Deadlock+-+Commanders

=**HOW THE COMMANDERS TRIED TO BREAK THE STALEMATE AND HOW THEY FAILED**=

**The deadlock on the Western Front was due to the stalemate caused by trench warfare. Many commanders from both sides such as Ferdinand Foch, Sir Douglas Haig, Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff tried to break this stalemate in different ways. There were several reasons why their attempts to break the stalemate failed. ** ** One of the problems with the commanders and a reason why they failed was because they didn’t try to adopt new tactics. The deadlock was a battle of attrition and that meant trying to weaken the other side after numerous battles. Sir Douglas Haig, a commander on the Entente’s side (also known as the butcher of the Somme LINK) believed that in order to win a war of attrition, he had to keep attacking and launching offensives to try to weaken the other side. One of the tactics used was sending troops over the top of the trenches (LINK) to cross no man’s land (the territory between the two opposing trenches) and to capture the other side’s front lines. This tactic proved it’s ineffectiveness quite quickly as machine guns at the front lines (LINK) of the opposing trenches would cut down the soldiers extremely quickly. The blame can be put on the commanders for using the same tactics over and over even after being proved ineffective. There were no effective new tactics used at the Western Front and many failed attempts had been repeated on both sides.This shows that the commanders on both sides had bad judgement, poor decision making and lack of new ideas/tactics as no one had broken the stalemate and continuous offensives were being lost with minor results that didn’t make much difference. ** ** Another of the problems were the beliefs of the commanders. Lord Kitchener, another key figure on the Entente’s side, had started a recruitment drive in the early 1914’s when the war had first started, any men who were willing to join, joined. Commanders like Haig and Foch believed they should utilize all the men that they were being supplied. The majority of these men who joined the army had no experience whatsoever making them practically useless; this was also one of the causes of failure. Most men had joined in groups as well leading to a low morale as they would see people they knew being sent over the top only to be killed by machine guns. ** ** Although there are many reasons for the commanders failing to break the stalemate. It can partially be justified seeing as a battle of attrition had never been fought before at the time and no one knew how to win it. The commanders would’ve had no idea on how to break the stalemate and every decision they made was a risk they decided take. They did not have the hindsight we have now and couldn’t have looked back at the previous situations as there were none so the beliefs that had on how to win the war would definitely differ from the ones we have now. Trench warfare was hard to overcome and the tactics deployed are greatly criticised but some of the fault can be justified as not completely the faults of the commanders. ** ** In conclusion, the commanders played a key part in the deadlock although not all the blame can be put on them. They contributed and started the deadlock in the first place and failed to break it until 1918 but this can be justified because it was a war of attrition and no one knew how to fight it. **