War on Two Fronts 1914 – 1918

• When Germany was forced to split its forces the German advance slowed down on each front
• The Germans had great success against the Russians on the Eastern Front
• Generals Hindenburg and Ludendorff of Germany were sent to the Easter Front
• Their experience, combined with their modern weapons enabled them to destroy more that 200 000 Russian soldiers at the Battles of Tannenburg and Masurian Lake.
• One Russian General, Samsonon committed suicide rather than be caught and humiliated by the Germans
• By December, 1914, the threat to Berlin from the Russian army was over
• Russian forces continue to fight but the threat to Germany was minimal
• Russia turned its attention to helping Serbia by attacking Austrian forces with great success
• On the Western Front, the German army could not capture Paris and decided to fight from the trenches outside of Paris
• The Allies – British, French and Canadians responded to this by digging their own trenches and fighting out of them
• The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) could do little to prevent the capture of Belgium, however they did reinforce the French army, preventing Paris from capture
• Early in September , 1914 the battle around the Marne River was fought
• The Allies fought hard to stop the German advance and secure Paris (Miracle at the Marne)
• The trench network began to spread out all across Northern France as one army attempted to go around the other
• Two main features of this war would be
1. stalemate – both armies were deadlocked in one location for long periods of time, unable to make any sizable gains
2. attrition – most of the fighting was futile – long artillery bombardments for days with little or no gains; each side attempted to wear down the other physically and psychologically (creating and slow and grinding war)