Trenches of the 11th Cheshire Regiment at Ovillers-la-Boisselle, on the Somme, July 1916

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The Western Front was the main theatre of war during the WW1. Following the outbreak of war in August 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The German advance was halted with the Battle of the Marne. Following the Race to the Sea, both sides dug in along a meandering line of fortified trenches, stretching from the North Sea to the Swiss frontier with France, which changed little except during early 1917 and in 1918.

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Between 1915 and 1917 there were several offensives along this front. The attacks employed massive artillery bombardments and massed infantry advances. Entrenchments, machine gun emplacements, barbed wire and artillery repeatedly inflicted severe casualties during attacks and counter-attacks and no significant advances were made. Among the most costly of these offensives were the Battle of Verdun, in 1916, with a combined 700,000 casualties (estimated), the Battle of the Somme, also in 1916, with more than a million casualties (estimated), and the Battle of Passchendaele (Third Battle of Ypres), in 1917, with 487,000 casualties (estimated).

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To break the deadlock of trench warfare on the Western Front, both sides tried new military technology, including poison gas, aircraft, and tanks. The adoption of better tactics and the cumulative weakening of the armies in the west led to the return of mobility in 1918. The German Spring Offensive of 1918 was made possible by the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk that ended the war of the Central Powers against Russia and Romania on the Eastern Front. Using short, intense "Hurricane" bombardments and infiltration tactics, the German armies moved nearly 100 kilometres (60 miles) to the west, the deepest advance by either side since 1914, but the result was indecisive.

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The unstoppable advance of the Allied armies during the Hundred Days Offensive of 1918 caused a sudden collapse of the German armies and persuaded the German commanders that defeat was inevitable.

Source: Wikipedia

Did you know?

On Christmas Eve 1914, at about 4pm, thousands of British, German, Belgian and French soldiers put down their rifles and stepped out of their trenches. They sang carols, exchanged smokes and played soccer. A rare moment of peace in an otherwise brutal war that would eventually claim nearly 40 million casualties.... a Christmas miracle!

'All Together Now'

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The sculpture 'All Together Now', designed by Andy Edwards, on display at St Luke's bombed out church in Liverpool. It represents the moment British and German soldiers stopped fighting to play a game of football on Christmas Day 1914.