The culmination of Allied counter-attacks restored the front line to the area of the German border and collapsed the Colmar Pocket. Joffre's plan for 1915 was to attack the salient on both flanks to cut it off. Indian Army during World War I - Wikipedia If successful the northern armies were then to capture the German submarine bases on the Belgian coast. Field Marshal Sir Bernard Montgomery, commanding the Anglo-Canadian 21st Army Group, persuaded the Allied High Command to launch a bold attack, Operation Market Garden, which he hoped would get the Allies across the Rhine and create the narrow-front he favoured. Including soldiers killed, wounded or missing, "The Volunteers of the Russian Expeditionary Corps in the Moroccan Division during the Second Battle of Marne", "Chemical Warfare in World War I: The American Experience, 19171918", 1914-1918-online. The second phase consisted of large-scale ground combat (supported by a massive strategic air war considered to be an additional front), which began in June 1944 with the Allied landings in Normandy and continued until the defeat of Germany in May 1945. The French lines at Ypres were shattered when the Germans discharged nearly 200 tons (180,000 kg) of chlorine gas into the Allied trenches. The Africans fighting on Russia's front line in Ukraine German Army GroupG surrendered to US forces at Haar, in Bavaria, on 5 May. [80] The British continued offensive operations as the War Office claimed, with some justice, that this withdrawal resulted from the casualties the Germans received during the Battles of the Somme and Verdun, despite the Allies suffering greater losses. [73] The final phase of the battle took place in October and early November, again producing limited gains with heavy loss of life. [24] The territory occupied by Germany held 64 percent of French pig-iron production, 24 percent of its steel manufacturing and 40 percent of the coal industry dealing a serious blow to French industry. WWI: Life on the western front | NCpedia Secrecy had been compromised and German aircraft gained air superiority, making reconnaissance difficult and in places, the creeping barrage moved too fast for the French troops. World War II Learn about this topic in these articles: D-Day in pictures In D-Day in pictures of paratroopers descended on the Normandy countryside behind the German defenses. [22], The German Army came within 70km (43mi) of Paris but at the First Battle of the Marne (612 September), French and British troops were able to force a German retreat by exploiting a gap which appeared between the 1st and 2nd Armies, ending the German advance into France. All told, the Somme battle had made penetrations of only 8 kilometres (5mi) and failed to reach the original objectives. 1. [27], From 19 October until 22 November, the German forces made their final breakthrough attempt of 1914 during the First Battle of Ypres, which ended in a mutually-costly stalemate. This section of the website reproduces large-scale maps categorised by battlefront covering the key battles and offensives fought from 1914-18. Western Front of World War I - HISTORY CRUNCH Netflix's 'All Quiet on the Western Front' is a 2022 war drama that follows the story of a young German soldier named Paul Baumer. [82], By 1917, the size of the British Army on the Western Front had grown to two-thirds of the size of the French force. Hitler had expected a million men to die in the conquest of France. Philosophy Could Have Been a Lot More Fun. The use of tanks combined with other new advances, such as the use of creeping artillery barrages to cover troops progress across no-mans-land, made true victories seem possible again. 360,000 dead or wounded, and 1,900,000 captured. The German Army Group B commanded by Field Marshal Walther Model was trapped in the Ruhr Pocket and 300,000 soldiers became POWs. While the Western Front remained quiet in April 1940, the fighting between the Allies and the Germans began in earnest with the Norwegian Campaign when the Germans launched Operation Weserbung, the German invasion of Denmark and Norway. [41] French, British and German forces all escalated the use of gas attacks through the rest of the war, developing the more deadly phosgene gas in 1915, then the infamous mustard gas in 1917, which could linger for days and could kill slowly and painfully. Generals Eisenhower and Bradley concluded that pushing beyond the Elbe made no sense since eastern Germany was destined in any case to be occupied by the Red Army. 4 - 25 August 1914 Battlefield locations: Lige Alsace Plain, Alsace Battle and Siege of Lige The Battle and Siege of Lige (4 - 16 August 1914) was the first battle action on the Western Front, fought between the German Imperial Army and the Belgian Army. Ever since the 1890s, Germany had feared that it would face a war on two sides, against Russia in the East, and France in the West. 43,110 Germans killed or missing, 111,640 wounded, no information is provided on any who were captured. By 1918, the western front trenches ran in a four-hundred-mile line through France and Belgium from the North Sea to the Alps. [135] His goal was to cripple the industries of Germany's main European rival. The Saar, which formed the west bank of the Rhine, would be demilitarised and controlled by Britain and France, while the Kiel Canal opened to international traffic. [127], The war in the trenches of the Western Front left tens of thousands of maimed soldiers and war widows. On April 16, 1917, the Allies tried again. The Western Front, a 400-plus mile stretch of land weaving through France and Belgium from the Swiss border to the North Sea, was the decisive front during the First World War. If the British refused to agree to a peace treaty, one option was to invade. Soon after, the Allies were racing across France. The adoption of better tactics and the cumulative weakening of the armies in the west led to the return of mobility in 1918. Both sides lost a combined total of over a half million men during this offensive. Trench warfare in 1914, while not new, quickly improved and provided a very high degree of defense. German reinforcements counter-attacked and pushed the French back towards their starting points because French reserves had been held back and the success of the attack had come as a surprise. This would serve to relieve pressure on the French, as well as the Russians who had also suffered great losses. To prevent similar German attacks in the future, France later built a massive series of fortifications along the German border known as the Maginot Line.[136]. The Canadian Corps relieved the II ANZAC Corps and took the village of Passchendaele on 6 November,[99] despite rain, mud and many casualties. After some of the most intense fighting of the campaign, the hill was taken by the Germans in late May. The Germans launched a second, smaller offensive (Nordwind) into Alsace on 1 January 1945. [126] The terms of the treaty constrained Germany as an economic and military power. While the U.S. Ninth and First Armies held their ground from Magdeburg through Leipzig to western Czechoslovakia, Eisenhower ordered three Allied field armies (1st French, and the U.S. During those 33 months, more than 30 . The Italian front is considered a separate but related theater. [49] However, the impact of German air superiority was diminished by their primarily defensive doctrine in which they tended to remain over their own lines, rather than fighting over Allied held territory. The Armistice of Compigne was quickly signed, stopping hostilities on the Western Front on 11 November 1918, later known as Armistice Day. [81], On 6 April the United States declared war on Germany. Total losses reached an estimated 400,000 men. The British use of tanksnew weapons of war that the Allies had begun developing in early 1915to punch through enemy lines at the Battle of Cambrai (November 20early December) gave the Allies a literal and figurative breakthrough. In May 1940, the Germans launched the Battle of France. The Armistice of Compigne was signed on November 11, 1918, bringing an end to World War I. 10 Significant Battles Of The First World War Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. "Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) Netherlands" (PDF). Initial successes in bad weather, which gave them cover from the Allied air forces, resulted in a German penetration of over 80km (50mi) to within less than 16km (10mi) of the Meuse. On 1 September 1939, World War II began with the German invasion of Poland. The navy was sailed to Scapa Flow under the terms of surrender but was later scuttled as a reaction to the treaty. Ptain's decision to remain temporarily on the defensive after Nivelle's failure gave Haig the opportunity to fulfill his desire for a British offensive in Flanders. The Allies sought to overwhelm German forces with their combined numbers at the river Somme, but the Germans struck first in the region of Verdun, forcing the Allies to alter their plans. In 1914, there had been small-scale attempts by both the French and Germans to use various tear gases, which were not strictly prohibited by the early treaties but which were also ineffective. Niewyk, Donald L. The Columbia Guide to the Holocaust, Columbia University Press, 2000; Statistisches Jahrbuch fr die Bundesrepublik Deutschland 1960 Bonn 1961 p. 78, Bundesarchiv Euthanasie" im Nationalsozialismus, bundesarchiv.de; accessed 5 March 2016.(German). Western Front | World War II | Britannica However, as the breakout took place during Operation Cobra at the western end of the bridge-head, the 21st Army Group that included the British and Canadian forces swung east and headed for Belgium, the Netherlands and Northern Germany, while the U.S. Twelfth Army Group advanced to their south via eastern France, Luxembourg and the Ruhr Area, rapidly fanning out into a broad front. During the Lodz offensive in Poland (1125 November), Falkenhayn hoped that the Russians would be made amenable to peace overtures. As this was the strategy favoured by the Supreme Allied Commander, General Dwight D. Eisenhower, and most of the American high command, it was soon adopted. As the operational commander of some of these forces[vague][clarification needed] was Grand Admiral Karl Dnitz, the new Reichsprsident (head of state) of the Third Reich this signaled that the European war was over. Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt requested permission to withdraw east behind the Rhine, arguing that further resistance would only delay the inevitable, but was ordered by Hitler to fight where his forces stood. A series of engagements known as the Battle of the Frontiers ensued, which included the Battle of Charleroi and the Battle of Mons. There were only some local, minor skirmishes. World War I - Western and Eastern fronts, 1915 | Britannica Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. World War I: The Western Front | naa.gov.au For all the bloody combat that occurred on the Western Front between 1914 and 1918, the front line remained largely static. 2,055,575 German soldiers surrendered between D-Day and 16 April 1945, The Times, 19 April p 4; 755,573 German soldiers surrendered between 1 and 16 April, The Times, 18 April p 4, which means that 1,300,002 German soldiers surrendered to the Western Allies between D-Day and the end of March 1945. [114] A total of 2.1million American troops would be deployed on this front before the war came to an end. In January 1945 the German bridgehead over the river Roer between Heinsberg and Roermond was cleared during Operation Blackcock. The French had spent the summer preparing for this action, with the British assuming control of more of the front to release French troops for the attack. The attack made early progress, advancing 3,2004,100 metres (3,5004,500yd) in places but the tanks had little effect due to their lack of numbers and mechanical unreliability. The name refers to the western side of territory under the control of Germany, which was also fighting on its eastern flank for most of the conflict. Updates? It also inaugurated the cult of the ace, the most famous being Manfred von Richthofen (the Red Baron). The Kriegsmarine, nonetheless, suffered very heavy losses during the two months of fighting required to seize all of mainland Norway. On 3 March 1918, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed and Russia withdrew from the war. At about 6:30 am some 3,000 Allied landing craft began discharging men onto a stretch of beaches between Cherbourg and Le Havre. [87] Planning had been dislocated by the voluntary German withdrawal to the Hindenburg Line. The Allies had been arguing about whether to advance on a broad-front or a narrow-front from before D-Day. These latter groups were not thought worth much effort and were left "to rot", with the exception of Bordeaux, which was liberated in May 1945 by French forces under General Edgard de Larminat (Operation Venerable).[33]. Determined stands were made in April by German forces at Heilbronn, Nuremberg, and Munich but were overcome after several days.[when?] In a campaign now remembered as the Hundred Days Offensive, the Alliesnow buttressed with extensive reinforcements from the United Stateswon a chain of decisive victories, beginning with the Battle of Amiens (August 811). Lige was well fortified and surprised the German Army under Blow with its level of resistance. Since the British had used about one-third of their supply of artillery ammunition, General Sir John French blamed the failure on the Shell Crisis of 1915, despite the early success. The attacks employed massive artillery bombardments and massed infantry advances. The crossing of the Moselle River and the capture of the fortress of Metz proved difficult for the American troops in the face of German reinforcements, supply shortages, and unfavorable weather. A general Allied retreat followed, resulting in more clashes at the Battle of Le Cateau, the Siege of Maubeuge and the Battle of St. Quentin (also called the First Battle of Guise). Seventh Army and French First Army) fought a difficult campaign through the Vosges Mountains that was marked by dogged German resistance and slow advances. The advance then slowed because of supply and communication difficulties. The main offensive was launched on 14 August with the First and Second Armies attacking toward Sarrebourg-Morhange in Lorraine. [52], On 25 September, the British began the Battle of Loos, part of the Third Battle of Artois, which was meant to supplement the larger Champagne attack. Australia on the Western Front. [25] In April 1917 the BEF began the Battle of Arras. The port of Antwerp was liberated on 4 September by the British 11th Armoured Division. Download a PowerPoint presentation of this resource for your class, for KS3-4 upwards. It severely limited the German armed forces by restricting the size of the army to 100,000 and disallowing a navy or air force. Amazon.com: One Young Man The simple and true story of a clerk who The French Plan XVII was intended to bring about the capture of AlsaceLorraine. Page 202, "The Soviet-German War 19411945: Myths and Realities: A Survey Essay", US Army Battle Casualties and Non-battle Deaths in World War 2: Final Report, "The final stages of the naval war in north-west Europe", "12th Army Group Situation Map for 18 April 1945", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Western_Front_(World_War_II)&oldid=1161923687, Occupation of most of Western and Northern Europe by Axis troops, Fall of Nazi Germany (concurrently with the, Liberation of occupied countries in Western and Northern Europe, One was an opportunity taken by US forces when the Germans failed to blow up the, In the Allied 6th Army Group area, the US Seventh Army assaulted across the Rhine in the area between, Gootzen, Har and Connor, Kevin (2006). [128] Belgium suffered 30,000 civilian dead and France 40,000 (including 3,000 merchant sailors). World War I: The Western Front World War I was fought on many fronts, but it was in France and Belgium that the war started and ended - and it was there that the largest number of Australian troops saw action. Original emissaries had no authority to surrender to any of the Allies. The Germans occupied almost as much Russian territory under the provisions of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk as they did in the Second World War but this considerably restricted their troop redeployment. Using short, intense "hurricane" bombardments and infiltration tactics, the German armies moved nearly 100 kilometres (60 miles) to the west, the deepest advance by either side since 1914, but the result was indecisive. [88] Within a week the French suffered 120,000 casualties. The application of "collective responsibility" against a civilian population further galvanised the allies. The Western Front. [64], The Germans turned their focus to Le Mort Homme on the west bank of the Meuse which blocked the route to French artillery emplacements, from which the French fired across the river. The calculated that a successful submarine and warship siege of Britain would force that country out of the war within six months, while American forces would take a year to become a serious factor on the Western Front. Contrary to the myth, anti-aircraft fire claimed more kills than fighters. Eastern Front (World War II) - Wikipedia World War I Timeline: Battles & Major Events - HISTORY The Black Forest and Baden were overrun by the French First Army.[when?] Meanwhile, Germany suffered a more modest 43,110 killed and 111,000 wounded, just a third of the German casualties at Verdun, twenty-four years prior. At its greatest extent, the front ran some 440 miles (700 km) from the Belgian coast at Nieuwpoort, through France, and all the way to the border of Switzerland, just south of the Alsatian village of Pfetterhouse. 10 May 1945, List of Commando raids on the Atlantic Wall, Western Front command tenures (World War II), Learn how and when to remove this template message, George C Marshall, Biennial reports of the Chief of Staff of the United States Army to the Secretary of War: 1 July 193930 June 1945. The Germans had been preparing a massive counter-attack in the West since the Allied breakout from Normandy. By V-E Day, the US 12th Army Group was a force of four armies (First, Third, Ninth and Fifteenth) that numbered over 1.3million men. The Battle of Amiens began two days later, with Franco-British forces spearheaded by Australian and Canadian troops, along with 600 tanks and 800 aircraft. The artillery deployment allowed heavy concentrations of the gas to be used on selected targets. Total German soldiers who surrendered in the West, including 3,404,950 who surrendered after the end of the war, is given as 7,614,790. The German lines were broken, their divisions sent into retreat. Germany knew it would be hard to win a two-sided attack against its enemies, so they devised a plan to knock France quickly out of the war before turning to fight Russia. First World War.com - Battlefield Maps: Western Front The machines carried fascines on their fronts to bridge trenches and the 13-foot-wide (4m) German tank traps. The non-belligerent United States contributed to the Western Allies by discounted sales of military equipment and supplies. Washington, DC: Center of Military History, 1996. In Praise Of All Quiet On The Western Front : r/books - Reddit The majority of the British and elements of the French forces escaped at Dunkirk. While the majority of the German army was mustered for the invasion of the Soviet Union, construction began on the Atlantic Wall a series of defensive fortifications along the French coast of the English Channel. With the growing discontent of the German public due to the food shortages, the government resumed unrestricted submarine warfare in February 1917. [65], Over the summer, the French slowly advanced. Total German casualties between September 1939 to 31 December 1944, on the Western Front for both the army, Waffen SS, and foreign volunteers amounts to 128,030 killed, 399,860 wounded. [115] The rapidly increasing American presence served as a counter for the large numbers of redeployed German forces. But the Allies tanks again proved their mettle at the Second Battle of the Marne (July 1518), stopping the German army in its tracks by smashing through its right flank. [26] Meanwhile, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) occupied a position on the flank, having occupied a more central position.
