Weapons, tactics, and strategy of the First World War War of stalemate and attrition

SMALL ARMS The perfection of the pistol, rifle, and machine gun.

Gatling Gun

Maxim Machine Gun

Machine Gun

British Enfield Rifle

Thomson Machine Gun (Trench Sweeper)

Artillery Artillery accounted for nearly 70% of all casualties in World War I.

French Artillery

“Long Max” 38 cm (380mm) Used in the Battle of Verdun (1916)

The impact of German shells on an armored building

Howitzer

Two 280 mm Japanese siege guns (1904) Howitzers

Life in the Trenches

Trench Warfare Trench: a depression in the ground Trench Warfare: a style of fighting in which the enemies occupy opposing trenches, which require artillery in order defeat the enemy No Man’s Land: tract of land between opposing trench lines

Cross section of a British trench

No Man’s land

Infantry attack

Dead in No Man’s Land

Trench on a dry day

Firing from a German Trench

French Concrete Bunker – Under the Trenches

Barbed Wire Placed outside the trenches to slow attacks Belts 1.8 meters high and 3-6 meters thick

Complex Trench Systems

Trenches on the Somme (1916) A far cry from the tidy illustrations in the field engineering manuals

Poison Gas blinded or choked its victims caused serious burns could be fatal Because this was a new development in weapons technology, soldiers were not equipped with gas masks right away an uncertain weapon: winds could blow it back on the soldiers who launched it

Poison Gas

Victims of War

War Is HELL !!

Keep Your Feet Dry, Clean, and Warm

Sacrifices in War

World War I Casualties

Air Power Nations’ air forces were primarily used for reconnaissance. Airplanes would not play a major role in aiding ground movement until the Second World War.

British DH4

German Fokker

Flying Coffins Planes were so dangerous to fly that they received the nickname “Flying coffins.”

Zeppelin

New Weapons World War one spawned the introduction of the tank. This weapon along with the airplane would break the defensive stalemate.

British Tank

British Tank crossing a trench in the battle of Cambrai, November 1917.

Sea Power World War One would be the age of the Battleship. It would also be the introduction of the submarine. Besides the Germans attempt to “blockade” Britain with the submarine, the most crucial battles took place on land.

Unterseeboot German submarines a.k.a. U-Boats

U-Boats

Allied Ships Sunk by U-Boats

Dreadnought The Dreadnought was introduced by the British in This new ship with its 11” guns and a range of nearly 20,000 yards made all previous ships obsolete.

US Dreadnought

British Submarine

The Alliance system

European Colonialism ca.1900

Legend

Germany 1914

Europe 1914

Europe during World War One

Europe World War One

European Alliances 1914

Strategy and Tactics

Germany at War 1914

First Battle of the Marne

1 st Battle of the Marne The German attempt to take Paris and surround French troops failed. British troops from the North and French troops from North Africa turned the tide.

French Plan XVII The French plan to attack Germany also proved to be a failure.

Stalemate warfare Because of the use of the machine gun and rapid fire artillery, movement on the battlefield became nearly impossible. The war quickly bogged down into a stalemate on all fronts.

Eastern Front

Western Front

The Gallipoli Campaign 1915 The British attempt to reopen the Straits ultimately proved a failure.

Battle of Verdun 1916 Germans and the French bleed each other white as the Germans attempt to take the fortifications at Verdun.

Verdun 1916 Nivelle’s use of the creeping barrage kept the Germans at bay as they tried to take the fortifications

Battle of the Somme 1916 This British attempt to break the German lines failed. The attackers never made it more than 10 kilometers. British lost over 490,000; French 250,000 and Germans 600,000 men.

Defense in Depth German defensive system devised by Ludendorff in Machine gun nests and artillery held off the enemy in the front while major reserves were concentrated in the rear, away from enemy artillery.

Battle of Ypres

Western Front 1918

Europe: Post World War One 1919

Europe Post World War One The Treaty of Versailles left Germany in tact but took territory from the East as well as Alsace Lorraine. The Treaties of St. Germain and Trianon dismembered the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Ottman Empire: Post World War One The Treaty of Severes dismembered the Ottoman Empire. Turkey never signed it.