What were the main aims of a typical battle during World War I?

Question

What were the main aims of a typical battle during World War I? I need to know!

Answer 1

It really depended on the phase of the war and the theater of operations. For simplicity, I will address only the Western Front.

For example, in the beginning phase, the Germans attempted to take Paris by means of a sweeping through Belgium, only to fail at the battle of the Marne.

This failure resulted in trench warfare from the English Channel to the Swiss border. Due to the strength of defensive weapons, such as machine guns and heavy artillery neither side could advance more than a few hundred meters at a time, and even that at the cost of huge casualties.

The Allies kept searching for the big "breakthrough" to penetrate enemy trench lines and go to mobile war. The battle of the Somme (July-Nov 1916) is an example. The Brits lost something like 60,000 men the first day for an advance of a few hundred yards.

The Germans' objective at Verdun (1916) - another huge battle - was not so much to take territory but to inflict unbearable losses on the French, the strategy of attrition. They nearly suceeded.

Generally, whatever plans the Generals may have had at the time, a battle devolved to taking tactical objectives at or immediately behind the front. A trench line, a set of hills, a crossroads village, or if really ambitious, a supply or rail head.
This was typical of the 1915-1917 period.

It wasn't until late in the war that new innovations such as early tanks (on the Allied side) at Cambrai or infantry "shock" tactics (on the German side) Second Battle of the Marne even began to loosen things up. Eventually the Allies won through American intervention and the collapse of the German war economy.

Answer 2

You need the proper battleground for this, and this will invariably be the one that will cause the fewest deaths (or ideally none at all) and the slightest damage to the side's own population. North Africa? Ideal for this, but here the objective was ultimately the Suez Canal. Whoever would control it would control the Middle East. The Netherlands? You don't think Germany would make an invasion of the homeland possible by depending on the co-operation of the Netherlands, France, or Scandinavia, do you? As in North Africa, you need to expand your sphere of influence if the situation dictates it. Nations in those days were still colonies, so that war waged on their territories was a mere formality. Do you think the Germans could fight the British in Egypt today? Lord, no. Egypt, as is Tunisia, are independent sovereign nations, and there would be more political repercussions these days if battlefields anywhere for foreign armies were used.

Answer 3

do destroy the enemy and make a break in the front

Most of the fighting was an attempt to break the stalemate- punch through the fortified front line and attack with cavalry units (fast moving units) into the unprotected rear of the enemy- thus cutting off supplies and forcing the whole front line to collapse

worked in two instances-
in the Gaza campaign when Turkey was forced to surrender,
in 1918 when German lines were broken by tanks, and Armistice ended the War

Answer 4

Surviving.

Answer 5

Kill people and break things