Transcript Overview for World War I

Overview of WWI
• 1914
– June 28, 1914 Archduke Franz
Ferdinand, heir to Austrian throne
shot by Serbian nationalist
• 1914
– European alliances click in when
Austria invades Serbia on July 29
• 1914
– Germany declares war on Russia
August 1, on France August 3,
invades Belgium August 4, Britain
declares war on Germany August 4,
Canada automatically at war
– German ”von Schlieffen Plan" strategy
was to strike quickly against France,
destroy her armies, then turn against
more slowly mobilizing Russians on
east
von Shlieffen Plan
– French Plan 17 ignored German advance
and depended entirely on vigorous French
offensive through Alsace and Lorraine,
counted on substantial Russian advance
early in conflict
Plan 17
– Battle of Mons, August sees the first
contact between Germans and British, BEF
forced to retreat,
– but First Battle of Marne, in September,
invasion was checked, Germans driven
back to a line along the Aisne River
– Schlieffen Plan failed
Battle of
Marne
– Oct 10 - Nov 10, 1914 in the "Race for the
Sea" the Germans try to outflank the Allies
but in the First Battle of Ypres (in Flanders)
BEF held and ports were saved, preventing
Germany from reaching the sea
Trench Warfare
– By the end of 1914 the western front had
become fairly fixed and the war settled into
trench warfare.
War Moves to Stalemate
• 1915
– Stalemate on all fronts, but terrible loss of
lives on all sides
The Static Front:
Why there was no
breakthrough
Second Battle of Ypres
Second Battle of Ypres
– 160 tons of chlorine gas are released into a
light northeast wind, German troops
threaten to sweep behind Canadian
trenches and put 50,000 Canadian and
British troops in deadly jeopardy,
Second Battle of Ypres
– however Germans advance only 2 miles
and then dig in, lacking adequate reserves
to exploit the gap gas created; Canadians
mount counter-attack to drive enemy out,
little ground is gained,
– casualties extremely heavy, but time is
gained to close flank. In these 48 hours
6,035 Canadians, 1 in every 3 men, were
lost. It is the first use of a frightening new
weapon-- gas in World War I.
Second Battle of Ypres
At the end of 1915
– Canadians settle down to the dismal winter
of trench warfare, fighting not only the
enemy, but also "trench feet", colds,
influenza and lice
The War of Attrition
• 1916
 On the western front, the basic strategic
idea was to use head-on infantry
assaults to break through and win the
war quickly.
 But a ghastly pattern developed of
attacking troops being cut down by
enemy machine-gun fire, while the
commanders only answer was to throw
more men, guns and ammunition at the
defenses. All to no avail.
Battle of Verdun (Feb. - Dec. 1916)
 Result of a German plan to "bleed
the French white" using almost half
a million men Germany had
transferred from the east to attack
the fortress-ringed city.
General Erich von
Falkenhayn
Battle of Verdun (Feb. - Dec. 1916)
 This lured French forces into the
defense of Verdun,
 making the French contribution to
the Somme offensive less:
 only 16 divisions from 40 (20,000
men per division) and 10 miles
instead of 25 miles of front.
 By Christmas when the Battle of
Verdun finally ended, both sides
endured a total of 800,000
casualties.
Battle of Somme(July1 - Nov. 18)
Battle of Somme(July1 - Nov. 18)
 was a "Big Push" by mainly British
troops that would destroy the
enemy lines and allow the cavalry
to ride through. The Germans
were prepared and well dug in,
however,
when on July 1st, in broad daylight,
100 000 men advanced shoulder to
shoulder towards the German guns.
 By day’s end 57 500 British soldiers
were killed, wounded or missing.
Battle of Somme
 On Sept 15 the British used tanks
for the first time, but not in enough
numbers to achieve the big break
through. In the end about 7 miles
was the maximum advance,
Battle of Somme
More information about tanks
in the Somme
 nothing of strategic importance
was gained and losses amounted to
over 400 000 British, 200 000
French, and between 400 000 and
500 000 German.
Battle of Somme
 The Somme cost 24 029 Canadian
casualties but earned Canadian
forces a reputation as "hard-hitting
shock troops."
 From now on Canadian forces
were brought along to head the
assault.
Battle of Somme
“The Somme battles could be regarded as a
colossal military defeat for Britain – though
without it there would almost certainly not
have been the ultimate victory over German
forces in 1918.
Most French people are quite unaware that
around 750,000 British Empire troops died on
the Western Front in the defence and ultimate
liberation of France and Belgium. Britain
suffered 60,000 casualties – 20,000 killed –
Source of quote
on the 1st July 1916 alone.”
1917
 On April 6,
1917 the U.S.
declares war
on Germany.
Battle of Vimy Ridge (April 9 - 12)
• Battle of Vimy Ridge was the Canadian's
part in another massive Allied offensive.
At dawn on Easter Sunday, April 9,
1917, all four divisions (80 000 men)
swept up the ridge.
• By mid afternoon they achieved the
crest of the Ridge and within 3 days
had taken the whole area. It was the
first time Canadians attacked together
and triumphed.
Battle of Vimy Ridge
Battle of Hill 70
 On August 15-25 Canadians suffered
9,198 casualties in the Battle of Hill 70.
Battle of Passchendaele (Oct 26 - Nov 6)
• On Oct 26, 20 000 Canadians under
heavy fire inched from shell-crater to
shell-crater, until Oct 30 when two
British divisions joined the Canadians
for an assault on Passchendaele itself.
On Nov 6
Passchendaele
--by now little
more than
brick dust in
mud--fell at a
cost of 15 654
Canadians
casualties,
four-fifths of
the attackers.
 The Canadians had won their worst
battle of the war, but for no real
purpose and by Spring 1918 the
Germans had regained their lost
ground.
 Nov 1917 at Cambrai the first
effective tank attack in history
takes place.
Cambrai
• 380 tanks cross the trenches of the
Hindenburg Line. While proving the
value of the tank, the break through
failed to be the decisive one hoped for
when the British did not have sufficient
reinforcements to hold the position.
Cambrai
• Dec 3, 1917 opening of peace
conference of Brest-Litovsk negotiates
an armistice with Russia
• The peace with Russia “proved” to the
allies that Germany was expansionist
and strengthened the resolve of the
governments.
1918: The German Offensive
• Using troops freed from the eastern front,
Germany now decides to stake everything
on achieving a major victory in the west,
before the Americans arrive in great force.
Operation Michael
The Great March Offensive (Mar21-Apr 5)
• In a thick fog, the might of the whole
German army beginning with a
bombardment of 6000 guns and a heavy gas
attack, is thrown against the British front
between St. Quentin and Arras.
• In a few days Germany drives the British
back a depth of 40 miles. The troops had
reached the Marne within 42 miles of Paris.
But the front did not collapse, the expected
gap did not develop.
Operation Michael
“Operation Michael” (Mar21-Apr 5)
Allied Counter Offensive
(July - November, 1918)
• The bulk of Canadian troops were not
involved in these defensive operations but
rather were preparing for the counter-attack
which began in July.
Second Battle of Marne (July 19-Aug 2)
• French and American forces launch a
counter-attack on the Marne and by Aug 2
regain much of the lost territory. Tanks
overrun German forward positions .
Canada’s Hundred Days (Aug 4 - Nov 11)
• Is a long succession of famous battles:
Amiens, Arras, the Drocourt-Quéant Line,
Canal du Nord, Cambrai and Valenciennes,
which finally gave victory to the Allies.
• Canadian troops in the vanguard of the
successful march to Mons.
• After a feint at Ypres, Canadian troops rush
back to lead the surprise attack at Amiens.
• Canadians advance 12 miles in 3 days.
Battle of Amiens (Aug 8 - 11)
• British attack with 450 tanks, and advance 8
miles in the first day.
• After this breakthrough, Canadians shifted
back to Arras and given task of cracking
Hindenburg Line - Germany’s main line of
defence.
• Between Aug 26 and Sept 2 hard
continuous fighting
Germany is faced with
• an effective British blockade,
• fierce resistance from the British and
French armies,
• the entrance of the United States army,
• political unrest and starvation at home,
•
•
•
•
an economy in ruins,
mutiny in the navy,
and mounting defeats on the battlefield,
the German generals requested armistice
negotiations with the Allies in November of
1918.
11th hour, 11th day, 11th month
• World War I comes to an end
• For every square meter of land fought over
a ton of explosives has fallen,
• one shell in every four failed to go off
• Eighty years later the bomb-squad is still
clearing up, slowly, carefully, one bomb at
a time.
Western Front
“The map on the next slide shows the full length of the Western
Front which moved backwards and forwards between 1914 and
1918. The British Sector covered the north (the white rectangles)
from the Somme Valley to the English Channel and was the scene
of the great battles of The Somme (around Albert), Pachendale and
Ypres (known to soldiers as 'Wipers' and today called Leper). The
greatest battle in the French Sector was in the Verdun 'salient'.
The end came on 11 November 1918 with the signing of the
Armistice in a railway carriage in the woods at Compiegne.
Twenty-two years later this same location was symbolically chosen
by Hitler, in 1940, for France formally to sign its capitulation to
Germany's advancing troops.”
Source of quote
Western
Front
The cruel, grim balance-sheet of
the First World War was both
horrific and remarkable.
• Some 619,000 Canadians served in the
Army, including, for the first time, women
[2500 nursing sisters, 45 of whom died].
• Of all the Canadians overseas, 66,655
(Can.) did not return at the end of the War.
• Canadian casualties totalled 239,605, onethird of those who were in uniform.
Casualty Rates in WW I
• Under the terms of the armistice, the
German Army was allowed to remain intact
and was not forced to admit defeat by
surrendering.
• U.S. General George Pershing said it would
be better to have the German generals admit
defeat so there could be no doubt.
• The French and British were convinced
however that Germany would not be a
threat again.
• The failure to force the German General
Staff to admit defeat would have a huge
impact on the future of Germany.
• Although the army was later reduced in
size, its impact would be felt after the war
as a political force dedicated to German
nationalism, not democracy.
“Stab in the Back”
• The German General Staff also would
support the false idea that the army had not
been defeated on the battlefield, but could
have fought on to victory, except for being
betrayed at home, the infamous 'Stab in the
Back' theory.
• This 'Stab in the Back' theory would
become hugely popular among many
Germans who found it impossible to
swallow defeat.
• During the war Adolf Hitler became
obsessed with this idea, especially laying
blame on Jews and Marxists in Germany for
undermining the war effort.
• To Hitler, and so many others, the German
politicians who signed the armistice on
November 11, 1918, would become known
as the 'November Criminals'.
• After the armistice, the remnants of the
German army straggled home from the front
to face tremendous uncertainty.
Differences between the strategies employed
by the French and British sectors.
“The French 'strategy' in 1914-15 involved nothing more than
protecting Paris. Thereafter it consisted of holding a static
defensive line hinged on Verdun. Into this salient Marshal Foch
marched millions of men up the Chemin des Dames who died in
vast numbers, gaining and losing little ground.”
Source of quote
Differences between the strategies employed
by the French and British sectors.
“British troops in 1914-15 found themselves bogged down in their
trenches throughout Picardy and Flanders. But, following the
appointment Field Marshal Haig, they were then responsible for
nearly all the 'movement' in 1916-18 that ultimately led the
Germans, in 1918, to over-stretch themselves and face defeat.
Eventually the overall Allied strategy came under French
command. The consequence was that by leaving the major
offensives and 'movement' to the British, millions of troops
from all over the British Empire were poured into fronts that
moved backwards and forwards over at most 10-25 miles.
Source of quote
Usually, however, local attacks and offensives gained or lost only a
few yards of mud – for which hundreds of thousands of men died.”
Source of Information
• Veterans Affairs Canada, Valour
Remembered
• Maps from PBS The Great War