In spite of the very harsh weather of the winter of 1914, the French and the British armies took advantage of the movement of German troops sent to reinforce the Eastern Front to launch a joint offensive in the west, in a vast zone that stretched from the River Somme to Verdun. Even though the efforts of Allied troops from the colonies were particularly illustrious, the Germans, in lesser numbers but better protected by their trenches, prevented the action. Successive attacks were broken by the German lines, and the battlefield turned into a slaughterhouse.
