Horrors of World War I Trench Warfare: Losses, Technology, and Gas Warfare

1. World War I - Warfare Mr. Goddard | PLUSH | 2009

2. Western Front before the US entered the WAR

3. Major First Battles of WWI For comparison purposes the total casualties for the American Civil war was approximately 620,000

4. Why such high causality rates and long battles? • Germany wanted to defeat France so Britain would surrender. • Germany wanted a fast victory to support its two fronts. • The main military goal was not to capture strategic points but kill the enemy into submission. • Contributing Factors • Trench Warfare • Chemical Warfare • Machine Guns • Grenades • Disease • Tanks

5. Life on the western front Britain and France Face Germany Western Front – over 400 miles of trenches across Belgium and France · Most offenses resulted in heavy casualties but gained little territory.

6. Trench Warfare Trench Warfare – the type of fighting during World War I in which both sides dug trenches protected by mines and barbed wire Cross-section of a front-line trench 

7. Photos from the trenches British trench, France, July 1916 (during the Battle of the Somme) French soldiers firing over their own dead The defenders did not present much of a target to the attackers. Notice how deep the trenches were in relation to the soldier.

8. Conditions were awful and led to disease Officers walking through a flooded communication trench. A photograph of a man suffering from trench foot.

9. Conditions were awful and led to disease Many men killed in the trenches were buried almost where they fell. These corpses, as well as the food scraps that littered the trenches, attracted rats. Quotes from soldiers fighting in the trenches: "The rats were huge. They were so big they would eat a wounded man if he couldn't defend himself." "I saw some rats running from under the dead men's greatcoats, enormous rats, fat with human flesh. My heart pounded as we edged towards one of the bodies. His helmet had rolled off. The man displayed a grimacing face, stripped of flesh; the skull bare, the eyes devoured and from the yawning mouth leapt a rat." British dead in a trench

10. Trenches were everywhere • An aerial photograph of the opposing trenches and no-man's land in Artois, France, July 22, 1917. • German trenches are at the right and bottom, British trenches are at the top left. • The vertical line to the left of centre indicates the course of a pre-war road.

11. Defenders had a significant advantage

12. New Technologies increased The killing (VIDEO 6 Minutes)

13. Zeppelins (large blimps) Often bombed London and Paris Bomb dropped on London from Zeppelin British Propaganda

14. Chemical Weapons The horrors of gas warfare had never been seen on a battlefield until 1915. Gas was more of a nuisance, a crippling nuisance, often only wounding and causing widespread panic instead of outright killing. List of gases used in World War I benzyl bromide-German, tearing, first used 1915 Bromacetone-Both sides, tearing/fatal in concentration, first used 1916 carbonyl chloride (phosgene)-both sides, asphyxiant, fatal with delayed action, first used 1915 Chlorine-both sides, asphyxiant, fatal in concentration, first used in 1915, cylinder release only chloromethylchloroformate-both sides, tearing, first used in 1915, artillery shell Chloropircin-both sides, tearing, first used in 1916, artillery shell (green cross I) cyanogen (cyanide) compounds-allies/Austria, asphyxiant, fatal in concentration, first used in 1916, artillery shell Dichlormethylether-German, tearing, first used 1918, artillery shell Dibrommethylethylketone-German, tearing, fatal in concentration, first used in 1916 dichloroethylsulphide (mustard gas)-both sides, blistering, artillery shell (yellow cross) Diphenylchloroarsine - German, asphyxiant, fatal in concentration, (dust - could not be filtered), first used in 1917, artillery shell (blue cross) Diphenylcyonoarsine- German, more powerful replacement for blue cross, first used in 1918 Ethyldichloroarsine -German, less powerful replacement for blue cross, first used in 1918, artillery shell (yellow cross I, green cross III) ethyl iodoacetate- British, tearing, first used in 1916 Monobrommethylethylketone-German, more powerful replacement for bromacetone, first used 1916 trichloromethylchloroformate (diphosgene)- both sides, asphyxiant, fatal with delayed action, first used 1916 xylyl bromide- German, tearing, first used 1915

15. What did the gas do? • Gas was available in three basic varieties: • Tearing Agent • Much like today's tear gas and mace, this gas caused temporary blindness and greatly inflamed the nose and throat of the victim. A gas mask offered very good protection from this type of gas. xylyl bromide was a popular tearing agent since it was easily brewed. • Asphyxiant • These are the poisonous gases. This class includes chlorine, phosgene and diphosgene. Chlorine inflicts damage by forming hydrochloric acid when coming in contact with moisture such as found in the lungs and eyes. It is lethal at a mix of 1:5000 (gas/air) whereas phosgene is deadly at 1:10,000 (gas/air) - twice as toxic! Diphosgene, first used by the Germans at Verdun on 22-Jun-1916, was deadlier still and could not be effectively filtered by standard issue gas masks. • Blistering Agent • Dichlorethylsulphide: the most dreaded of all chemical weapons in World War I - mustard gas. Unlike the other gases which attack the respiratory system, this gas acts on any exposed, moist skin. This includes, but is not limited to, the eyes, lungs, armpits and groin. A gas mask could offer very little protection. The oily agent would produce large burn-like blisters wherever it came in contact with skin. It also had a nasty way of hanging about in low areas for hours, even days, after being dispersed. A soldier jumping into a shell crater to seek cover could find himself blinded, with skin blistering and lungs bleeding.

16. Chemical Weapons (VIDEO 1.5 minutes)

17. Gas was a serious part of World War I • Notice the non-fatal versus fatal ratio • I assume that Russia had no protection for its troops and they were exposed to deadlier forms of gas.

18. Advances in artillery • The German Paris Gun, also known as William's Gun, was the largest rail artillery gun of World War I. In 1918 the Paris Gun was able to shell Paris from 120 km (75 mi) away. It used shells about 210 pounds in weight. • The German howitzer, also known as Big Bertha, was used to shell enemy trenches and fortifications. It was able to shell up to 7.7 miles away and used shells about 1800 pounds in weight.

19. MAIN POINTS • Advances in warfare were typically better at defense rather than offense. • Many new weapons like the Tank led to the concept of Mechanized Warfare. • Chemical Warfare produced more terror than deaths • The number of deaths and injuries from the war scarred the consciousness of Europe for the next two generations. • World War I offered an opportunity for mankind to develop tools to increase killing on a scale never before witnessed. • Trench warfare produced battles that were long and costly.