CHC2D Canadian History Since World One

Unit 1 Lesson #2
Opening Battles, Trench Warfare & Canada Prepares for War
War Plans
As the European powers moved closer to war they began to develop plans to fight the war.
The most important of the various war plans were the German Schlieffen Plan and the French
Plan XVII.
Frances Plan XVII
French military leaders believed in the doctrine of the offensive.
They were still embarrassed by Frances defeat in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870.
They believed that the key to winning any future war would be in an all out offensive into
Germany by crossing the Rhine river.
The Schlieffen Plan
The German plan, called the Schlieffen Plan, assumed that the French would attack across the
Rhine.
The Schlieffen Plan called for a tactical retreat from this invasion to draw Frances armies into
Germany while the majority of the German army attacked France by going through Belgium &
the Netherlands.

The Schlieffen plan pinned its hopes for success on the far right wing of this encirclement
movement.
According to the plan, the right wing was ordered to swing around behind Paris, capture the
French capital and then trap the attacking French armies at the border between France &
Germany.
This would end the war because the French capital would be captured and their armies would be
in no position to help.

Modifications to the Plan

The person who made the plan, Alfred Von Schlieffen, retired in 1905 and was replaced by
Helmuth von Moltke in 1906.
Von Moltke was not as daring as Schlieffen and he slightly revised the plan by taking units away
from the right wing to reinforce the left wing, the forces that were supposed to be retreating
anyway.

He was afraid of a French breakthrough.

While Schlieffen was willing to gamble to try to win the war quickly, von Moltke was afraid to
loose the war.
His decisions were made not to give Germany the best chance to win the war, but to ensure that
Germany would not loose the war.

Outbreak of War
War was declared after the heir to the Austrian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, was
assassinated in Belgrade by a Serbian terrorist group known as the Black Hand.
The Archduke was killed by Gavrilo Princip, a young Serb who a member of the Black Hand.
Austria, with German support, made demands on Serbia who had Russian support and resisted.
By August, all of Europe was at war.

Countdown to War
June 28 Franz Ferdinand is killed in Sarajevo.
July 23 Austria delivers an ultimatum to the Serbian government demanding an investigation
into their involvement in the assassination plot.
July 28 Ultimatum expires and Austria declares war on Serbia.
July 29 Austria invades Serbia.
August 1 Russia mobilizes its army in support of Serbia, Germany declares war on Russia.
August 3 Germany declares war on France.
August 4 Germany violates Belgian neutrality as it puts the Schlieffen plan into motion, Britain
declares war on Germany.
Opening Battles
The opening series of battles were fought in three main phases:
August 4 to 26 saw the German forces push through Belgium and capture the fortress of Liege
and the cities of Antwerp and Brussels.
August 30 to September 5 saw the German armies enter France and drive toward Paris.
September 6 to 9 was the Battle of the Marne, Frances desperate defence of Paris.
The Battle of the Marne
Nearly defeated within 5 weeks of the start of the War, Frances Chief of the General Staff,
Joseph Joffre, was able to organize the last defence of Paris.
At the Battle of the Marne, fresh French reserves were able to stop the advance of a tired German
army and save France from defeat.
Race for the Sea
After the defeat of the German advance, both sides began to move north.
The French & British hoped to flank the Germans so they could get around them to trap the
German army in a wide circle.
The Germans were attempting to avoid this by extending their front to the north coast of France
in an attempt to hold on to the territory they had already moved through.
Static Warfare
By early October both sides reached the English channel and began preparations to defend the
territory they held.
Soldiers dug in creating fox holes and trenches to protect them from the enemy.
Over time, these individual defences would be extended and connected, creating a series of
trenches along the entire front.
Digging In
The German forces began to prepare defences as they planned to hold on to all territory captured
in the first month of the war.
The simplest defences were fox holes and small trenches.
Once this began to happen, the war became static, it lacked movement.

Stalemate
With neither side able to win a traditional battle of movement in the fall of 1914, a stalemate set
in over the winter.
Both sides took this time to improve their defences and planned to return to offensive operations
when the weather improved in the spring.
Trench Warfare
After the onset of the stalemate the war stabilized into a grand battle between entrenched armies.
These armies were protected by complex systems of trenches, barbed wire and machine gun
nests.
The technology of war in 1914 heavily favoured the defenders, not the attackers.
Artillery
World War I developed into a contest of artillery early on in the war.
Originally designed to destroy fortified positions, artillery became an essential component in the
minds of army leaders.
Artillery was important for the attackers as well as the defenders, but barbed wire and trenches
dug into the mud proved to be much more difficult to destroy than the walls of fortifications
were.
Offensive Tactics
The offensive tactics of World War I were the tactics of the 18th and 19th Century.
Infantry was used in rows 2 to 3 soldiers deep.
They walked toward their target, fired as a group and then charged with bayonets.
World War I era rifles were not easy to re-load and fire quickly.
The Machine Gun
The machine gun made these tactics obsolete.
A single machine gun in a defended pit, called a machine gun nest, could easily kill hundreds of
slowly advancing infantry.
Mounted on a tripod and capable of a rapid rate of fire, a single machine gun was capable of
laying down a wall of bullets in front of the advancing infantry.
Obstacles
What made life more difficult for the infantry were the obstacles they faced in battle.
The constant use of artillery to soften up the enemy trenches combined with wetter than usual
weather created a desolate, muddy wasteland between the opposing lines of trenches.
This area, usually only 100 metres apart, became know as no mans land.
Realties of Trench Warfare
Soldiers were deployed in the trenches constantly, regardless of weather conditions.
Because they were outdoors, their food had to be canned, and usually eaten cold.
Even when large battles were not being fought, artillery fire and enemy snipers made life in the
trenches dangerous.
Trench warfare was cold, dirty and dangerous where fear was a constant emotion felt by soldiers
on both sides.

Canada Prepares for War

Britains declaration of war on August 4, 1914 meant that Canada was also at war with Germany.
Canadians were eager to go off to war and fight in the great crusade in defence of Britain.
By September of 1914 over 30,000 Canadians enlisted in the army.
Providing for the Recruits
The job of providing weapons, uniforms and equipment to the volunteers was left to Sam
Hughes, the Minister of the Militia.
Under Hughes supervision, the government undertook the construction of a training facility at
Valcartier Quebec.
Within a month the camp along with a power plant, water supply, and railroad was built and
ready to begin training the Canadian Expeditionary Force.
Blunders
Although Canada had willing soldiers, the equipment for them was poor.
Orders for basic equipment, like boots, were wrong.
The Ross Rifle, the basic weapon for each soldier, proved useless in the conditions faced by
Canadian soldiers in France.
The Canadian Expeditionary Force
Despite all of the problems of raising an army, by September 23, 1914 all 32,000 of the initial
recruits were ready to be sent to Britain.
Upon arrival in Britain, the Canadian troops began to be trained by the British and spent most of
the winter of 1914/15 in England on Salisbury Plain.
Training & Deployment
The British trained the Canadian troops how to fight a traditional European battle.
The troops practiced marching, moving in formation, and firing en masse.
By February 1915, the Canadians were ready to enter the actual fighting and the 1st Canadian
Division was deployed to a town in Belgium named Ypres as a part of the 2nd British Army.
Conclusions
The European powers both expected and planned for a war to happen at some time.
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand provided the excuse necessary for the war to
begin.
Germany almost won the war by September but the changes to the Schlieffen plan allowed the
French & British to halt the German advance before they reached Paris.

Within a couple of weeks, the war changed into a struggle for position and both sides dug in to
defend themselves.
Static war became trench warfare.
Trench warfare was a hard experience for soldiers even when they were not fighting.
Canadian forces had their first taste of action at the second battle of Ypres in April 1915.
Faced with the first use of chlorine gas, the Canadian forces stunned the world with their brave
defence, earning praise from the king himself.