Deadlock

The trench fighting that predominated on the Western Front during the First World War was distinguished not only by its bloodiness and longevity but also by its indecisiveness. For three and a half years between November 1914 and March 1918 the lines moved significantly only once, in the spring of 1917, when a German strategic decision, not an Allied breakthrough, prompted the Kaiser's Field Army to retreat to new positions 20 miles to the rear. The stasis persisted until the German Kaiserschlacht in March 1918, despite great efforts on the part of all belligerents. Major offensives were launched: by the British at Neuve Chapelle, Aubers Ridge and Loos in 1915, on the Somme in 1916 and at Arras and Ypres in 1917, by the French in the Champagne in 1915 and 1917 and by the Germans at Ypres in 1915 and Verdun in 1916. Despite their lack of success these attacks caused enormous suffering and loss of life: casualties on the Somme during the second half of 1916 numbered 419,654 Britons, 204,353 Frenchmen and perhaps 465,000 Germans. During the ten months of fighting at Verdun, the French and Germans suffered a further 315,000 and 281,000 casualties respectively, while losses at the Third Battle of Ypres totalled 200,000 German and 275,000 British troops. By the end of the war, British fatalities had reached 723,000 men, the French had lost 1,398,000 and German fallen numbered 2,037,000.