User talk:Mickiemike123

The problem on the Western Front was that both sides were more or less equal: England, France, and Germany were all able to successfully utilize railroads and mass conscription to both raise and then deploy massive armies. Afterwards, the two armies tried desperately to flank each other, with the end result that the trench lines went all the way to the Atlantic coast. During this trench warfare stage, there was no way to attack the enemy except for a massive frontal assault, which even when preceded by artillery bombardment, was doomed to at least horrific casualties if not outright failure. The weapon that ensured its failure was the machine gun. Gunners simply had to mow down the lines of advancing infantry, who were also usually walking over large minefields on their way to the enemy trenches, to either stop their advance or so badly deplete the enemy's numbers, that when they actually reached the enemy wire, they were so badly mauled they would either be slaughtered by the troops in the trenches, or they would be forced to retreat. Germany did have a bit of an advantage because they were the most successful at adapting to the tactics of the new war: aka, they didn't attack that often and usually just let the British and French waste their troops and supplies on foolhardy attacks. However, Germany was unable to exploit this advantage and tactical superiority because they kept having to fight a two front war and because Britain and France could constantly renew their supplies from their overseas colonies, meaning that even though they were suffering a great deal in terms of men and material, they could all be replaced. In the end, Germany was simply too tired to carry on the war and the coming of the US and all of its fresh troops essentially meant that the war was over. The failure of the schlieffen plan meant that the french and british fought a war against the germans at the battle of the marne after french troops marching west from the metz border cut the germans off. The germans only hope was to surround the british and the french so they swept round to the north but the french and british did the same. The war was replaced by a stalemate-neither side could gain any advantage over the other