New Yearâs Eve on the Western Front
By New Yearâs Eve 1914 a war that was supposed to end before the leaves fell had turned into a stalemate along the entire Western Front.
Following the invasion of Belgium in August and the fall of the Liege forts, the Battle of the Frontiers commenced on August 7 with appalling results. Less than one month later the French, British and German armies had suffered over half a million casualties.
The war was almost won by the Germans at the Battle of the Marne but the French, with crucial British assistance, succeeded in turning the Germans back. Paris and France was saved but another half a million casualties had been lost. The war was hardly 2 months old and a million men had already been killed or injured so badly they could no longer fight.
Trenches at Dodengang, Diksmuide Belgium
October found the Allies and Germans trying to outflank each other in the Race to the Sea. Neither would succeed and the Battle of the Yser and the First Battle of Ypres would be fought. The intentional flooding of the West Flanders countryside with sea water, the birth of the legend of the Kindermord at Langemarck, the heroic actions of the British Old Contemptibles with rifle fire so rapid the Germans thought they were machine guns, and settling into the trenches; the first year of the war would close with another quarter of a million casualties between the two sides.Â
The second year of the war would be one of pointless battles that would cost many lives while resulting in no gain for either side. The Germans, tenaciously holding on to the ground they had gained the previous year, dug their trenches deeper, built bunkers and pillboxes, and constantly reinforced their lines with wire and concrete. The Allies, desperate to throw back the invaders, attacked with ineffective plans and insufficient ammunition.Â
Neuve Chapelle, 20,000 casualties.Â
Second Ypres and the first deployment of poison gas by the Germans, over 100,000 casualties.
Second Artois, over 200,000 casualties.
Second Champagne, another 217,000 casualties.
By New Yearâs Eve, over half a million more men lost. The Germans were still in Belgium and France. The Western Front had not moved any significant amount.
German blockhouse, Aubers France
A year that would make the previous look mild in comparison. If the Ypres Salient was one of the most dangerous places in human history the year 1916 would add two additional locations for consideration.
On February 21 the Germans would attack at Verdun with the goal of âbleeding France whiteâ. The Battle of Verdun wrapped up in mid-December with nearly a million casualties split evenly between the French and Germans.
Allied trench, Beaumont-Hamel France
In order to relieve pressure on the French defending at Verdun the Allies would launch the Battle of the Somme on July 1 and 20,000 British soldiers would be killed in the first minutes of the attack. By November almost 1.2 million casualties would again be split between the two sides of the battle.Â
Once again, on New Yearâs Eve neither side had made any significant progress in either direction during the course of the year.
Something had to change or the war would never end.Â
The Germans pulled back to the Hindenburg Line in February, chopping down every tree, poisoning every well, burning or booby trapping every building and blowing up every road as they moved back to the heavily reinforced positions that they had built in late 1916. It would be very difficult to get them out now.
German trenches at Bayernwald, Heuvelland Belgium
French General Robert Nivelle thought he knew how to break the stalemate and launched his offensive in April. The result was a disaster. Nearly two hundred thousand casualties for the French alone, numerous mutinies among the French troops and the sacking of Nivelle. Petain, the hero of Verdun, would be put in charge of French forces but it would take many months before the army could be reliably sent into battle.
In order to relive pressure on the French the British stepped up with attacks of their own. In May they would be rewarded at Arras with almost 160,000 casualties while the Germans would suffer nearly as many.
In June the British attacked at Messines Belgium. Ten thousand Germans were killed in their trenches and bunkers when 19 huge mines were detonated along the Messines Ridge.
The Battle of Passchedndaele was launched by the British on the last day of July. The weather quickly turned sour. Nearly a million British and German casualties would be suffered as the fighting continued into November with thousands of men sucked under the mud of Flanders, drowned and lost forever.
The United States had entered the war in April but had not deployed troops in any serious numbers yet. The French and the British needed to hang on until the Americans could arrive in force. The British sent tanks into battle for the first time at Cambrai in November and optimism started to grow among the Allies, if they could just keep the Germans back.
Despite Allied optimism there was no sign that this would be the final year of the war.
British trench, Ypres Belgium
On March 21 the Germans launched the Kaiserschlacht (Kaiserâs Battle) in the hopes of defeating the French and British before the Americans could be deployed in heavy numbers. German commander Erich Ludendorff gambled everything he had, throwing his youngest and best trained soldiers into the attack. Early gains were impressive and the German army again threatened Paris. The hope was that the French would seek an armistice but the Germans soon struggled to supply their troops far away from the Hindenburg Line. By July Germany had lost their youngest, bravest and best equipped troops, the Allies had regained the advantage. The Americans were now at the front in force and were making a critical difference. The Germans were impressed with American bravery at Belleau Wood in June and would lose over 10,000 casualties.
At the Second Marne over 300,000 men would be lost as casualties with the Germans losing 30,000 captured as prisoners of war.
An additional 340,000 casualties would be lost by both sides at Soissons in July.
But by this point the tide had indeed turned. At Ameins on August 8, the opening day of the 100 Days Offensive, the Germans suffered a collapse in morale and the loss of 50,000 captured as prisoners. Ludendorff would call this âthe black day of the German Armyâ.
German bunkers l'Abri du Kronprinz, Varennes-en-Argonne, France
The Meuse-Argonne Offensive began on September 26 and would become the largest and deadliest battle in American history. 320,000 casualties would be lost between the Allies and the Germans with nearly 200,000 coming from the American army. The battle continued right up until 11am, November 11 when the armistice took effect.
The Great War cost 40 million military and civilian casualties. Cities along the front were pulverized into rubble, some never to be rebuilt. Governments fell and some countries ceased to exist. Rebuilding from the war would not be complete until well after the conclusion of the Second World War.
The guns fell silent on November 11 1918, but the war was not yet over. It would take the signing of the Treaty of Versailles on June 28 1919 for the Great War to officially end. To follow, a failed attempt at an international body of nations to prevent another catastrophe like the Great War from ever happening again, the arbitrary division of the Middle East by the Allies creating a future of resentment and distrust still prevalent today, a transfer of global economic power from pre-war London to post-war New York City and a simmering anger among German soldiers and citizens feeling that they had been betrayed by some of their own countrymen not loyal to the Fatherland. Peace would last for just 20 years.
However on December 31st 1918, despite the devastation, the Western Front was quiet on New Yearâs Eve for the first time in five years.
Wishing you a happy and peaceful New Year in 2020. Lest we forget.
British trench at Sanctuary Wood, Ypres Belgium