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Trench warfare in the first world war

Felix Schaber. Trench warfare in the first world war. Outline. The beginning of Trench Warfare Weapons of Trench Warfare Life in the Trenches Strategies to break through the enemy lines and defend their own Facts and figures. The beginning of Trench Warfare.

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Trench warfare in the first world war

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  1. Felix Schaber Trench warfare in the first world war

  2. Outline • The beginning of Trench Warfare • Weapons of Trench Warfare • Life in the Trenches • Strategies to break through the enemy lines and defend their own • Facts and figures

  3. The beginningof Trench Warfare • 3rd August, 1914, German troops crossed the Belgian border in the narrow gap between Holland and France. • Germans are quickly victorious over the Belgians • The French an British are defeated at Sambre (22nd August) and Mons (23rd August). • The German army marches for Paris but is unable to break through due to a French counterattack (Battle of the Marne 4th to 10th September) • The German commander, General Erich von Falkenhayn, decided that his troops must hold onto those parts of France and Belgium that Germany still occupied. • Falkenhayn ordered his men to dig trenches that would provide them with protection from the advancing French and British troops. • The Allies soon realized that they could not break through this line and they also began to dig trenches. • After a few months these trenches had spread from the North Sea to the Swiss Frontier. • For the next three years neither side advanced more than a few miles along this line that became known as the Western Front.

  4. Weaponsof Trench Warfare

  5. Infantry • At the beginning improvised weapons • Rifle • Bayonet • Shotgun • Hand grenades • Flamethrowers

  6. Machineguns • British: • Vickers machine guns • Later changed to Lewis Gun • German: • Maschinengewehr 08 • Mostly used to defend • Heavy machine guns

  7. Tanks • British innovation • First use: Battle of Somme • At first they were very ineffective • Later became essential

  8. Artillery • Essential foranyattack • Shapedthelandscapeatthe Western Front • Fragmentation, highly explosive and gas shells • German 420 mm howitzer: • Weight: 20 tons • Could fire a one-ton shell over 10 km

  9. Gas • Mustard gas • Chlorine • Phosgene • 85% of the 100,000 deaths caused by chemical weapons during World War I • Gas masks: • Urinating over a handkerchief • Later developed • Not very effective due to countermeasures

  10. Life in theTrenches

  11. Water in theTrenches • Germans had the higher and therefore better positions • Water would be found 2-3 feet below surface • Rain would collect in the trenches • Caused trench foot

  12. Trench Foot • Infection of the feet • Caused by: • Cold • Wet • Unsanitary conditions • Sometimes feet had to be amputated

  13. Food • Caned food • Nothing fresh • Rats ate some • Rations got lower and lower over the course of the war

  14. SelfInflictedWounds • Hoped to be released home • Mostly shot themselves in the arm or foot • Could be sentenced with execution

  15. Strategies to break through the enemy lines and defend their own

  16. Barb Wire • In front of the trenches in the No-Mans-Land • Worsened with the artillery fire • Redone at night

  17. Cavalry • High place value at the beginning • Equipped with: • Sword • Rifle • Lance • Massacred by machine gun fire

  18. Miners • Specialist Miners-Not soldiers! • Objective: • Blow up the trenches from below • Then start a quick attack • Other side tried to hear them • Could take a year to dig

  19. Facts andFigures

  20. 1914 Over 450,000 civilian deaths

  21. Bibliography • Information: • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poison_gas_in_World_War_I • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trench_warfare • http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWtrench.htm • http://www.jop-kriegskunst.de/1welt.htm • http://www.historyman.co.uk/ww1/Trenwar.html • www.mrberlin.com/8th/WWI/trench_warfare.ppt • http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/trench.htm • Pictures: • http://mgb-home.de/Zar-Beginn-Erster-Weltkrieg.jpg • http://serbien.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/04.jpg?w=450 • http://de.academic.ru/pictures/dewiki/66/British_tank_crossing_a_trench.jpg • http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Passchendaele_aerial_view.jpg • http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Various_gas_masks_WWI.jpg • http://www.worldwar1.com/foto/fww2352.jpg • http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWfoot.jpg • http://military.brucemuseum.ca/d/14299-1/A95-01%2307+-+No+Man_s+Land.jpg • http://einestages.spiegel.de/hund-images/2008/04/22/51/00ec5247681886e9cc9c295488a2e97d_image_document_large_featured_borderless.jpg

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