The Trenches + Battles

Trench warfare was the standard tactic in WWI. The airplane was primitive and the tank had not yet been developed. Although new technologies would “improve” WW1 strategies near the end of the war, trenches were the main method of battle.

Trenches were usually about 400 metres apart, 1.8 – 2.5 metres deep, there was a series of trenches behind the firing/front-line trench. While some trenches were quite elaborate with burrowed rooms and raised wooden platforms (duckboards), others were primitive = no more than a muddy ditch filled with rotting victims of the war.

Trenches offered protection from enemy fire (machine guns). Yet soldier remained vulnerable to artillery (bomb) attacks and enemy raids.

Wrote home to friends, family, wives/sweethearts = told them the truth and lies. Ate & Slept = Froze in the snow and sleet, trenches would fill with icy water sometimes waste deep, would burrow into the side of trenches for dryness and to be out of the way of the other soldiers passing by. Fought & Died = enough said.

“Try and sleep with a belt full of ammunition around you, your rifle bolt biting into your ribs, entrenching tool handle sticking into the small of your back, with a tin hat for a pillow; feeling very damp and cold, with cooties (lice and other parasites) boring for oil in your armpits, and the air foul from the stench of grimy human bodies being whiffed into your nostril.”

Three Day Road takes readers deep into the horrors—physical, emotional and spiritual—of World War I via the Somme, Vimy Ridge, and Passchendaele. The story is told through the voices of two Cree Natives – Xavier and Elijah. Inspired in part by the life of Francis Pegahmagabow, the great First Nations sniper of World War I, Three Day Road is a compelling and viscerally powerful exploration of what war does to us and how we might heal from it.

The theoretical daily rations for a British soldier were: 20 ounces of bread 1/10 gill lime if vegetables not issued 16 ounces of flour instead of above ½ gill of rum 3 ounces of cheese maximum of 20 ounces of tobacco 5/8 ounces of tea 1/3 chocolate – optional 4 ounces of jam 4 ounces of oatmeal instead of bread ½ ounce of salt 1 pint of porter instead of rum 1/36 ounce of pepper 4 ounces of dried fruit instead of jam 1/20 ounce of mustard 4 ounces of butter/margarine 8 ounces of fresh vegetables or 2 ounces of dried vegetables

The theoretical daily rations for a German soldier were: 26 ½ ounces of bread or 17 ½ of field biscuits or 14 ounces of egg biscuit 53 ounces of potatoes 4 ½ ounces vegetables 2 ounces dried vegetables

Trench Foot = Rotting of the flesh between the toes, swollen, black feet. Trench Mouth = Painful infection of the gums.

Body Lice = Lived in the mud-caked uniforms. Rats = Fed off the garbage, human waste, and humans. Men were shell-shocked = Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Shell Shock (1:32 minutes) m/watch?v=SS1dO0JC2EE m/watch?v=SS1dO0JC2EE

“No Man’s Land” = Land between the trenches; certain death; barbed wire, craters, dead soldiers Christmas Eve = Canadian and German soldiers sang Silent Night across No Man’s Land. “Going Over the Top” = When officers ordered an advance into the land between enemy trenches; soldiers would be fully exposed to enemy fire.

The Western Front was the name given to a theatre/location of war that was a series of trenches that ran 700 kilometres from the Belgian coast to the Swiss border. These trenches were located in France, Belgium, Germany,

A series of battles were waged on this from between the Allies and the Central Powers from Each side worked to advance on the front into occupied territory = it became a stalemate.

Also known as the First Battle of Ypres (Flanders). Where: Ypres, Belgium. What/Who: French + Canadian Troops were defending Ypres when the Germans used chlorine gas against them (first use of poison gas in the history of warfare).

Outcome/Result: The French + Canadian troops were forced to retreat and over 6, 000 Canadians lost their lives; Allied Victory.

Significance: The first taste of trench warfare for Canadian troops + this was the first battle in which poison gas was used. Over 6,000 Canadians were killed, missing, or wounded; Lieutenant-General Dr. John McCrae poem “In Flanders Fields”.

In Flanders Fields In Flanders fields, the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the dead, short days ago, We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved, and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields! Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands, we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields!

Where: Somme (River), France. What/Who: Allied commanders tried to end trench warfare with a large attack on the German trenches at the Somme; Canadians, NFLD. 100,000 Allied troops directed to advance across no man’s land in broad daylight, in direct fire to get to German trenches.

Somme River

Outcome/Result: Germans were not driven back and over 28,000 Canadian soldiers were killed; Newfoundland Regiment suffered 90% casualties.

Significance: Casualties for both dies reached 1.25 million; tanks used for the first time; only a few miles of land gained; shell shock became apparent; 23 Canadian men were executed because they refused to return to the front. It was a slaughter for the Allies and Central Powers.

Where: Vimy, France (Between France and Belgium; near the Belgium border); part of the Battle of Arras. Vimy was key high ground in Northern France = was important strategically because it was a strong natural fortress that was easy to defend and very dangerous to attack.

What/Who: The ridge had fallen to German soldiers in 1914; Canadian troops tried to regain the ridge after the British and French troops had failed to effect a breakthrough. Outcome/Result: Canadian were successful in taking “The Pimple”, although 3,000 Canadians were killed and 7,000 were injured.

Significance: First time that Canadian units fought together as one; this victory became a symbol of Canada’s independence – a nation- building moment; created an identity = Canadian; as a result of the victory Canadian troops (Storm Troopers) were recognized as some of the nest troops on the Western Front; Canadian troops led for the first by a Canadian = General Arthur Currie (before British – Douglas Haig & Julian Byng).

Canadian National Vimy Memorial, Vimy, France, 1936, 2001 Battlefield today

Where: Passchendaele, Belgium. Marshland in Belgium = use to be under the North Sea = British artillery had pockmarked the ground, destroying drainage = land became mud. What/Who: Canadian troops were asked to attack the Germans.

Outcome/Result: Canadians gained 7km of land and held their positions until reinforcements arrived. However, the Germans soon gained back (in weeks) their lost land. 16,000 Canadians lost their lives; only 1 in 5 survived.

Significance: The objection of Commander General Arthur Currie was overruled and his troops were forced into battle; many Canadian soldiers lost their lives.

Theatre of war in Eastern Europe were the battles took place in Russia, Germany, Austria- Hungary, Rumania, Turkey. Russia wanted access to the Dardanelles, a warm water port.

Revolution, Treaties, and Reparations