World War I

Beginning of the War

• August 1914 the
Germans invaded
Belgium, a neutral
country
The Western Front
• Battleshappened
mostly in France
• 440miles of
trenches, dug-outs
and barbed-wire
fences
• Movedvery little
between 1914-1918
Battle of
the Somme
• July1–
November 18,
1916
• Themain Allied
attack on the
Western Front
• British
casualties
on day 1: 58,000
Total Deaths
• Who suffered
the most
deaths?
• Who suffered
the least
deaths?
• Why do you
think this
was the case?
The Eastern
Front
• Frontier
between
the Russian Empire
and the Central
Powers on the other
• War began August
1914
• Still
a slow-moving
war but a little
faster paced than
the Western Front
 Russia
• Russia’s
strategy was to
throw as many
men as possible
at each battle
• High loss of life
• Russian Empire
ended up
collapsing in
1917 and they
withdrew from
the war
War of Attrition
• Commanders thought
new technology would
make the war move
War of Attrition
fast.
• Insteadsoldiers hid
in trenches
• Thousands died over
only a few feet of
land.
• Definition=a
prolonged war during
which each side seeks
to gradually wear out
the other by a series
of small-scale actions.
Trench Warfare
•

• Men hunkered
down in trenches –
ditches dug into the
ground to protect
them from enemy
fire
• Terrible conditions
– lice, rats, polluted
water, dead bodies
 Trench Warfare

Cross-section of a front-line trench

French soldiers firing over their own dead
Warning: Difficult
Image
Trench
Warfare
Continued
Trench Foot
• Trench foot – a
condition where
soldiers’ feet
would rot because
they were never
dry; had to
amputate toes or
whole foot
Machine Guns
• Writeon your
desks - How do
you think
machine guns
changed the face
of warfare?
• Couldfire 600
rounds/minute
Airplanes
• Flimsy at first so only used as
scouts
• Then advanced to “dogfights”
• Pilots
would fly the plane and
shoot at each other with pistols
• Eventuallyplane modified to
include a mounted machine
gun.
Warning: Difficult
Image
Poison Gas
Poison Gas
• Mustard gas
created
•A yellow-green
chlorine gas that
burned, suffocated,
and sickened
anyone who came
in contact with it.
 Primary Source Analysis
• Gas travels quietly, so you must not lose any time; you generally have
about eighteen or twenty seconds in which to adjust your gas
helmet…German gas is heavier than air and soon fills the trenches
and dugouts, where it has been known to lurk for two or three days,
until the air is purified by means of large chemical sprayers. We had
to work quickly, as Fritz generally follows the gas with an infantry
attack. A company man on our right was too slow in getting on his
helmet; he sank to the ground, clutching at his throat, and after a few
spasmodic twistings, went West (died). It was horrible to see him die,
but we were powerless to help him. In the corner of a traverse, a little,
muddy cur dog, one of the company's pets, was lying dead, with his
two paws over his nose. – Arthur Guy, 1917
'Gassed'. Painting by John Singer Sargent, 1918/1919.
Tanks
• Builtof steel so
bullets bounced off
• Notused very well
until 1917
• Would drive
through barbed
wire to clear the
way for troops
The
Christmas
Truce