1. The Western Front 1914 – 1918 Sonja, Bella and Robbe

2. Opening up the Western front in 1914  Germany established the Western front in 1914  This move was a part of Germany's Schlieffen Plan  Reason for Britain to join the war

3. The Schlieffen Plan  The Schlieffen Plan was a strategic plan used by the Germans  The idea was to rush all of Germany's troops through Belgium to catch France by surprise, defeat them quickly and then transport the troops over to face Russia  Germany put the Schlieffen plan into action in August, 1914

4. Why the Schlieffen plan failed  The Schlieffen plan relied on the two assumptions  Belgian resistance  The British joining the war  The failure of the Schlieffen plan resulted in Germany's defeat against the French at the First Battle of Marne, in September 1914

5. How Germany's failure caused the era of trench warfare  The failure of the Schlieffen plan caused the Germans to retreat up North, digging trenches as they went  This established the new ear of trench warfare  The trenches extended to the British channel all the way from the Swiss border

7. Stalemate of 1915  As soon as the trenches were established, stalemate ensued. Neither side was advancing at all in any territory

9. Battle of Verdun  Important French town which the Germans attacked  The French defended stubbornly which forced the Germans to retreat  Massive losses and no territorial gain

10. Battle of Somme  Series of attacks mainly by the British from July to November  Wanted to relieve the pressure on the French and take over some of the trenches  The British did not succeed, massive losses on both side  Led to the fall of the British Prime Minister Asquith, David Lloyd George succeeded

11. The War at Sea  The allies used their navy for the blockade and to keep trade routes open  USA strongly opposed this  Germans retaliated  Germans sunk the ship Lusitania

12. RMS Lusitania

13. The Battle of Jutland  31 May 1916  Main event at sea and the only time when the main battle-fleets engaged with each other  Britain lost 14 ships and Germany 11

14. Unrestricted submarine warfare  Occurred in 1917  Germans had a submarine campaign, focused on producing U-boats and attempted to sink all enemy ships as well as neutral.  They hoped that this would make Britain and France surrender, but their luck turned when this caused USA to join the war.

15. 1917 in the West  Not a successful year for the Allies.  A massive attack in Champagne caused nothing but French mutiny.  British fought the Third Battle of Ypres.  Casualties were enormous  Battle of Cambrai, proved that the use of tanks can be very effective to break the deadlock of the trenches and was seen as a success  Italians were defeated by Austrians and Germans at Caporetto.

17. 1918 – The Final Offensives  Germans needed to attack the front one last time  Germans had 5 attacks  Allies were able to withstand – help from USA  USA backed up the allies with 2.1 million troops

19. Allied attack  Allies launched a counter attack  Allies eliminated the Marne salient of the Germans  Launched the final battle of the First WW – The Hundred Days Offensive  German troops were pushed back and surrendered  The front was pushed back

21. Consequences  The Germans were forced to sue for peace  The Allies were able to conduct peace negotiations – Treaty of Versailles  Germany was bankrupt and the people’s conditions were poor – led to later Nazi party success  France suffered heavy damage in population and industry  French built the Maginot Line

22. Thank You!