The reasons for the stalemate on the western Front
Russia mobilised faster than expected.
Schlieffen plan was modified
a. Helmuth Von Moltke modified the plan
b. Splitting the army
i. Defending against Russia ii. Defending Lorraine
c. Circling Paris
i. Left a gap causing the French soldiers retreating back in to Paris ii. Damaged the German troops in number
d. Resistance from Belgium
i. Leading Britain in to the war ii. German delay ( food supply)
e. New technology favoured the defensive side.
The nature of trench warfare and life in the trenches dealing with experiences of both allied and German soldiers.
The Germans retreated back to Aisne, choose the most advantageous position
a. permanent trenches protect by barbed wires, mines and sandbags
German fortifications usually involves heavy artillery barrage followed by soldiers going “over the top”
Weapons (rifles, grenades, gas, flamethrowers and in 1916 onwards tanks)
“Frontal assaults” resulted in horrendous casualties
Life in the trenches were constant of boredom, routine, “shell shock”, disease and vermin and the “stench of death”
The constant rain made the trenches muddy
Contend with simpers and constant raid and patrols
Overview of strategies and tactics to break the stalemate including key battles: Verdun, the Somme and Passchendaele.
British and French generals had taken the offensive against the entrenched Germans
Verdun, the Somme and Passchendaele resulted in massive casualties
New weapons were introduced such as poison gas in august 1915 and tanks in July 1916
Gas had a negligible impact while tanks did not reach their combat potential until July 1918
New tactics- Germans successfully employed small elite groups of storm troopers in March 1918
The British introduced the creeping barrage
Evolution in warfare that combines the use of infantry, artillery, tanks and aircraft
Allied attempts to break the stalemate including a naval blockade of Germany.
Changing attitudes of allied and German soldiers to the war over time.
Outbreak of the war was greeted by patriotic favour and enthusiasm in all countries.]
British men rushed to enlist
a. thought that the war would end after Christmas
German military law proclamation called up all men form military service
By the time of Christmas both side were entrenched in stalemate
Christmas pay was marked by an “unofficial truce” along the frontline.
Allies and German fraternised in “no man’s land” sharing gits, singing carols and eve playing a game of football
Commanders ordered the troops to resume fighting the next day.
War weariness set I and troops start questioning the reason for fighting
Enthusiasm keen replaced by a sense of grim duty
Britain introduced conscription in 1916
German sailors contributing to eventual revolution in 1918
November 1918 end of war
Home front in Britain and Germany
Total war and its social and economic impact on civilians in Britain and Germany
Total war : a government’s mobilisation of all its resources to support the efforts of its own troops and undermine those of its opponents
Both home fronts
a. Harnessed the power of patriotism and citizenship
b. Soldiers and civilians were expected to make great personal sacrifices
c. Military depended on the home front for the support essential for continuing war on this scale.
d. Citizens were expected to take up war loans, accept the “call up” and go about life without complaint.
British home front
a. Zeppelin raids on London in April 191 pulled Britons from all works of life into the war effort.
b. Civilians became “soldiers” of the home front
c. Government introduced laws and regulations to provide authorities with the power to restrict people’s lives
d. DOAR
i. 1914, Defence of the Realm Act. ii. Provided the British government with power to intervene in daily life of the British people iii. Manufacturing, agriculture, security and information came under the scrumtiny of DORA iv. Imprisonment without trials, cut social activities
v. Introduced day light saving vi. Restricted the opening hours of public houses in an effort to cut national levels of alcohol consumption
Lord Horatio Kitchener appointed secretary of state for war
a. Directed the war strategy and planned for this lengthy conflict by expanding the army from 20 to 70 divisions.
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
As an 18 yr old virgin recruit, the narrator, who remains unnamed, leaves his homeland of Canada for the war in Europe. The mood of the soldiers is generally happy: many have spent their last day visiting brothels and getting drunk. Some however are apprehensive of the war that lies ahead of them. The bleak reality of the trenches is unbearable: ‘each step is agony. The mud sucks us down...but we keep going nevertheless’. In the face of adversity, it leaves no doubt that these men have been forced to the limits of their tolerance and perseverance: ‘We borrow into the grounds like frightened rats....I am terrified. I hug the earth, digging my fingers into every crevices, every hole...my bowels liquefy’. The recruits expose the ruthless side of themselves when their reaction to Browns death was a mere surprise. Brown was shot in the middle of his duty dividing rations. The soldiers all expected death at any moment-whether it was to them, one of their friends or between their comrades. The dead comrade was soon forgotten and his abandoned ration taken: ‘Broadbent takes the cheese and bread out of Brown’s haversack...Anyway...he can’t eat any more’. They do not see themselves as comrades; their main aim is to survive at what ever…
- 926 Words
- 4 Pages
Better Essays -
Did you ever wonder what weapons were used in WW1? How about how they compare to todays standards? They affected their time period drastically in many ways. The German’s changed the game with tanks. They also brought chemical warfare into the war.…
- 1193 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays -
A study in to the way war affects the soldiers fighting in them in terms of mental and physical health with reference to Pat Barkers “Regeneration”, Remarque’s “All Quiet on the Western Front” and Penguins anthology “Poems of the Great War 1914-1918.…
- 2527 Words
- 11 Pages
Powerful Essays -
The novel depicts how the war brings out disrespect and selfishness in the soldiers. Just like their constant companions the lice and the rats, the soldiers in the trench adapt to the hell that they find themselves trapped in – doing whatever it takes to survive. They even fight each other over food ‘at each others throats like hungry, snarling animals’. As the novel and the war progresses so does the inhumane side of the soldiers who become increasing more detached from killing, unconcerned with the death of friends. The soldiers are conditioned, hardened up and desensitised with self preservation becoming a key motivator. This is shown as the soldiers plunder the city of Arras, the allies ' town and vandalize houses with no consideration of the local people who will come back to a raided and shelled town. As they ransack the town ‘chewing food while pillaging,’ stealing and destroying people’s possessions, self satisfaction is their only concern. The soldiers become feral and even rebel against and shoot at their own Military Police who are trying to restore order. By these merciless and selfish acts the dark side of the soldiers’ nature is revealed.…
- 1342 Words
- 6 Pages
Good Essays -
There were many new technologies introduced during WWI. One would be the use of poison gas, such as chlorine or mustard gas. This gas could blind, burn, or kill a man. People who experienced the poison gas said it was a cloud of colored smoke that would have a very strong smell to it. They even made gas masks that would prevent the inhalation of these gases. After WWI the use of poison gas during war was banned internationally. Another new “technology” that was introduced during this war was trench warfare. This involved two opposing dug out trenches that the soldiers would have to leave in order to attack. The area in between where they would race across was known as “no man’s land”, and most would be killed there. Life in the trenches was horrible and left many men with psychological problems after the war. One last invention brought to WWI was tanks. Although they were slow, they were able to make it across no man’s land. Because of this these tanks were greatly feared.…
- 319 Words
- 1 Page
Satisfactory Essays -
The document, Steel of Storm, by Ernst Junger, an English lieutenant in the Great War- or WWI- tells the story of a young soldier in charge of leading other Englishmen to their potential deaths, all united by the goal of defeating the German soldiers and restoring peace to their European home. This piece explains why Junger believed his experience of fighting as an English soldier to be a positive one, what the average experience of a soldier in the trenches was like, as well as how the Great War affected everyone caught in its crossfire.…
- 961 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Imagine yourself in a muddy trench, being about eight to ten feet deep down. There are enemies firing guns overhead up top of the trench flying over it and the stench in the trench is horrible. There are many bodies piled around that have died and sometimes giant rats would walk about. Disease runs rampant and many people die due to the hard conditions. That’s a small part of what it was probably like to be fighting in the trenches back in World War One.…
- 1453 Words
- 6 Pages
Good Essays -
There were many fine, powerful memoirs published about the First World War, and Robert Graves' “Good-Bye to All That” is considered to be one of the most honest and insightful. Based on “ Triste La Guerre”, the descriptions of battle are horrifying, and the descriptions of military bungling and pomposity are darkly amusing. The book was published in 1929, it is hugely effective in describing the everyday dangers Graves faced, how death was always minutes away and how it was inevitable that after each attack most would die. It was about Graves’ depictions of trench life, of the incompetence of the staff giving orders, and of the behavior of soldiers when off active duty and billeted in French towns behind the front lines. Otherwise, there are a lot of differences between the companies, with some being classed as more honorable, or luckier, or more disastrous than others due to the nature or provenance of the men drafted into them. The contrast between trench life in the morning and smoking and drinking in the requisitioned drawing room of a French chateau in the afternoon was also fascinating; for weeks soldiers could live in these grandiose surroundings, queuing up at brothels, buying trinkets from village shops to send home to their families and sleeping in luxurious feather beds, before receiving their marching orders and being thrust back into the muddy, stinking, corpse-strewn trenches in time for dinner. Like Graves, many seemed to accept the fact that they probably wouldn’t make it home alive, and while for some the fear and horror was crippling, for most it just seemed to be a case of grit your teeth and get on with it. Graves’ matter-of-fact descriptions of his friends ‘going over the top’ only to be mown down with machine guns in front of his eyes demonstrates how horror became normality, and the sound of guns and screams nothing but the equivalent of the constant hum of traffic those of us who live in cities barely notice. Graves never really recovered…
- 360 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
In this, and subsequent descriptions of the trenches, I may lay myself open to the charge of exaggeration. But it must be remembered that I am describing trench life in the early days of 1914, and I feel sure that those who had experience of them will acquit me of any such charge.…
- 360 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
The five sources that I have selected to help with my enquiry are photographs, an extract from a newspaper article and a soldier's diary. The reasons why I chose these five particular sources is because I believe that they are a wide variety of selections, dating back to many years, all ranging from the start of the war to the end of the war. However, one of my sources, the newspaper article, was published in 2008 so it is more of a recent source but still, very useful and effective.From my own knowledge I know the trenches were inhumane and were infected with diseases which led to 1.2 million men who were registered physically and/or mentally disabled.These sources are quite important because each source shows pictures and texts of what was like in the trenches and the difficulty of living in the trenches. I believe that the sources are useful as a historical; some more than others e.g.; a photograph is more reliable than a newspaper article. In my opinion one of the strengths of these sources are their reliability and the useful contexts and information that they include. One of the limitation were that they only included either a physical or mental view and did not include both perspectives and experiences.…
- 3423 Words
- 14 Pages
Better Essays -
I had just arrived to my destination: Gallipoli, Turkey. As nervous as I was already with shivers down my spine nearly every minute I didn’t want to lose my young life tomorrow. It was a long ride but my troops and I were prepared for what could come our way. We jumped off the half sunken ship due to the enormous amount of soldiers. It was going to be a long and hard battle. The water we had to walk through to set up our camps was muddy and clumpy I was hoping I don’t get trench foot. Me, as the leader leaded on where we have to set up our camps. We set up our tents around the gruesome field of dead, yellow, sun dried grass next to the sandy rough hills. Rain had just started sprinkling and the next minute, hailing, it lit out our fire along with a deathlike thunderstorm. The dogs started howling under the glowing half-moon that gave us the only light left. I knew the next day only brought frightful visions of what will come to us tomorrow….…
- 806 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
2. What were the main· features of trench warfare for the troops involved? What would happen to people who managed to live through this experience?…
- 615 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
Life in the trenches was extremely hard considering the circumstances. This is because of the living conditions that soldiers were forced to live…
- 281 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
27. Battle of the Bulge—a 1944-1945 battle in which Allied forces turned back the last major German offensive of World War…
- 794 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
As no one expected the war to last as long as it did, the first trenches were hurriedly made. They were holes in the ground dug by soldiers to protect themselves from the enemy. These constructions were hastily made and often flooded and collapsed. As the front line movement began to slow down these trenches became deeper and more sophisticated.…
- 1864 Words
- 8 Pages
Good Essays