World War I

Tactics of Trench Warfare  Generals in charge were trained to fight wars of movement  Each side would bombard the enemy with artillery then they would attempt to take over the enemy trenches  Those who tried to cross no man’s land were shot and killed by machine guns

“Going over the Top”  Rifle  Bayonet  Grenades  170 rounds of ammunition  Gas Mask  Shovel  Wire cutters  Full water bottle  Food rations  Extra clothing  Medical supplies  Cooking stove/fuel

Battle of Verdun  Verdun was a French fortress city on the German border  10 months worth of fighting  700,000 French and German men were killed  War of Attrition: war based on wearing the other side down by constant attacks and heavy losses

The Industrial Revolution and how war is fought…  Railroads were able to supply the troops more quickly than before  Railroads could replace worn out/wounded soldiers  Factories were able to produce munitions in large amounts  Soldiers were maimed and disfigured due to the new way of fighting

War in the Air  Airplanes were used on the battlefront in 1915 for the first time in history  Planes were used first to spot the enemy positions  Planes then began to shoot down targets on the ground  Pilots first used pistols to shoot each other then machine guns were attached to the plane

The Eastern Front

Battle of Tannenberg  Germans vs. Russians  Four day battle  Forced the Russian army to retreat  Germans gained East Prussia, guns, and horses  More than 30,000 Russian soldiers were killed

The Russians  As of 1916, Russia had not industrialized  Lack of:  Food  Guns  Ammunition  Clothes  Boots  Blankets  Blockades of the Baltic and Black seas prevented assistance  More than 2 million soldiers killed, wounded or captured in 1915

The Entry of the United States  United States tried to remain neutral  Britain and Germany set up naval blockades to prevent war materials and other goods from getting to their enemies  Germany enforced their blockade by sinking passenger liners  1915: British ship Lusitania was sunk by German forces. Over 100 Americans were aboard that ship  Zimmermann Note: Message from Germany to Mexico, 1917  United States officially entered the war in April 1917 and was a major source of money and war goods

Education and Women  College students joined student Army training corps  Curriculum emphasized America’s superiority over Germany  Children were taught to sing patriotic songs  Women volunteered with the Army Nursing Corps  Worked in factories, on Navy ships, and in charitable organizations such as the Red Cross

On the Home Front  Wounded soldiers were brought home late at night to not draw attention to the amount of soldiers being hurt  Inflation: Food prices rose  Government implemented rationing  sugar, meat, butter, cheese, margarine  Bombing raids by the Germans  Round the clock factories