VERDUN AND THE SOMME
Two major attempts were made to smash the deadlock on the Western Front during 1916. However, the evenly balanced disposition of forces, manpower and positions ensured that both attempts ended in failure.
In February, Germany launched a major offensive against what was perceived to be a weak point in the French line at Verdun.
However, the French were determined to hang on to this fortress town some 175 miles east of Paris. They diverted huge numbers of men and resources to the sector: three-quarters of the entire French army saw service there during the bitter fighting of 1916. These men were supplied by incessant convoys of lorries motoring up and down the N93, or 'Sacred Way'.
By October, the strategic fortress of Douaumont was back in French hands and Verdun was saved.
In June, General Haig expanded plans for a small-scale offensive based on artillery firepower into the terrible carnage of the Somme.
By mid-November, 420,000 British troops had been killed or wounded without any significant territorial gains being made. German casualties were around 500,000 and the French lost about 200,000 men.
The scale of the blood-letting in 1916 horrified both sides. Germany abstained from organising further offensives on the Western Front until March 1918.
THE BATTLE OF JUTLAND
The deadlock seemed to persist even at sea. In May 1916, the German fleet sailed out of Wilhelmshaven to engage the Royal Navy in action. However, thanks to the work of the Room 40 codebreakers, the Admiralty was aware of this move, and the Royal Navy was on its way to intercept the German fleet before it had even left port. They met off the coast of the German/Danish Jutland peninsula.
Jutland promised to be a titanic battle - involving 250 warships and 100,000 men - but, in the end, it proved to be something of an anti-climax. Britain lost more men and more ships, but it was the German fleet that turned tail and remained in port for the rest of the war. The British blockade remained in force, and German and Austro-Hungarian civilians continued to starve.
THE EASTER RISING
At Easter, Irish Republican activists proclaimed their independence from Britain in a rising centred on Dublin. Ten thousand troops were drafted in from the mainland to crush a rising that seemed to enjoy little popular support.
However, Britain's decision to execute 15 of the movement's leaders - including one who was so badly wounded that he had to be shot sitting down - transformed these men into heroes and martyrs whose sacrifice inspired the republican movement for generations to come.
Ireland was just the first of several other combatant states to face the challenge of 'revolution from below'.
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