Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
ALL “QUIET” ON THE WESTERN FRONT
The “war by timetable” began in early August 1914 amid popular jubilation. It was widely
believed that it would demonstrate a nation's military and moral superiority. It would sweep
away false values and usher in an era of cultural and moral regeneration. Everyone expec-
ted it to be a short, glorious war. In its beginning, the German-Austrian alliance moved on
three fronts: the western front, from Belgium into France; the southern front, from Austria
into Serbia; and the eastern front, from Germany eastward into Russia. The western front
was the key to victory, but it quickly bogged down in stalemate. A line of trenches and
dugouts ran from Switzerland to the North Sea. For four terrible years, armies would ad-
vance and retreat over the same ten miles. Barbed wire separated the opposing trenches.
Artillery and machine guns rained death. The dead and dying were splayed on the barbed
wire. The trenches were cesspits of horror: rain and mud, lice and rats, bodies and body
parts, and pools of feces and urine. And the cost in lives was staggering. Casualties in the
land war were more than thirty-seven million. As just one example, in the first hours of the
Battle of the Somme (July 1, 1916), the British suffered 60,000 casualties. The entire Battle
of the Somme from July to November cost 400,000 British lives, 200,000 French lives, and
450,000 German lives.
As the war dragged toward stalemate, each side vowed a victor's revenge: make the
enemy pay dearly in both treasure and blood for the cost of the war!
In the end, it was Germany that gave way. Under the terms of surrender, Germany re-
turned Alsace-Lorraine to France. In all, one-seventh of German territory and one-tenth of
its population were lost.
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