How the German Empire broke the stalemate with gas and submarines

History · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: After six months of grinding stalemate, the German Empire turned to two radical new strategies to break the deadlock. By deploying gas on a massive scale on the Eastern Front and authorizing unrestricted submarine warfare, they introduced a terrifying new dimension to the conflict that would change the nature of combat forever.

By the middle of 1915, the initial momentum of the Great War had dissolved into a grueling six-month stalemate. Seeking a decisive advantage to shatter this deadlock, the German Empire began implementing two high-stakes tactical shifts. The first was the large-scale deployment of chemical weapons on the Eastern Front. While this specific attempt to use gas on a massive scale did not achieve its intended strategic breakthrough, it served as a grim foundation for the future of gas warfare throughout the conflict.

Simultaneously, the German leadership moved toward a different kind of maritime aggression. Kaiser Wilhelm II agreed to the implementation of unrestricted submarine warfare. This policy was a radical departure from previous naval norms, as it dictated that any ship—regardless of its nationality or cargo—could be sunk at any time. This decision aimed to leverage the growing power of the U-boat to choke off enemy supplies and resources.

These two developments represented a shift toward total war, where the traditional boundaries of the battlefield were expanded to include the very air soldiers breathed and the deep waters of the oceans. The introduction of gas on the Eastern Front and the decision regarding submarine warfare were not merely tactical adjustments; they were fundamental changes in the mechanics of destruction. While the gas attacks failed to provide the immediate decisive victory the German Empire sought, they signaled the arrival of a new, more horrific era of industrialised slaughter that would haunt the remainder of the war.

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