PRABHJOYT KLER

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• BY
• PRABHJOYT KLER
• KATE MCCANN-YATES

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Trench Warfare

• Trench Warfare began in September 1914
• After the Battle of the Marne in September 1914,
  the German army were forced to retreat. They had
  failed in their objective to force France into an
  early surrender. Rather than give up the
  territory which they already held, the Germans
  dug in to protect themselves from the guns of the
  advancing Allies. The Allies couldn't break the
  German trench lines and so followed the German
  example. The trench lines soon spread from the
  North Sea to Switzerland.

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Trench Illnesses

• Many soldiers fighting suffered from trench foot.
  This was caused by their feet being in cold and
  wet conditions all the time. The feet would
  gradually go numb and the skin would turn red or
  blue. If untreated, trench foot could turn
  gangrenous and result in amputation. During the
  winter of 1914-15 over 20,000 men in the British
  army were treated for trench foot.
• Dysentery is a disease involving the inflammation
  of the lining of the large intestines. The
  inflammation causes stomach pains and diarrhoea.
  Some cases involve vomiting and fever. The
  bacteria enters the body through the mouth in
  food or water, and also by human feaces and
  contact with infected people. This can be fatal
  if the body dehydrates. This disease struck the
  men in the trenches as there was no proper
  sanitation.

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Trench Illnesses

• 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 thefront line. Some came to the
  conclusion that the soldiers condition was caused
  by the enemy'sheavy artillery.
• Men in the trenches suffered from lice. Various
  methods were used to remove the lice. A lighted
  candle was fairly effective. As well as causing
  frenzied scratching, lice also carried disease.
  This was known as pyrrexhia or trench fever. The
  first symptoms were shooting pains in the shins
  and was followed by a very high fever.

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Trench Layout

• The trenches on both sides were protected by
  lines of barbed wire with No-Man's Land
  in-between.
• The Front Lines were usually about seven feet
  deep and about six feet wide. The Allies were
  forced to dig their trenches in lower ground so
  they were often waterlogged. They had a zigzag
  pattern to prevent the enemy from shooting
  straight down the line. Sandbags were put on both
  sides of the top of the trench to absorb enemy
  bullets.

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Trench Layout
The land that separated the Allies and the German
trenches was a wasteland of craters, blackened
tree stumps and the occasional shell of a
building. It was normally around 250 yards but
could vary between 7 yards and 500 yards.

• The fire step was cut into the side of the trench
  and allowed the soldiers to peer over the side of
  the trench towards the enemy. It was where the
  sentries stood or the whole unit when they were
  on 'standing-to' duty which meant that they were
  waiting for a possible enemy attack.

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Trench Layout

• Linking the front-line trench to the support and
  reserve trenches were communication trenches.
  They allowed the movement of men, equipment and
  supplies and were also used to take the wounded
  back to the Casualty Clearing Stations.

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Britain's Contribution to the Western Front

• Britain and its Empire lost almost a million men
  during World War One most of them died on the
  Western Front.
• Stretching 440 miles from the Swiss border to the
  North Sea, the line of trenches, dug-outs and
  barbed-wire fences moved very little between
  1914-1918, despite attempts on both sides to
  break through.

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Battle of the Somme

• The Somme happened on 1st July 1916.
• 27 British Divisions went over the top
• Casualties
• British - 420,000
• French - 200,000
• German - 500,000
• The General in charge (Haig) was named the
  Butcher of the Somme

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Battle of the Somme

• The original plan was for British soldiers to
  back up the French soldiers, so the pressure
  would be taken off the French at Verdun.
• Haig decided they should use a huge artillery
  bombardment to destroy Germanys barbed wire,
  this didnt work.

• The Germans trenches were on a hill, so they had
  a good view of the Allies lines.
• The German trenches were also fortified with
  Concrete and well dug in, so it was very hard to
  destroy them.
• Only 1 in 4 British shells went off.

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Gas

• The horrors of gas warfare had never been seen on
  a battlefield until April 1915. The Germans were
  the first to use it in war, but the French and
  English were not far behind.
• Chlorine and Phosgene was initially used. These
  caused the lungs to slowly dissolve and the
  soldier would drown in his own fluids. Mustard
  Gas was used regularly.
• One problem with using Gas would be that it could
  blow back onto your own side. Also, gas masks
  were carried at all times which could get in the
  way.
• 3,000 British troops were killed by Gas.

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Tanks

• The tank was a British invention
• It was rejected as impractical early on in the
  war
• Winston Churchill funded its development
• Tanks were used for the first time at the battle
  of Somme
• They crushed wire fences and sprayed the enemy
  with machine gun fire.

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Tanks

• The first tanks went at walking pace
• They were not very manoeuvrable
• They were very unreliable more than half broke
  down before they reached enemy lines

• In November 1917, at Cambrai, the tanks achieved
  success.
• However, they were too successful an infantry
  could not keep up
• By 1918 Germany could pierce the tanks armour and
  they had adapted field guns to fire at tanks.

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Guns

• Machine guns could fire 600 bullets a minute
• The German gun on the right accounts for 90 of
  of the British casualties on the opening day of
  the Somme Offensive.

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The War at Sea

• The U-Boat threat to Britain meant that vital
  supplies were not arriving, leaving people in
  Britain losing faith in the war and illness
  increasing.
• The British Blockade meant German supplies were
  not arriving as well.
• People still at home were suffering because of
  the war at sea, as well as those fighting.

• Connections between War at Sea and the Western
  front
• If a boat was bombed at sea troops and supplies
  would not arrive for those fighting and also the
  people in Britain would be starved of supplies.

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How did the war change life in Britain?

• When war broke out a number of things changed,
  including censorship, rationing, propaganda and
  the role of women.
• Life in Britain was better known as the
  Homefront.

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Role Of Women

• When war broke out womens organisations in the
  autumn of 1914 were set up, including the womens
  hospital corps and the womens police volunteers.
• In July 1915 a munitions crisis broke out because
  there were not enough men to work and to make the
  ammunition required, because they had been called
  up for war. So women set up up Womens march for
  jobs to recruit women to work in factories.

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• Many employers refused to take on women including
  trade unions.
• But in autumn 1915, the Government then came to
  an agreement that women would be paid the same as
  men until sufficient male labour should again be
  available
• The government also set up munitions factories,
  employing largely women.

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Role of Women

• Then in February 1917 women were recruited to
  work as farm labourers.
• And in December 1917, because of there hard work
  and effort towards helping the war, women over 30
  were given the right to vote in general elections.

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Propaganda

• Propaganda posters were used to encourage men to
  join up with the war.
• Over half a million joined the army in the first
  month.

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Propaganda

• Propaganda posters didnt highlight what was
  really happening in the war, because they were
  always trying to find men to join up in the war
  from 1914-1918.
• Propaganda wasnt just targeted at men to join
  the war, but also to get people such as women to
  help out as nurses and workers, and to provide
  ammunition and food for the soldiers in the war.

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Censorship

• Letters from the soldiers to there families were
  often censored so the people at home didnt know
  what the conditions were like in the trenches,
  because of the Defence of the Realm Act (DORA).
  They didnt want to stop encouraging people to
  join and support the war. Even so, often men
  tried to conceal the horrors of the war to there
  friends and families

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Rationing

• Soon after the outbreak of the First World War
  the the German Navy attempted to halt the flow of
  imports to Britain by introducing unrestricted
  submarine warfare. By the end of 1916, U-German
  boats were on average destroying about 300,000
  tons of shipping a month. In February 1917, the
  German Navy sank 230 ships bringing food and
  other supplies to Britain. The following month a
  record 507,001 tons of shipping was lost as a
  result of the U-boat campaign. However, Britain
  was successful at increasing food production and
  the wheat harvest of 1917 was the best in our
  history.
• However the Government tried to tell people to
  eat less wheat, to stop the merchant ships from
  being blown up. People had to ration there food
  and make there wheat last longer to avoid these
  deaths and shortages.
• But as this happened food prices began to rise,
  because it couldnt keep up with the demands.