By 1916, the war was a stalemate What is a stalemate? The Germans began to believe that they could win if they inflicted heavy casualties on the French The Germans decided to select Verdun, which held a direct route to Paris

The battle began on Feb. 21 st 1916 A 9-hour bombardment of 1 million shells preceded the assault The Germans wanted to wage a war of attrition The German commander wanted to “bleed France white.” What does attrition mean? By the time the fighting bogged down, the French lost 120,000 troops, Germans lost 100,000 (December 18 th, 1916; longest)

This battle comprised the main allied attack on the Western Front during 1916 July 1 st 1916 – November 18 th 58,000 British troops were killed on the first day alone The Somme is a river in France This battle was intended to take some German troops away from Verdun Another battle of attrition The battle was preceded by a 5 day long artillery barrage

Following the barrage, the British expected there to be no resistance when they charged the German trenches Clearly they were wrong due to the casualties (58,000) The Somme saw the first tank used in battle When the battle ends November 18 th, the French and British suffer 620,000 casualties; Germany suffers 434,000

Largest naval battle of World War I Germany wanted to stop the British blockade in the North Sea England wanted to deal a decisive blow to the German fleet

England ends up losing more ships and men Germany does not challenge the British navy ever again during the war The Germans start their policy of unrestricted submarine warfare

Shells splashing