Britain to join the warSlide3

The Schlieffen Plan

The Schlieffen Plan was a strategic plan used by the Germans

The

idea was to rush all of Germany's troops through Belgium to catch France by surprise, defeat them quickly and then transport the troops over to face

Russia

Germany

put the

Schlieffen

plan into action in August,

1914Slide4

Why the Schlieffen plan failed

The Schlieffen plan relied on the two

assumptions

Belgian resistance

The

British joining the

war

The

failure of the

Schlieffen

plan resulted in Germany's defeat against the French at the First Battle of Marne, in September

1914Slide5

How Germany's failure caused the era of trench warfare

The failure of the Schlieffen plan caused the Germans to retreat up North, digging trenches as they

went

This

established the new ear of trench

warfare

The

trenches extended to the British channel all the way from the Swiss

borderSlide6
Slide7

Stalemate of 1915

As soon as the trenches were established, stalemate ensued. Neither side was advancing at all in any territorySlide8
Slide9

Battle of Verdun

Important French town which the Germans attackedThe

French defended stubbornly which forced the Germans to

retreat

Massive

losses and no territorial gainSlide10

Battle of Somme

Series of attacks mainly by the British from July to November

Wanted

to relieve the pressure on the French and take over some of the

trenches

The

British did not succeed, massive losses on both

side

Led

to the fall of the British Prime Minister Asquith, David Lloyd George succeededSlide11

The War at Sea

The allies used their navy for the blockade and to keep trade routes open USA

strongly opposed

this

Germans

retaliated

Germans

sunk the ship

LusitaniaSlide12

RMS LusitaniaSlide13

The Battle of Jutland

31 May 1916Main

event at sea and the only time when the main battle-fleets engaged with each

other

Britain

lost 14 ships and Germany

11Slide14

Unrestricted submarine warfare

Occurred in 1917Germans

had a submarine campaign, focused on producing U-boats and attempted to sink all enemy ships as well as

neutral.

They

hoped that this would make Britain and France surrender, but their luck turned when this caused USA to join the war.Slide15

1917 in the West

Not a successful year for the Allies.A

massive attack in Champagne caused nothing but French

mutiny.

British

fought the Third Battle of

Ypres.

Casualties

were

enormous

Battle

of

Cambrai

, proved that the use of tanks can be very effective to break the deadlock of the trenches and was seen as a

success

Italians

were defeated by Austrians and Germans at

Caporetto

.Slide16
Slide17

1918 – The Final Offensives

Germans needed to attack the front one last timeGermans had 5 attacks

Allies were able to withstand – help from USA

USA backed up the allies with 2.1 million troopsSlide18
Slide19

Allied attack

Allies launched a counter attackAllies eliminated the Marne salient of the GermansLaunched the final battle of the First WW – The Hundred Days Offensive

German troops were pushed back and surrendered

The front was pushed backSlide20
Slide21

Consequences

The Germans were forced to sue for peaceThe Allies were able to conduct peace negotiations – Treaty of VersaillesGermany was bankrupt and the people’s conditions were poor – led to later Nazi party success

France suffered heavy damage in population and industry

French built the Maginot LineSlide22

Thank You!