Elements of the German army crossed into Belgium late in the afternoon on August 4, 1914. The small Belgium army proved no match for the well equipped and motivated German forces. The British Expeditionary Force and French army was no more successful in stopping the initial advance. The German army finally turned left near Amiens moving toward Paris before being stopped at the 1st battle of the Marne.
By December, 1914, the front became stalemated with both sides digging in with little movement in either direction. What was expected to be a short conflict turned into a construction project of building complex trench systems and soldier billets for hundreds of thousands. Large casualties suffered in the initial invasion caused commanders on both sides to reconsider strategy. The introduction of modern killing technology (machine guns and large caliber artillery pieces) made open field movement highly hazardous.
1915 proved to be a period of little change in the 400 mile front line from Belgium to Switzerland. My next blog will move back to the Somme Valley and the allied attempt to break the stalemate on July 1, 1916. I recommend a book published in 2011 by Peter Barton titled: The Somme: The Unseen Panoramas. It is an excellent reference source for those who want to go further in their study.
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