A New Kind of War

Who was assassinated that “sparked” the “powder keg?” Explain how the domino effect impacted WWI. What was the revolutionary group called that carried out the above assassination? What do you know about “trench warfare?” If Mr. Sliwa were a Halloween character, who would he be?

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WWI will be much different than any war that we have discussed so far. Why? WWI will be dominated by a new strategy called… Trench Warfare – Opposing sides attack and defend from deep trenches with barbed wire and obstacles in between in an area called “no man’s land.” What recent invention made this type of warfare horrific?

Germany was doing everything it could to avoid a “2 front war.” Two Front War – Being forced to fight/defend two sides of your country. Obviously, a huge disadvantage Schlieffen Plan – Crush France QUICKLY by going through Belgium and around their forces… FAILED

So, we now have a “2 Front War.” Western Front – FRANCE Eastern Front – Started in Germany/Austria and was pushed to Russia (eventually).

Stalemate – A deadlock where neither side is able to defeat or overwhelm the other. The stalemates occurred frequently because of the dangerous nature of trench warfare.

Could You Survive Trench Warfare?

Due to Trench Warfare, there was a stalemate on the western front of France. Territory was gained and lost just meters at a time. Human loss was catastrophic. If the order came to go “over the top” you would exit the trench and charge into “no man’s land” towards the other trench.

Over The Top

To break the stalemate, both sides began to attack…aggressively. Big Battles: The Battle of Somme – 1 million killed or wounded. Verdun – 500,000 killed or missing “5 month” Battle – 1 million killed or missing. Still, neither side was able to gain an advantage after these battles.

New technologies make war even more deadly than before. Some of these technologies include: Machine Guns (Machine Gun)(Machine Gun) Artillery Shells (Artillery Shells)(Artillery Shells) Grenades Poison Gas (Mustard Gas) (Chemical Warfare)(Chemical Warfare) Gas Masks Trench Warfare Tanks (The Tank)(The Tank) Airplanes Submarines Zeppelins (Led Zeppelin?)(Led Zeppelin?) Messenger and attack dogs

Russia was very poorly equipped to fight a modern war. Some soldiers were even sent out without rifles. The “eastern front” was quickly dominated by the Germans and was pushed all the way back to Russia. Balkan states like Bulgaria joined the Central Powers to defeat Serbia.

The Ottomans (Turkish Empire) joined the Central Powers in August of War even erupted in Africa as different colonies began to attack one another based on who they were controlled by. Australia began to send troops to help Great Britain …America remained uninvolved.