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The Schlieffen Plan and Deadlock on the Western Front » New Weapons, New Methods and the Reasons for Deadlock

What you'll learn this session

Study time: 30 minutes

Edexcel spec: Paper 2 Section A, Investigation A1, Key topic 3

How machine guns and artillery made attacking so costly
What gas, tanks and aircraft could and could not do
How the creeping barrage was meant to help soldiers cross no man's land
Why neither side could break through for more than three years

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The weapons of defence: machine guns and artillery

From the end of 1914 until the spring of 1918 the Western Front hardly moved. This was deadlock. To see why, start with the two weapons that did most of the killing.

🔫 Machine guns

A machine gun, such as the British Vickers or the German Maxim, could fire about 500 bullets a minute. It was heavy and needed a team of men, so it was hard to carry forward in an attack. But set up in a trench, it could sweep no man's land and cut down lines of advancing soldiers in minutes. A few gun teams that lived through a bombardment could stop a whole attack. The machine gun was above all a weapon for the defender.

💥 Artillery

Artillery means the big guns that fired shells from behind the lines. As you saw in the lesson The Trench System and Life in the Trenches, shellfire was the greatest danger a soldier faced. Shrapnel shells burst in the air and threw out metal balls. High explosive shells smashed trenches. Before an attack the guns fired a long bombardment to cut the enemy's barbed wire and destroy his trenches. As the war went on the guns grew bigger, more numerous and more accurate.

Key terms:

Deadlock: a situation where neither side can win or move forward; also called stalemate
Artillery: large guns that fire explosive shells over long distances
Bombardment: heavy, non-stop shelling of the enemy's positions, usually before an attack
Creeping barrage: a line of shellfire that moves forward in steps, just in front of the attacking soldiers
Reserves: soldiers kept behind the front, ready to be sent wherever they are needed
Attrition: wearing the enemy down by killing more men and using up more supplies than he can replace

New weapons: gas, tanks and aircraft

Both sides hoped that a new weapon would break the deadlock. Each one had some success, but none gave a lasting breakthrough.

💨 Gas

The Germans first used clouds of chlorine gas at Ypres on 22 April 1915. It choked the men who breathed it and opened a gap in the Allied line, but the Germans did not have enough reserves ready to use it. The British used gas at Loos in September 1915, and in places the wind blew it back over their own men. Mustard gas, first used by the Germans in July 1917, burned and blistered the skin and could blind. Gas caused great fear. But gas masks improved quickly, and gas killed far fewer soldiers than shells or bullets did.

🛡️ Tanks

The tank was a British invention: an armoured vehicle on tracks that could crush barbed wire, cross trenches and shrug off machine gun bullets. Tanks were first used in September 1916. They moved at walking pace, often broke down or got stuck in mud, and were hot and full of fumes inside. At Cambrai on 20 November 1917, more than 400 tanks attacked with no long bombardment to warn the enemy. They broke through the German lines on the first day. But there were not enough reserves to follow up, and a German counter-attack won back most of the ground.

✈️ Aircraft

At first aircraft were used for reconnaissance, which means finding out what the enemy is doing. Airmen photographed trenches and told the artillery where its shells were landing. Both sides then built fighter planes to shoot the other side's spotters down. From 1915 fighters carried machine guns that fired forwards through the propeller. Later planes dropped bombs and fired on troops on the ground. Aircraft became the eyes of the army, but they could not capture or hold ground.

New methods: the creeping barrage

Generals also looked for new ways to use the weapons they had. The most important was the creeping barrage, used from 1916.

The guns laid down a line of exploding shells just in front of their own soldiers.
Every few minutes, to a fixed timetable, the line of fire moved forward a short distance.
The soldiers walked close behind it. The shells kept the defenders sheltering in their dugouts until the attackers were almost on top of them.

The method needed careful planning and skilled gunners. If the soldiers were held up by mud or wire, the barrage moved on without them, and the defenders had time to get back to their machine guns. If shells fell short, they hit the attackers. When it worked, it saved many lives. In April 1917 Canadian troops captured Vimy Ridge behind a carefully timed creeping barrage.

Why was there deadlock?

There was no single cause. Several reasons worked together.

Defence was stronger than attack. Attackers had to cross open ground on foot. Defenders were protected by trenches, thick belts of barbed wire and machine guns.
Bombardments did not do their job. Shells often failed to cut the wire or to destroy deep dugouts. Days of shelling also told the enemy exactly where the attack was coming, so surprise was lost. And the shells churned the ground into craters and mud, which slowed the attackers.
Defenders could move faster than attackers. Even when an attack took the front line trench, the enemy brought up reserves by railway to block the gap. The attackers, on foot across broken ground, could not get their own reserves, guns and supplies forward quickly enough.
Poor communications. Once soldiers left their trench, generals lost touch with them. Telephone wires were cut by shellfire, so messages went by runner or pigeon and arrived too late.
No way round and no breakthrough weapon. Remember, the trench line ran from the coast to Switzerland, so there was no open side to go round. Every attack had to go straight at the enemy. Cavalry was helpless against machine guns and wire, and tanks were too few and too unreliable for most of the war.
The two sides were evenly matched. Both had millions of men and huge industries making guns and shells. Neither could be knocked out quickly, so the fighting became a war of attrition.

Common mistakes

Don't say that new weapons caused the deadlock and leave it there. Say which weapons helped the defender (machine guns, artillery and barbed wire) and which were meant to help the attacker (gas, tanks and the creeping barrage). Don't claim that tanks or gas won battles on their own either. Each brought a short success that could not be followed up.

Exam-style question

Describe TWO features of EITHER the use of gas on the Western Front OR the creeping barrage. [6 marks]

Model answer

(Answering on the creeping barrage.) One feature of the creeping barrage was that the artillery fired a line of shells just in front of its own advancing soldiers. The line of fire moved forward a short distance every few minutes, following a fixed timetable, and the soldiers walked close behind it.

A second feature was that it was meant to protect soldiers as they crossed no man's land. The shells kept the defenders in their dugouts, so they could not fire their machine guns until the attackers had almost reached the trench. It did not always work, because if mud or wire held the soldiers up, the barrage moved on without them.

What lifts this to the top level: it gives two clearly separate features of one topic, and each one is backed by precise supporting detail.

Exam tip

Pick the alternative you know more precise facts about, and stick to it. A feature of gas and a feature of the creeping barrage would not count as two features of one topic. For more help, see the Exam Skills lesson Paper 2 Section A Question (a): Describe Two Features.

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