The Ugly Face of Nationalism: The Battlefields of WWI

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The Ugly Face of Nationalism The Battlefields
of WWI

• Social 20-2
• LCHS

Canadian Troops at Passchendale
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Early WWI - Ultranationalism Breeds
Overconfidence

• Ultranationalism was running high amongst the
  people preparing to fight WWI.
• People gathered to cheer and celebrate the
  outbreak of war.

• Most people thought that the war would be a short
  and glorious chance for adventure.
• Everyone was confident that their side would win
  quickly.

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A Collision of Old Ideas About Warfare and Modern
Ways of Killing

• When WWI began, people were still following very
  old ideas about fighting wars.
• For example generals still believed in mass
  charges of men and cavalry in direct attacks
  against the enemy.

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Hiram Maxims New Killer The Modern Machine Gun

• The machine gun made the battlefields of WWI
  deadly fields of flying metal.
• The first mass produced modern machine gun was
  invented by an American named Hiram Maxim.
• One day Hiram was talking with his friends about
  wanting to make a lot of money as an inventor.
  One of his friends suggested that if he really
  wanted to make boatloads of cash, he should
  invent a weapon that would allow the European
  powers to slaughter each other by the thousands.
• Hirams machine gun could fire 500 rounds per
  minute.
• His gun design would be bought out by the Vickers
  gun company. This company improved on the basic
  design of the gun and the Vickers gun became the
  official gun of the British (Canadian) army.
• The German army used a copy of Maxims gun as
  their official machine gun.

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Machine Guns at Work in WWI
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WWI Artillery The Big Guns
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Incredible Destructive Power Unleashed

• The biggest gun used in the war was this huge
  German rail gun called The Paris Gun.
• It was designed to shell Paris from 120 km away
  with a 210 lbs (90 kgs) shell. The shell would
  reach a height of 40 kms on its journey.
• The gun was designed as a terror weapon. The
  people of Paris thought that they were being
  bombed by a new and phantom weapon since they
  could not hear the thunder of guns or the rumble
  of airplane engines when these shells were
  dropping on their city.
• The artillery of WWI turned the battlefields into
  pockmarked moonscapes of huge shell craters.
• With so much metal flying through the air from
  machine guns and artillery bombardments, it was
  only a matter of time before commanders and
  soldiers figured out that to stay upright was
  suicide. Trenches were dug by both sides to try
  to keep their soldiers safe from fire.

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The Western Front A Race to Outflank the Enemy

• Most of the fighting on the western front of WWI
  took place in France and Belgium.
• A network of trenches ran through France and
  Belgium and stopped when they hit the mountains
  in the south east and the ocean in the north
  west.

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Conditions in the Trenches Mud, Rats, Lice,
Poison Gas, Bullets, Bombs and Other Insanity .
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Barbed Wire
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Germans trying to advance across No-Mans Land
through Barbed Wire
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Other New Weapons of WWI
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One French soldier who became a "man without a
face". Facial injuries such as this were common
during the war, and thousands had disfiguring
head and face wounds. In the photo to the right,
the "man with no face" after facial surgery. In
many instances, the surgery included constructing
permanent masks that were incorporated onto the
man's face.
New Medicine Plastic Surgery
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Propaganda Getting Nations Support
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The Kiss Sigfired Sassoon
To these I turn, in these I trust Brother Lead
and Sister Steel. To his blind power I make
appeal, I guard her beauty clean from rust. He
spins and burns and loves the air, And splits a
skull to win my praise But up the nobly
marching days She glitters naked, cold and
fair. Sweet Sister, grant your soldier this
That in good fury he may feel The body where he
sets his heel Quail from your downward darting
kiss.
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DULCE ET DECORUM EST Wilfred Owen

• Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, 
  Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed
  through sludge,  Till on the haunting flares2 we
  turned our backs  And towards our distant rest3
  began to trudge.  Men marched asleep. Many had
  lost their boots  But limped on, blood-shod. All
  went lame all blind  Drunk with fatigue deaf
  even to the hoots4  Of tired, outstripped5
  Five-Nines6 that dropped behind.
• Gas!7 Gas! Quick, boys!   An ecstasy of
  fumbling,  Fitting the clumsy helmets8 just in
  time  But someone still was yelling out and
  stumbling,  And flound'ring like a man in fire
  or lime9 . . .  Dim, through the misty panes10
  and thick green light,  As under a green sea, I
  saw him drowning.  In all my dreams, before my
  helpless sight,  He plunges at me, guttering,11
  choking, drowning. 
• If in some smothering dreams you too could pace 
  Behind the wagon that we flung him in,  And
  watch the white eyes writhing in his face,  His
  hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin  If
  you could hear, at every jolt, the blood  Come
  gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, 
  Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud12  Of
  vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,  My
  friend, you would not tell with such high zest13 
  To children ardent14 for some desperate glory, 
  The old Lie Dulce et Decorum est  Pro patria
  mori.15

"Dulce et decorum est pro patria morimors et
fugacem persequitur virumnec parcit inbellis
iuventaepoplitibus timidove tergo. "How sweet
and lovely it is to die for your countryDeath
pursues the man who flees,spares not the
hamstrings or cowardly backsOf battle-shy
youths."