The Great War

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The Great War

• Early Combat

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Opening Battles

• The Schlieffen Plan
• Count Alfred von Schlieffen, chief of the German
  General staff planned this in 1905.

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The Schlieffen Plan

• Major action against Russia should be delayed, a
  German force would fight a defensive war against
  Russia initially.
• The Belgium lowlands should be invaded quickly to
  get to Paris, France.
• After France falls, the two German armies would
  unite to defeat Russia.

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Belgium Invasion

• As Germany invaded Belgium, thousands of Belgium
  refugees fled in terror.
• British French forces could not save Belgium.
• British French forces were forced to retreat to
  the Marne River of France by September of 1914.

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Belgium Invasion

• American war correspondent, Richard Harding Davis
  reported what he saw
• We found the streets blocked with carts. Into
  these they had thrown mattresses, or bundles of
  grains, and heaped upon them were families of
  three generations. Old men in blue smocks,
  white-haired and bent, old women in caps, the
  daughters dressed in their one best frock and
  hat, and clasping their hands all that was left
  to them, all that they could stuff into a
  pillow-case or flour sackHeart-broken, weary,
  hungry, the passed in an unending caravan.

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Trench Warfare

• By the spring of 1915, two lines of deep,
  rat-infested trenches zigzagged across northern
  and eastern France.

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Trench Warfare

• In addition to the deep trenches, there existed
  no mans land.
• This is a barren expanse of mud, pockmarked
  with shell craters filled with barbed wire
  entanglements.
• Occasionally, soldiers would attempt to overrun
  the enemys trench by running across no mans
  land.
• They would often have to endure shells, machine
  gun fire, poison gas.

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Trench Warfare

• Occasionally, soldiers would attempt to overrun
  the enemys trench by running across no mans
  land.
• They would often have to endure shells, machine
  gun fire, poison gas.

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Stalemates

• The First Battle of the Somme
• Began on July 1, 1916
• Ended in mid-November of 1916
• 60,000 British soldiers died on day one
• 1.2 million men died in the battle
• 650,000 Germans
• 420,00 British
• 200,000 French
• Only 7 miles of territory changed hands!

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Stalemates

• Thousands of soldiers died fighting trench
  warfare stalemate battles on
• The Eastern Front (Russia vs. Germany)
• The Italian Front (Austria-Hungary vs.
  Italy)
• The Dardanelles Front It lasted one
  year. (waterway between the Black Sea
  Mediterranean)
• The African Front Germans British
  troops stalemated after two years of battle.
  

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The Eastern FrontRussia vs. Germany
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The Italian FrontAustria-Hungary vs. Italy
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DardanellesStrategic Waterway between
Mediterranean Black Sea
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DardanellesStrategic Waterway between
Mediterranean Black Sea
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U.S. World War I PolicyNeutrality (August 3,
1914 - April 6, 1917

• President Woodrow Wilson won his 1916 reelection
  campaign using this slogan.
• He Kept Us Out of War

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1916 Election Results

• The 1916 election results seemed to support
  neutrality.
• Wilsons campaign slogan was
• He Kept Us Out of War