Each side had suffered more than half a million casualties. Near Verdun, the Germans advanced about four miles. In the Somme valley, the British gained about five miles.
The British army tried to relieve the pressure on the French. Britist forces attacked the Germans northwest of Verdun, in the valley of the Somme River. In the first day of battle alone, more than 20,000 British soldiers were killed.
Opposing armies on the Western Front had dug miles of parallel trenches to protect themselves from enemy fire. Soldiers fought each other from trenches. Armies traded huge losses of human life for pitifully small land gains.
The Germans decided to attack France using the Schlieffen Plan, however, it did not turn out like the Germans had planned. Allies f France regrouped and attacked the Germans northeast of Paris, in the valley of the Marne River. After four long days of fighting, the Germans retreated. The First Battle of the Marne, the only first major clash on the Western Front, was perhaps the most important event of the war. The Germans gave up on the Schlieffen Plan.
As summer began to become fall, the war became a deadlock, along the battlefields of France. In northern France, this deadlocked region became known as the Western Front.
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