changing nature of warfare in world war 1
The First World War was one of the first wars to last for many years. Most leaders of the countries involved were under the “Short war illusion. ... ) That the war would be over, as the more advanced weapons would cause great slaughter and therefore the war would end. ... The wars longevity and heavy casualties were a result of the changing nature of warfare. With technological advances, the once mobile war became a stalemate, which led to a long line of trenches being established on the Western Front. ... 1, both sides were mobile with the Germans executing the Schlieffen Plan, (thanks to canned food and railways), which was supposed to capture Paris in the hammer-swing but with the failure of this plan and the “race to the sea”, the war became entrenched on the Western Front. ... By 1915 the war had become a war of attrition, each side trying to wear down the other. ... The wind was blowing at the time about south-west and very little over 1 m. ... Artillery was a crucial weapon in the war on the front with shell fragments and shrapnel pellets contributing to 50. ... ”(From Michael Howard The Franco Prussian War. ... Aircraft were used from the beginning of the war but only for observation of enemy troops. This was due to the fact that they were still considered primitive and unreliable as the first successful aeroplane had only been built 11 years before the war began. ... ” Although aircraft were a technological advantage being able to drop missiles beyond enemy lines, they failed to give any side the advantage to win the war. With the two sides at a stalemate in 1914, the war began to turn towards trench warfare. ... Fighting in the trenches did not mean that you stayed in the trenches for the duration of the war. ... ) With warfare still in the trenches, a means had to be found to break the stalemate. ... It neither stopped our tank nor broke up and wound around the tracks as we had feared but squashed flat…” (From Bryan Cooper, Tank battles of World War 1. ... ” So in conclusion, in can safely be said that warfare on the Western front had many faces, which changed to suit the time and the weapons, Meanwhile with this chang and advancement of weapons, the stalemate could finally be broken eliminating the need for trench warfare.