Battle Preparation

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Battle Preparation and Going Over the Top
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Aims

• Identify the preparation necessary before a big
  push.
• Examine the dangers faced by soldiers after they
  had gone over the top.

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Battle Preparation

• Before a planned attack there were months of
  careful planning. Who ever attacked first knew
  that they were likely to lose thousands of men.
• Can you think why?

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Trench Warfare

• Both sides believed that the only way to achieve
• a victory was to carry out a War of Attrition.
  
• They would keep attacking the enemy and inflict
• such heavy casualties that they would eventually
• wear them down and win the war.
• Generals planned major attacks on the enemys
• trenches in order to achieve this. This was
• known as a big push.

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Planning

• Months of careful planning went into a major
  battle.
• Intelligence would be used to decide where the
  best place to attack was. This information came
  from reconnaissance missions and the
  interrogation of prisoners.
• Each side would try to pick a weak spot in the
  enemy lines and use their most experienced
  soldiers to attack
• A reconnaissance camera used during WW1 to gain
  information on the enemy.

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Troop Preparation

• Following investigation of the best place to
  stage the battle, the men were prepared.
• Some were sent to rest or on leave. Others were
  marched to secret locations to be trained.
• Slowly, thousands of men were gathered to the
  area where the battle was to take place.
• As well as this, ammunition and supplies for the
  battle would also be gathered.
• Practicing hand to hand combat.

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• Rifle Practice for French troops.

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Bombardment

• Next, the enemy trenches would be bombarded.
  This was to kill as many men as possible before
  the battle started and to destroy communication
  trenches to stop reinforcements arriving.
• It was also hoped that enemy barbed wire would be
  destroyed but this was not often the case.
  Usually, it simply became more tangled due to the
  bombardment.
• This bombardment may go one for days, even up to
  a week, denying the opposition time to relax or
  prepare as they would have to take shelter in
  their dug outs.

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• Heavy
• Artillery

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The Night Before

• The night before the attack took place men would
  crawl into No Mans Land to prepare the
  battlefield.
• Barbed wire would be cut to allow the men to pass
  through unhindered.
• Troops would be crammed into the front line
  trenches ready for the attack.

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Going over the Top

• At dawn or zero hour an officers whistle would
  blow and that was the signal for the men to go
  over the top.
• Ladders were placed against the parapet for men
  to climb out.
• Many would not even make it out of their trench
  as they would be shot down by enemy machine
  gunners.

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Over the Top
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The Aftermath of Battle

• Field dressing stations behind the front line
  patched up small wounds.
• Mobile field hospitals dealt with more serious
  cases.
• Those badly injured were sent to base hospitals
  for treatment or perhaps back home to Blighty.
• The end result was usually stalemate. Neither
  side making any significant gains but suffering
  huge losses of men.

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Trench Warfare

• Planning
• Troop Preparation
• Artillery Bombardment
• The Night Before the Attack
• Going Over the Top