Lewis Gunner from the Suffolk Regiment on the Western Front.

Overview

At the beginning of the twentieth century Europe was a “tinderbox”; its countries were locked in a series of continental alliances, it’s colonies were expanding, particularly in Africa and one nation, Germany, was trying to establish herself as one of the Great Powers. To achieve this and defend her gains, Germany started to built up her army and navy and in doing so, triggered an arms race. Between 1908 and 1913, the military spending of the European powers increased by fifty percent.

Was history repeating itself in Europe a century later, but with the Germans replacing French? One thing is sure, Graf Alfred von Schlieffen must have studied Napoléon’s strategies and knew that to fight numerically superior forces on two fronts at the same time would lead to defeat, so the order of the day would be to divide and conquer. Von Schlieffen’s strategy called for a holding force to be sent east, whist the main German army would mass to the west for a pre–emptive strike designed to knock out France. Having achieved that, the main German army would then be free to join the holding force in the east and attack Russia before she could mobilise and concentrate her forces. The plan that took von Schlieffen name was not without risk – speed and strength would be key to its success if it were to be used.

The von Schlieffen’s Plan. Blue; French. Red; German.

The assassination on the 28th of June 1914 of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, heir to the Austro–Hungarian Empire, by a Serbian whist on a state visit to the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, was the “spark that lit the tinterbox.” The Austria declaration of war against Serbia led to the activation of the continental alliances, which within weeks saw all of the major European powers at war and gave Germany the excuse to implement von Schlieffen’s plan. (Or the alternative view as described by Baldrick in Blackadder Goes Forth, the war began when “Archie Duke shot an ostrich because he was hungry”.)

By 1913, von Schlieffen could see that tensions were rising in Europe to such a degree, that on his death bed, he reputedly said, “It must come to a fight.”

As France had fortified its borders with Germany, von Schlieffen’s plan was to swing Germany’s main force with its centre of access at the point where France meets Belgium, anticlockwise through neutral Belgium, around to Paris and on to envelope the French Army defending its border with Germany.

When Germany launched its invasion though Belgium, Britain declared war on Germany on the 4th of August 1914 with the stated aim of restoring Belgium’s neutrality. In reality it was more about putting a brake on Germany’s imperial and maritime power and colonial expansion. Britain committed the British Expeditionary Force, (BEF) of just 100,000 men to the cause who took up their positions in Belgium to the left and alongside the French Army.

By comparison to the continental armies who were numbered by the million, the BEF was small – the Kaiser referred to them as this “contemptible little army”. However, whatever they lacked in size, they made up for it with their professionalism and training. So much so, they held–back the Germans with their firepower at Mons and Le Cateau, until overwhelming German numbers forced them back.

The BEF and the French finally halted the German advance along the River Marne. To gain the advantage, both sides then tried to outflank each other in a series of marches towards the north and back into Belgium, which became known as the “Race to the Sea”. With no more flanks to turn, both sides had to stand and fight, which they did at Ypres between the end of October and the beginning of November 1914. This was to become known as the First Battle of Ypres. By the end of November stalemate ensued; exhausted, both armies dug themselves in along a 500 mile front, stretching from the North Sea all the way down to Switzerland. This became known as the Western Front and the start of trench warfare.

War wasn’t to be over by Christmas – it went on for four more long years, with battles like Ypres, Loos, the Somme, Arras, Vimy Ridge, Passchendaele and Combrai to name a few, that have gone down in history together with the men that fought in them from all nations.