The Battles of WWI

Canadians at War The Canadian Army arrived in France as amateurs.

Four years of intense fighting transformed them into the best little army on the Western Front.

The cost was heavy.

Why did they become so good?

The German AttackAugust 4, 1914 August 4, 1914

German forces invade neutral Belgium

August 26-30, 1914 Battle of Tannenberg

October-November, 1914

First Battle of Ypres

December 25, 1914 Unofficial Christmas Truce on the Western

Front

The German AttackAugust 4, 1914

• French thought that Germany's advance into Belgium was a diversion

• Most of the French army moved northeast to attack Germany through the lost provinces of Alsace and Lorraine.

• First major battle on the Eastern front occurred when German forces surrounded and destroyed the Russian army at the Battle of Tannenberg.

**This August 1914 battle was Germany's greatest victory of the

war**

First Battle of the Marne September 5 -10, 1914

•German plans for the Western Front began to fall apart in September of 1914.

• As the German right flank drove deeper, it was separated from the rest of the invading German force.

First Battle of the Marne September 5 -10, 1914 •This made it

vulnerable and forced the Germans pulled up twenty-five miles short of Paris.

•France’s chance to attack.

**First Battle of the Marne where

the German advance was

stopped**

•The Second Battle of Ypres involved four battles around Ypres.

•The first of these four battles began on 22 April 1915 as a surprise offensive by the German 4th Army on the Allied front line.

•This attack saw the first use of a new German weapon on the Western Front: poisonous gas.

Second Battle of Ypres April 22-May 31, 1915

• breeze moving towards Entente troops carried the deadly gas

• had a devastating effect

**Canadians saved the British line but the cost was heavy –

6,000 casualties of 18,000 men**

•German infantry made a significant advance into Allied territory

• during next four weeks the Allied Forces of Belgium, France and Britain fought to hold off the successful German advance and to regain the ground that had been lost north of Ypres

• fourth battle ended on 25 May 1915.

Second Battle of Ypres April 22-May 31, 1915

Second Battle of Ypres…Survivors

Trench Warfare

•By beginning of 1916, opposing armies remained deadlocked in a line of trenches

•Trenches stretched 966 kilometres from the Belgian coast through France to the frontiers of Switzerland.

Trench Warfare

• After two years of war, the battle lines of the Western front had barely changed from the first days of stalemate (static warfare). This was trench warfare.

• The Eastern front was more fluid (moving) and was more similar to the battles of the 19th century.

Trench Warfare

• Triple Entente had planned to launch a joint French and British assault in the region of the Somme

• Target date was the middle of 1916.

• However, in February the Allied plan was upset when the Germans began an assault on the fortress-ringed city of Verdun.

• The belief was that Verdun was essential to the French that France would fight to the death.

• On February 21, the German artillery barrage began

The Battle of VerdunFebruary 21. 1916 – July 1916

The Battle of the Somme July 1,1916 –November 1916

• By Christmas, when the battle finally ended, 800,000 men had lost their lives.

• 125 miles northwest of Verdun, the British and French armies joined at the Somme river.

• offensive was planned here for 1916 to relieve pressure on the French at Verdun.

**During this horrendous fighting, the French sent

frantic appeals to Sir Douglas Haig, the new British commander, to

hasten the Somme offensive and to take the pressure off

Verdun**

The Battle of the Somme July 1,1916 –November 1916

• 1st day most disastrous British army ever faced – by nightfall, British and Canadian casualties totalled 57, 470!!!!

• troops from Newfoundland & Labrador played major part in Battle of the Somme

• at Beaumont Hamel, soldiers mowed down by machine gun fire as struggled to get across no-man’s land

• when over, 90% of regiment was dead or wounded

The Battle of the Somme July 1,1916 –November 1916

The Battle of the Somme July 1,1916 –November 1916

• despite heavy losses, hardly any ground captured (by end of war, British had only advanced 11 km)

• General Haig insisted attack go on – continued for 141 days!!!

• when Battle of Somme finally ended, 1.25 million dead (24,000 Canadians)

“Whenever the Germans found the Canadian Corps

coming into their lines, they prepared for the

worst…” (British PM Lloyd George)

The Battle of the Somme Newfoundland & Labrador Regiment

The Battle of Vimy RidgeApril 9th, 1917

Vimy

• In February 1917, Canadian General Arthur Currie given orders to capture Vimy Ridge

• learned from past experience of earlier battles that preparation and scouting was important

• troops build full-scale model of battle area and practiced manoeuvres; planes flew reconaissance (scouting) missions and plotted out positions of German guns

The Battle of Vimy RidgeApril 9th, 1917

• railway lines built to move artillery; a maze of underground tunnels dug to move troops and supplies safely and secretly

• Canadian troops used element of surprise – closely followed barrage of artillery fire

• Canadians took ridge – this was the only significant victory for the Triple Entente in 1917

**cost = 10,000 Canadian casualties**

**turning point in the war for the Allies and for Canada as a nation**

Vimy

Passchendaele (the 3rd Battle of Ypres)

October, 1917

• after Vimy, Arthur Currie was knighted and promoted to command the entire Canadian Corps

• in October, called on by General Haig to formulate plan to capture Passchendaele• shelling destroyed drainage ditches; land became waterlogged

• narrow duckboards were placed as pathways over the mire

• thousands of soldiers and horses slipped into the mud and drowned

Passchendaele (the 3rd Battle of Ypres)

October, 1917

• Canadian troops took ridge, but was bitter victory

• almost 16,000 Canadian soldiers died at Passchendaele

• only took 7 km of mud

**the Germans quickly soon won it back**

Passchendaele (the 3rd Battle of Ypres)

October, 1917

Passchendaele (the 3rd Battle of Ypres)

October, 1917