Transcript 10th American History - Waverly

10th American History
Unit II- Becoming a World Power
Chapter 8 Section 1
A World Crisis
A World Crisis
The Main Idea
Rivalries among European nations led to the
outbreak of war in 1914.
Reading Focus
• What were the causes of World War I?
• How did the war break out?
• Why did the war quickly reach a stalemate?
Conditions in Europe in 1914
Nationalism
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Extreme pride people
feel for their country
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Struggle for power
was visible in the
Balkans, a European
region with many
ethnic groups.
•
The Ottoman Empire
that ruled the
Balkans was falling
apart.
Imperialism
• Other nations were
also trying to
expand, and this
quest for colonial
empires is known
as imperialism.
• Late 1800s: Britain
and France already
had large empires.
•
Austria-Hungary saw
this and began to
annex provinces.
• German emperor,
Kaiser Wilhelm
II, wanted colonies
for Germany.
•
The Slavs wanted to
revolt, and Russia
promised protection.
• He created a
stronger military to
start colonizing.
Militarism
• The policy of
military
preparedness
• Germany built a
strong navy to
rival Britain’s
• Germany enlarged,
bought latest
weapons.
• German army
officials drew up
war plans like the
Schlieffen Plan,
which called for
attacks on several
countries.
• Britain, France,
and Russia began
to prepare, too.
Sparks of World War I
• The deaths of Franz Joseph's brother, Maximilian (1867),
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and only son, Rudolf, made the Emperor's nephew, Franz
Ferdinand, heir to the Austria-Hungary crown.
In 1912 a Bosnian teenager named Gavrilo Pincip joined
the Black Hand terrorist organization, which wanted to
free Bosnia-Herzegovina from Austro-Hungarian rule.
This group plotted to assassinate Archduke Franz
Ferdinand of Austria on his visit to Sarajevo, Bosnia.
First the Black Hand operatives tossed a bomb at the
Archduke's automobile. This missed.
The Archduke's chauffeur took a wrong turn and drove
within ten feet of another Black Hand agent, Gavrilo
Princip. Princip stepped up to the car and fired two pistol
shots. One bullet hit Sophie, killing her instantly. The
other hit Francis Ferdinand, who died within minutes.
Princip attempted suicide, but was captured before
succeeding
3,000 miles away, most Americans cared little about the
murder.
Still, most of Europe plunged into war within five weeks.
Long before Princip even fired a shot, political changes in
Europe made war almost unavoidable.
By 1914 Europe was ripe for war.
Alliances
• Nations formed alliances, or partnerships, for protection.
• Alliances were formed to maintain peace but would lead
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directly to war.
Germany formed a military alliance with Austria-Hungary
and Italy called the Triple Alliance.
Fearful of Germany’s growing power, France and Russia
formed a secret alliance with each other.
Great Britain, also worried, joined France and Russia to
form the Triple Entente.
Some European leaders believed that these alliances
created a balance of power, in which each nation had equal
strength, therefore decreasing the chance of war.
Archduke Ferdinand’s assassination exposed flaws in this
thinking, as after this attack Europe exploded into war.
The Great War- Two Sides
• Allied PowersTriple Entente
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Serbia
Russia
France
Great Britain
Belgium
Italy
Portugal
Greece
Japan
United States
• Central PowersTriple Alliance
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Austria-Hungary
Germany Empire
Bulgaria
Turkish Empire
Italy
Causes of World War I
• No one event or person caused the Great War. There were
many factors that contributed to mobilization of the
belligerents
Five Major factors often identified
as causes of World War I (but not
causes of U.S. entry)
Militarism
Alliances
Imperialism
Nationalism
Events or Economics
World War I Begins - The Great War
• Kaiser Wilhelm II on July 5th
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Kaiser Wilhelm II
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Emperor Franz Joseph
pledged that Germany would
fully support Austria-Hungary
in any action against Serbia.
On July 23, 1914, AustriaHungary presented Serbia with
a lengthy list of demands.
On July 28, 1914, AustriaHungary declared war on
Serbia. World War I had
begun.
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The Great War, as contemporaries called it -- was
the first man-made catastrophe of the 20th
century.
In the weeks after the assassination, none of the
critical leaders had the power or will to slow down
the decisions, actions, reactions and attitude shifts
of key government and military leaders.
By August, millions of Europeans -- especially the
military and diplomatic leaders of AustriaHungary, Germany and Russia -- saw war as the
way to save their honor, as well as to solve the
internal and international problems that needed
to be resolved.
Causes of World War I
• What were the causes of World War I?
• How did nationalism lead to imperialism?
• What was the Schlieffen Plan?
• How is Nationalism a unifying and a
dividing force?
• What single event triggered the war?
• Why didn’t the balance of power in Europe
prevent World War I?
War Breaks Out
• After the assassination, Princip was arrested, and Austro-Hungarian
officials learned that the Serbian government had supplied the
assassins with bombs and weapons.
• They blamed Serbia for the killing, and because Russia had vowed to
protect Serbia, Russia’s army began to mobilize.
• Germany, allied with Austria-Hungary, declared war on Russia and
France, Russia’s ally.
• Germany followed the Schlieffen Plan and crossed into neutral
Belgium, bringing Belgium and its ally, Great Britain, into the conflict.
• Most countries had chosen sides in World War I.
Central Powers
Germany, Austria-Hungary, and
the Ottoman Empire
Allied Powers
• Great Britain, France, and
Russia
• Germany’s plan worked well in Belgium, as the Belgians only had six
divisions of troops against Germany’s 750,000 soldiers.
Schlieffen Plan
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Both sides originally believed that the Great
War would be over quickly.
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In Germany, this belief was based on a long
established war strategy called the Schlieffen
Plan. Start with a German army invading
Belgium(avoiding eastern French Forts) to
reach Paris.
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The German generals were so confident of
success that Kaiser Wilhelm II proclaimed
that he would have "Paris for lunch, St.
Petersburg for dinner."
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The plan required precise timing, with no
interruptions in the timetable -- its first
objective was to capture Paris in precisely 42
days, and force the French to surrender. The
German armies would then shift their focus to
the eastern front and defeat the Russians
before they were fully prepared to fight.
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It started quickly on Aug. 2, 1914 with
Germany invading Luxembourg and Belgium,
but the British, French and Russians
mobilized quicker than expected.
A New Kind of Warfare
• Word of Germany’s invasion of Belgium quickly spread to France and other
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European nations.
French troops mobilized to meet approaching German divisions.
– They looked much as French soldiers did over 40 years earlier, wearing
bright red coats and heavy brass helmets.
– The German troops dressed in gray uniforms that worked as camouflage
on the battlefield.
French war strategy had not changed much since the 1800s.
– French soldiers marched row by row onto the battlefield, with bayonets
mounted to their field rifles, preparing for close combat with the Germans.
– The Germans, however, had many machine guns, and mowed down some
15,000 French troops per day in early battle.
– A well-trained German machine-gun team could set up equipment in four
seconds, and each machine gun matched the firepower of 50 to 100 French
rifles.
Many Europeans wrongly thought these technological advances would make
the war short and that France would be defeated in two months.
The First Battle of the Marne
• The German army quickly advanced through northern France and
after only one month of fighting were barely 25 miles from Paris.
• The French, however, would not give up.
The Battle
• The French launched a
counterattack along the Marne
River east of Paris on September
7, 1914.
• This battle became known as the
First Battle of the Marne.
• 2 million men fought on a battlefront that stretched 125 miles.
• After five days and 250,000
deaths, the French had rallied
and pushed the Germans back
some 40 miles.
The Aftermath
• The French paid a heavy
price, as countless redcoated French troops had
fallen in the battle.
• Despite the loss of life, it
helped the Allies by giving
Russia more time to mobilize
for war.
• Once Russia mobilized,
Germany had to pull some of
its troops out of France and
send them to fight Russia on
the Eastern Front, which
stretched from the Black Sea
to the Baltic Sea.
War Breaks Out
• How did the war break out?
• What other countries joined Germany and Austria
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Hungary to form the Central Powers?
Why do you think World War I is known as the
Great War?
Why did the European Leaders think the war
would be short?
Which nation was better prepared for war?
France or Germany? Why?
How far from Paris were the German troops
before the 1st battle of the Marne?
Despite the loss of lives, how did the 1st Battle of
the Marne help the Allies?
The War Reaches a Stalemate
• The First Battle of the Marne ended in a stalemate, and both French and
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German soldiers dug trenches, or deep ditches, to defend their positions and
seek shelter from enemy fire.
By late 1914, two massive systems of trenches stretched 400 miles across
Western Europe, and the battle lines known as the Western Front extended
from Switzerland to the North Sea.
Trench warfare, or fighting from trenches, was an old strategy that had been
used in Africa, Asia, and the Americas.
This trench warfare, however, was different because of its scale.
– Soldiers lived in trenches, surrounded by machine-gun fire, flying grenades,
and exploding artillery shells.
– Opposing forces had machine guns pointed at enemy trenches at all times,
firing whenever a helmet or rifle appeared over the top.
– Thousands of men that ran into the area between the trenches, known as
“no-man’s-land,” were chopped down by enemy fire.
Neither the Allies nor the Germans were able to make significant advances,
creating a stalemate, or deadlock.
Stalemate
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The war grew rapidly out of control. New styles of
warfare, like the use of gas and heavy artillery,
produced new kinds of horror and unprecedented levels
of suffering and death.
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As a Germans army crossed into Belgium, heading for
Paris, the Russian Army - moving faster than the
German generals had anticipated -- was already
pushing into East Prussia. The German forces on the
Eastern Front, however, quickly defeated the Tsar's
army at the Battle of Tannenberg.
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In the west, as the German army invaded Belgium,
rumors and stories quickly spread of the atrocities the
German soldiers inflicted upon Belgium civilians
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The French, believing the German thrust into Belgium
to be a fake, launched their own offensive on the
eastern border between France and Germany the
operations were disastrous, with the French army
losing 27,000 soldiers in a single day.
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When the German invasion of France failed to take
Paris or destroy French and British resistance on the
river Marne, stalemate quickly followed, and a line of
trenches soon stretched along the war's Western Front
from the Swiss Alps to the English Channel. Christmas
Eve of 1914 saw an extraordinary truce between the
men fighting in the trenches that had been called "the
last twitch of the 19th century."
Poison gas attack, Flanders, Belgium
Major World War I Battles
Battle of
Tannenburg:
Aug. 1914,
Russia’s worst
defeat in World
War I
First Battle of the
Marne: Sept.
1914, Allies
halted German
advance, saving
Paris from
occupation
First Battle of
Ypres: Oct.–Nov.
1914, last major
German offensive
until 1918
Battle of
Gallipoli:
Apr.–Dec. 1915,
failed attempt
of the Allies to
knock Turkey
out of the war
Battle of Verdun:
Feb.–Dec. 1916,
longest battle of
World War I
with huge loss of
life
Battle of the
Somme: July–
Nov. 1916, first
great offensive of
the British, best
remembered for
its staggering loss
of life
Third Battle of
Ypres
(Passchendaele):
July–Nov. 1917, so
many losses that the
name Passchendaele
came to mean
senseless slaughter
Battle of
Caporetto:
Oct.–Nov. 1917,
tremendous
victory for the
Central Powers
The Battle of the Somme - July 1, 1916 (03:01)
Slaughter on the Western Front
The first Battle of the Marne took place between 5th •
and 11th September, 1914. The French 6th
Army came close to defeat and were only saved
by the use of Paris taxis to rush 6,000 reserve
troops to the front line. During the battle, the
French had around 250,000 casualties. Although
the Germans never published the figures, it is
believed that Geman losses were similar to those
of France. The BEF lost 12,733 men during the •
battle.
The second major battle close to the River Marne
took place during the summer of 1918. Over
85,000 American soldiers took part in the battle.
The German attack on the Marne was launched
on 15th July. The Germans failed to break
through. This included 24 divisions of the
French Army, and soldiers from the United
States, Britain and Italy. Allied casualties
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during the 2nd Battle of the Marne were heavy:
French (95,000), British (13,000) and United
States (12,000). It is estimated that the German
Army suffered an estimated 168,000 casualties
and marked the last real attempt by the Central
Power to win WWI.
Battle of Verdun - 1916, became for the
French what Gettysburg is for Americans.
The goal of the German commander was not
territory, but to bleed his enemy to death.
The battle lasted nine months and in the end
the front lines were nearly the same, while
over 300,000 French and Germans were
killed and over 750,000 were wounded.
Battle of the Somme, where another million
died. The battle also saw the introduction of
the tank. 42 British tanks. The British fired
1.5 million rounds of artillery shells at the
Germans in the 5 month battle. The opening
barrage could be heard in England. For
every yard of the 18 mile front there were
two British casualties. 420,000 British
casualties and 1.3 million total in the battle.
As the slaughter continued with no
significant gains in territory by either side,
the men in the trenches kept their sanity by
using music, theater and trench newspapers
to replicate the world they left behind.
Total War on the Western Front
In the spring of 1915 the trenches along the western front were
filled with millions of soldiers, at the average rate of one
soldier per four inches of trench. The job behind the front lines
was to keep the men fed, equipped and ready to continue the
fighting until the end came.
Since both sides targeted both civilians and military personnel,
and mobilized men and resources at an unprecedented rate,
the Great War was a "total war”.
This total war effected the lives of many different people:
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in some communities unprecedented casualty rates especially
among young officers stripped young women of all their male
contemporaries;
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West African soldiers were shipped in from the colonies to fight in
the trenches;
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brave Englishwomen traded other jobs for more dangerous jobs in
weapons factories. Everyone was affected. T
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he first genocide of the 20th century -- the ultimate form of total
war against civilians -- was also part of this conflict. Over the next
two years the Armenian population of Ottoman Turkey was
uprooted and expelled to the desert regions of Mesopotamia. In the
process between 500,000 to one million Armenians where killed or
died of exposure or disease.
The War Reaches a Stalemate
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Why did the war quickly reach a stalemate?
Who won the First Battle of the Marne?
Where were the two systems of trenches located?
What new weapons were developed during World
War I?
Why did some military officers object to the use of
poisonous gas as a weapon?
Was trench warfare an effective strategy during
World War I? Why or Why not?
Total War and Slaughter
New Weapons of War
Poisonous Gas
Tanks
Airplanes
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German military
scientists
experimented with
gas as a weapon.
• Both sides used
planes to map and
to attack trenches
from above.
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Gas in battle was
risky: Soldiers didn’t
know how much to
use, and wind
changes could
backfire the gas.
• When soldiers
began to carry gas
masks, they still
faced a stalemate.
• British forces soon
developed armored
tanks to move into
no-man’s-land.
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Then Germans threw
canisters of gas into
the Allies’ trenches.
• These tanks had
limited success
because many got
stuck in the mud.
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Many regretted using
gas, but British and
French forces began
using it too, to keep
things even.
• Germans soon
found ways to
destroy the tanks
with artillery fire.
• Planes first
dropped brinks and
heavy objects on
enemy troops.
• Soon they
mounted guns and
bombs on planes.
• Skilled pilots
sought in air
battles called
dogfights.
• The German Red
Baron downed 80
Allied planes, until
he was shot down.
Slaughter on the Western Front
Impersonal killing- Hand to hand, sword, rifle, machine
gun, bomb and airplane
1914- each side lost a 1/2 million men
1915- British and French advance was less than 3 miles
anywhere. France lost 1.5 million men
In early 1916, the British had over 1 million men in
Belgium and France, while the French and German
armies had re-supplied their front line troops. The
stage was set for both sides to try to make the
breakthrough on the battlefield that would assure each
victory. By 1916’s end, both sides would lose nearly one
million men with very little change in position of the
front line trenches
1916 Battle of the Somme- 5 months. Germans lost over
600,000 men. 20,000 British soldiers died in one day.
Before the end of the war over 10 million men would die on
both sides. Another 10 million civilians from disease,
starvation, and revolutions.
1918- German trenches were 50 miles from Paris, the
German hope was to reach Paris and defeat the French
before the Americans came into the war.
Weapons of World War I
Realities of War- The Trenches, Weapons and Death – 3:30
World War I Casualties
Allies
Central Powers
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Austria-Hungary 1,200,000
Italy 680,000
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Japan 1,344
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65 million mobilized both sides
Montenegro 3,000
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8.5 million killed
Portugal 8,145
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21 million wounded
Romania 300,000
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7.7 million POW’s and missing
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37million total casualties
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57% of all men mobilized
Belgium 45,550
British Empire 942,135
France 1,368,000
Greece 23,098
Russia 1,700,000
Serbia 45,000
United States 116,516
Bulgaria 87,495
Germany 1,935,000
Ottoman Empire 725,000
Total Casualties
Rifles
• The main weapon used by
British soldiers in the trenches
was the bolt-action rifle. 15
rounds could be fired in a
minute and a person 1,400
meters away could be killed.
• The single-shot, bigger-bore
rifle was the subject of
extensive
research
and
development in the latter
portion of the nineteenth
century, with the result that
the major powers introduced
new models that were smallbore,
bolt-action
weapons
capable of firing multiple
rounds from a spring-loaded
clip inserted into a rifle
magazine.
Rifles, Bayonets and Hand guns
Veterans of the Great War, when interviewed, tended to
play down the impact of the bayonet during the war.
Many remarked (partly in jest) that the bayonet was
used primarily as a splendid means of toasting bread,
and for opening cans, to scrape mud off uniforms,
poking a trench brazier or even to assist in the
preparation of communal latrines
In essence a bayonet is simply a simply a blade that is
attached to the barrel of a rifle for use in close combat.
Most bayonets were of simple design, of the knife
variety, although variations existed. For example the
French devised a needle blade for use on Lebel rifles.
Notoriously, the German army produced a 'saw-back'
blade that, as its name suggests, gave the appearance
of a saw with its double row of teeth on the back edge.
One advantage of using a bayonet in close crowded
combat, as opposed to a rifle or handgun, was its
avoidance of risk in injuring one's fellow soldiers. A
bullet fired at close range into an enemy could well pass
through his body and enter a friend standing (or
fighting) behind him.
There was undeniably
psychological value to the
infantry in carrying a bayonet,
even if in practice it was seldom
used. Bayonets continued to be
commonly issued in the Second
World War.
Hand guns
• The pistol, originally designed as a cavalry
weapon, was the staple weapon for a variety of
personnel during World War One (and beyond).
Traditionally issued to officers of all armies the
pistol was also issued to military police, airmen
and tank operators.
• Reasons for Pistol Use
• For men involved in the latter professions the
pistol was essentially the only weapon that
would serve under their unique environments:
the cramped conditions of both the tank and
aircraft dictated that the rifle - which was
otherwise issued to virtually all regular soldiers was impractical.
French
German
Luger
• Three Basic Types
• When war began there were three types of pistol
in general use: revolvers, clip-loaded automatics
and the so-called 'blow-back' models (where
expanding propellant gas caused the gun to
reload by forcing the bolt back when fired).
Colt 45
Machine Gun
• Horses were still being used during
WWI, but the machine gun was
devastating to both men and horse.
This marked the end of the horses
usefulness in war, millions of horses
would die.
• Machine guns, usually positioned on a
flat tripod, would require a gun crew
of four to six operators. They had the
fire-power of 100 guns.
• The 1914 machine gun, in theory,
could fire 400-600 small-caliber
rounds per minute, a figure that was
to more than double by the war's end,
with rounds fed via a fabric belt or a
metal strip.
Machine Gun
• The reality however was that these early machine guns would
rapidly overheat and become inoperative without the aid of
cooling mechanisms; they were consequently fired in short
rather than sustained bursts. Cooling generally took one of two
forms: water cooled and, increasingly as the war developed, air
cooled. Water jackets would be provided for the former (which
held around one gallon of liquid) and air vents would be built
into the machine gun for the latter
• Water cooled machine guns would still overheat relatively
quickly (sometimes within two minutes), with the consequence
that large supplies of water would need to be on hand in the
heat of a battle - and, when these ran out, it was not unknown
for a machine gun crew to solve the problem by urinating into
the jacket.
• Whether air or water cooled, machine guns still jammed
frequently, especially in hot conditions or when used by
inexperienced operators. Consequently machine guns would
often be grouped together to maintain a constant defensive
position.
Poison Gas
• Considered uncivilized prior to
World War One, the development
and use of poison gas was
necessitated by the requirement of
wartime armies to find new ways
of overcoming the stalemate of
unexpected trench warfare.
• First Use by the French
• Although it is popularly believed
that the German army was the
first to use gas it was in fact
initially deployed by the French. In
the first month of the war, August
1914, they fired tear-gas grenades
(xylyl bromide) against the
Germans. Nevertheless the
German army was the first to give
serious study to the development
of chemical weapons and the first
to use it on a large scale
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Country
Casualties
Deaths
Austria-Hungary 100,000
3,000
British Empire
88,706
8,109
France
190,000
8,000
Germany
200,000
9,000
Italy
60,000
4,627
Russia 419,340
56,000
USA
72,807
1,462
Others
10,000
1,000
Poison Gas
• The German army were the first to use
chlorine gas at the battle of Ypres in 1915.
Chlorine gas causes a burning sensation in
the throat and chest pains. Death is painful
– you suffocate! The problem with chlorine
gas is that the weather must be right. If the
wind is in the wrong direction it could end
up killing your own troops rather than the
enemy.
• In
consequence
experiments
were
undertaken to deliver the gas payload in
artillery shells. This provided the additional
benefits of increasing the target range as
well as the variety of gases released.
• Phosgene
• Following on the heels of chlorine gas came
the use of phosgene. Phosgene as a
weapon was more potent than chlorine in
that while the latter was potentially deadly
it caused the victim to violently cough and
choke.
Poison Gas
• Mustard Gas
• Mustard gas was the most deadly weapon used. It
was fired into the trenches in shells. It is colorless
and takes 12 hours to take effect. Effects include –
blistering skin, vomiting, sore eyes, internal and
external bleeding. Death can take up to 5 weeks.
• Remaining consistently ahead in terms of gas
warfare development, Germany unveiled an
enhanced form of gas weaponry against the
Russians at Riga in September 1917: mustard gas
(or Yperite) contained in artillery shells.
• Mustard gas, an almost odorless chemical, was
distinguished by the serious blisters it caused both
internally and externally, brought on several hours
after exposure. Protection against mustard gas
proved more difficult than against either chlorine or
phosgene gas.
• The use of mustard gas - sometimes referred to as
Yperite - also proved to have mixed benefits. While
inflicting serious injury upon the enemy the
chemical remained potent in soil for weeks after
release: making capture of infected trenches a
dangerous undertaking.
Poison Gas- Mustard Gas effects
Tanks
• Tanks were used for the
first time in the First World
War at the Battle of the
Somme. They were
developed to cope with the
conditions on the Western
Front. The first tank was
called ‘Little Willie’ and
needed a crew of 3. Its
maximum speed was 3mph
and it could not cross
trenches
• The more modern tank was
not developed until just
before the end of the war.
It could carry 10 men, had
a revolving turret and could
reach 4 mph
Tanks
• By the time the war
drew to a close the
British, the first to use
them, had produced
some 2,636 tanks. The
French
produced
rather more, 3,870.
The Germans, never
convinced of its merits,
and
despite
their
record
for
technological
innovation, produced
just 20.
Flame-throwers
• The basic idea of a flame-thrower is to
spread fire by launching burning fuel. The
earliest flame-throwers date as far back
as the 5th century B.C. These took the
form of lengthy tubes filled with burning
solids (such as coal or sulfur), and which
were used in the same way as blow-guns:
by blowing into one end of the tube the
solid material inside would be propelled
towards the operator's enemies.
• Quite aside from the worries of handling
the device - it was entirely feasible that
the cylinder carrying the fuel might
unexpectedly explode - they were marked
men; the British and French poured riflefire into the area of attack where
Flammenwerfers were used, and their
operators could expect no mercy should
they be taken prisoner. Their life
expectancy was therefore short.
During the war the Germans
launched in excess of 650
flame-thrower attacks; no
numbers exist for British or
French attacks.
Grenades
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The British bombing team usually consisted of
nine men at a time: an NCO, two throwers, two
carriers, two bayonet-men to defend the team and
two 'spare' men for use when casualties were
incurred.
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As an attack or raid reached an enemy trench the
grenadiers would be responsible for racing down
the trench and throwing grenades into each
dugout they passed: this invariably succeeded in
purging dugouts of their human occupants in an
attempt at surrender (often not accepted as they
were promptly shot or stabbed).
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Grenades - either hand or rifle driven - were
detonated in one of two ways. They were either
detonated on impact (percussion) or via a timed
fuse.
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Generally speaking, infantrymen preferred timed
fuses (of whatever amount of time) to percussion
devices, since there remained the constant risk of
accidentally jolting a grenade while in a trench
and setting off an explosion.
Mortars and Artillery
•
Large field guns had a long range and could deliver
devastating blows to the enemy but needed up to 12
men to work them. They fired shells which exploded on
impact.
•
mortar is essentially a short, stumpy tube designed to
fire a projectile at a steep angle (by definition higher
than 45 degrees) so that it falls straight down on the
enemy.
•
The chief advantage of the mortar was that it could be
fired from the (relative) safety of the trench, avoiding
exposure of the mortar crews to the enemy.
Furthermore, it was notably lighter and more mobile
than other, larger artillery pieces. And, of course, the
very fact that the mortar bomb fell almost straight
down meant that it would (with luck) land smack in the
enemy trench.
•
Mortars were variously used to take out enemy
machine gun posts, suspected sniper posts or other
designated features. Larger mortars were occasionally
used to cut enemy barbed wire, generally in situations
were field artillery could not be used.
Trenches
• The Allies used four "types" of trenches. The
first, the front-line trench (or firing-andattack trench), was located from 50 yards to
1 mile from the German's front trench.
Several hundred yards behind the front-line
trench was the support trench, with men and
supplies that could immediately assist those
on the front line. The reserve trench was dug
several hundred yards further back and
contained men and supplies that were
available in emergencies should the first
trenches be overrun.
• Connecting these trenches were
communication trenches, which allowed
movement of messages, supplies, and men
among the trenches. Some underground
networks connected gun emplacements and
bunkers with the communication trenches.
Trenches
•
Trenches were not built in straight lines. This was
so that if the enemy managed to get into the front
line trench they would not have a straight firing
line along the trench. Trenches were therefore
built with alternating straight and angled lines.
The traverse was the name given to the angled
parts of the trench.
•
The typical front-line trench was about 6 to 8 feet
deep and wide enough for two men to pass.
Dugouts in the sides of the trenches protected
men during enemy fire. Barbed wire helped
protect the firing trench from surprise attacks.
•
Between the enemy lines lay a stretch of ground
called "no man's land." Soldiers generally served
at the front line from a few days to a week and
then rotated to the rear for a rest
•
Every soldier carried iron rations -- emergency
food that consisted of a can of bully beef, biscuits
and a tin of tea and sugar.
Except during an attack, life fell into a dull routine. Some soldiers stood guard. Others repaired
the trenches, kept telephone lines in order, brought food from behind the battle lines, or did other
jobs. At night, patrols fixed the barbed wire and tried to get information about the enemy.
Life in the Trenches
• Death was a constant companion. Constant
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shellfire directed by the enemy brought random
death, (many men were buried as a
consequence of such large shell-bursts).
Similarly, novices were cautioned against their
natural inclination to peer over the parapet of
the trench into No Man's Land.
Many men died on their first day in the trenches
as a consequence of a precisely aimed sniper's
bullet.
It has been estimated that up to one third of
Allied casualties on the Western Front were
actually sustained in the trenches. Aside from
enemy injuries, disease wrought a heavy toll.
Life in the Trenches
• Rat Infestation
• Rats in their millions infested trenches. There were two
main types,
– the brown and the black rat.
– brown rat was especially feared. Gorging themselves on human
remains (grotesquely disfiguring them by eating their eyes and
liver) they could grow to the size of a cat.
• Men, exasperated and afraid of these rats (gunfire, with
•
the bayonet, and even by clubbing them to death.
It was futile however: a single rat couple could produce
up to 900 offspring in a year, spreading infection and
contaminating food. The rat problem remained for the
duration of the war (although many veteran soldiers
swore that rats sensed impending heavy enemy shellfire
and consequently disappeared from view).
Life in the Trenches
• Frogs, Lice and Worse
• Lice were a never-ending problem, breeding in the seams of filthy
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clothing and causing men to itch unceasingly.
Even when clothing was periodically washed and deloused, lice eggs
invariably remained hidden in the seams; within a few hours of the
clothes being re-worn the body heat generated would cause the
eggs to hatch.
Lice caused Trench Fever, a particularly painful disease that began
suddenly with severe pain followed by high fever. Recovery - away
from the trenches - took up to twelve weeks. Lice were not actually
identified as the culprit of Trench Fever until 1918.
Frogs by the score were found in shell holes covered in water; they
were also found in the base of trenches. Slugs and horned beetles
crowded the sides of the trench.
Many men chose to shave their heads entirely to avoid another
prevalent scourge: nits.
Trenches- Trench Foot
•
Much of the land where the trenches were dug
was either clay or sand. The water could not
pass through the clay and because the sand
was on top, the trenches became waterlogged
when it rained. The trenches were hard to dig
and kept on collapsing in the waterlogged
sand. As well as trenches the shells from the
guns and bombs made big craters in the
ground. The rain filled up the craters and then
poured into the trenches
•
Trench foot was a fungal infection of the feet
caused by cold, wet and unsanitary trench
conditions.
•
Soldiers who spent prolonged periods of time
standing in waterlogged trenches were liable
to suffer from frostbite and/or trench foot. To
prevent trench foot, soldiers were instructed
to change their socks frequently, wear
waterproof footwear and to cover their feet
with whale oil.
•
It could turn gangrenous and result in
amputation. Trench Foot was more of a
problem at the start of trench warfare; as
conditions improved in 1915 it rapidly faded,
although a trickle of cases continued
throughout the war
Trench Mouth
•
The term Trench Mouth is
from WWI. Trench warfare was
stressful because soldiers waited
around before going over the
top. There was no running water,
no toothpaste and lots of stress.
Many soldiers developed this type
of gingivitis and had bad breath
from rotting gum surfaces. The
dead gum is attacked and infected.
The gum in between the teeth is
lost so you see in between the
teeth (punched out papillas). In
normal patients the gums in
between the teeth cover the sides
of the teeth so you can't see them.
These patients have badly painful
and bleeding gums. The surface
of the gums may appear grey from
dying tissue.
Life in the Trenches
• The Trench Cycle
• Typically, a battalion would be expected to serve a spell in the front
line. This would be followed by a stint spent in support, and then in
reserve lines. A period of rest would follow - generally short in
duration - before the whole cycle of trench duty would start afresh.
• In reality the cycle was determined by the necessities of the
situation. Even while at rest men might find themselves tasked with
duties that placed them in the line of fire.
• Others would spend far longer in the front line than usual, usually in
the more 'busy' sectors.
• As an example - and the numbers varied widely - a man might
expect in a year to spend some 70 days in the front line, with
another 30 in nearby support trenches. A further 120 might be
spent in reserve. Only 70 days might be spent at rest. The amount
of leave varied, with perhaps two weeks being granted during the
year.
Life in the Trenches
• the Smell
• Finally, no overview of trench life can avoid the aspect that instantly
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struck visitors to the lines: the appalling reek given off by numerous
conflicting sources.
Rotting carcases lay around in their thousands. For example,
approximately 200,000 men were killed on the Somme battlefields,
many of which lay in shallow graves.
Overflowing latrines would similarly give off a most offensive
stench.
Men who had not been afforded the luxury of a bath in weeks or
months would offer the pervading odour of dried sweat. The feet
were generally accepted to give off the worst odour.
Trenches would also smell of creosol or chloride of lime, used to
stave off the constant threat of disease and infection.
Add to this the smell of cordite, the lingering odour of poison gas,
rotting sandbags, stagnant mud, cigarette smoke and cooking
food... yet men grew used to it, while it thoroughly overcame firsttime visitors to the front.
Trenches-
Self Inflicted wounds + Shell Shock
• Faced with the prospect of being killed or permanently
disabled, soldiers sometimes hoped that they would
receive what was known as a blighty wound, and be sent
back home. There were some cases where soldiers shot
themselves in an attempt to end their time on the
frontline. Self-inflicted wounds (SIW) was a capital
offence and if discovered, a man found guilty of this
faced execution by firing-squad. A total of 3,894 men in
the British Army were convicted of SIW. None of these
men were executed but they all served periods in prison.
• By 1914 British doctors working in military hospitals
noticed patients suffering from "shell shock". Early
symptoms included tiredness, irritability, giddiness, lack
of concentration and headaches. Eventually the men
suffered mental breakdowns making it impossible for
them to remain in the front-line. Some came to the
conclusion that the soldiers condition was caused by the
enemy's heavy artillery. These doctors argued that a
bursting shell creates a vacuum, and when the air rushes
into this vacuum it disturbs the cerebra-spinal fluid and
this can upset the working of the brain.
Blimps
• The Zeppelin, also
known as blimp was
an airship that was
used during the early
part of the war in
bombing raids by the
Germans. They carried
machine guns and
bombs. However,
they were abandoned
because they were
easy to shoot out of
the sky.
Airplanes
• Planes were also used for the
first time. At first they were used
to deliver bombs and for spying
work but became fighter aircraft
armed with machine guns,
bombs and some times cannons.
Fights between two planes in
the sky became known as
‘dogfights’
• Light
machine
guns
were
adopted too for incorporation
into aircraft from 1915 onwards,
for
example
the
Vickers,
particularly with the German
adoption
of
interrupter
equipment, which enabled the
pilot to fire the gun through the
aircraft's propeller blades.
U-Boats - 1:15 min.
Submarines - U-Boats
• Torpedoes were used by submarines. The
Germans used torpedoes to blow up ships
carrying supplies from America to Britain.
• In February 1915 the German government
announced its solution to the problem -unrestricted submarine warfare. The Germans
realized they didn't have to capture a merchant
ship, just sink it - crew and all. They declared a
war zone around the British Isles within which
they would sink any allied merchant vessel on
sight.
• The Germans torpedoed the passenger liner
Lusitania on May 1st 1915 which sank with a loss
of 1,195 lives. Americans were outraged and
joined the war in 1917 on the side of the allies.
World War I Disabilities
• Over 1.65 million men
in the British Army were
wounded during the
First World War. Of
these, around 240,000
British soldiers suffered
total or partial leg or
arm amputations as a
result of war wounds.
Most of these men were
fitted with artificial
limbs.
Over the Top - An Interactive Adventure
15 min or the entire period.
• http://www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/games/o
vertop/index_e.shtml