How did the way the first world war was conducted change from 1914 to 1918?

Answer 1

WWI started out with troops moving in lines out in the open, heading towards each other. When these lines of opposing troops met it was the introduction of the modern, reliable, and man portable machine guns that stopped these troops cold. The military leadership at the time had never developed an effective response to the machine gun. The troops dug in and over time connected foxholes which became trench lines. A whole unique set of techniques were quickly developed to fight this new trench warfare, which would be a discusion all on its own. Attacking the heavily fortified trenchs was very costly and these attacks would generally peter out as the attackers troops were decimated and then quickly hit with a counerattack and pushed back. Though there were successful attacks in the war there was not a lot of movement and the trench lines did not move much. The rest of the war was pretty much fought this way until the introduction of the tanks. Two techonologies were introduced that had some success at breaking the static trench war fare, gas and tanks. Both sides quickly developed defenses against gas attacks and as horrible as they were on the troops, after early successes it wasn't all that effective at breaking the stallmate. The tank was a movable fortress that allowed a limited war of movement. When the leadership decided to mass the tanks in an attack they could punch big holes at will in the oppostions lines but the tank was a new technology and very unreliable. They broke down quickly and the attack would usually bog down because of it. But we see the change from a war of movement, to a static war, back to kind of a war of movement due to the introduction of a new technology.

Aircraft are first introduced into combat. First as observation and reconnascience, they very quickly evolved into the persuit/fighter and bomber role that we are familiar with today.

Both the Germans and the British had built huge fleets of big warships prior to the war and after the Battle of Jutland the German Grand fleet retired to port and never again went to sea to challange the British High Seas fleet for suprmacy at sea. The ocean was effectively closed to the Germans. Someone already mentioned submarines.

Some people suggest that what eventrually became known as the Spanish Flu, which eventually swept the world and killed millions of people, greatly contributed to the end of the war. The troops passed the flu back and forth across the trench lines and the strain developed into a particulary nasty variety. The war wasn't won in a miliary victory so much as the troops just became to exhausted and sick to keep fighting and the Germans collapsed first. When the troops went home they exposed the civilian population to the super flu virus.

Answer 2

October 1914 was wet. It rained constantly for nearly 6 weeks and the battle field became a quagmire. This slowed the momentum of the war and the troops dug in using entrenching tools.
It was then a series of attack and counter-attack for the next 3 years. Heavy losses on all sides and impending economic disaster for the Governments involved.
Tanks were introduced for the 1st time in 1916 at the Battle of the Somme, but it was not the success it was hoped to be.
During the 3 year stalemate, troops went over the top of the trench and advanced on the enemy in a line and WALKING.
They became machine gun fodder and were felled before they got more than 1 meter away from their own trench.
In late 1917 and early 1918 a different way of attack was formed, called the creeping barrage. Troops came out of the trenches, advanced on the enemy in skirmish order, taking cover where they could, running, walking, crawling whatever. In front of them by only a few meters were shells exploding that were fired from behind them. Some were killed by friendly fire, but on the whole the creeping barrage was a success.
The Germans adopted the creeping barrage as well and made huge lightening advances on the British. But because their barrages were so fast, they would out run their supply wagons and ended up without ammunition, food and supplies.
The British would advance and meet no opposition from the exhausted Germans and the war was won.

Answer 3

Poets and filmmakers ignore the changes - but there were changes in the way the British Army fought. The use of artillery, the use of aircraft, and the introduction of tanks were all part of those changes. I have read how the British changed, but I have yet to read any books on how the French and the Germans changed.

Answer 4

inventive mankind developed new ways too kill and murder

such inventiveness included better tactics, better weapons

that and the gradual erosion of Germany's ability to make munitions, and perhaps most importantly provide adequate food for its populations as the men were virtually all at war.

the weapons:
powered flight developed in leaps and bounds over those years... the early planes were pretty rickity, within 4 years there were planes capable of flying the atlantic (just)
the tank allowed armies to get out of the static trench warfare that the had beoicme involved in
the submarine, and techniques to fight submrines (Q Ships)


ill leave the tactics to you and or others

the germans in the immediate aftermath of the war didnt believe that they had been beaten, part of that was played on by the likes of Hitler and others to rebuild Germany.

development of rapid movements, finally reached their zenith in the blitzgreig tactics of the second world war, development of supply and logistics