1. The Western Front: A “War of Attrition”

2. Western Front – NW France
Schlieffen Plan – Fight West then East
Go through Belgium to attack France
Russia would be slow to mobilize on other side
Why? So they wouldn’t have to fight a 2-front war
Battle of the Marne (1914)
French push Germans back
Gave Russia time to invade
Significance – Left Schlieffen Plan in ruins, no quick victory

3. The Western Front

4. The Schlieffen Plan

5. German Atrocities in Belgium

6. A Multi-Front War

7. Western Front – NW France
Verdun (1916)
Germans attack French, French hold ground
One of the bloodiest battles (700,000 each)
Battle of the Somme (1916)
British and French attack Germans
500,000 each; Debut of the tank!
Stalemate
No breakthroughs
War of Attrition
Each side tries to wear down the other with constant attacks
To protect themselves – soldiers built trenches
Erich Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front – hell of trench warfare and how war broke the young men fighting – no idealism

8. We see men living with their skulls blown open; we see soldiers run with their two feet cut off…Still the little piece of convulsed earth in which we lie is held. We have yielded no more than a few hundred yards…But on every yard there lies a dead man.
-Erich Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front

9. Trench Warfare

10. Trench Warfare
“No Man’s Land”

11. Verdun – February, 1916 German offensive.
Each side had 500,000 casualties.

12. The Somme – July, 1916
60,000 British soldiers killed in one day.

13. War Is HELL !!

14. Sacrifices in War

15. Krupp’s “Big Bertha” Gun
(Howitzer)

16. The Eastern Front

17. Eastern Front Eastern Front – German & Russian border
Eastern warfare was more mobile, heavy casualties
Tannenburg
Russians encircled and destroyed by Germans (Gen. Paul von Hindenburg and Erich Ludendorff)
Limanowa
17 day battle – Austria v. Russia
Russia pushed out of Austria-Hungary
Gallipoli – Goal: take Ottomans out of war
Way to get supplies to Russia
Stalemate

19. The Gallipoli Disaster, 1915

20. The Widening War
October 1914 – Ottomans joined Central Powers – German pressure/alliance + they start bombing Russian ports
Brought the war into the Middle East
1915 – Armenian Genocide - Ottoman govt ordered a genocidal mass deportation of the Armenians b/c they had welcomed Russians as liberators
Bulgaria joined to settle old scores with Serbia (1st & 2nd Balkan Wars)
May 1915 – Italy joined the Allies
In return for Austrian territory

21. Turkish Genocide Against Armenians
A Portent of Future Horrors to Come!

22. Turkish Genocide Against Armenians
Districts & Vilayets of Western Armenia in Turkey
1914
1922
Erzerum
215,000
1,500
Van
197,000
500
Kharbert
204,000
35,000
Diarbekir
124,000
3,000
Bitlis
220,000
56,000
Sivas
225,000
16,800
Other Armenian-populated Sites in Turkey
Western Anatolia
371,800
27,000
Cilicia and Northern Syria
309,000
70,000
European Turkey
194,000
163,000
Trapizond District
73,390
15,000
Total
2,133,190
387,800

23. The Widening War
British had some success inciting Arab revolts against Turks
Lawrence of Arabia, a British Colonel led an Arab revolt against Ottoman Empire
Colonies in E. Asia and Africa support Allies
Provided supplies and troops (1mil)
Helped seize German colonies
Japan helped grab German outposts in the Pacific Ocean and in China

24. T. E. Lawrence & the “Arab Revolt”, 1916-18

25. Sikh British Soldiers in India

26. Fighting in Africa
Black Soldiers in the German Schutztruppen [German E. Africa]
British Sikh Mountain Gunners

27. 3rd British Battalion, Nigerian Brigade
Fighting in Africa
3rd British Battalion, Nigerian Brigade

28. America Joins the Allies

29. Unrestricted Submarine Warfare
German subs (U-boats) will sink w/o warning any ship in the waters around Britain
Because GB blockaded German ports
Germans sink British passenger liner Lusitania– 128 Americans killed
Wilson issues ultimatum – stop sub warfare or war with US!
U.S. enters war – April 2, 1917
Germans keep sinking ships
Zimmerman (German) writes telegram to Mexico – in return for support, Germany will help them regain New Mexico, Texas, Arizona
Significance – more supplies and soldiers, built up morale

30. The Sinking of the Lusitania

31. war zone

34. The Zimmerman Telegram

36. The Yanks Are Coming!

37. Recruitment Posters

38. A Young Australian Recruit

39. A German Boy Pretends to Be a Soldier

41. The Home Front

42. Women and the War Effort

43. Financing the War

44. For Recruitment

45. Munitions Workers

46. French Women Factory Workers

47. German Women Factory Workers

48. A Woman Ambulance Driver

49. Red Cross Nurses

50. Russian Women Soldiers

51. Spies “Mata Hari” Real Name: Margareetha Geertruide Zelle
Dutch exotic dancer and a German Spy!
Killed by firing squad

52. The War of the Industrial Revolution: New Technology

53. French Renault Tank

54. British Tank at Ypres

55. U-Boats

56. “Squadron Over the Brenta” Max Edler von Poosch, 1917
The Airplane
“Squadron Over the Brenta” Max Edler von Poosch, 1917

57. The Flying Aces of World War I
Eddie Rickenbacher, US
Francesco Barraco, It.
Eddie “Mick” Mannoch, Br.
Manfred von Richtoffen, Ger. [The “Red Baron”]
Rene Pauk Fonck, Fr.
Willy Coppens de Holthust, Belg.

58. The Zeppelin

59. Flame Throwers
Grenade Launchers

60. Poison Gas
Machine Gun

61. Mobilizing for Total War
Mass enthusiasm at first
Due to high demand, govt must manage economies = total war effort
War Raw Materials Board – rationed goods
Walter Rathenau, German Jew
Raw materials and food rations (<1000cal)
Creation of synthetic rubber and nitrates for explosives

62. Mobilizing for Total War
Military leaders, Hindenburg and Ludendorff, became rulers of Germany
1916 – Germany introduces Auxiliary Service Law – males must work at jobs critical to war effort
Total war in Germany = totalitarianism

63. Social and Political Impact
War = full employment
Greater social equality
Increased power for labor unions
Women work in industry, transport, offices, nurses, doctors – changes attitudes toward women
More censorship and propaganda

64. Social and Political Impact
Total war = led to strikes, mutinies, demonstrations, low morale (1916)
Ireland uprising (Easter Rebellion)– smashed
Italy – troops mutinied
France – units refuse to fight; Gen Henri Philippe Petain restored order
Austria – national dissatisfaction with the Empire grew
Germany - Socialist uprising led by Karl Liebknecht – radical socialist
Reichstag votes against war money
Workers strike