Western Front First Year: Neuve Chapelle, First Ypres, Loos

By Joshua Bilton

Germany in the Great War Illustrated Western Front First Year is the latest title in a serial publication by historian Joshua Bilton. Advancing the 'German' perspective (including the Ottoman, Bulgar and Austro-Hungarian), this pictorial account illustrates the order of the Central Powers in 1915. Arranged in six chapters, this book covers events in the west: Neuve Chapelle, First Ypres and Loos. The looting of stores, street demonstrations, riots and strikes on the Home Front, the war to the east and the war at sea and finally, one of the great what ifs of the First World War: Gallipoli a truly international campaign, costing the lives of 130,842 soldiers. For the Central Powers, 1915, was the year offense and quick victory turned to attrition and immobility.This informative text is complemented by over 500, fully captioned, mainly unpublished photographs, authors introduction and a 'German' chronology. A valuable tool for those seeking greater insight into the wider context and conduct of affairs beyond the Western Front and the British standpoint.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Oct 30, 2017
• ISBN: 9781473883659

Joshua Bilton

Josh Bilton is a recent graduate of Kings College London where he studied the History of War. He lives and works in the United Kingdom.

Book preview

Introduction

This book (the second in a five-part series), follows pictorially, by chronology and theatre of operation, the Central Powers in the second year of the Great War. The photographs published come from a number of private collections and explore life and death on all fronts, from the Gebirgskrieg (mountain war), to the costly Entente attacks on the Westfront (Western Front).

1915, although often a ‘forgotten year’ in the Great War, was ‘both formative and seminal for the Central Powers’.¹ Despite facing threats on several fronts, the German, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman armies enjoyed some considerable successes.

Having learnt from the mistakes of 1914, the Central Powers strategic emphasis changed. In the West, the new approach was the antithesis of August 1914; defence in lieu of attack. The German High Command wished to husband resources in order to redirect all available forces to the East. It was hoped that by concentrating on ‘smash[ing]’ the enemy in the East, troops could then be redirected to the west, where it was realised that a breakthrough would be very difficult and would require all resources possible if the stalemate there was to be broken in Germany’s favour.

A huge system of defensive works was therefore developed in the west, keeping the new strategy in mind, stretching from the English Channel to the Swiss border (roughly 450 miles). Trenches were enlarged and made more sophisticated, the defended area widened, so that a front line system became a complex of lines often several hundred metres deep, dugouts were mined deeper, and defensive measures were developed – such as thousands of kilometres of barbed wire being laid out. The result was the reality of a defensive posture – ie almost a semi permanence – about the line in the west; the Germans had the luxury of being able to do this at a time when military technology favoured the defence over the offence, something that would be eroded over the next two years and be considerably reduced by the spring of 1918.

As a result the allied offensives of 1915 on the Western Front made very little headway and achieved no strategic success. The German army, on the other hand, enjoyed more or less constant success – after all, it only launched one major, if limited, offensive in the west during the whole of 1915, at Ypres in the spring. Therefore, 1915 on the Westfront certainly gave the Germans cause for ‘some optimism’.²

To the east, meanwhile, German and Austro-Hungarian forces, buoyed by the arrival of considerable reinforcements as a result of Falkenhayn’s decision to concentrate German offensive activity on the east, fought with renewed vigour. Great successes were achieved with the aid of the troops of the K.u.K., the Imperial and the Royal Austro-Hungarian army: the Russians were routed and ejected from East Prussia, Poland, Lithuania, western Belarus and northwest Ukraine. 174,000 Serbians were captured (of whom 70,000 were wounded) and an estimated 2,540,000 Russian soldiers killed, wounded and or taken prisoner. A further, 250,000 Italians were similarly maimed.

German and Austro-Hungarian casualties were slight by comparison, 960,631 combined. The year was rounded off by further success, and good news; Bulgaria entered the war on the side of the Central Powers. Her arrival was greatly to assist the Austrian drive in Central and southwest Europe; Entente forces were expelled from large tracts of the region, in a series of significant victories.

The story was somewhat different to the east (Asia), and the southwest (Africa), however: German power was in rapid decline. By the end of 1914 the German enclave at Tsingtao (China) had been overrun. In Africa the German colonies in west, east and southwest Africa were being rapidly overrun. In an effort to halt the rot, German Schutztruppe, a mixture of recruited nomadic tribesmen and German volunteer settlers with a small body of regular troops and sailors effectively fought a guerrilla war against the various allied forces pitted against them. Their efforts were, however, to be largely unsuccessful, and by the end of 1915 allied forces occupied much of German East Africa, all of South West Africa and Kamerun was reduced to the odd enclave.

The Home Front came under increasing pressure as the year progressed. Due to the economic blockade imposed by the Royal Navy, many changes to daily life occurred on the Home Front. Rationing was now widespread, call-ups for military service inevitably rising at the expense of usual civic activity, whilst ersatz produce (substitute foodstuffs made from all manner of ingredients, including pigeon droppings, sawdust in lieu of wheat, and nettles in place of cotton) became commonplace. Though neither pleasant in taste nor particularly nourishing, the ersatz produce was nonetheless essential to the health and welfare of the German and Austro-Hungarian populations who, owing in the absence of their usual diet, would otherwise starve. The adverse impact of the war on those at home was becoming increasingly evident.

Military expenditure (and the associated huge increase in the production of munitions) was the absolute priority of the governments of the Central Powers. In Germany it had risen from $2,920,000 to $5,836,000 (per year); in 1915–16 all the government accounts were consolidated into an extraordinary account in order to fund the German war effort. Similar accounts were also set up in Bulgaria and, indeed, Russia. By way of example, in February 1915, 486,755 shells were produced in Germany and in June alone a million shells were manufactured. Unlike the British, the German army did not suffer a major munitions crisis: there was an adequate supply of shells in 1915.

German industry also produced thousands of bombs, for use by either plane and or dirigible. German aircrew dropped thirty-seven metric tons of such ordnance on English urban areas, including Hull, London, Great Yarmouth, King’s Lynn, Ashford and Tyneside during 1915. Zeppelin raids killed 181 people and injured a further 455.

At sea, German U-boats seemingly attacked allied craft with impunity, sinking 750,000 tons of shipping (mostly British) for the loss of only twelve long-range boats. Several neutral vessels were also sunk, including SS Arabic, the Dutch steamer Katwijk and RMS Lusitania, a passenger liner destined for Liverpool, travelling from New York. She was carrying 1,900 people; 1,198 perished.

Some consider the tragedy a war crime. However, Germany had not only declared the waters surrounding the United Kingdom a war zone but had even placed an advertisement in America (from where the ship had set sail) warning citizens of the dangers of sailing aboard the Lusitania. It remains a controversial subject, owing to the number of citizens of neutral countries killed; yet it is perhaps worth considering the impact that the British economic blockade had on the Central Powers: 700,000 German and Austro-Hungarian citizens died of starvation as a consequence of the allied