Scenes of War - Crater Landscape
For years, both the Central Powers and the Allies tried to break the stalemated fronts by an ever-increasing use of artillery and the corresponding consumption of ammunition. As a result, gigantic battles of materiel shaped conditions especially on the Western Front, while on the Eastern Front certain elements of maneuver warfare persisted.
The enormous use of materiel, for example by the Germans at Verdun (from February 1916) or the British at the Somme (from June 1916), was not justified by the respective territorial results; however, the guns dominated the battlefield and the barrage turned the fronts into eerie cratered landscapes.
It took many years (and enormous losses), for example, before the German military leadership realized that this method of fighting usually cost the attacker more than the defender. After the replacement of Lieutenant General v. Falkenhayn, the Germans therefore took new paths under Field Marshal von Hindenburg and General Erich Ludendorf in the last major offensive (Operation Michael) from March 1918 in Flanders; however, by then it was too late given the Allies' clear material superiority.
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Scenes of War - Training Behind the Front
Below is a contemporary photo album that documents the training of German infantry behind the front. The preliminary remarks outline the specific circumstances of training during the war.
Kriegsgeschichte
Scenes of War - Soldiers' Provisions
The German army in the field had an enormous need for provisions; the weekly requirement for staple foods was reported as follows: 27,085,000 kg of bread, 59,485,000 kg of potatoes, 7,913,500 kg of meat, as well as 904,600 kg of salt, 614,800 kg of sugar and 900,600 kg of coffee. In addition there was demand for fat, oats, hay and straw. Analogous to the nutrition and supply problems at home — where rationing of all important foods had already begun in autumn 1915 — the supply base at the front also became increasingly meager.
Kriegsgeschichte
Scenes of War - Fallen
World War I was the first industrial war with an enormous loss of people and material. At the outbreak of the war none of the parties involved had expected such a long-lasting bloody conflict, but the military confrontation quickly developed—especially on the Western Front—into a stalemate and ultimately into a war of attrition. In this context, the opposing losses on both sides were even a relevant strategic calculation: it was assumed that the enemy would be exhausted both materially and morally, and hopes were placed on a breakthrough at the deadlocked front because the enemy would no longer have reserves to close the breach or gap in time. In this regard, targets were even set for how many losses through wounds and captivity (monthly) would be required to achieve the desired degree of enemy exhaustion (Ferguson, The Wrong War, p. 281).