Compare the maps of the fighting fronts in WWI and WWII and discuss what this comparison reveals about the nature of fighting in the two wars. How do you explain the differences you find?.
During the First World War, armies came to an unexpected surprise to military tactics, trench warfare. Trench warfare is warfare in which the opposing forces attack and counterattack from a relatively permanent system of trenches protected by barbed-wire entanglements. For three years the Germans and the allied did not advance more than a few miles along the line that became known as the western front. Germany was not able to successfully execute the Schlieffen Plan to invade France, but they were able to push Russia back on the eastern front, causing Russia more problems and eventually forcing them to extract themselves from the war.
As for in World War two, Hitler tried to expand and tried to incorporate Rhineland, Austria, Sudetenland, and the acquisition of Lebensraum for Germany. He was able to move quickly with his fast military tactics, but this lead to his downfall because he underestimated his enemies. The invasion of the Soviet Union failed and the US entered the war and was a major factor in the war. The allies invaded Italy in 1943 and France in 1944. Along Asia, Japan was able to invade northern China, but conflict arose between Japan and the US after the attack on Pearl Harbor and they fought over territorial lands in the Pacific.
Each of these two wars was fought differently. In the first one an invasion which soon lead to trench warfare ending in a stalemate, and in world war II it was fought over other lands and more people were more actively involved. When you look at the maps you can see all the different attacks and advances during the Second World War, but the maps in the book of the first just show the slow battles of the Western fronts and the bit of success in the Eastern Front.
