The Great War

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The Great War

• 1914-1918

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The Fatal Shot June 28, 1914

• Archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated in
  Sarajevo, Bosnia
• Bosnia had been part of Austria-Hungary since
  1908, but it was claimed by neighboring Serbia
• Austria-Hungary blamed Serbia for the
  assassination and declared war on July 28

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The Fatal Shot June 28, 1914

• Russia supported Serbia
• Germany supported Austria-Hungary
• France supported Russia
• On Aug. 4th, Germany invaded neutral Belgium on
  its way to France
• Britain had guaranteed to Defend Belgiums
  neutrality, so declared war on Germany

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Troops off to war
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War on two fronts?

• Concern over a two front war led the German chief
  of staff, Field Marshall Count Alfred von
  Schlieffen to develop a bold plan to knock out
  France swiftly before turning full German might
  against the Russians.

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War on two fronts?

• Schlieffen Plan required invasion of neutral
  Belgium and the German army to sweep north and
  west of Paris
• German commander Moltke modified the plan by
  heading east of Paris. His right flank was
  exposed to the French and British armies

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Battle of the Marne Sept. 1914

• On September 6, 1914, the German army was
  attacked by the French, which successfully forced
  a wedge in the German line, forcing the Germans
  to divide into two forces.
• With the German offensive slowed the gap between
  the German forces soon filled with French and
  British troops, in an attempt to weaken the
  already divided German army.
• German forces battled against the allied forces
  for three days, and were close to beating the
  French, before, out of desperation, the French 
  conscripted taxis, and reserves were raced to the
  battle, via taxis.

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Battle of the Marne Sept. 1914

• Finally, on Sept. 9th , 1914, the Germans began
  the retreat.
• The British and French forces were now able to
  advance to the Marne, and although they faced
  little more opposition, the advance was slow,
  only gaining about 12 miles at first.
• This slow advance allowed the German forces to
  reunite, and make a stand against the allied
  attack. Unfortunately, for the Germans, this
  failed, and by Sept.10th 1914, the fighting of
  the first battle at the Marne was over, and the
  French managed to regain lost territory.

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Battle of the Marne

• The allies suffered 262,733 casualties
• The Germans, an estimated 250,000 casualties.

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Battle of the Marne
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Trench Warfare

• By the end of 1914, the huge effort had exhausted
  both sides. The Schlieffen Plan had failed, and
  Germany was now committed to fighting a two-front
  war with France and Britain in the west and
  Russia in the East.
• Consequently, German forces dug in for the winter
  where they had halted and invited the French and
  British to eject them from the areas in France
  and Belgium that they had captured.

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Trench Warfare

• The British and French, meanwhile, lacked the
  resources to mount large scale offensives, so
  they dug in and prepared for offensives in 1915.
• Gradually a 400 mile line of static trench
  defenses snaked its way from the North Sea,
  across Belgium and northern France to the Swiss
  border.
• Thus began a bloody siege warfare that was to
  cost millions of lives before the Germans were
  finally forced to surrender in November 1918.

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Trench Warfare

• A stalemate occurred mainly because powerful
  long-range artillery weapons and rapid-fire
  machine guns made it dangerous for soldiers to
  fight in open ground.

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Christmas Truce of 1914

• Soldiers on both sides sung carols to each other.
  The following day troops along 2/3 of the
  Western front observed the truce.
• All firing stopped!
• Soldiers crossed in no mans land to exchange
  greetings, etc.

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Christmas Truce of 1914

• Both sides were warned that any repeat
  performance would end in their deaths!
• Was the truce as nothing more than a 'blip' a
  temporary lull induced by the season of goodwill,
  but willingly exploited by both sides to better
  their defenses and eye out one another's
  positions?
• OR, was the Truce was an effort by normal men to
  bring about an end to the slaughter?

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Communication and supplies

• The main form of transportation was the horse,
  although mechanized vehicles were used as well
• The Germans used railroads to move men and
  supplies up front
• Front-line troops were kept in close contact with
  headquarters by phone

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Communication and supplies

• Carrier pigeons and dogs were used too!

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Observation and patrol

• Nighttime patrols
• Aerial reconnaissance
• Observation
• turrets and periscopes

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Over the Top!

• Bombardment with artillery
• Then, over the top this is when the infantry
  climbed out of the trenches and advanced towards
  enemy lines
• Gun emplacements and barbed wire remained after
  the bombardments and machine guns were highly
  mobile pieces of weaponry

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War in the Air

• Remember when the war broke out in 1914, the
  history of powered flight was barely 10 years
  old.
• The first war planes flew as reconnaissance
  craft, looking at enemy lines or helping to
  direct artillery with greater precision

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War in the Air

• Enemy pilots tried to shoot them down, leading to
  dogfights in the sky
• By the end of the war, the role of military
  aircraft had changed from being a minor help to
  the ground into a major force to be reckoned with
  in the sky

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ACE

• Frank Luke, called the most spectacular U.S. air
  fighter of World War I, who shot down 18
  airplanes and balloons in his short military
  career

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Manfred von Richthofen

• The Red Baron
• World War I flying ace who downed 80 Australian,
  British, French and Canadian planes before being
  shot down himself

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Zeppelin

• In the spring of 1915, the first German airship
  appeared in Britains sky, causing enormous panic
• Airships could fly higher than planes, so it was
  hard to shoot them down
• They were used for bombing raids until high
  flying aircraft and the use of incendiary bullets
  took care of these airships

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Unterseeboot

• Both sides avoided naval battles
• The only major sea battle was Jutland in 1916
• The main fight took place under the sea, as
  German U-Boats waged a damaging war against the
  Allies

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Gallipoli

• British, Australian and New Zealand troops landed
  at Gallipoli in April 1915
• The landings were a success, but the casualty
  rate was high and the Allies were unable to move
  far from the beaches due to Turkish resistance

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Battle of Verdun

• February 21, 1916 Germany launched a massive
  attack against the French city of Verdun
• The Germans engaged in an eight-hour artillery
  bombardment and then advanced
• 400,000 French and 336,831 German causalities

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Battle of Verdun

• What a bloodbath, what horrid images, what a
  slaughter. I just cannot find words to express
  my feelings.
• Hell cannot be this dreadful
• -Albert Joubaire, French soldier

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Gas Attack

• On the afternoon of April 22, 1915, French troops
  near the Belgium town of Ypres noticed a
  greenish-yellow cloud moving toward them from the
  German front.
• The cloud was chlorine gas
• This was the first time it was used effectively
  in war

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Gas Attack

• The first clouds of gas were released by
  canisters and blown by the wind toward the enemy
  (if the wind changed, you were in trouble!)
• More effective were gas-filled shells
• About 1,200,000 soldiers were gassed, about
  91,198 died terrible deaths

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Gas Attack

• The first effects were felt on the face and eyes,
  then the throat
• Some soldiers died quickly and others wee blinded
  for life or suffered skin blisters
• Mustard Gas (Yperite) was first used by the
  German Army in 1917. It was one of the most
  lethal of all the poisonous chemicals Once in the
  soil, mustard gas remained active for several
  weeks.

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Gas Attack

• By the middle of the war, both sides wore
  protective gear face masks, goggles and
  respirators

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Mustard Gas

• The skin of victims of mustard gas blistered, the
  eyes became very sore and they began to vomit.
  Mustard gas caused internal and external bleeding
  and attacked the bronchial tubes, stripping off
  the mucous membrane. This was extremely painful
  and most soldiers had to be strapped to their
  beds. It usually took a person four or five weeks
  to die of mustard gas poisoning.

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One nurse, Vera Brittain, wrote

• "I wish those people who talk about going on with
  this war whatever it costs could see the soldiers
  suffering from mustard gas poisoning. Great
  mustard-coloured blisters, blind eyes, all sticky
  and stuck together, always fighting for breath,
  with voices a mere whisper, saying that their
  throats are closing and they know they will
  choke."

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Gas Attack
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Under enemy lines

• Trenches were difficult to overcome, so engineers
  found ways to undermine them.
• The British recruited coal miners, as did the
  Germans, and both excavated tunnels and mines
  deep under enemy lines and packed them with
  explosives
• The opposing miners sometimes met and fought
  underground

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The Eastern Front

• Both the Austro-Hungarian and Russian armies were
  badly led and ill-equipped, and both suffered
  huge losses.
• In 1915 alone, Russia lost over 2 million men, of
  whom 1 million were taken prisoner
• By 1916, the German were in full control of the
  Eastern Front
• Russians were demoralized and this, in part, led
  to the Russian Revolution in 1917.

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The Italian Front

• On May 23, 1915, Italy joined the war on the side
  of the Allies
• The Italian army was ill-prepared and
  under-equipped for the war
• All but 20 miles of the 400 mile Italian border
  with Austria-Hungary lay in the Alps

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A World War

• German colonies in Africa were overrun by French,
  British and South African soldiers
• German colonies in China and the Pacific were
  overrun by Japanese, British, Australian, and New
  Zealand forces

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War in the desert

• British and Indian troops invaded Mesopotamia in
  1914 and secured Baghdad in 1917
• A large British force captured Palestine and
  Syria
• In Arabia, Bedouin soldiers under T.E. Lawrence
  rose in revolt against the Turkish rulers and
  campaigned for a independent Arab state

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Espionage

• Code-breaking and cryptology was very important
  as both sides sent and received coded messages by
  radio and telegraph
• Zimmerman note was deciphered by British
  intelligence in transit from Berlin to
  Washington, leading to U.S. entry in April 1917.

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Tank Warfare

• The British-invented tank first saw action in
  1916, but they were not reliable
• IN Nov. 1917 at Cambrai, the German defenses were
  so strong that an artillery bombardment would
  have destroyed the ground and made it impossible
  for infantry to cross.
• Fleets of tanks flattened the barbed wire and
  acted as shields for the advancing infantry

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German A7V tank
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U.S. enters the war

• The U.S. remained neutral in 1914 remember that
  the U.S. was deeply divided aout the war since
  recently arrived immigrants from Europe were
  strongly in favor of their respective homelands
• When German U-boats started sinking American
  ships, public opinion turned against Germany

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Lusitania
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U.S. enters the war

• In Feb. 1917 Germany decided to attack all
  foreign cargo ships to try to reduce supplies to
  Britain
• Germany also tried to divert U.S. attention from
  Europe by encouraging its neighbor, Mexico, to
  invade
• This latter action caused President Wilson to
  declare war on Germany

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1918

• In early 1918, the war looked to be favoring
  Germany (they no longer had to fight on the
  eastern front since Russia had left the war
• The German ports had been blockaded and their
  railway networks were collapsing and food was
  short
• By early Nov. 1918, the Germans stood alone
  against the Allies since Austria-Hungary and
  Turkey had lost

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1918

• At 11am on the 11th day of the 11th month of
  1918, the more than four years of war ended.
• Germany asked for an armistice (cease-fire) to
  discuss a peace treaty
• The Allies wanted to make sure Germany would
  never go to war again
• Redrew Europe map and forced Germany to pay
  damages

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Versailles

• The negotiations were dominated by French premier
  Clemenceau, British PM George, Italian premier
  Orlando and U.S. president Wilson.
• The Big Four wrote the treaty
• Terms of treaty set stage for a second battle

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Cost of war

• More than 65 million fought, of whom more than
  half were killed or injured
• 8 million killed
• 2 million died of illness/disease
• 21.2 million wounded
• 7.8 million taken prisoner or missing (POW-MIA)
• 6.6 million civilians killed
• -total 45.6 million casualties

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Cost of war

• With the exception of the U.S., there was barely
  a family that had not lost at least one son,
  brother, father.
• Entire towns and villages were wiped off the map
• Fertile farmland was turned into deathly bogland

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Cost of war

• Financially, the economies of Europe were ruined
• The U.S emerged as a major world power
• The war left thousands of soldiers disfigured and
  disabled some soldiers stayed in nursing homes
  the rest of their lives due to shell shock and
  disability

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Flanders Fields, Belgium
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Battle of the Somme