1. Homework
Read Total War and underline 3 main ideas

2. Trenches On the Western Front, fighting quickly came to a stalemate.
Trench Warfare
Each side dug extensive trench systems. If they couldn’t destroy each other, they were forced to dig in.
What is a stalemate?
The front lines barely changed after September 1914.

3. They lived in the trenches.
Life in the Trenches
They lived in the trenches.
That’s where lived, ate, and slept. It was a miserable existence.
They lived there for the duration of the war. This was NOT temporary

4. Life in the Trenches Disease
Rats and Lice spread disease
There was no sewage system, which spread dysentery
Because they could find themselves standing around in flooded trenches, some soldiers developed a condition called trench foot.
Dysentery: You get diarrhea until you die
It was very hot in the summer and freezing in the winter. No heat or a/c

6. Life in the Trenches
Soldiers would go “over the top” and charge the other trench.
Between the trenches was an area known as no-man’s land. There was nothing there but craters, barbed wire, and corpses.
What is a corpse?

10. The idea was that massed infantry would go over the top, storm across no-man’s land, and then invade and overtake the enemy trenches.
This meant running over terrain that’s pockmarked with craters and which may be muddy, getting over barbed wire, embankments and other obstacles and then infiltrating the enemy trench.
All the while, mortars and artillery shells are raining down on you, enemy riflemen are firing, and, worst of all, the machine guns mowing down men like a scythe through tall grass.

13. Weapons WWI was not like any other war before it.
The Industrial Revolution allowed troops to move faster, and also led to the invention of new ways to kill your enemy
What are 2 ways that troops may have moved faster?

14. Rifles
Rifles were not new, they had been around for a while, but new designs and more precise manufacturing (in factories) led to more rapid firing rifles.
Soldiers could now shoot rounds per minute.

15. Machine Guns
Automatic weapons that could shoot rounds per minute.
They were big and heavy, which meant that they didn’t get moved a lot.
Made it possible for just a small crew to mow down entire waves of enemy soldiers.
Machine guns

16. Artillery New technology also made artillery (cannons) more effective.
Artillery shells would be fired into enemy trenches…there was no place to hide.
Filled with high explosive, or poison gas.

17. The Paris Gun This was the biggest piece of artillary at the time
Used to shell Paris, from 75 miles away
Fired a 210 pound shell, it reached an altitude of 25 miles
Most artillary was not this big, and they were used a LOT.
About 32 million shells were used in one battle!

18. Poison Gas
Gases that cause choking, blinding, or severe skin blisters.
Many kinds were used, but mustard gas is particularly nasty
Caused burning and blistering on your skin, your lungs, and could blind you.
Could penetrate clothing.
Wasn’t deadly, but would take a soldier out of battle.

19. Poison Gas

20. Vehicles Tank Submarine Aircraft (Planes and Airships)
Protected advancing troops as they broke through enemy defenses.
Submarine
Used by Germany to destroy Allied shipping.
Aircraft (Planes and Airships)
At first, mainly used for observation. Later, pilots engaged in air combat
Tanks got their name because they were originally shipped in containers for water tanks.

21. A British Tank

23. The Whole Picture
The combination of trench warfare and new weapons proved deadly.
The battle of the Somme lasted 5 months
Over 1,000,000 soldiers died
In 1 day, 60,000 British soldiers died
Neither side won the battle.

24. Shellshock
The war was not just physically damaging to soldiers, but mentally damaging also
Shellshock occurred when a soldier would be constantly living with death and destruction
Soldiers mentally and physically distance themselves from life, sometimes to an extreme length.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

25. Links
Hell in the Trenches