TRENCH WARFARE

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TRENCH WARFARE
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Lesson outcomes

• I understand why a stalemate situation
  developed
• I understand that the reality of war was very
  different from the propaganda posters
• Record in your diaries

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Development of trench warfare

• The Germans dug a line of trenches from Belgian
  coast, for 450 miles, across France to
  Switzerland.
• They wanted to hold onto the land they had taken
  and make it difficult for the allies to retake
  the land and attack Germany itself.
• Britain and France built trenches facing the
  German ones on lower, muddier ground.
• They did not plan to stay there long and thought
  that open warfare would begin again in spring.

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stalemate

• The war of movement was at an end.
• A stalemate situation developed.
• Each side found it very difficult to advance
  without heavy casualties.
• The line of trenches changed little over the next
  4 years.
• Both sides developed new technology to try and
  brake stalemate.

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Layout of the trenches

• Sandbags were built up the parapet
• Trenches were about 2 meters deep to protect
  against snipers
• A slum at the bottom under the duckboards
  collected water
• Wooden or iron supports lined the trench
• A fire step raised the height of the soldier
  during firing
• Dugouts in the sides gave resting and storing
  areas
• No Mans Land was the area between the trenches

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LIFE IN THE TRENCHES
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Types of Soldier

• Engineers (or Sappers) repaired bridges and
  roads. Dug trenches.
• Artillery Soldiers manned big guns.
• Signallers ran telephone lines to carry messages
  to trenches.
• Staff Officers assisted the Generals in planning
  and organising.
• Generals usually lived in large mansions in the
  French countryside. Rarely went to the Front Line
  to see conditions.

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Posters always showed men ready and willing to
fight. They never showed the boredom of the
trenches or actual fighting taking place. Why do
you think the government showed no fighting?
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EVERYDAY LIFE IN THE TRENCHES
http//www.youtube.com/watch?vRRv56gsqkzsfeature
related
Routine Troops usually spent 8 days in the front
line, followed by 4 in the reserve. This varied
and there were instances when soldiers where
forced to spend over 60 days in the line without
a break. Boredom was the defining experience of
trench life. During the day soldiers would sit
around and dose. At night they repaired trenches,
laid wire, carry stores or go on patrol in
no-mans land.
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EVERYDAY LIFE IN THE TRENCHES
Lack of food was another key feature. Bully beef
and biscuits (so hard they would have to be
smashed with a stone) where the staple diet,
supplemented by packages sent from family and
friends back home.
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Living Conditions

• Living conditions in the trenches were very
  unpleasant.
• Living in dug-outs men would support the
  overhanging roof with planks or sandbags to stop
  the roof from falling in and planks were inserted
  in to form a hard bed. http//www.bbc.co.uk/histor
  y/worldwars/wwone/launch_vt_trench_life.shtml
• Blankets would be hung from pegs in the trench
  wall to form a simple screen for privacy but they
  offered no protection from shell splinters.

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Mud
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Freezing Winters
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General Fears

• Constant fear of imminent death.
• Life expectancy of a 2nd Lieutenant in the
  trenches was three months.
• Soldiers could be
• Crushed by a collapsed trench
• Ripped to shreds by shrapnel
• Cut in half by machine gun fire
• Gutted by a bayonet
• Blown apart by highly explosive shells
• Drowned in a shell hole
• Bullet through the brain.

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Lice

• Everyone had lice in his hair, on his body and
  in every fold of his clothing.
• Lice made the soldiers scratch which then led to
  boils and blisters and with limited medical
  supply these often became threatening.
• Very difficult to get rid of the lice, some men
  cracked them with their finger nails or burned
  them with candles.
• The army arranged for the men to have baths in
  huge vats of water while clothes were put through
  a delousing machine. This rarely worked.

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DISEASE

• Germs in food and water led to Typhus, Cholera
  and dysentery which killed thousands of men.
• Soldiers who had not brushed their teeth for days
  would suffer from trench mouth. The symptoms were
  bleeding gums, ulcers of the mouth and very bad
  breath.

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RATS

• Corpses as well as food scraps that littered the
  trenches attracted rats.
• One pair of rats can produce 880 offspring a year
  and trenches were soon swarming with them.
• Rats became extremely large. They would eat
  wounded men and take food from pockets of
  sleeping soldiers.

http//www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/launc
h_ani_wwone_movies.shtml
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The soldiers had very little decent food, and
what food they had was often attacked by
rats. These rats were the size of small rabbits
and badgers because they had fed on the
decomposing bodies of dead soldiers.
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Trench Foot

• This was an infection of the feet caused by cold,
  wet and insanitary conditions.
• Men stood for hours in waterlogged trenches
  without being able to remove wet socks or boots.
• Their feet would gradually go numb and their skin
  would turn red or blue.
• If untreated toes or feet could become gangrenous
  and result in amputation.
• Officers were required to inspect mens feet
  daily and make sure they rubbed them with whale
  oil.
• But feet became wet again almost immediately.

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How the uniform and equipment changed after just
three weeks in the trenches
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Task
You have looked at the posters that the
government used to persuade men to go to
war. You have looked at photographs showing what
war was really like. Look at this diary
http//news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_771300
0/7713058.stm In your jotters write a page of
information about what YOU think war was really
like. You could describe some of the
photographs/posters and explain how they might
make people feel about fighting!