Why did the war on the western front end up in stalemate between 1915 and 1917?

Answer 1

The war on the western front ended up in stalemate because of multiple reasons. In brief they are; Leadership problems from the triple alliance and the triple entente. The trenches in which the soldiers stayed (more so the allied ones) harbored diseases helped by the water flooding them, the rats and other vermin and the dead just left to rot if they were unreachable. The tactics from both sides weren't very strong either, most of the British Generals and Commanders were miles from the battle field and had no means of communication with there troops, such as the Somme this meant that the stubborn Generals would not change there tactics and so thousands of troops would climb up the ladders and run onto German machine gun fire. The Industrial problems were that not enough people were working back in the native countries to produce weapons and artillery etc. The allies had a shell shortage and so when the British made people work for the war effort who weren't fighting, the shell production boomed. Weaponry was also a problem, the Generals decided to use horses which were ineffective against machine gun fire and just blocked the troops trying to get past. Machine guns were also invented and these were mainly the source of why the Germans killed so many allied forces because the allies were determined on advancing and taking land back and so were constantly assaulting the enemy, whereas the German forces could defend and use machine guns to there maximum effectiveness. The ground each side occupied was also important, the Germans took there time and when they were being pushed back took the higher ground while the allies were forced to take the lower. This meant that the Germans could shoot down onto the allies and also could get further range from being higher.