WORLD WAR I

1. WORLD WAR I THE WESTERN FRONT

2. Dominated by trench warfare • Stalemate after the First Battle of the Marne leads to bloody, costly fighting • No significant breakthrough on either side • Trade lots of lives for little gain • New weapons were superior to archaic tactics, leads to a generation slaughtered

3. The Trenches • Are a series of six feet deep ditches protected by barbed wire • Zigzagged to keep it from becoming a shooting gallery and to minimize blast effect of a shell impact • Nearly 500 miles of two parallel trenches running from the English Channel to the borders of Switzerland • Life in the trenches • Trenches were filthy, muddy, poorly drained, noisy, and diseased

4. Shared trenches with: • Rats, fleas, garbage, and human waste • Remains of decaying corpses • Most soldiers were depressed and miserable • Disillusioned and want to go home • This was not the glorious war they signed up for

6. Trench Raids • The goal was to capture the enemies trenches and gain land • Softening up phase • Long periods of artillery shelling prior to launching a major attack against an enemy trench • “over the top” • Soldiers go over the top of the trenches and try to make their way to the opposing trenches through a stream of machine gun fire • “no man’s land” is the area between the two trenches that both sides are fighting over

7. Must cut barbed wire to get through to the enemy trench while dodging bullets from machine guns • Also known as the Arena of Death • Soldiers will live and die in these mud holes for the next four years • On an average day 2,533 men die, 9,121 are wounded, and 1,164 go missing • Trench warfare is best fought as a defensive war, not an offensive one • Have better defensive weapons than offensive • The Germans dig in and focus more on defense while the Allies keep on attacking

11. New Technology and Weapons • Machine gun • 1884 the Maxim Gun becomes the first automatic weapon • Could wipe out waves of attackers • Makes it difficult for forces to advance and transforms war from one of rapid advance to one of defense • Artillery • Huge guns capable of hurling giant projectiles many miles • Used in combat against strongly fortified positions

12. Causes much destruction • At the Battle of the Somme, a seven day artillery preparation had 1,537 guns fire 1,627,824 rounds • Chemical Warfare – Poison Gas • Introduced by the Germans in 1915 at Ypres • Uses chlorine which could cause blindness and even death by choking as it dissolved the lungs • Kills and injures thousands • Protection against • First used socks soaked in urine • Later gas masks are invented

15. Tanks • Armored vehicles, introduced by the British in 1916 at the Battle of the Somme • Initially they are slow and clumsy and can’t break the deadlock • Airplanes • First used as reconnaissance to observe enemy positions, then pilots dropped bombs • Machine guns added • Dog fights • High mortality rate, become an ace after five kills • The Red Baron was the most famous ace, over 70 kills

18. Submarines or “U-Boats” • Primary weapon is the torpedo, also deploys contact mines • Most effective part of the German navy, can’t compete with the British warships, so resorts to submarine warfare • Unrestricted submarine warfare = any ship traveling in the waters around Great Britain was subject to attack by German submarines • Will fire on ships regardless of nationality • Targeted the British naval vessels, along with merchant ships bringing supplies to Britain

19. Overview of Several Battles • Battle of Champagne • Dec. 1914 – March 1915 • Allied offensive against the Germans • Allies gain 500 yards for 50,000 men • French casualties = 400,000 • British and German not much better

20. Battle of Verdun • Feb. – Dec. 1916 • German attack on the Verdun fortress • An important French fortress since Roman times • Germans believe the French would defend it all costs • Attack meant to kill or injure as many French soldiers as possible • Germany “Bleed the French army white” • France “They shall not pass” • French hold their ground at 542,000 casualties • Germans lose 434,000 men and gain 4 miles

21. Battle of the Somme • June – November 1916 • Mostly a British attack on German forces, launched in part to pull German forces away from Verdun • First time a tank is used in battle • Bloodiest day of battle in British history, lose 60,000 men the first day • Total casualties: British 420,000, French 195,000, and German 650,000 • British gain five miles

22. Flanders Field • June – July 1917 • British offensive to free Belgium • British gain 5 miles, lose 300,000 men • French have 8,528 casualties and the Germans 260,000

23. The Nivelle Offensive at Champagne • April 1917 • French offensive against the Germans • In five days the French gain 600 yards at the expense of 120,000 casualties • Mutiny breaks out among the French troops, they refuse to go over the top

24. The Gallipoli Campaign • Feb. – Aug. 1915 • Plan by Churchill to break the deadlock on the Western Front • Goal is to seize the Dardanelles from the Ottoman Empire • Want to be able to ship supplies to Russia and open up another front • Allied naval assault, land on the beaches • Beach heads become areas of trenches and the stalemate leads to evacuation • Total failure – Turks still control the Dardanelles • Allies have 252,000 casualties and the Ottoman Turks 251,000

26. War on the Home Front • World War I was a total war = nations devote all resources to the war effort • As a result gov’ts began to take a stronger role in controlling the lives of its citizens • Factories began to produce military equipment and civilians rationed (conserved) certain foods and goods • Governments controlled public opinion • Censored newspapers – didn’t want people discouraged by the numbers of casualties • Created propaganda = ideas spread to influence public opinion

27. Used posters to inspire national pride and get people to volunteer while making the enemy look bad • Many women helped out the war effort since millions of men left to fight • They worked in factories producing military supplies • Others worked as nurses • In some countries, such as Great Britain, women were rewarded for their efforts by gaining the right to vote

32. A Global War • British and French troops attacked German colonies in Africa • Soldiers from all parts of the British Empire fought – India, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand • Algerians fought for France • Japan joined the Allied Powers and captured German colonies in China and the Pacific

33. In Flanders Fields – by John Mcrae In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row That mark our place, and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow Loved, and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders Fields

34. Take up our quarrel with the foe To you from failing hands we thrown The torch, be yours to hold it high If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders Fields

35. The Soldier – by Rupert Brooke If I should die, think only this of me That there’s some corner of a foreign field That is for ever England. There shall be In that rich earth a richer dust concealed A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam A body of England’s, breathing English air Washed by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

36. And think, this heart, all evil shed away A pulse in the eternal mind, no less Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given; Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day; And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness In hearts at peace, under an English heaven. Rupert Brooke died of blood poisoning on his way to Gallipoli in 1915

37. Dulce et Decorum Est – by Wilfred Owen Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed Through sludge Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs And towards our distant rest began to trudge Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots Of tired, outstripped Five-Nines (gas shells) That dropped behind

38. Gas! Gas! Quick, boys! – An ecstasy of fumbling, Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time; But someone still was yelling out and stumbling And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime . . . Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light As under a green sea, I saw him drowning In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning If in some smothering dreams you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in And watch the white eyes writhing in his face His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;

39. If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues, My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory The old lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori (It is sweet and fitting to die for one’s country) Wilfred Owen died in combat

40. The Parable of the Old Man and the Young So Abram rose, and clave the wood, and went, And took the fire with him, and a knife, And as they sojourned both of them together, Isaac the first-born spake and said, My Father, Behold the preparations, fire and iron, But where the lamb, for this burnt offering? Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps, And builded parapets and trenches there, And stretched forth the knife to slay his son.

41. When lo! An angel called him out of heaven; Saying, Lay not thy hand upon the lad, Neither do anything to him, thy son. Behold! Caught in a thicket by its horns, A Ram. Offer the Ram of Pride instead. But the old man would not so, but slew his son, And half the seed of Europe, one by one.