What was the 'race to the sea'?

Answer 1

Before the days of trench warfare in WWI, both sides tried to outflank each other and this was termed the "race to the sea." It was a series of battles that began in Champange, France in 1914 and ended in Nieuwpoort, Belgium. The Race to the Sea was a name given to a period of World War I when, on the Western Front, the two sides were still engaged in mobile warfare. With the German advance stalled at the First Battle of the Marne, the opponents continually attempted to outflank each other through north-eastern France. This process brought the forces back to positions prepared under British Admiralty guidance, on the North coast in Western Belgium. The nature of operations then changed to trench warfare, which is very large scale siege warfare. This produced a continuous front line of trench fortifications more than two hundred miles long, which by the following Spring extended from the coast to the Swiss border.