The Western Front Flashcards
All 15 cards in this deck
What was the Battle of Verdun (1916)?
A German attack on the French fortress city of Verdun, February–December 1916, aiming to 'bleed France white'; both sides suffered huge losses and neither broke through.
What was the Battle of the Somme (July–November 1916)?
A joint British and French offensive; nearly 60,000 British casualties on the first day and only a few miles gained, with no decisive breakthrough.
What was the Battle of Passchendaele (Third Battle of Ypres, 1917)?
A British offensive in Flanders where heavy rain turned the ground to mud; soldiers drowned in shell craters and only about five miles were gained.
What is a war of attrition?
Wearing the enemy down by inflicting losses on men and resources until they can no longer fight, used because neither side could win a decisive victory in trench warfare.
What was the 'creeping barrage'?
An artillery tactic in which the shellfire moved forward in stages just ahead of the advancing infantry, protecting them as they crossed no man's land.
True or false? Machine guns and barbed wire made it easier to attack a trench than to defend one.
False. New weapons made trenches easier to defend than to breach, which is why the stalemate continued.
Why did heavy artillery bombardments often fail to help attackers break through?
The shellfire did not destroy the trenches and left the barbed wire more tangled, slowing the attackers down.
True or false? The 'race to the sea' in 1914 ended with a continuous line of trenches stretching across Northern France and Belgium.
True. Each side tried to outflank the other northwards; neither succeeded, and the trench line, from the Channel coast to Switzerland, stayed largely fixed until 1918.
Who was Sir Douglas Haig?
The commander of the British army on the Western Front from December 1915 to the end of the war; he led the offensives at the Somme and Passchendaele.
Who was Erich von Falkenhayn?
The head of the German army who planned the attack on Verdun in 1916 as a battle of attrition to wear down the French army.
Give one reason the Battle of the Somme was launched in July 1916.
To relieve the pressure on the French army, which was close to breaking at Verdun, by drawing German troops away.
What happened at Messines in June 1917?
British troops exploded huge mines dug under the German lines on Messines Ridge, capturing the ridge before the main Passchendaele offensive.
When and where was poison gas first used on a large scale on the Western Front?
April 1915, when Germany released chlorine gas against Allied troops at the Second Battle of Ypres.
Give one way aircraft were used on the Western Front.
For reconnaissance: spotting enemy trenches and guns so artillery could target them.
Where and when were tanks first used in battle?
At the Somme in September 1916. Early tanks were slow and often broke down.