Canadian History 1201

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WWI Opening Moves Trench Warfare

• Canadian History 1201
• November 18, 2004

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Opening Moves

• In August 1914, Germany attempted to quickly
  knock France out of the war capture Paris
  before British Russia forces could be
  mobilized.
• To accomplish this Germany had to invade neutral
  Belgium in order to get to northeastern France
• In September 1914, British French forces
  stopped the Germans just outside of Paris and
  both sides began to dig inTRENCH WARFARE had
  arrived!!!!

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Germanys Advance Aug 1914
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The Allies Advance Sept 1914
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Trench Warfare
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Trench Warfare

• Both sides began to construct deep trenches
  protected by machine guns barbed wire.

• Parallel lines of trenches soon stretched from
  the English Channel to Switzerland

• Opposing forces were only separated by 25m in
  some areas.

• Trench warfare dominated the battlefields of WWI.

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World War I Trench Weapons

• During WWI, the soldiers in the trenches used a
  wide variety of weapons, these included
• Rifles and pistols
• Machine guns
• Artillery
• Bayonets
• Torpedoes
• Flame throwers
• Mustard and chlorine gases
• Smokeless gunpowder.

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Weapons

• Machine guns could fire more than up to 400
  rounds per minute and had the fire power of 100
  guns, so as soon as the men came out of the
  trench they would be cut down by a storm of
  machine gun bullets.
• They needed 4-6 men to man
• On one side you had men under cover in trenches
  using heavy machine guns on the other side men
  with just rifles running across the open
  battlefield with no protection at all.
• It very soon became clear that the attackers
  would lose many more troops, and most times the
  attack would fail.

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Weapons

• Barbed wire had been invented for cattle fences
  but it was now used in warfare.
• By putting barbed wire fences up in front of the
  trench the soldiers could make a surprise attack
  impossible.
• If the enemy had to climb over a barbed wire
  fence there was plenty of time to machine gun
  him.
• Rusty old tin cans were hung on the wire so they
  would jangle if anyone tried to sneak under it in
  the dark.

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No-Man's Land

• The space between the trenches was called
  "No-man's Land" because it did not belong to
  either side.
• Most of the time the soldiers could only peep at
  it through tiny holes in defences. It was a
  horrible sight with dead bodies stuck in the
  barbed wire, broken trees and big holes caused by
  explosions.

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Trench Foot
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Trench Foot

• Sergeant Harry Roberts, Lancashire Fusiliers,
  interviewed after the war.
• If you have never had trench feet described to
  you. I will tell you. Your feet swell to two or
  three times their normal size and go completely
  dead. You could stick a bayonet into them and not
  feel a thing. If you are fortunate enough not to
  lose your feet and the swelling begins to go
  down. It is then that the intolerable,
  indescribable agony begins. I have heard men cry
  and even scream with the pain and many had to
  have their feet and legs amputated

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Trench Life Meals

• Soldiers experienced very little variety with
  respect to food. Most meals consisted of
• Bully Beef (tinned corned beef)
• Bread or hard biscuits
• Tea
• Some vegetable stew, which contained little meat
• Soldiers often received packages from family
  friends in Canada containing chocolate, fruit
  cakes, tins of jam.