Race to the Sea and Trench Warfare Begins
Following the First Battle of the Marne in September 1914, the German advance into France was halted. Both sides then attempted to outflank each other to the north in a series of battles — Arras, the Yser, and the First Battle of Ypres (October–November 1914) — that came to be known as the Race to the Sea. Neither side succeeded in breaking through, and by November 1914 the front had solidified into an unbroken line of trenches stretching 700 kilometres from the North Sea coast of Belgium to the Swiss frontier. Soldiers on both sides dug elaborate networks of trenches, dugouts, and barbed wire. The tactical reality of industrial firepower — machine guns, artillery, barbed wire — had made offensive action enormously costly and defensive positions nearly impregnable. The war of rapid manoeuvre that all general staffs had planned for had become a war of attrition that none had prepared for. This static trench system would define the Western Front for the next three and a half years.
- Year: 1914 CE
- Category: Military
