World War I - Western FrontA New Style of Warfare

American History

Unit II- Foreign Affairs

Chapter 21 Section 2

The Western Front

10th American HistoryUnit II- U.S. Foreign AffairsReading Quiz for Chapter 21 Sect. 2

1. What was life like in trench?

2. Name three new types of weapons of WWI.

3. What was Shell Shock?

4. Who was losing early in WWI?

5.Before the war was over soldiers killed on both sides would number how many?

6. If Germany was winning in 1918, what changed everything?

7. What is the AEF and who was its leader?

8. What was the bad mistake that German generals and their emperor made?

Total War and Slaughter

Total War on the Western FrontIn the spring of 1915 the trenches along the western front were filled

with millions of soldiers, at the average rate of one soldier per four inches of trench. The job behind the front lines was to keep the men fed, equipped and ready to continue the fighting until the end came.Since both sides targeted both civilians and military personnel, and mobilized men and resources at an unprecedented rate, the Great War was a "total war”.

This total war effected the lives of many different people:

– in some communities unprecedented casualty rates especially among young officers stripped young women of all their male contemporaries;

– West African soldiers were shipped in from the colonies to fight in the trenches;

– brave Englishwomen traded other jobs for more dangerous jobs in weapons factories. Everyone was affected. T

– he first genocide of the 20th century -- the ultimate form of total war against civilians -- was also part of this conflict. Over the next two years the Armenian population of Ottoman Turkey was uprooted and expelled to the desert regions of Mesopotamia. In the process between 500,000 to one million Armenians where killed or died of exposure or disease.

Slaughter on the Western FrontImpersonal killing- Hand to hand, sword, rifle, machine gun,

bomb and airplane

1914- each side lost a 1/2 million men

1915- British and French advance was less than 3 miles anywhere. France lost 1.5 million men

In early 1916, the British had over 1 million men in Belgium and France, while the French and German armies had re-supplied their front line troops. The stage was set for both sides to try to make the breakthrough on the battlefield that would assure each victory. By 1916’s end, both sides would lose nearly one million men with very little change in position of the front line trenches

1916 Battle of the Somme- 5 months. Germans lost over 600,000 men. 20,000 British soldiers died in one day.

Before the end of the war over 10 million men would die on both sides. Another 10 million civilians from disease, starvation, and revolutions.

1918- German trenches were 50 miles from Paris, the German hope was to reach Paris and defeat the French before the Americans came into the war.

American Expeditionary Force (AEF)May 1918• DoughboysDoughboys-The name may have come from the large

brass buttons on the uniforms of Union soldiers in the Civil War; they were said to resemble doughboys, a flour dumpling cooked in soup

• 2nd and 3rd Divisions fight at Belleau Wood and Chateau-Thierry. Argonne Forest.

• 85,000 American help save Paris• General John J. (Black Jack) Pershing has an army

of 1/2 million on the Southern Front.• Oct. 1918- Battle of Sedan- American Victory.

British and French Lines begin to advance.• German mistake- Americans were late but made a

difference.• U.S. lost 50,280 men, and 25,000 to disease. 42,000

Black troop fought in French units.• Russia, England and France lost over 4 million total.

1 million other countries.• Armistice- November 11, 1918- 11th hour, 11th day

of the 11th month.

Slaughter on the Western FrontThe first Battle of the MarneBattle of the Marne took place between 5th

and 11th September, 1914. The French 6th Army came close to defeat and were only saved by the use of Paris taxis to rush 6,000 reserve troops to the front line. During the battle, the French had around 250,000 casualties. Although the Germans never published the figures, it is believed that Geman losses were similar to those of France. The BEF lost 12,733 men during the battle. The .

The second major battle close to the River MarneRiver Marne took place during the summer of 1918. Over 85,000 American soldiers took part in the battle. The German attack on the Marne was launched on 15th July. The Germans failed to break through. This included 24 divisions of the French Army, and soldiers from the United States, Britain and Italy. Allied casualties during the 2nd Battle of the Marne were heavy: French (95,000), British (13,000) and United States (12,000). It is estimated that the German Army suffered an estimated 168,000 casualties and marked the last real attempt by the Central Power to win WWI.

• Battle of VerdunBattle of Verdun - 1916, became for the French what Gettysburg is for Americans.The goal of the German commander was not territory, but to bleed his enemy to death. The battle lasted nine months and in the end the front lines were nearly the same, while over 300,000 French and Germans were killed and over 750,000 were wounded.

• Battle of the SommeBattle of the Somme, where another million died. The battle also saw the introduction of the tank. 42 British tanks. The British fired 1.5 million rounds of artillery shells at the Germans in the 5 month battle. The opening barrage could be heard in England. For every yard of the 18 mile front there were two British casualties. 420,000 British casualties and 1.3 million total in the battle.

• As the slaughter continued with no significant gains in territory by either side, the men in the trenches kept their sanity by using music, theater and trench newspapers to replicate the world they left behind.

World War I CasualtiesAllies

• Belgium 45,550

• British Empire 942,135

• France 1,368,000

• Greece 23,098

• Italy 680,000

• Japan 1,344

• Montenegro 3,000

• Portugal 8,145

• Romania 300,000

• Russia 1,700,000

• Serbia 45,000

• United States 116,516

Central Powers

• Austria-Hungary 1,200,000

• Bulgaria 87,495

• Germany 1,935,000

• Ottoman Empire 725,000

• Total Casualties

• 65 million mobilized both sides

• 8.5 million killed

• 21 million wounded

• 7.7 million POW’s and missing

• 37million total casualties

• 57% of all men mobilized

Weapons of World War I

Rifles

• The main weapon used by British soldiers in the trenches was the bolt-action rifle. 15 rounds could be fired in a minute and a person 1,400 meters away could be killed.

• The single-shot, bigger-bore rifle was the subject of extensive research and development in the latter portion of the nineteenth century, with the result that the major powers introduced new models that were small-bore, bolt-action weapons capable of firing multiple rounds from a spring-loaded clip inserted into a rifle magazine.

Rifles, Bayonets and Hand guns• Veterans of the Great War, when interviewed, tended to play down

the impact of the bayonet during the war. Many remarked (partly in jest) that the bayonet was used primarily as a splendid means of toasting bread, and for opening cans, to scrape mud off uniforms, poking a trench brazier or even to assist in the preparation of communal latrines

• In essence a bayonet is simply a simply a blade that is attached to the barrel of a rifle for use in close combat.

• Most bayonets were of simple design, of the knife variety, although variations existed. For example the French devised a needle blade for use on Lebel rifles. Notoriously, the German army produced a 'saw-back' blade that, as its name suggests, gave the appearance of a saw with its double row of teeth on the back edge.

• One advantage of using a bayonet in close crowded combat, as opposed to a rifle or handgun, was its avoidance of risk in injuring one's fellow soldiers. A bullet fired at close range into an enemy could well pass through his body and enter a friend standing (or fighting) behind him.

There was undeniably psychological value to the infantry in carrying a bayonet, even if in practice it was seldom used. Bayonets continued to be commonly issued in the Second World War.

Hand guns• The pistol, originally designed as a cavalry weapon, was the

staple weapon for a variety of personnel during World War One (and beyond). Traditionally issued to officers of all armies the pistol was also issued to military police, airmen and tank operators.

• Reasons for Pistol Use

• For men involved in the latter professions the pistol was essentially the only weapon that would serve under their unique environments: the cramped conditions of both the tank and aircraft dictated that the rifle - which was otherwise issued to virtually all regular soldiers - was impractical.

• Three Basic Types

• When war began there were three types of pistol in general use: revolvers, clip-loaded automatics and the so-called 'blow-back' models (where expanding propellant gas caused the gun to reload by forcing the bolt back when fired). Colt 45

German Luger

French

Machine Gun

• Machine guns, usually positioned on a flat tripod, would require a gun crew of four to six operators. They had the fire-power of 100 guns.

• The 1914 machine gun, in theory, could fire 400-600 small-caliber rounds per minute, a figure that was to more than double by the war's end, with rounds fed via a fabric belt or a metal strip.

Machine Gun• The reality however was that these early machine guns would

rapidly overheat and become inoperative without the aid of cooling mechanisms; they were consequently fired in short rather than sustained bursts. Cooling generally took one of two forms: water cooled and, increasingly as the war developed, air cooled. Water jackets would be provided for the former (which held around one gallon of liquid) and air vents would be built into the machine gun for the latter

• Water cooled machine guns would still overheat relatively quickly (sometimes within two minutes), with the consequence that large supplies of water would need to be on hand in the heat of a battle - and, when these ran out, it was not unknown for a machine gun crew to solve the problem by urinating into the jacket.

• Whether air or water cooled, machine guns still jammed frequently, especially in hot conditions or when used by inexperienced operators. Consequently machine guns would often be grouped together to maintain a constant defensive position.

Poison Gas

• Considered uncivilized prior to World War One, the development and use of poison gas was necessitated by the requirement of wartime armies to find new ways of overcoming the stalemate of unexpected trench warfare.

• First Use by the French

• Although it is popularly believed that the German army was the first to use gas it was in fact initially deployed by the French. In the first month of the war, August 1914, they fired tear-gas grenades (xylyl bromide) against the Germans. Nevertheless the German army was the first to give serious study to the development of chemical weapons and the first to use it on a large scale

• Country Casualties Deaths• Austria-Hungary 100,000 3,000• British Empire 188,706 8,109• France 190,000 8,000• Germany 200,000 9,000• Italy 60,000 4,627• Russia 419,340 56,000• USA 72,807 1,462• Others 10,000 1,000

Poison Gas

• The German army were the first to use chlorine gas at the battle of Ypres in 1915. Chlorine gas causes a burning sensation in the throat and chest pains. Death is painful – you suffocate! The problem with chlorine gas is that the weather must be right. If the wind is in the wrong direction it could end up killing your own troops rather than the enemy.

• In consequence experiments were undertaken to deliver the gas payload in artillery shells. This provided the additional benefits of increasing the target range as well as the variety of gases released.

• Phosgene

• Following on the heels of chlorine gas came the use of phosgene. Phosgene as a weapon was more potent than chlorine in that while the latter was potentially deadly it caused the victim to violently cough and choke.

Poison Gas• Mustard Gas

• Mustard gas was the most deadly weapon used. It was fired into the trenches in shells. It is colorless and takes 12 hours to take effect. Effects include – blistering skin, vomiting, sore eyes, internal and external bleeding. Death can take up to 5 weeks.

• Remaining consistently ahead in terms of gas warfare development, Germany unveiled an enhanced form of gas weaponry against the Russians at Riga in September 1917: mustard gas (or Yperite) contained in artillery shells.

• Mustard gas, an almost odorless chemical, was distinguished by the serious blisters it caused both internally and externally, brought on several hours after exposure. Protection against mustard gas proved more difficult than against either chlorine or phosgene gas.

• The use of mustard gas - sometimes referred to as Yperite - also proved to have mixed benefits. While inflicting serious injury upon the enemy the chemical remained potent in soil for weeks after release: making capture of infected trenches a dangerous undertaking.

Poison Gas- Mustard Gas effects

Tanks

• Tanks were used for the first time in the First World War at the Battle of the Somme. They were developed to cope with the conditions on the Western Front. The first tank was called ‘Little Willie’ and needed a crew of 3. Its maximum speed was 3mph and it could not cross trenches

• The more modern tank was not developed until just before the end of the war. It could carry 10 men, had a revolving turret and could reach 4 mph

Tanks

• By the time the war drew to a close the British, the first to use them, had produced some 2,636 tanks. The French produced rather more, 3,870. The Germans, never convinced of its merits, and despite their record for technological innovation, produced just 20.

Flame-throwers

• The basic idea of a flame-thrower is to spread fire by launching burning fuel. The earliest flame-throwers date as far back as the 5th century B.C. These took the form of lengthy tubes filled with burning solids (such as coal or sulfur), and which were used in the same way as blow-guns: by blowing into one end of the tube the solid material inside would be propelled towards the operator's enemies.

• Quite aside from the worries of handling the device - it was entirely feasible that the cylinder carrying the fuel might unexpectedly explode - they were marked men; the British and French poured rifle-fire into the area of attack where Flammenwerfers were used, and their operators could expect no mercy should they be taken prisoner. Their life expectancy was therefore short.

During the war the Germans launched in excess of 650 flame-thrower attacks; no numbers exist for British or French attacks.

Grenades• The British bombing team usually consisted of nine men

at a time: an NCO, two throwers, two carriers, two bayonet-men to defend the team and two 'spare' men for use when casualties were incurred.

• As an attack or raid reached an enemy trench the grenadiers would be responsible for racing down the trench and throwing grenades into each dugout they passed: this invariably succeeded in purging dugouts of their human occupants in an attempt at surrender (often not accepted as they were promptly shot or stabbed).

• Grenades - either hand or rifle driven - were detonated in one of two ways. They were either detonated on impact (percussion) or via a timed fuse.

• Generally speaking, infantrymen preferred timed fuses (of whatever amount of time) to percussion devices, since there remained the constant risk of accidentally jolting a grenade while in a trench and setting off an explosion.

Mortars and Artillery• Large field guns had a long range and could deliver

devastating blows to the enemy but needed up to 12 men to work them. They fired shells which exploded on impact.

• mortar is essentially a short, stumpy tube designed to fire a projectile at a steep angle (by definition higher than 45 degrees) so that it falls straight down on the enemy.

• The chief advantage of the mortar was that it could be fired from the (relative) safety of the trench, avoiding exposure of the mortar crews to the enemy. Furthermore, it was notably lighter and more mobile than other, larger artillery pieces. And, of course, the very fact that the mortar bomb fell almost straight down meant that it would (with luck) land smack in the enemy trench.

• Mortars were variously used to take out enemy machine gun posts, suspected sniper posts or other designated features. Larger mortars were occasionally used to cut enemy barbed wire, generally in situations were field artillery could not be used.

Trenches• The Allies used four "types" of trenches.

The first, the front-line trenchfront-line trench (or firing-and-attack trench), was located from 50 yards to 1 mile from the German's front trench. Several hundred yards behind the front-line trench was the support trenchsupport trench, with men and supplies that could immediately assist those on the front line. The reserve trenchreserve trench was dug several hundred yards further back and contained men and supplies that were available in emergencies should the first trenches be overrun.

• Connecting these trenches were communication trenchescommunication trenches, which allowed movement of messages, supplies, and men among the trenches. Some underground networks connected gun emplacements and bunkers with the communication trenches.

Trench Facts• Each battalion had its own supply of

rum that it distributed to its soldiers. Each division of 20,000 men received 300 gallon.

• Every soldier carried iron rations -- emergency food that consisted of a can of bully bee, biscuits and a tin of tea and sugar.

• A single pair of rats could produced up to 880 offspring in a year.

• A total of 3,894 men in the British Army were convicted of self-inflicted wounds. A firing-squad offense -- none were executed, but all served

prison terms.

• The British Army treated 20,000 soldiers for trench foot during the winter of 1914-15.

• One-third of all casualties on the Western Front may have been killed or wounded in a trench.

• A lit candle was fairly effective in removing lice, but the skill of burning the lice without setting yourself on fire was difficult to learn.

Soldiers in the trenches often depended on impure water collected from shell-holes or other cavities, causing dysentery

Trenches• Trenches were not built in straight lines. This was

so that if the enemy managed to get into the front line trench they would not have a straight firing line along the trench. Trenches were therefore built with alternating straight and angled lines. The traverse was the name given to the angled parts of the trench.

• The typical front-line trench was about 6 to 8 feet deep and wide enough for two men to pass. Dugouts in the sides of the trenches protected men during enemy fire. Barbed wire helped protect the firing trench from surprise attacks.

• Between the enemy lines lay a stretch of ground called "no man's land." Soldiers generally served at the front line from a few days to a week and then rotated to the rear for a rest

• Every soldier carried iron rations -- emergency food that consisted of a can of bully beef, biscuits and a tin of tea and sugar.

Except during an attack, life fell into a dull routine. Some soldiers stood guard. Others repaired the trenches, kept telephone lines in order, brought food from behind the battle lines, or did other jobs. At night, patrols fixed the barbed wire and tried to get information about the enemy.

Trenches- Trench Foot• Much of the land where the trenches were

dug was either clay or sand. The water could not pass through the clay and because the sand was on top, the trenches became waterlogged when it rained. The trenches were hard to dig and kept on collapsing in the waterlogged sand. As well as trenches the shells from the guns and bombs made big craters in the ground. The rain filled up the craters and then poured into the trenches

• Soldiers who spent prolonged periods of time standing in waterlogged trenches were liable to suffer from frostbite and/or trench foot. To prevent trench foot, soldiers were instructed to change their socks frequently, wear waterproof footwear and to cover their feet with whale oil.

Trenches- Rats, Lice and Trench Fever

• Many men killed in the trenches were buried almost where they fell. If a trench subsided, or new trenches or dugouts were needed, large numbers of decomposing bodies would be found just below the surface. These corpses, as well as the food scraps that littered the trenches, attracted rats. One pair of rats can produce 880 offspring in a year and so the trenches were soon swarming with them.

• Men in the trenches suffered from lice. Various methods were used to remove the lice. A lighted candle was fairly effective but the skill of burning the lice without burning your clothes was only learnt with practice. Where possible the army arranged for the men to have baths in huge vats of hot water while their clothes were being put through delousing machines. Unfortunately, this rarely worked. A fair proportion of the eggs remained in the clothes and within two or three hours of the clothes being put on again a man's body heat had hatched them out.

• As well as causing frenzied scratching, lice also carried disease. This was known as pyrexia or trench fever. The first symptoms were shooting pains in the shins and was followed by a very high fever. Although the disease did not kill, it did stop soldiers from fighting and accounted for about 15% of all cases of sickness in the British Army.

• Soldiers in the trenches often depended on impure water collected from shell-holes or other cavities, causing dysentery.

Trenches- Self Inflicted wounds + Shell Shock

• Faced with the prospect of being killed or permanently disabled, soldiers sometimes hoped that they would receive what was known as a blighty wound, and be sent back home. There were some cases where soldiers shot themselves in an attempt to end their time on the frontline. Self-inflicted wounds (SIW) was a capital offence and if discovered, a man found guilty of this faced execution by firing-squad. A total of 3,894 men in the British Army were convicted of SIW. None of these men were executed but they all served periods in prison.

• By 1914 British doctors working in military hospitals noticed patients suffering from "shell shock". Early symptoms included tiredness, irritability, giddiness, lack of concentration and headaches. Eventually the men suffered mental breakdowns making it impossible for them to remain in the front-line. Some came to the conclusion that the soldiers condition was caused by the enemy's heavy artillery. These doctors argued that a bursting shell creates a vacuum, and when the air rushes into this vacuum it disturbs the cerebra-spinal fluid and this can upset the working of the brain.

Blimps

• The Zeppelin, also known as blimp was an airship that was used during the early part of the war in bombing raids by the Germans. They carried machine guns and bombs. However, they were abandoned because they were easy to shoot out of the sky.

Airplanes

• Planes were also used for the first time. At first they were used to deliver bombs and for spying work but became fighter aircraft armed with machine guns, bombs and some times cannons. Fights between two planes in the sky became known as ‘dogfights’

• Light machine guns were adopted too for incorporation into aircraft from 1915 onwards, for example the Vickers, particularly with the German adoption of interrupter equipment, which enabled the pilot to fire the gun through the aircraft's propeller blades.

Submarines - U-Boats• Torpedoes were used by submarines. The

Germans used torpedoes to blow up ships carrying supplies from America to Britain.

• In February 1915 the German government announced its solution to the problem -- unrestricted submarine warfare. The Germans realized they didn't have to capture a merchant ship, just sink it - crew and all. They declared a war zone around the British Isles within which they would sink any allied merchant vessel on sight.

• The Germans torpedoed the passenger liner Lusitania on May 1st 1915 which sank with a loss of 1,195 lives. Americans were outraged and joined the war in 1917 on the side of the allies.

World War I Disabilities

• Over 1.65 million men in the British Army were wounded during the First World War. Of these, around 240,000 British soldiers suffered total or partial leg or arm amputations as a result of war wounds. Most of these men were fitted with artificial limbs.