74.16 War of Attrition on the Western Front 1917

A History of Europe, Key Battles

Carl Rylett

History

4.4 • 756 Ratings

🗓️ 28 July 2023

⏱️ 24 minutes

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Summary

While the nations of Europe fought each other to a bitter stalemate, the President of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, urged both sides to make peace. However, no agreement is made and the United States joined the war on the side of the Entente allies.

In the meantime, the Germans ordered a general withdrawal at the western front, abandoning the battlefields of the Somme in order to establish a shorter, straighter and more well-fortified line, the so-called ‘Hindenburg Line’. The eastern front is more volatile, seeing the collapse of the Russian army, a major defeat for the Italians at Caporetto and the fall of Jerusalem to the British

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Picture - Allenby enters Jerusalem 1917

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to a History of Europe, Gubattles podcast.
0:23.6	My name is Carla Rylett, and today I'll be continuing the story of the First World War.
0:29.6	Up until now, we've covered the First World War and its origins up to the beginning of 1917 and also last week the Russian Revolution.
0:42.3	Today we focus on the War of Attrition on each other to a better stalemate,
1:03.5	the president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson, urged both sides to make peace.
1:09.3	Public opinion in America was divided divided but tended to favour the Allies
1:13.6	on ideological grounds, strengthened by social links with the British ruling classes.
1:18.6	There was strong pressure led by ex-President Theodore Roosevelt for immediate intervention on the side of the Allies.
1:26.6	On the other hand, a German-American lobby tended to simply for immediate intervention on the side of the Allies.
1:33.3	On the other hand, a German-American lobby tended to sympathize with the central powers, so did many American Jews largely because of Russia's record of anti-Semitism.
1:38.3	However, sympathy for Germany was severely damaged by atrocities committed in Belgium, the use of poison gas,
1:46.0	and the sinking of commercial ships by German U-boats.
1:50.0	Most Americans, though, were keen to avoid being sucked into a European conflict,
1:55.0	and Woodrow Wilson won re-election in 1916 on a promise to maintain US neutrality.
2:04.7	Shortly after being re-elected, he invited the belligerent states to state their peace terms.
2:12.5	The French and British and their allies were happy to do so, knowing the Americans would be sympathetic to them.
2:18.3	They involved first and foremost the restoration of Belgian and Serb independence with full indemnity for the damage done by their occupiers.
2:26.3	In addition, they required the restitution of provinces of territories rested in the past from allies by force. This referred clearly to
2:36.2	Alsace-Levain, but perhaps other territories, as well inhabited by Italians, Slavs, Romanians or
2:42.4	other ethnic groups under foreign domination, including those in the Habsburg Empire. Poland
2:48.5	was to be granted independence, a concession which Tsar Nicholas II of Russia had already
2:54.2	accepted for the Polish territories under his control. The effective leaders of Germany,
	...

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