The Stalemate of World War 1

As a Historian, I'm often asked by people why World War 1 continued through years of stalemate.  Why, when the war bogged down into the trenches, and hundreds of thousands were being killed and wounded every month, did the governments of the nations continue to fight?  

(The spent shells of an Artillery Battery.  This is from approximately a days worth of firing)

There is no easy answer to that question.  Every nation had different reasons for fighting the war.  The Germans became involved in the war because of their alliance with Austria-Hungary.  The British became involved due to the German invasion of Belgium.  These two nations had no direct reason to go to war with one another, but they ended up being two of the core belligerents.  

For the Germans, the war was seen as a way to establish itself as the dominant power in Europe.  The German Emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm II, very passionately argued for war.  As the war progressed, it became less about dominance and more about simply salvaging the war, and making it all seem worthwhile.  Top German generals took over control of Germany, and fought the remainder of the war to save face.

(The Kaiser was essentially powerless after 1916.)

The United Kingdom started the war to fight against German aggression.  The invasion of Belgium gave the U.K. a Casus belli, and they went to war expecting a short, sharp war.  What they got instead was 4 years of bloody struggle and 800,000 dead.  It was rationalized to the public as a war to defend liberty and freedom. 

France entered the war to honor a treaty it had signed with Russia.  This treaty guaranteed that if Germany declared war on Russia, France would attack Germany.  When the German army proved almost unbeatable in the early days of the war, France lost a massive proportion of its industrial capacity, and massive swaths of territory.  Knowing that if they simply surrendered or tried to broker peace they would suffer a national disgrace, they continued to fight on and on.  

(the typical uniform of a French soldier in World War 1)

So while there was no singular reason as to why the war was fought for 4 years, the definite trend seems to be national pride, and saving face.  When these nations started a horrific conflict, they needed to be able to rationalize it to their people, who often times could only see the terrible loses they were suffering, and not the grand strategic aims of the generals.  

In the Air

When the Wright Brothers first flew over Kitty Hawk, they couldn't have imagined how far the airplane would come in the past 100 years.  In the 11 years moving forward, the airplane had yet to be embraced in any large scale capacity yet.  Planes were not yet large enough to carry more than a few people, and in terms of cargo they were not a cost effective way to move goods.  When the war broke out, few countries had organized air-forces, and even fewer had any idea of what to do with the crazy, dangerous flying contraptions?


Initially, they were used as scouts.  They would fly over enemy trenches and take pictures, and count enemy troops.  While they were flying over, enemy troops would fire on them with their machine guns.  Though these guns were not designed to shoot into the air, the airplanes early in the war were not fast, and could easily be shot down by these guns.  To escape this danger, faster and more powerful planes were built.  With these larger engines, they could carry more than just a single man.

Planes that could carry the weight were fitted with machine guns, and directed to shoot down the enemy observer planes.  These planes eventually came to be called Fighters.   Other, larger planes were fitted with more than 1 engine, and could carry massive payloads of explosives.  These planes were called bombers.  As the war progressed, these planes become more and more specialized.  They grew larger, faster, and more deadly.  

(An F-22 Raptor, the most advanced military aircraft in the world today.  IT is the end of the evolutionary line begun in World War 1)

Announcing!

I've got a Youtube Channel!  I'm creating this channel to showcase specific parts of the war that I feel  benefit from a more visual presentation.  I want my blog to be an educational tool for anyone who wants to learn more about the war, and I feel like this is a great way to help that goal along!

I hope to have my first video up by the end of next week, and to be as consistent as I can after that.  I've gotten a lot of good feedback from people, and I feel like this is a way to take my blog and all of the media associated with it to the next level.  I hope you'll check it out!

https://www.youtube.com

and while we're at it, don't forget my twitter page!

https://twitter.com/100yearghost

Last of The Cavalry Charges, October 31st, 1917.

Cavalry is defined as soldiers who go into battle mounted on horses.   Using bows and arrows, swords, or eventually even guns, Cavalry were intended to attack infantry and break up strong groupings of troops.  Using the power of a horse, a group of cavalry could break up the most concentrated army, and scatter them.


Cavalry have been present throughout much of the recorded history of warfare.  From Egypt to Rome, Rome to the Renaissance, Cavalry were a vital part of any army.


With the introduction of guns though, the supremacy of Cavalry was disrupted.  Guns allowed infantry to defeat Cavalry at a distance, completely negating the shock value of a charge.  By the time of the Revolutionary War, Cavalry only came into use to chase away defeated enemy armies, and keep them from reforming.   While important, they were no longer the mainstay of an army.


World War 1 saw most industrialized nations still having large squadrons of Cavalry present in there armies.  The idea of the Infantry defeating an army, and having the cavalry sweep away the survivors persisted in the minds of most generals.  The brutal realities of war shattered this idealistic picture.  Machine guns and artillery killed most Cavalrymen before they could be anywhere the front, and horses suffered greatly during this time.  By 1916, most Cavalry squadrons had either been turned into supply train units, or re-deployed using a newer, more modern mode of transportation.  We'll get to that later however.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P1hhivcs4xg
(This video shows what the Belgian Military went through during the war, and specific mention is payed to the Cavalry.


This is not to say, however that cavalry were not used to some advantage.  In 1917, in Palestine, the English would execute what would be the last large scale Cavalry action in history.

The Egyptian Expeditionary Force in Palestine had been created in Egypt by the British to fight the Ottoman Empire.  Commanded by Edmund Allenby, they met the Ottomans just outside the town of Beersheba.


The town had been surrounded by the EEF, and was being attacked from all sides.  The Ottomans were putting up an effective defense of the town, but due to the constant attacks, a gap soon appeared in their lines.  The Cavalry were ordered into that gap.  Jumping trenches, dodging machine gun fire and shelling, they charged into the heart of the town, and were able to take control.  The Ottoman army was routed, and Cavalry had won the day.


As a closing note, the final Cavalry charge of the War:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJUzPatn0eE