1. Warm Up What were the causes of WWI? What are the cons of alliances?
Why did the US get pulled into WWI?
How did Wilson convince Americans that the war was a good cause?

2. World War I: Battles & Technology
EQ: How was WWI fought?
Explain how changes brought about by technology and other innovations affected individuals and groups in North Carolina and the United States.

3. (Triple Alliance)Central Powers
COMBATANTS OF WWI
(Triple Alliance)Central Powers
(Triple Entente)Allied Powers
World War I
Russia
France
Great Britain
United States (1917)
Germany
Austria-Hungary
Ottoman Empire
(Later Bulgaria)

4. Why was WWI a Stalemate? What’s a stalemate?
Neither side can make a move to win
Both sides of the war threw arms and troops in to win but…………
Millions die without gaining ground.
WHY?

5. Precursor to Battle of Verdun
After two years of warfare, Germans realize they can’t break through the Allied lines in France.
German General Falkenhayn proposes a war of attrition against the French Army.
A war of attrition is about killing more people than you lose.
Attack a position the French can’t afford to lose
Kill as many French troops as possible

6. The Battle of Verdun February 21, 1916 – December 18, 1916
One of the most costly battles of WWI.
Germans attempt to conquer key French city of Verdun.
Would have opened Paris up to invasion.

7. New Tactics Germans attack with flame throwers for the first time.
Flame throwers used to clear French out of trenches
German troops begin attack with grenades instead of rifles
Manage to move forward three miles in a day.
New types of poison gas introduced by Germans.

8. Results French Casualties German Casualties
550,000 dead
German Casualties
434,000 dead
British begin battle of the Somme to relieve French army at Verdun.
Neither French or German army gains a real advantage.

9. Significance French hold Verdun thanks to forts
Convinced that a system of fixed heavy forts is the best defense
WWI becomes a war of attrition. Armies fight lengthy battles, with very high casualties.

10. Trench Warfare
Trench Warfare – type of fighting during World War I in which both sides dug trenches protected by mines and barbed wire
Trenches were dug from English Channel to Switzerland
6,250 miles
6 to 8 feet deep
Immobilized both sides for 4 years

11. Myth

12. Reality

13. THE TRENCH SYSTEM 1st: No Man’s Land 2nd: Barbed wire, mines, etc.
Layout:
1st: No Man’s Land
2nd: Barbed wire, mines, etc.
3rd: Front line
4th: Communication trench
5th: Support trenches

15. LIFE IN THE TRENCHES Boredom Elaborate systems of defense
barbed wire
Concrete machine gun nests
Mortar batteries
Troops lived in holes underground
Boredom
Soldiers read to pass the time
Sarah Bernhardt came out to the front to read poetry to the soldiers

16. WWI WEAPONRY
The countries fighting grew more and more desperate to break the stalemate. The war of attrition led to more terrifying ways to kill humans

17. What new weapons were used in WWI?
Machine gun
Poison gas (Mustard gas)
Carried by the wind
Burned out soldier’s lungs
Deadly in the trenches where it would sit at the bottom
Submarine
Airplane
Tank
Hand grenades
Flame Throwers
Why these weapons? Why now?
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION!!!

19. Poisonous Gas Poisonous gasses like mustard gas used by both sides.
Fired by artillery into opposing lines.
Hundreds of thousands die due to exposure.

21. German submarines, called U-boats, torpedoed enemy ships and neutral ships trading with the enemy.

22. German U-Boat torpedoes
a British ship

23. Wrap-up Why was a “war of attrition” used during WWI?
How did changes in military technology change the way wars are fought?
What effect might this war have on soldiers who survive the war?