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Western Front: 1915 – 1917: Stalemate
Operations in 1915
1. British Expansion
2. German Plans
3. Battle of Neuve-Chapelle
4. Second Battle of Ypres
5. Second Battle of Artois
6. Autumn Offensives
World War One - Operations in 1915
Short Summary:
OPERATIONS ON THE WESTERN FRONT, 1915 AND 1916. During
1915 the Germans concentrated their efforts against Russia while defending
themselves on the western front. The Allies made a series of limited
attacks but without success. At the Second Battle of Ypres the Germans
introduced poison (chlorine) gas to modern warfare. By the end of the
year the line had not changed more than three miles at any point. In
1916 the Germans launched the bloody battle of attrition at Verdun,
and the Allies undertook their equally costly offensive on the Somme.
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British Expansion
At the opening of 1915 the British Expeditionary Force
(BEF) had been expanded from the original 6 divisions to a total of
only 10, but in the course of that year its strength was raised to 37
divisions. While these included 2 Canadian divisions, the forces of
Australia and New Zealand had been sent to Africa to oppose the Turks
in Egypt. In South Africa, General. Louis Botha had to suppress a brief
but painful revolt before he could fight the Germans in German Southwest
Africa. The strength of the French on their own soil was 107 divisions,
and that of the Germans 94. The majority of the remaining 65 German
divisions were in Russia. Thus the main burden of the war in the west
was being carried by France, and Britain, as the junior partner, was
not able to make her voice heard in strategic matters.
Reorganization of British arms production began on June
9 with the formation of a Ministry of Munitions, of which David Lloyd
George was the first head. His vigor and persuasiveness in office coincided
with a great improvement in organization and output, for which he was
accorded the credit by popular opinion. While his work was undoubtedly
invaluable, the foundations had been well laid by the master general
of the ordnance at the War Office. Of the guns issued to the army, 1,638
were from Woolwich Arsenal, 1,406 from the United States, and 25,512
from private armament firms. Of 55,000 aircraft, 1,502 came from Royal
Aircraft Establishment factories.
German Plans
The extremely able chief of the German General Staff,
Gen. Erich von Falkenhayn, decided to make the east the principal theater
of war, buttress the Austrians there, and administer to the Russians
a defeat which, if it did not remove them entirely from the war (he
did not believe this was possible) would render them innocuous for a
long time to come. This policy accounts for the shift of German forces
eastward and for the fact that Falkenhayn himself moved to proximity
with the Austrian High Command. It was all the more essential that he
do so because he found it necessary to keep General Erich F. W. Ludendorff,
Hindenburg's chief of staff, and Lt. Col. (later Maj. Gen.) Max Hoffmann,
his director of military operations, under observation. These two generals
intrigued against him and urged Hindenburg to oppose him, and it was
only the implacable will of Falkenhayn and the loyalty with which Emperor
William II supported him that enabled him to prevail.
Battle of Neuve-Chapelle
The northern fringe of the Forest of Ardennes lies about
90 miles east of Arras, and the southern fringe about 25 miles north
of Verdun. The Germans could avail themselves of only one first-class
rail line south of the forest, and those lines which passed through
it were inadequate for the supply of their southern front. The main
burden was therefore borne by the fine railway system north of the Ardennes,
and most of these lines passed through the bottleneck of Liege, between
the forest and the salient formed by Limburg Province of the neutral
Netherlands.
For his next offensive north of Arras to capture Vimy
Ridge, Marshal Joseph Joffre had called on the British to relieve the
two French corps still in the salient formed at the First Battle of
Ypres (leper) in 1914. Field Marshal Sir John French (later 1st Earl
of Ypres) believed that after the relief he would be unable to afford
any adequate assistance to the Artois offensive of his allies, and his
solution of the problem was therefore to attack before the relief. His
First Army commander, Gen. Sir Douglas Haig (later 1st Earl Haig), with
his brilliant staff officer, Brig. Gen. John Edmond Gough, made excellent
preparations for the attack.
The assault on Neuve-Chapelle, which was launched on
March 10, won complete surprise, opening a gap in the enemy's front.
The Germans were unable to launch a counterattack, and such reserves
as reached the scene (four battalions from four different regiments)
were entirely engaged in efforts to patch holes in the line. On the
following day, however, British progress had scarcely begun when the
Germans, who in the course of the night had assembled 16,000 men for
the purpose, launched a belated counterattack. Only at a few points
did it recover any ground, but it achieved its ends by bringing the
British advance to a halt,. and the battle ended on March 13.
Second Battle of Ypres
Falkenhayn was now tempted to make use of his "secret
weapon," poison gas . At 5 P.M. on April 22, after a fierce bombardment,
Algerian tirailleurs were seen in headlong flight toward Ypres, some
pointing to their mouths and croaking the word gaz. The commander of
the British Second Army, Gen. Sir Horace Lockwood Smith-Dorrien, issued
orders for the re-establishment of the front, but the first troops available
consisted only of the reserve Canadian brigade. Though a second gas
attack on April 24 inflicted heavy casualties on the Canadians, they
succeeded in halting the Germans.
On April 27, Smith-Dorrien decided that the time had
come for a voluntary withdrawal to the outskirts of Ypres. When the
order reached headquarters, French told him to turn over his command
to Lt. Gen. Sir Herbert C. O. Plumer (later 1st Viscount Plumer). The
latter issued precisely the same orders as had Smith-Dorrien, however,
and this time French accepted them. The withdrawal began on May 1, and
the battle came to an end after a new German attack on May 2425. British
losses. at Ypres amounted to 60,000, or almost twice the German total
of 35,000. For the next two years the burden of holding the reduced
Ypres salient became almost intolerable.
Second Battle of Artois
On May 9, the French 'launched their long-planned attack
in Artois. Their troops were their best and were inspired by traditional
French elan. Their optimism was justified at the start, when they secured
a foothold on the crest of Vimy Ridge, but this was lost, and the battle
ended in a deadlock on June 18. French losses totaled 100,000, and those
of the Germans 75,000.
Autumn Offensives
A series of offensives in the autumn of 1915 fared little
better. One in Champagne (which became known as the Second Battle of
Champagne) was postponed until September 25 because Gen. Victor L. L.
d'Urbal in Artois estimated that his preparations could not be completed
earlier. The Second Army of Gen. (later Marshal) Philippe Petain and
the Fourth Army of Gen. Fernand L. A. M. de Langle de Cary broke the
German lines, but Falkenhayn's perspicacity and his immediate arrival
on the scene stopped the deep withdrawal contemplated by his subordinates
and restored' the front. The battle ended on November 6. The Artois
offensive ( known as the Third Battle of Artois) , which lasted from
September 25 to October 15, was even less successful, as was that portion
of it fought by the British at Loos.
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