10th American History

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10th American History

• Unit II- Becoming a World Power
• Chapter 8 Section 1
• A World Crisis

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A World Crisis

• The Main Idea
• Rivalries among European nations led to the
  outbreak of war in 1914.
• Reading Focus
• What were the causes of World War I?
• How did the war break out?
• Why did the war quickly reach a stalemate?

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Conditions in Europe in 1914
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Sparks of World War I

• The deaths of Franz Joseph's brother, Maximilian
  (1867), and only son, Rudolf, made the Emperor's
  nephew, Franz Ferdinand, heir to the
  Austria-Hungary crown.
• In 1912 a Bosnian teenager named Gavrilo Pincip
  joined the Black Hand terrorist organization,
  which wanted to free Bosnia-Herzegovina from
  Austro-Hungarian rule.
• This group plotted to assassinate Archduke Franz
  Ferdinand of Austria on his visit to Sarajevo,
  Bosnia.
• First the Black Hand operatives tossed a bomb at
  the Archduke's automobile. This missed.
• The Archduke's chauffeur took a wrong turn and
  drove within ten feet of another Black Hand
  agent, Gavrilo Princip. Princip stepped up to the
  car and fired two pistol shots. One bullet hit
  Sophie, killing her instantly. The other hit
  Francis Ferdinand, who died within minutes.
• Princip attempted suicide, but was captured
  before succeeding
• 3,000 miles away, most Americans cared little
  about the murder.
• Still, most of Europe plunged into war within
  five weeks.
• Long before Princip even fired a shot, political
  changes in Europe made war almost unavoidable.
• By 1914 Europe was ripe for war.

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Alliances

• Nations formed alliances, or partnerships, for
  protection.
• Alliances were formed to maintain peace but would
  lead directly to war.
• Germany formed a military alliance with
  Austria-Hungary and Italy called the Triple
  Alliance.
• Fearful of Germanys growing power, France and
  Russia formed a secret alliance with each other.
• Great Britain, also worried, joined France and
  Russia to form the Triple Entente.
• Some European leaders believed that these
  alliances created a balance of power, in which
  each nation had equal strength, therefore
  decreasing the chance of war.
• Archduke Ferdinands assassination exposed flaws
  in this thinking, as after this attack Europe
  exploded into war.

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The Great War- Two Sides

• Allied Powers- Triple Entente
• Serbia
• Russia
• France
• Great Britain
• Belgium
• Italy
• Portugal
• Greece
• Japan
• United States

• Central Powers- Triple Alliance
• Austria-Hungary
• Germany Empire
• Bulgaria
• Turkish Empire
• Italy

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Causes of World War I

• No one event or person caused the Great War.
  There were many factors that contributed to
  mobilization of the belligerents
• Five Major factors often identified as causes of
  World War I (but not causes of U.S. entry)
• Militarism
• Alliances
• Imperialism
• Nationalism
• Events or Economics

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World War I Begins - The Great War

• Kaiser Wilhelm II on July 5th pledged that
  Germany would fully support Austria-Hungary in
  any action against Serbia.
• On July 23, 1914, Austria-Hungary presented
  Serbia with a lengthy list of demands.
• On July 28, 1914, Austria-Hungary declared war on
  Serbia. World War I had begun.

Kaiser Wilhelm II
Emperor Franz Joseph
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• The Great War, as contemporaries called it -- was
  the first man-made catastrophe of the 20th
  century.
• In the weeks after the assassination, none of the
  critical leaders had the power or will to slow
  down the decisions, actions, reactions and
  attitude shifts of key government and military
  leaders.
• By August, millions of Europeans -- especially
  the military and diplomatic leaders of
  Austria-Hungary, Germany and Russia -- saw war as
  the way to save their honor, as well as to solve
  the internal and international problems that
  needed to be resolved.

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Causes of World War I

• What were the causes of World War I?
• How did nationalism lead to imperialism?
• What was the Schlieffen Plan?
• How is Nationalism a unifying and a dividing
  force?
• What single event triggered the war?
• Why didnt the balance of power in Europe prevent
  World War I?

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War Breaks Out
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Schlieffen Plan

• Both sides originally believed that the Great War
  would be over quickly.
• In Germany, this belief was based on a long
  established war strategy called the Schlieffen
  Plan. Start with a German army invading
  Belgium(avoiding eastern French Forts) to reach
  Paris.
• The German generals were so confident of success
  that Kaiser Wilhelm II proclaimed that he would
  have "Paris for lunch, St. Petersburg for
  dinner."
• The plan required precise timing, with no
  interruptions in the timetable -- its first
  objective was to capture Paris in precisely 42
  days, and force the French to surrender. The
  German armies would then shift their focus to the
  eastern front and defeat the Russians before they
  were fully prepared to fight.
• It started quickly on Aug. 2, 1914 with Germany
  invading Luxembourg and Belgium, but the British,
  French and Russians mobilized quicker than
  expected.

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A New Kind of Warfare

• Word of Germanys invasion of Belgium quickly
  spread to France and other European nations.
• French troops mobilized to meet approaching
  German divisions.
• They looked much as French soldiers did over 40
  years earlier, wearing bright red coats and heavy
  brass helmets.
• The German troops dressed in gray uniforms that
  worked as camouflage on the battlefield.
• French war strategy had not changed much since
  the 1800s.
• French soldiers marched row by row onto the
  battlefield, with bayonets mounted to their field
  rifles, preparing for close combat with the
  Germans.
• The Germans, however, had many machine guns, and
  mowed down some 15,000 French troops per day in
  early battle.
• A well-trained German machine-gun team could set
  up equipment in four seconds, and each machine
  gun matched the firepower of 50 to 100 French
  rifles.
• Many Europeans wrongly thought these
  technological advances would make the war short
  and that France would be defeated in two months.

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The First Battle of the Marne
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War Breaks Out

• How did the war break out?
• What other countries joined Germany and Austria
  Hungary to form the Central Powers?
• Why do you think World War I is known as the
  Great War?
• Why did the European Leaders think the war would
  be short?
• Which nation was better prepared for war? France
  or Germany? Why?
• How far from Paris were the German troops before
  the 1st battle of the Marne?
• Despite the loss of lives, how did the 1st Battle
  of the Marne help the Allies?

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The War Reaches a Stalemate

• The First Battle of the Marne ended in a
  stalemate, and both French and German soldiers
  dug trenches, or deep ditches, to defend their
  positions and seek shelter from enemy fire.
• By late 1914, two massive systems of trenches
  stretched 400 miles across Western Europe, and
  the battle lines known as the Western Front
  extended from Switzerland to the North Sea.
• Trench warfare, or fighting from trenches, was an
  old strategy that had been used in Africa, Asia,
  and the Americas.
• This trench warfare, however, was different
  because of its scale.
• Soldiers lived in trenches, surrounded by
  machine-gun fire, flying grenades, and exploding
  artillery shells.
• Opposing forces had machine guns pointed at enemy
  trenches at all times, firing whenever a helmet
  or rifle appeared over the top.
• Thousands of men that ran into the area between
  the trenches, known as no-mans-land, were
  chopped down by enemy fire.
• Neither the Allies nor the Germans were able to
  make significant advances, creating a stalemate,
  or deadlock.

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Stalemate

• The war grew rapidly out of control. New styles
  of warfare, like the use of gas and heavy
  artillery, produced new kinds of horror and
  unprecedented levels of suffering and death.
• As a Germans army crossed into Belgium, heading
  for Paris, the Russian Army - moving faster than
  the German generals had anticipated -- was
  already pushing into East Prussia. The German
  forces on the Eastern Front, however, quickly
  defeated the Tsar's army at the Battle of
  Tannenberg.
• In the west, as the German army invaded Belgium,
  rumors and stories quickly spread of the
  atrocities the German soldiers inflicted upon
  Belgium civilians
• The French, believing the German thrust into
  Belgium to be a fake, launched their own
  offensive on the eastern border between France
  and Germany the operations were disastrous, with
  the French army losing 27,000 soldiers in a
  single day.
• When the German invasion of France failed to take
  Paris or destroy French and British resistance on
  the river Marne, stalemate quickly followed, and
  a line of trenches soon stretched along the war's
  Western Front from the Swiss Alps to the English
  Channel. Christmas Eve of 1914 saw an
  extraordinary truce between the men fighting in
  the trenches that had been called "the last
  twitch of the 19th century."

Poison gas attack, Flanders, Belgium
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Major World War I Battles

Battle of Tannenburg Aug. 1914, Russias worst defeat in World War I First Battle of the Marne Sept. 1914, Allies halted German advance, saving Paris from occupation First Battle of Ypres Oct.Nov. 1914, last major German offensive until 1918 Battle of Gallipoli Apr.Dec. 1915, failed attempt of the Allies to knock Turkey out of the war
Battle of Verdun Feb.Dec. 1916, longest battle of World War I with huge loss of life Battle of the Somme JulyNov. 1916, first great offensive of the British, best remembered for its staggering loss of life Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele) JulyNov. 1917, so many losses that the name Passchendaele came to mean senseless slaughter Battle of Caporetto Oct.Nov. 1917, tremendous victory for the Central Powers
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The Battle of the Somme - July 1, 1916 (0301)
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Slaughter on the Western Front

• Battle of Verdun - 1916, became for the French
  what Gettysburg is for Americans.The goal of the
  German commander was not territory, but to bleed
  his enemy to death. The battle lasted nine months
  and in the end the front lines were nearly the
  same, while over 300,000 French and Germans were
  killed and over 750,000 were wounded.
• Battle of the Somme, where another million died.
  The battle also saw the introduction of the tank.
  42 British tanks. The British fired 1.5 million
  rounds of artillery shells at the Germans in the
  5 month battle. The opening barrage could be
  heard in England. For every yard of the 18 mile
  front there were two British casualties. 420,000
  British casualties and 1.3 million total in the
  battle.
• As the slaughter continued with no significant
  gains in territory by either side, the men in the
  trenches kept their sanity by using music,
  theater and trench newspapers to replicate the
  world they left behind.

• The first Battle of the Marne took place between
  5th and 11th September, 1914. The French 6th
  Army came close to defeat and were only saved by
  the use of Paris taxis to rush 6,000 reserve
  troops to the front line. During the battle, the
  French had around 250,000 casualties. Although
  the Germans never published the figures, it is
  believed that Geman losses were similar to those
  of France. The BEF lost 12,733 men during the
  battle.
• The second major battle close to the River Marne
  took place during the summer of 1918. Over 85,000
  American soldiers took part in the battle. The
  German attack on the Marne was launched on 15th
  July. The Germans failed to break through. This
  included 24 divisions of the French Army, and
  soldiers from the United States, Britain and
  Italy. Allied casualties during the 2nd Battle of
  the Marne were heavy French (95,000), British
  (13,000) and United States (12,000). It is
  estimated that the German Army suffered an
  estimated 168,000 casualties and marked the last
  real attempt by the Central Power to win WWI.

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Total War on the Western Front

• In the spring of 1915 the trenches along the
  western front were filled with millions of
  soldiers, at the average rate of one soldier per
  four inches of trench. The job behind the front
  lines was to keep the men fed, equipped and ready
  to continue the fighting until the end
  came.Since both sides targeted both civilians
  and military personnel, and mobilized men and
  resources at an unprecedented rate, the Great War
  was a "total war.
• This total war effected the lives of many
  different people
• in some communities unprecedented casualty rates
  especially among young officers stripped young
  women of all their male contemporaries
• West African soldiers were shipped in from the
  colonies to fight in the trenches
• brave Englishwomen traded other jobs for more
  dangerous jobs in weapons factories. Everyone was
  affected. T
• he first genocide of the 20th century -- the
  ultimate form of total war against civilians --
  was also part of this conflict. Over the next two
  years the Armenian population of Ottoman Turkey
  was uprooted and expelled to the desert regions
  of Mesopotamia. In the process between 500,000 to
  one million Armenians where killed or died of
  exposure or disease.

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The War Reaches a Stalemate

• Why did the war quickly reach a stalemate?
• Who won the First Battle of the Marne?
• Where were the two systems of trenches located?
• What new weapons were developed during World War
  I?
• Why did some military officers object to the use
  of poisonous gas as a weapon?
• Was trench warfare an effective strategy during
  World War I? Why or Why not?

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Total War and Slaughter
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New Weapons of War
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Slaughter on the Western Front

• Impersonal killing- Hand to hand, sword, rifle,
  machine gun, bomb and airplane
• 1914- each side lost a 1/2 million men
• 1915- British and French advance was less than 3
  miles anywhere. France lost 1.5 million men
• In early 1916, the British had over 1 million men
  in Belgium and France, while the French and
  German armies had re-supplied their front line
  troops. The stage was set for both sides to try
  to make the breakthrough on the battlefield that
  would assure each victory. By 1916s end, both
  sides would lose nearly one million men with very
  little change in position of the front line
  trenches
• 1916 Battle of the Somme- 5 months. Germans lost
  over 600,000 men. 20,000 British soldiers died
  in one day.
• Before the end of the war over 10 million men
  would die on both sides. Another 10 million
  civilians from disease, starvation, and
  revolutions.
• 1918- German trenches were 50 miles from Paris,
  the German hope was to reach Paris and defeat the
  French before the Americans came into the war.

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Weapons of World War I
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Realities of War- The Trenches, Weapons and Death
330
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World War I Casualties

• Allies
• Belgium 45,550
• British Empire 942,135
• France 1,368,000
• Greece 23,098
• Italy 680,000
• Japan 1,344
• Montenegro 3,000
• Portugal 8,145
• Romania 300,000
• Russia 1,700,000
• Serbia 45,000
• United States 116,516

• Central Powers
• Austria-Hungary 1,200,000
• Bulgaria 87,495
• Germany 1,935,000
• Ottoman Empire 725,000
• Total Casualties
• 65 million mobilized both sides
• 8.5 million killed
• 21 million wounded
• 7.7 million POWs and missing
• 37million total casualties
• 57 of all men mobilized

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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.
• The single-shot, bigger-bore rifle was the
  subject of extensive research and development in
  the latter portion of the nineteenth century,
  with the result that the major powers introduced
  new models that were small-bore, bolt-action
  weapons capable of firing multiple rounds from a
  spring-loaded clip inserted into a rifle
  magazine.

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Rifles, Bayonets and Hand guns

• Veterans of the Great War, when interviewed,
  tended to play down the impact of the bayonet
  during the war. Many remarked (partly in jest)
  that the bayonet was used primarily as a splendid
  means of toasting bread, and for opening cans, to
  scrape mud off uniforms, poking a trench brazier
  or even to assist in the preparation of communal
  latrines
• In essence a bayonet is simply a simply a blade
  that is attached to the barrel of a rifle for use
  in close combat.
• Most bayonets were of simple design, of the knife
  variety, although variations existed. For example
  the French devised a needle blade for use on
  Lebel rifles. Notoriously, the German army
  produced a 'saw-back' blade that, as its name
  suggests, gave the appearance of a saw with its
  double row of teeth on the back edge.
• One advantage of using a bayonet in close crowded
  combat, as opposed to a rifle or handgun, was its
  avoidance of risk in injuring one's fellow
  soldiers. A bullet fired at close range into an
  enemy could well pass through his body and enter
  a friend standing (or fighting) behind him.

There was undeniably psychological value to the
infantry in carrying a bayonet, even if in
practice it was seldom used. Bayonets continued
to be commonly issued in the Second World War.
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Hand guns

• The pistol, originally designed as a cavalry
  weapon, was the staple weapon for a variety of
  personnel during World War One (and beyond).
  Traditionally issued to officers of all armies
  the pistol was also issued to military police,
  airmen and tank operators.
• Reasons for Pistol Use
• For men involved in the latter professions the
  pistol was essentially the only weapon that would
  serve under their unique environments the
  cramped conditions of both the tank and aircraft
  dictated that the rifle - which was otherwise
  issued to virtually all regular soldiers - was
  impractical.
• Three Basic Types
• When war began there were three types of pistol
  in general use revolvers, clip-loaded automatics
  and the so-called 'blow-back' models (where
  expanding propellant gas caused the gun to reload
  by forcing the bolt back when fired).

French
German Luger
Colt 45
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Machine Gun

• Horses were still being used during WWI, but the
  machine gun was devastating to both men and
  horse. This marked the end of the horses
  usefulness in war, millions of horses would die.
• 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.

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Machine Gun

• The reality however was that these early machine
  guns would rapidly overheat and become
  inoperative without the aid of cooling
  mechanisms they were consequently fired in short
  rather than sustained bursts. Cooling generally
  took one of two forms water cooled and,
  increasingly as the war developed, air cooled.
  Water jackets would be provided for the former
  (which held around one gallon of liquid) and air
  vents would be built into the machine gun for the
  latter
• Water cooled machine guns would still overheat
  relatively quickly (sometimes within two
  minutes), with the consequence that large
  supplies of water would need to be on hand in the
  heat of a battle - and, when these ran out, it
  was not unknown for a machine gun crew to solve
  the problem by urinating into the jacket.
• Whether air or water cooled, machine guns still
  jammed frequently, especially in hot conditions
  or when used by inexperienced operators.
  Consequently machine guns would often be grouped
  together to maintain a constant defensive
  position.

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Poison Gas

• Considered uncivilized prior to World War One,
  the development and use of poison gas was
  necessitated by the requirement of wartime armies
  to find new ways of overcoming the stalemate of
  unexpected trench warfare.
• First Use by the French
• Although it is popularly believed that the German
  army was the first to use gas it was in fact
  initially deployed by the French. In the first
  month of the war, August 1914, they fired
  tear-gas grenades (xylyl bromide) against the
  Germans. Nevertheless the German army was the
  first to give serious study to the development of
  chemical weapons and the first to use it on a
  large scale

• Country Casualties Deaths
• Austria-Hungary 100,000 3,000
• British Empire 88,706 8,109
• France 190,000 8,000
• Germany 200,000 9,000
• Italy 60,000 4,627
• Russia 419,340 56,000
• USA 72,807 1,462
• Others 10,000 1,000

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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.
• In consequence experiments were undertaken to
  deliver the gas payload in artillery shells. This
  provided the additional benefits of increasing
  the target range as well as the variety of gases
  released.
• Phosgene
• Following on the heels of chlorine gas came the
  use of phosgene. Phosgene as a weapon was more
  potent than chlorine in that while the latter was
  potentially deadly it caused the victim to
  violently cough and choke.

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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.
• Remaining consistently ahead in terms of gas
  warfare development, Germany unveiled an enhanced
  form of gas weaponry against the Russians at Riga
  in September 1917 mustard gas (or Yperite)
  contained in artillery shells.
• Mustard gas, an almost odorless chemical, was
  distinguished by the serious blisters it caused
  both internally and externally, brought on
  several hours after exposure. Protection against
  mustard gas proved more difficult than against
  either chlorine or phosgene gas.
• The use of mustard gas - sometimes referred to as
  Yperite - also proved to have mixed benefits.
  While inflicting serious injury upon the enemy
  the chemical remained potent in soil for weeks
  after release making capture of infected
  trenches a dangerous undertaking.

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Poison Gas- Mustard Gas effects
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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

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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.

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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.
• Quite aside from the worries of handling the
  device - it was entirely feasible that the
  cylinder carrying the fuel might unexpectedly
  explode - they were marked men the British and
  French poured rifle-fire into the area of attack
  where Flammenwerfers were used, and their
  operators could expect no mercy should they be
  taken prisoner. Their life expectancy was
  therefore short.

During the war the Germans launched in excess of
650 flame-thrower attacks no numbers exist for
British or French attacks.
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Grenades

• The British bombing team usually consisted of
  nine men at a time an NCO, two throwers, two
  carriers, two bayonet-men to defend the team and
  two 'spare' men for use when casualties were
  incurred.
• As an attack or raid reached an enemy trench the
  grenadiers would be responsible for racing down
  the trench and throwing grenades into each dugout
  they passed this invariably succeeded in purging
  dugouts of their human occupants in an attempt at
  surrender (often not accepted as they were
  promptly shot or stabbed).
• 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.
• Generally speaking, infantrymen preferred timed
  fuses (of whatever amount of time) to percussion
  devices, since there remained the constant risk
  of accidentally jolting a grenade while in a
  trench and setting off an explosion.

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Mortars and Artillery

• Large field guns had a long range and could
  deliver devastating blows to the enemy but needed
  up to 12 men to work them. They fired shells
  which exploded on impact.
• mortar is essentially a short, stumpy tube
  designed to fire a projectile at a steep angle
  (by definition higher than 45 degrees) so that it
  falls straight down on the enemy.
• The chief advantage of the mortar was that it
  could be fired from the (relative) safety of the
  trench, avoiding exposure of the mortar crews to
  the enemy. Furthermore, it was notably lighter
  and more mobile than other, larger artillery
  pieces. And, of course, the very fact that the
  mortar bomb fell almost straight down meant that
  it would (with luck) land smack in the enemy
  trench.
• Mortars were variously used to take out enemy
  machine gun posts, suspected sniper posts or
  other designated features. Larger mortars were
  occasionally used to cut enemy barbed wire,
  generally in situations were field artillery
  could not be used.

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Trenches

• The Allies used four "types" of trenches. The
  first, the front-line trench (or
  firing-and-attack trench), was located from 50
  yards to 1 mile from the German's front trench.
  Several hundred yards behind the front-line
  trench was the support trench, with men and
  supplies that could immediately assist those on
  the front line. The reserve trench was dug
  several hundred yards further back and contained
  men and supplies that were available in
  emergencies should the first trenches be overrun.
• Connecting these trenches were communication
  trenches, which allowed movement of messages,
  supplies, and men among the trenches. Some
  underground networks connected gun emplacements
  and bunkers with the communication trenches.

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Trenches

• Trenches were not built in straight lines. This
  was so that if the enemy managed to get into the
  front line trench they would not have a straight
  firing line along the trench. Trenches were
  therefore built with alternating straight and
  angled lines. The traverse was the name given to
  the angled parts of the trench.
• The typical front-line trench was about 6 to 8
  feet deep and wide enough for two men to pass.
  Dugouts in the sides of the trenches protected
  men during enemy fire. Barbed wire helped protect
  the firing trench from surprise attacks.
• Between the enemy lines lay a stretch of ground
  called "no man's land." Soldiers generally served
  at the front line from a few days to a week and
  then rotated to the rear for a rest
• Every soldier carried iron rations -- emergency
  food that consisted of a can of bully beef,
  biscuits and a tin of tea and sugar.

Except during an attack, life fell into a dull
routine. Some soldiers stood guard. Others
repaired the trenches, kept telephone lines in
order, brought food from behind the battle lines,
or did other jobs. At night, patrols fixed the
barbed wire and tried to get information about
the enemy.
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Life in the Trenches

• Death was a constant companion.  Constant
  shellfire directed by the enemy brought random
  death, (many men were buried as a consequence of
  such large shell-bursts).
• Similarly, novices were cautioned against their
  natural inclination to peer over the parapet of
  the trench into No Man's Land.
• Many men died on their first day in the trenches
  as a consequence of a precisely aimed sniper's
  bullet.
• It has been estimated that up to one third of
  Allied casualties on the Western Front were
  actually sustained in the trenches.  Aside from
  enemy injuries, disease wrought a heavy toll.

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Life in the Trenches

• Rat Infestation
• Rats in their millions infested trenches.  There
  were two main types,
• the brown and the black rat.
• brown rat was especially feared.  Gorging
  themselves on human remains (grotesquely
  disfiguring them by eating their eyes and liver)
  they could grow to the size of a cat.
• Men, exasperated and afraid of these rats
  (gunfire, with the bayonet, and even by clubbing
  them to death.
• It was futile however a single rat couple could
  produce up to 900 offspring in a year, spreading
  infection and contaminating food.  The rat
  problem remained for the duration of the war
  (although many veteran soldiers swore that rats
  sensed impending heavy enemy shellfire and
  consequently disappeared from view).

50
Life in the Trenches

• Frogs, Lice and Worse
• Lice were a never-ending problem, breeding in the
  seams of filthy clothing and causing men to itch
  unceasingly.
• Even when clothing was periodically washed and
  deloused, lice eggs invariably remained hidden in
  the seams within a few hours of the clothes
  being re-worn the body heat generated would cause
  the eggs to hatch.
• Lice caused Trench Fever, a particularly painful
  disease that began suddenly with severe pain
  followed by high fever.  Recovery - away from the
  trenches - took up to twelve weeks.  Lice were
  not actually identified as the culprit of Trench
  Fever until 1918.
• Frogs by the score were found in shell holes
  covered in water they were also found in the
  base of trenches.  Slugs and horned beetles
  crowded the sides of the trench.
• Many men chose to shave their heads entirely to
  avoid another prevalent scourge nits.

51
Trenches- Trench Foot

• Much of the land where the trenches were dug was
  either clay or sand. The water could not pass
  through the clay and because the sand was on top,
  the trenches became waterlogged when it rained.
  The trenches were hard to dig and kept on
  collapsing in the waterlogged sand. As well as
  trenches the shells from the guns and bombs made
  big craters in the ground. The rain filled up the
  craters and then poured into the trenches
• Trench foot was a fungal infection of the feet
  caused by cold, wet and unsanitary trench
  conditions. 
• Soldiers who spent prolonged periods of time
  standing in waterlogged trenches were liable to
  suffer from frostbite and/or trench foot. To
  prevent trench foot, soldiers were instructed to
  change their socks frequently, wear waterproof
  footwear and to cover their feet with whale oil.
• It could turn gangrenous and result in
  amputation.  Trench Foot was more of a problem at
  the start of trench warfare as conditions
  improved in 1915 it rapidly faded, although a
  trickle of cases continued throughout the war

52
Trench Mouth

•           The term Trench Mouth is from WWI.
  Trench warfare was stressful because soldiers
  waited around before going over the top. There
  was no running water, no toothpaste and lots of
  stress. Many soldiers developed this type of
  gingivitis and had bad breath from rotting gum
  surfaces. The dead gum is attacked and infected.
  The gum in between the teeth is lost so you see
  in between the teeth (punched out papillas). In
  normal patients the gums in between the teeth
  cover the sides of the teeth so you can't see
  them. These patients have badly painful and
  bleeding gums. The surface of the gums may appear
  grey from dying tissue.

53
Life in the Trenches

• The Trench Cycle
• Typically, a battalion would be expected to serve
  a spell in the front line.  This would be
  followed by a stint spent in support, and then in
  reserve lines.  A period of rest would follow -
  generally short in duration - before the whole
  cycle of trench duty would start afresh.
• In reality the cycle was determined by the
  necessities of the situation.  Even while at rest
  men might find themselves tasked with duties that
  placed them in the line of fire.
• Others would spend far longer in the front line
  than usual, usually in the more 'busy' sectors.
• As an example - and the numbers varied widely - a
  man might expect in a year to spend some 70 days
  in the front line, with another 30 in nearby
  support trenches.  A further 120 might be spent
  in reserve.  Only 70 days might be spent at
  rest.  The amount of leave varied, with perhaps
  two weeks being granted during the year.

54
Life in the Trenches

• the Smell
• Finally, no overview of trench life can avoid the
  aspect that instantly struck visitors to the
  lines the appalling reek given off by numerous
  conflicting sources.
• Rotting carcases lay around in their thousands. 
  For example, approximately 200,000 men were
  killed on the Somme battlefields, many of which
  lay in shallow graves.
• Overflowing latrines would similarly give off a
  most offensive stench.
• Men who had not been afforded the luxury of a
  bath in weeks or months would offer the pervading
  odour of dried sweat.  The feet were generally
  accepted to give off the worst odour.
• Trenches would also smell of creosol or chloride
  of lime, used to stave off the constant threat of
  disease and infection.
• Add to this the smell of cordite, the lingering
  odour of poison gas, rotting sandbags, stagnant
  mud, cigarette smoke and cooking food... yet men
  grew used to it, while it thoroughly overcame
  first-time visitors to the front.

55
Trenches- Self Inflicted wounds Shell Shock

• Faced with the prospect of being killed or
  permanently disabled, soldiers sometimes hoped
  that they would receive what was known as a
  blighty wound, and be sent back home. There were
  some cases where soldiers shot themselves in an
  attempt to end their time on the frontline.
  Self-inflicted wounds (SIW) was a capital offence
  and if discovered, a man found guilty of this
  faced execution by firing-squad. A total of 3,894
  men in the British Army were convicted of SIW.
  None of these men were executed but they all
  served periods in prison.
• By 1914 British doctors working in military
  hospitals noticed patients suffering from "shell
  shock". Early symptoms included tiredness,
  irritability, giddiness, lack of concentration
  and headaches. Eventually the men suffered mental
  breakdowns making it impossible for them to
  remain in the front-line. Some came to the
  conclusion that the soldiers condition was caused
  by the enemy's heavy artillery. These doctors
  argued that a bursting shell creates a vacuum,
  and when the air rushes into this vacuum it
  disturbs the cerebra-spinal fluid and this can
  upset the working of the brain.

56
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.

57
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
• Light machine guns were adopted too for
  incorporation into aircraft from 1915 onwards,
  for example the Vickers, particularly with the
  German adoption of interrupter equipment, which
  enabled the pilot to fire the gun through the
  aircraft's propeller blades.

58
U-Boats - 115 min.
59
Submarines - U-Boats

• Torpedoes were used by submarines. The Germans
  used torpedoes to blow up ships carrying supplies
  from America to Britain.
• In February 1915 the German government announced
  its solution to the problem -- unrestricted
  submarine warfare. The Germans realized they
  didn't have to capture a merchant ship, just sink
  it - crew and all. They declared a war zone
  around the British Isles within which they would
  sink any allied merchant vessel on sight.
• The Germans torpedoed the passenger liner
  Lusitania on May 1st 1915 which sank with a loss
  of 1,195 lives. Americans were outraged and
  joined the war in 1917 on the side of the allies.

60
World War I Disabilities

• Over 1.65 million men in the British Army were
  wounded during the First World War. Of these,
  around 240,000 British soldiers suffered total or
  partial leg or arm amputations as a result of war
  wounds. Most of these men were fitted with
  artificial limbs.

61
Over the Top - An Interactive Adventure 15 min
or the entire period.

• http//www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/games/overtop/index_e.
  shtml