Transcript Section 3

Chp. 14 section 3 pp. 383-387
3
Setting the Scene
• WWI was known as the “Great War” as it was
named by the press in Europe
• Mobilized armies were the largest in history
– France 8.5 million
– Great Britain 9 million
– Russia 12 million
– Germany 11 million
• “One out of every four men who went out to
the World War did not come back again, and
of those who came back, many are maimed
and blind and some are mad!”
The Western Front
• German forces following the Schlieffen plan were soon
sweeping through Belgium and into France but,
• Russia mobilized more quickly then expected and won
some battles forcing German Generals to send troops
to the eastern front from the western front
• By September 1914 British troops had reached France
and along with the French troops began the
counteroffensive of the battle of the Marne which
pushed the Germans back and shattered their hopes
for a quick victory.
• Both sides dug in for the winter (trenches) neither
realizing that this was the beginning of a Stalemate, or
a deadlock in which neither side is able to defeat the
other.
• The Stalemate would last for almost 4 years
Trench Warfare
The Western front was a vast network of trenches, stretching
form the Swiss frontier to the English Channel and American
saw it this way
“There were vast stretches of mud, of fields once cultivated, but now scarred with pits,
trenches, rusty barb wires. The roads were rivers of clay. They were lined with dugouts,
cellars, a and caves. These burrows in the earth were supported by beams, and suggested a
shaft in a disused mine.”
This underground network linked bunkers, communications
trenches, and large gun sites.
Millions of soldiers endured the heat, cold, rain, snow, rats, lice
and disease.
“No Man’s Land” was the space between enemy trenches. It
was full of craters from artillery, any buildings or trees were
destroyed tons of barb wire, and barricades. Soldiers charged
hopeless into the waste land and the other side counter
charged
As advances failed both sides re-supplied their trenches and
continued the pointless attacks
Costly Battles
• In 1916 both the sides launched offensives to try
to break the stalemate
• Germans at Verdun, tried to overrun the French
troops, but with the battle cry of “they shall not
pass” the French held although the 11 month
battle claimed over 500,000 lives
•The Allies attacked at the Somme River, the
result was similar no territory gained and this
time in a single day 60,000 British troops died
and over 1,000,000 died during the 5 month
battle.
Technology of Modern Warfare
• New advances in weapons made this war more
deadly than any previous war
– Machine Guns
– Artillery [up to 10 miles]
– Poison Gas
• “I suppose I resembled a kind of fish with my mouth open
gasping for air. It seemed as if my lungs were gradually
shutting up and my heart pounded away in my ears like the
beat of a drum… To get air into my lungs was real agony”
– Tanks
– Zeppelins, or large gas filled balloons used for
bombing by the Germans
– Airplanes, w/ flying aces battled but had little effect
– U-boats, or German Submarines forced the Allies to
travel in Convoys, or groups of merchant ships
protected by warships
3
Europe at War, 1914–1918
A Global Conflict*
• On Europe’s Eastern Front, battle lines
swayed back and forth, sometimes over
large areas. Casualties rose even higher
than on the Western Front, but the results
were just as indecisive.
Eastern Europe
• August 1914 Russian Armies pushed
into Germany
• Battle of Tannenberg the Russians
suffered a defeat which caused them to
retreat most of the rest of the Eastern
Campaign was fought on Russian Soil
• Russia, being the least industrialized of
European countries lacked the goods
for war, sometimes their soldiers didn’t
even have guns
• Thousands of Russians were forced to
charge enemy lines and defend
territory, most were peasants who had
to fight or would die at the hands of
Russian Military Leaders
Southern Europe
• 1915 Bulgaria joined the Central Powers and
helped crush Serbia
• In 1916 Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary
and later on Germany
• Italy had signed a secret treaty with the Allies to
get land after the war from Austria-Hungary
• 1917 at Caporetto the Germans and Austrians
forced the Italians to retreat, as decisive of a
defeat as Tannenberg for the Russians
The War Outside Europe
• Japan was an Ally, they took German
colonies in China and attempted to
make China a protectorate
• Ottoman empire joined the Central
Powers in 1914, eventually the Allies
sent ships and troops to take the
Dardanelles [the entrance to the Black
Sea
• Battle of Gallipoli the Allies were
eventually defeated after 10 months
and 200,000 casualties
• Muslim areas rebelled against the
Ottoman Turks, led by Husayn ibn Ali
and “Lawrence of Arabia” [T.E.
Lawrence a British Colonel sent to aid
the Muslims.
• These groups blew up bridges and
trains and eventually gained control of
Baghdad.
War and the Colonies
• As Europe was at war their colonies went to war as
well
• Allies defeated the colonies of Germany in Africa
• Allies drew troops, laborers, and supplies from their
colonies
• Colonists had mixed feelings about serving in WWI
– In South Africa one man wrote “When we speak of
joining, our women curse and spit at us, asking us
whether the Government, for whom we propose to risk
our lives, is not the one which sends police to our houses
at night… to trample us.”
– Others joined willing and eagerly hoping that their service
would be rewarded by gaining full citizenship with their
mother country, in almost all cases this did not happen