The Western Front at end of 1914

The final desperate efforts of the Germans to break through to the coast were unsuccessful, and as the winter weather worsened, the activity on the northern aspects of the front quietened down into a phase of winter consolidation. In the five months of the war massive actions had occurred - the battle of the frontiers; Mons and the great retreat; the Marne and the multiple actions arising from the race to the sea.

Lord Kitchener

Of the senior military and political figures in the UK, only the War Minister, Lord Kitchener, had demurred from the experts' view that it would necessarily be a short, decisive war, probably all over by Christmas. By now it was depressingly clear to everyone that this was going to be a long, hard and painful conflict.


The thin line that stretched across those vital areas from Niueport to Arras had held and by 20^th November the assaults of the Germans had diminished, and it was possible to pull the front line British troops into reserve positions for a much needed rest. The French troops of d’Urbal and Maud’huy held the line from the coast as far down to Albert on the Somme for this phase of winter. Artillery fire did not cease completely, and there were sporadic actions. In mid December the  British attacked Wytschaete ridge and Givenchy without success. These were the main areas of the famous Christmas Truce. Deeper into France, the French poilus, defending their own soil, no doubt felt less festive.

Even Falkenhayn seemed to accept that a defensive strategy was necessary, at least for the coming winter months. He was further pressured by the need to reinforce the eastern front, where serious danger to German border integrity was posed by the Russian advances in the south. The front in most parts of Belgium was decribed as a “gigantic mud hole” with only a few drier areas around Zillebeke, the Messines Ridge and Wytschaete.

The Western Front at end December 1914

Of the 500 miles of the Western Front, only approximately fifty were held by the British, and the remainder by the French with some support from the Belgians in the north. The front ran from Nieuport on the Belgian coast, west of the Yser along the Ypres canal, in a salient in front of Ypres, behind Messines to just east of Armentieres; then west of Neuve Chapelle to Givenchy, across the La Bassee canal, east of Vermelles, west of Lens, to just east of Arras. From Arras it lay by Albert and Noyon to Soissons, east along the Aisne to to Rheims, to Varenne, thence making a wide curve around Verdun, to the west bank of the Meuse by St Mihiel, and then on the Pont-a-Mousson on the Moselle. From there it passed on to Luneville and St Die, ten miles inside the French border, and then onwards towards the Vosges mountains into German territory, Belfort and the Swiss border.