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By: Alyssa Dupuis December 7, 2014 Delta College HIS 112W Later Western Civilization Online Professor: Laura Dull

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By: Alyssa Dupuis

December 7, 2014

Delta College

HIS 112W Later Western Civilization Online

Professor: Laura Dull

World War I, also known as the Great War or the First World War, began on July 28, 1914 and ended on November 11, 1918.

The Allies: Britain, France, Russia, Italy and the United States fought against the Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary, the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria.

Word War I is known as the deadliest conflict in human history with the total number of military and civilian casualties being over 37 million. 16 million deaths and 21 million wounded.

Soldiers suffered from drastic climate elements, deaths of close members, horrific wounds, amputations, disease, explosions, and much more. Imagine living in these conditions day in and day out, they change a person forever.

Soldiers and their families were hugely impacted physically, traumatically, and emotionally during and after the war.

Severe injuries from physical battle left soldiers with deformities, amputations, and scars within.

Emotional shock developed from the horrors men heard in the trenches and in combat. Outcries of men in agony and the sight of bloodied and battered bodies caused some men to fall apart beyond recovery.

Source: http://experiencesonthewesternfront.weebly.com/impact-on-soldiers-and-their-families.html

Commonly known today as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) was the nervous breakdown soldiers exhibited from the horrific stress of the war.

A multitude of symptoms are trembling, headache, ringing in the ears, dizziness, poor concentration, confusion, memory loss, insomnia, or delusions.

Neurasthenia was also a condition soldiers expressed by having uncontrollable shaking, weeping, and lethargy of the body.

Shell Shock

Source: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-shock-of-war-55376701/?no-ist=&page=2

Most of the trenches became waterlogged when it rained and the sides began collapsing. Arnold Ridley said, “The trenches were full of water and I can remember getting out of the trench and lying on the parapet with the bullets flying around because sleep was such a necessity and death only meant sleep.”

Men were soaked completely and standing or sleeping in marsh that was above their knees.

Source: http://spartacus-educational.com/FWWtrench.htm

A soldier trying to get sleep whenever possible.

A French soldier standing amongst the bodies of fallen German soldiers.

The French Army was the first to use chemical warfare by using tear-gas grenades on the Germans. The German Army then used chlorine gas cylinders against the French Army. This chlorine gas targeted the respiratory organs and led to death by asphyxiation.

Phosgene was then found as a more effective poison because it killed the victim within 48 hours. Phosgene was mixed with chlorine to create a ‘white star’ gas.

Mustard gas, first used by German Army’s, was the deadliest gas because it only took 12 hours to take effect.

Source: http://spartacus-educational.com/FWWgas.htm

Helplessness against heavy artillery bombardment was one of the hardest for many to deal with.

To deal with the noise and dangers of casualty men would walk around, only increasing the chance dying.

German soldiers developed ‘Dickfelligkeit’ or thick skin, the more time they spent under fire.

The long stretches of waiting caused anxiety and boredom, to counteract this soldiers were given busier routines and spent most time repairing the trenches.

Life in the trenches, "Months of boredom punctuated by moments of extreme terror."

Source: http://www.bl.uk/world-war-one/articles/how-did-soldiers-cope-with-war

German soldiers in a trench with a machine gun.

The British Army used dogs to pull machine guns.

Dead German soldiers outside their pill box.

British soldiers standing in typical muddy conditions.

Source: http://www.theatlantic.com/static/in focus/wwi/westernfront1/

Canadian soldiers tend to a fallen German.

Explosions near the trenches in France. Bodies of obliterated soldiers in “No Man’s Land.”

The aftermath from a gigantic shell in Belgium

A soldier looks across the battlefield from his pill box in West Flanders.

A reconstructive surgeries done by Gillies, the father of plastic surgery.

Harold Gillies, a facial reconstructive plastic surgeon, worked to patch shattered faces of the men injured in battle as best as he could. Gillies joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and joined together with Charles Valadier, dentist and specialist on skin and bone grafts, to repair severe facial wounds.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zxw42hv

Francis Derwent Wood was the artist who

created metallic masks for flaws that plastic

surgery could not correct. Wood teamed with

Anne Coleman Ladd, a sculptor, to open the

Studio for Portrait Masks in Paris.

Wood stated that facial disfigurement was the

most traumatic of the dreadful damages the war

inflicted. The work of Wood and Ladd helped to

restore a patients personal appearance and self

worth.

Masks for Wounded Soldiers

Source: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/faces-of-war-145799854/?no-ist

World War I immensely impacted the lives of the men who fought in battle. The anguish they went through on the battle field serving their countries is unimaginable. No one but the men themselves could understand the full effects war brought upon them. Some men fell apart psychologically due to the anguish they experienced that left them with constant flashbacks and nightmares. These men’s lives were changed forever and because of that they deserve so much honor.