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[[File:Stabilization of Western Front WWI.PNG|thumb|250px|Map of the Western Front and the Race to the Sea, 1914]]
The '''Western Front''' was the main theatre of war during the First World War. Following the outbreak of war in August 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by invading {{icon|Luxembourg}} and {{icon|Belgium}}, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in {{icon|France}}. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne. Following the Race to the Sea, both sides dug in along a meandering line of fortified trenches, stretching from the North Sea to the {{icon|Switzerland|Swiss}} frontier with France. This line remained essentially unchanged for most of the war.
Between 1915 and 1917 there were several major offensives along this front. The attacks employed massive [[artillery]] bombardments and massed [[infantry]] advances. However, a combination of entrenchments, [[machine gun]] emplacements, barbed wire, and artillery repeatedly inflicted severe casualties on the attackers and counter-attacking defenders. As a result, no significant advances were made. Among the most costly of these offensives were the Battle of Verdun, in 1916, with a combined 700,000 casualties (estimated), the Battle of the Somme, also in 1916, with more than a million casualties (estimated), and the Battle of Passchendaele, in 1917, with roughly 600,000 casualties (estimated).
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