World War I Chapter 23, Part 2

“MODERN WARFARE”
 All Quiet on the Western Front:
A Young Man Goes Off to War (4:45)
PAGE 722-723

Trench Warfare
Warfare in the trenches of
the Western Front
produced unimaginable
horrors. Battlefields were
hellish landscapes of
barbed wire, shell holes,
mud, and injured and
dying men. The
introduction of poison gas
in 1915 produced new
forms of injuries.
Realities of War (3:34)
trench warfare
PAGE 716 Battle
of the Somme
1912 Practice Trenches in
Northern England

Today – a national
monument
 Belgium Trenches
Apart from my visit to Auschwitz, probably one of the most
unsettling places I've ever been. This is a section of the trenches
called Sanctuary Wood, outside Ypres, (Belgium) where the
farmer who owned the field preserved the land as it was
when the war ended.
Around and beside these trenches, there are shell
holes big enough to drop an average-sized car in.
In the 85-odd years since the end of the war, a
forest has grown up around the trenches. The
most unsettling thing about this place was the
silence - I was there in mid-summer, yet it was
dead quiet, no birds in the woods, no animals,
nothing.
The Second Battle of Ypres (2:22)
Preparing for
mustard gas
attacks
 Tactics of Trench Warfare
• Attacks rarely worked
• Advancing unprotected across
open fields could be fired at
by the enemy’s machine guns
• In 10 months at Verdun,
France in 1916, 700,000
men were killed over a
few miles of land
French 87th regiment in trench at Hill 34 outside Verdun
 On Ne Passe Pas! (They Shall
“France’s Stalingrad” Not Pass!) on a French medal
commemorating the battle of
• The Battle of Verdun resulted in more Verdun
than a quarter of a million battlefield
deaths and at least half a million wounded.
• Verdun was the longest battle and one
of the most devastating in World War I
and more generally in human history.

• A total of about 40 million artillery shells were

exchanged by both sides during the battle.
“On Ne Passe Pas!” =
You Shall Not Pass!

On Ne Passe Pas!
Propaganda poster
by Maurice
Neumont
Note, J.R.R. Tolkien author of LOTR was a World War I veteran
Loading a 15-inch howitzer
A Killing Ground @ Verdun
Map of World with Participants in World War I –
Allies in green - Central Powers in orange - Neutral in grey
1914 to 1915: Illusions and Stalemate

• The Western Front turned

into a stalemate, with
neither side able to push
the other out of the system
of trench warfare they
had begun.
• The trenches stretched
from the English Channel
nearly to the Swiss border.
• For four years both sides
remained in almost the
same positions.

Aerial view of opposing trench lines

between Loos and Hulluch, July
1917. German trenches at the right
and bottom, British at the top-left.
 What is trench foot?
Trench foot is a medical condition caused by prolonged exposure of the feet to
damp, unsanitary and cold conditions.
"Gott strafe England" was a common
slogan of the German Army, which
means "May God punish England".
Ineffective Strategy & Wasted Lives – 3rd Ypres
Paschendale (3:02)
1914 to 1915: Illusions and Stalemate

• On the Eastern Front, the

war was far more mobile.
• The Russians defeated
Austria-Hungary and dislodged
them from Serbia.
RUSSIAN 8-INCH GUNS
ADVANCING TO THE POSITIONS.
• The Russian army moved
into eastern Germany but
was defeated at the Battle

of Tannenberg and the

Battle of Masurian Lakes,
making Russia no longer
a threat to invade
Germany.

Germans at the Battle of Masurian Lakes

Eastern front marked by movement.
1914 to 1915: Illusions and Stalemate
• The Italians, who had been allied with
Germany and Austria-Hungary, broke their
alliance in 1915 and attacked Austria-
Hungary.
• The Germans came to
the aid of the Austrians Austrian Chief-of-
and together they Staff Conrad von
defeated the Russians Hoetzendorf.
in several battles and
drove them back.
• About 2.5 million
Russians had been
killed, captured, or
wounded.
1914 to 1915: Illusions and Stalemate

• The Russians were

almost out of the war.
Russian Revolution
about to begin.
• After defeating Serbia, Germany
turned its attention back to the
Western Front.

Vladimir Lenin leader of the

Bolsheviks.

Bolshevik forces marching on Red Square.

 'Working people arise!'
the Russian Revolution's idealized self-image by
painter V SEROV.
The war spread to the
Ottoman Empire in 1915.
Entry of the United States
• The United States tried to stay
neutral in the first years of
World War I.
President Wilson before Congress, announcing the break
in official relations with Germany on 3 February 1917.

WAKE UP, AMERICA!

Americans were not eager to enter the war, and Americans of German ancestry
tended to support Germany, not Britain and France. The government’s first task was
to convince citizens that they must support the war effort without reservation. Here, a
woman clad in the stars and stripes represents America and American liberty.
Poster by James Montgomery Flagg, 1917.
http://hsc.csu.edu.au/modern_history/core_study/ww1/posters/jbull.gif
America’s President During World War One
US EMOTIONS RUN HIGH

Lusitania Sinks
http://www.greatships.net/scans/PC-LU26.jpg
VIDEO: Sinking of the Lusitania & Zimmerman Telegraph (1:05)
“JOIN WITH GERMANY AND YOU
GET A BIT OF THE U.S.”

Texas & New Mexico will become

Mexican Territory if the Central
Powers win the war.
Entry of the United States (cont.) Wartime era portrait of a typical
American doughboy, circa: 1918.
• The Germans did not think that the United
States would enter the war before the British
were starved.
• However, in April 1917, the United
States responded to unrestricted
submarine warfare by declaring war
on Germany.
• Though large numbers of American troops
did not arrive until 1918, the Allies were
given a powerful psychological boost as
well as money and supplies.

A tattered American flag flies

behind the Spirit of the American
Doughboy statue on in Appleton,
Wis.
VIDEO: The American Expeditionary Force Doughboys (:55)
September 15th, 1916
A new weapon appears:
“We heard strange throbbing
noises, & lumbering slowly
towards us came three
mechanical monsters…
They finally realized they were French Tank
on the wrong trench and
moved on, frightening the
Germans out of their wits and
making them scuttle like
frightened rabbits.”
German Tank

A British Mark I (Big Willie). The

highly rhomboidal shape allowed it to
climb tall obstacles
Aircraft of World War I
He is considered the
ace-of-aces of that
war, being officially
credited with 80 air
combat victories,
more than any other
pilot.