To do today:

1. To do today: • Examine WWI weapons • Videos- Charlie Chaplin!  • Activities • PowerPoint • First hand testimony

2. Warm Up: February 20th/21st • What were the four main causes of World War I? • How was WWI different than past wars?

3. Activity: • Read the first hand account of Archduke Franz Ferdinand's assassination and answer the questions • We will look at a few questions together, but not all of them

4. New Weapons

5. New weapons contribute to the stalemate.

6. 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.

7. 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

8. Submarines - U-Boats • Torpedoes were used by submarines. • The Germans used torpedoes to blow up ships carrying supplies from America to Britain.

9. 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.

10. Machine Gun • 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.

11. Machine Gun

12. 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. • Invented by a Jew….ironically.

13. 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.

14. Poison Gas- Mustard Gas effects

15. 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

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. Grenades • 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.

19. Trench Warfare “Over the Top!”

20. It reached peak brutality and bloodshed on the Western Front in the First World War.

21. “Over the Top” • A new type of warfare known as “Trench warfare” began. • Battles began with massive artillery barrages • Soldiers went “over the top” of the trenches and charged into no man’s land and were killed by machine gun fire. • Both sides used 19th century tactics with 20th Century weapons.

22. Life in the Trenches. • Soldiers were plagued by rats and lice. • Rain flooded trenches. • Dead left unburied for days. • Unsanitary. • Just as many died from disease in the trenches as from battle .

23. What did they look like?

29. Soldier on sentry duty Barbed wire Timber bridge over top of trench No Mans’ Land Helmet, uniform and rifle are British Timber holding up back of trench. Capes used as cover No sandbags. Trench may be damaged Bottom of trench is dry. It could be summer. Are these soldiers asleep or dead? This photograph does not looked posed as the soldier seems unaware of the camera. It is probably a reliable source. Water cans.

30. Bird’s Eye View Zig-zagged pattern Communication “traverses”

32. What fighting in it looked like • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPtVNDvwGMo

33. Why the zig-zagged pattern? It prevented the enemy from being able to shoot down the length of the entire trench

34. This meant that a soldier could see no more than 10 meters along the length of the trench.

35. Why barbed wire? It was difficult to cut, and shelling it would only make it more entangled, providing an extra barrier from attack.

36. Trench Cross-Section

37. Why “duckboards” & a drainage sump? It reinforced the stability of the walls, and allowed for drainage of rainwater, blood, and other body fluids…

38. Why sandbags? They protected soldiers from bullets and shrapnel

40. Why were trenches necessary in World War I ?

41. Vickers Machine Gun This new and powerful weapon could “mow down” soldiers trying to attack

42. Machine guns needed 4-6 men to work them and had the fire power of 100 guns

43. Gas Attacks Chlorine and Mustard gas would slow down attackers, causing burns and suffocation

46. Blind Alleys These led nowhere and were built to confuse and slow down the enemy

47. Underground “Saps” These tunnels were dug under enemy trenches so that explosives could be placed under them and detonated

48. attackers couldn’t cross “no man’s land” fast enough to avoid casualties

49. “no man’s land” varied in distance depending on the battlefield. On the Western Front it was typically between 100 and 300 yards, though only 30 yards on Vimy Ridge.

50. Small trenches rapidly grew deeper and more complex, gradually becoming vast areas of interlocking defensive works British trenches German trenches