The History of~World War 1(Part 2:Begin of Stale Mate)

When we left off from our last page (click here) we talked about how the events in Europe led to the first World War.

This is Part 2 of a 6-part page series about World War 1, and we'll talk about some of the first battles on both fronts in Europe.

## The Western Front

As the Germans invaded Belgium in 1914, and the Belgians were soundly defeated by the aggressive German forces, take Brussels, and with Great Britain joining the Western Alliance because of it. World War 1 is now underway.

But unlike World War 2 after it, the war would start off fast, and then grind to a halt: a stalemate is what it's called.

But how it happened? Well, let's begin.

### Battle of the Le Cateau

On August 26, and after the British and the French retreated from defeats by the Battles of Charleroi and Mons. But they were able to re-group to fight against the Germans in a small French town of Le Cateau.

Unfortunately, the battle of Le Cateau wasn't any better for the Alliance as both British and French forces suffered nearly 8,000 casualties compared to 2,000 German Casualties.

### First Battle of the Marne

With these defeats, the Germans were within striking distance of Paris. The French, who don't want German Boots in their capital (especially after the Franco-Prussian War) they need to halt the German advance. The 3 factions meet at the French river of Marne where 1 Million strong were waiting for the Germans to attack.

After about a week of fighting, and despite suffering more losses than the Germans, the British-French Coalition were able to beat back the Germans and save Paris.

The Germans were forced to retreat to the Aisne River.

Another battle ensued there on September 13. The battle ended in a draw with an unknown amount of casualties.

This is when the Germans were digging Trenches to defend their positions. When the Alliance caught wind of this, they decide to do the same.

These trenches stretched around 1,700 miles from the Northeast coast of France to neutral Switzerland.

This is the beginning of Trench Warfare and the beginning of a long Stalemate on the Western Front. But it wasn't without its moments.

### The Battles of Ypres

In the fields right next to the Belgian town of Ypres (pronounced *"ee-per"*) on October 19. This is the first negative effects of trench warfare where nobody advanced. Not even the Alliance who actually won the battle as they suffered only 58,000 casualties compared to Germany's 130,000. This is largely due to new tactics utilized such as using barbed wire and Maxim Machine Guns behind it as well as artillery shells causing so much death.

The second battle of Ypres (on April of 1915) saw the first widespread use of chemical warfare in order to flush out the entrenched Alliance troops. But were held back because they didn't want to be affected by the gas either.

This delay also allowed for reinforcements to arrive, and the reinforcements came in the form of the Canadian Royal Army, and they defeated the Germans in the Battles of St. Julien, and Kitchener's Wood.

## Eastern Front

There were fierce battles on the Eastern Front as well. Russia caught Germany by surprise as it mobilized its troops sooner than the Germans realized. So, it had to deal with the Russians on the Eastern Front.

On August 17, 1914, The Russians invade a small German town of *Stalluponen*(Modern-day Nesterov) But despite having a head start on the Germans, the Russians lost the battle in just 6 days with 7,000 Casualties in comparison to Germany's 1,000.

Russia had to get a victory over the Central Powers. With Germany busy with France and Britain, it needed it's ally Austria-Hungary to deal with Russia.

Right after their defeat to Germany (on August 23) Russia met with Austrian-Hungarian forces in Galicia. A few weeks of fighting and the Russians scored a victory as the Austrian-Hungarian forces suffered 450,000 casualties and the Russians suffering only 300,000 casualties.

Forces on the Eastern Front also began to make trenches too. So, Now both fronts are locked in a stalemate which would last for a long time.

This war wasn't just fought in Europe. The Western Alliance and the Central Powers fought battles in other parts of the world such as in Africa and Asia too.

That is what we'll talk about in the next page, just click here to continue. Until next time, this is JohnnyOTGS signing out.