Trench Warfare Standard 10.5.4 Understand the nature of the war and its human costs (military and civilian) on all sides of the conflict, including how colonial peoples contributed to the war effort.

A War of Mobility? The war began in August of 1914. It was supposed to be a quick war. Germany went on the offensive. Germany wanted to invade France and win the war by Christmas… that did not happen!

It was a war of attrition! By Christmas 1914, each side was dug in. They dug trenches that stretched from the North Sea to the Swiss border. This was the Western Front.

On the Western Front… The British and French generals had no strategy to win the war. It was a stationary war. Nobody gained any ground. Instead, it was a war of attrition… Each side would slowly bleed to death. Which side would be the first to run out of men?

This is why… they invented all those new weapons. the British drafted one million men from India to fight on the Western Front. all the major powers drafted their colonial peoples. soldiers mutinied and deserted. They lost confidence in their leaders. TEN MILLION PEOPLE DIED.

Trench Warfare was Nasty!

Boredom, broken by terror.

The constant threat of enemy snipers

Poison Gas

Bomb shells

Machine-gun fire

The rations: beef, hard biscuits, stale bread, and tea.

Rats and lice

Trench foot

Open latrines

Rotting corpses

Going on the Offensive Every other day or so, the commander gave the order: “Over the top!” You climbed out of your own trench and ran like heck to capture the other side’s trench. In the middle, you found yourself in “No man’s land.” This meant certain death: No Man’s Land was full of barbed wire…

In the big offensive, it was normal for each side to lose 300,000 men. While you cut through the barbed wire, the enemy mowed you down with weapons created by the Industrial Revolution. Machine guns, grenades, flame throwers, poison gas, and field artillery. In the big offensive, it was normal for each side to lose 300,000 men. At a certain point, when the commander said “Over the top!” the men mutinied and deserted.

The __________ System