Trench Warfare WWI

Schlieffen Plan German Military Strategy – Strike France 1 st through Belgium (neutral) – GB stranded – Focus on Russia

Trench Warfare Warfare on Western Front Long trenches No Man’s Land – Separated the 2 sides – Barbed wires, land mines, artillery, machine guns

Trench Warfare Contd Artillery barrages to start “over the top” – soldiers jump out of trenches to attack other side

Issues with trenches Trench foot – infection of the food due to wet feet Trench Rats/ lice Lack of food/water Dirty/Mud Boredom Diseases

Discussion Question Which aspect of trench warfare would you hate the most?

Early Battles – DON’T COPY Verdun – city in France – German offensive – 21 hour artillery barrage where more than 1 million shells were fired – 1 million soldiers of the German 5 th Army advanced on some 200,000 French defenders – Longest battle of war – more than 1 million casualties

Battle Continued – DON’T COPY Battle of the Somme – northern France – Allied Powers offensive – British forces suffered some 60,000 casualties in a single day – 4 months more than 1 million dead and wounded

New Weapons Machine guns Tanks – Battle of Somme Poison Gas Airplanes Submarines – U-Boats

The Aces Baron Manfred von Richthofen and Eddie Rickenbacker

Draw or write about a Trench 2 options to choose: – 1. Draw a layout of a battle field with 2 trenches. Must include 8 things that are associated with a trench (weapons, miscellaneous items) Must have 1-2 sentence attached to each picture – 2. Write 4 diary entries on a typical day in the trenches Must include 2 keywords/OK per entry Each entry must be at least 5 sentences long