LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Western Front: Germans
built 279 days ago
The Western Front was the name the Germans gave to a series of trenches that ran 700 kilometres from the Belgian coast to the Swiss border. To imagine this, think of a ditch deep enough to stand in zigzagging its way alongside the Hume Highway from Melbourne to Canberra. As at Gallipoli, machine-gun fire caused terrible casualties on the Western Front. Both sides had dug trenches, sometimes only metres apart, as their only protection from the murderous gun fire. But they were never safe from the explosive artillery shells that rained down on the front line soldiers every few seconds for days at a time. The British High Command needed troops urgently.
Source:
The Western front was a 475-mile-long battle line between the Germans and the Allied forces. Along this line of fighting were 900,000 German troops and 1.2 million Allied soldiers, or roughly 1,900 and 2,500 men per mile of front. Overall, the Western front was not a continuous trench, but rather a string of unconnected trenches and fortifications.
Source:
In August 1916 the German leadership along the western front had changed as Falkenhayn resigned and was replaced by Generals Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff. The new leaders soon recognized that the battles of Verdun and the Somme had depleted the offensive capabilities of the German army. They decided that the German army in the west would go over to the strategic defensive for most of 1917, while the Central powers would attack elsewhere.
Source:
Beginning in March the troops were moved to France, and by July and August were heavily involved on the Western Front. The 5th Division was the first to engage the Germans on 5 July 1916 in a small but bloody engagement at Fromelles in northern France. Shortly after, the 1st, 2nd and 4th Divisions became embroiled in the first Somme offensive, at Pozieres and Moquet Farm.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Germans