World War One

1. Trench Warfare World War One

2. The Fronts of WW1 Although WW1 was a global war, most of the fighting was confined to a few key areas. These areas are usually referred to as the fronts of war.

3. The Eastern Front The Western Front The Italian Front The Balkan Front The Mediterranean Front

4. The Western Front • The German Army crossed the Belgian border on Aug. 3, 1914. • Britain and France declared war on Germany on Aug. 4th. • The Germans pushed through Belgium and entered France , and the British and French armies marched to stop the advance; • The Battle of Marne, Sept. 4th – 10th, stopped the Germans from marching on Paris. • To avoid losing territory already gained in France, the Germans began digging trenches. • The British and French, unable to break through the line of trenches, began to dig their own trenches. • Throughout the whole war, neither side would gain more than a few miles of ground along the western front. • The main theatre of the war for Canadians was along the Western Front. • Once the two sides dug in, a war of attrition (the gradual wearing away of morale and the powers of resistance by persistent attacks) began. • Trenches were dug, and the battles along the western front would prove to be long and deadly.

5. Trench Warfare The Trench

6. Allied forces German trenches

7. Over by Christmas? • When the war began on August 4, • 1914, both sides thought that the war would be over by Christmas. • The trenches were usually 2 metres deep and stretched from Belgium to Switzerland. • Trenches were dug by the troops. • The enemy would shell the trenches (throw bombs at their enemy). • Once the shelling was over, troops were sent “over-the-top” to attack the enemy. • They would have to cut through barbed wire and then make it through no-man’s land (the area between the trenches) before getting to the barbed wire that protected the enemy’s trenches. • If they were and made it through all the machine lucky gunfire and barbed wire, they would jump into the enemy’s trench and hand-to-hand combat would ensue. Canadian troops advancing behind a tank at the battle of Vimy Ridge, one of Canada’s greatest victories.

8. Trench warfare resulted in a stalemate for most of the war (neither side made any real gains). • Chlorine and mustard gas eventually proved to be ineffective weapons because they relied too much on the wind for success, and grenades blew up too fast. • Although tanks were introduced by the British, they weren’t used effectively. • It was painfully evident that the war wasn’t going to be won on the land.

10. A WWI Sniper

11. The Canadian government wanted to encourage men to enlist for war. • They said the war would be safe, hardly any fighting, a glorious adventure and over by Christmas A picture of soldiers going ‘Over the Top’

15. The reality of ‘going over the top’ was very different!

21. How the uniform and equipment changed after just three weeks in the trenches…

22. Mass Devastation

23. Freezing Winters

25. Life in the Trenches • Soldiers had to put up with awful living conditions in the trenches. • Most of the trenches were in northern France, an area with high rainfall all year round. • Front-line troops were seldom dry, even in the summer when it was hot and humid. • Colds and ‘flu were commonplace.

26. Trench Foot • The cold wet and unsanitary conditions also caused trench foot, a painful swelling and rotting of flesh caused by an inability to keep your feet dry, amongst the soldiers • As a fungal infection, trench foot could turn gangrenous and result in amputation. • Trench Foot was more of a problem at the start of trench warfare; as conditions improved in 1915, it rapidly faded, although a trickle of cases continued throughout the war.

27. Rats.... • Rats were a constant companion in the trenches in their millions they were everywhere, gorging themselves on human remains (grotesquely disfiguring them by eating their eyes and liver) they could grow to the size of a cat. • Men tried to kill them with bullets shovels or anything else they had at hand, but they were fighting a losing battle as only 1 pair of rats can produce 900 offspring in a year. • Some soldiers believed that the rats knew when there was going to be a heavy bombardment from the enemy lines because they always seemed to disappear minutes before an attack.

28. The food that soldiers received was primitive. • Bread, stale biscuits and tinned “bully” beef was the daily diet. • Soldiers drank tea with evaporated milk. • Food was kept in a metal mess tins to keep it dry, but also to stop rats from eating it. • Rats ate scraps of food and even the dead bodies in the trenches and in “no man’s land”. Soldiers told stories of how rats would gnaw at their feet and hands while they slept. • In addition to the rat problem, many men chose to shave their heads entirely to avoid another prevalent pest: lice.

29. ...and Lice • There were no proper washing facilities in the trenches. Skin disease and body lice affected most soldiers at some stage of the Great War. • Before soldiers were allowed to take their leave, they had to attend de-lousing centres to have nurses and orderlies clear their bodies of lice and lice eggs. • The lice also lived in the soldiers’ wool uniforms and laid their eggs in the seams of the uniforms. • Soldiers used to pass the time bursting the lice eggs with their cigarettes.

30. Lice were a constant problem for the men breeding in dirty clothing they were impossible to get rid of even when clothes were washed and deloused there would be eggs that would escape the treatment in the seams of the clothes. • Lice caused Trench Fever, a particularly painful disease that began suddenly with severe pain followed by high fever. • Recovery - away from the trenches - took up to twelve weeks. • It was not discovered that lice were the cause of trench fever until 1918.

31. Mud, dirt and the smell of death…No clean uniforms… Rats, lice and dead bodies… Constant gunfire and shelling…

32. The soldiers had very little decent food, and what food they had was often attacked by rats. These rats were the size of small rabbits and badgers because they had fed on the decomposing bodies of dead soldiers.

33. Shell Shock • Not unsurprisingly, many men suffered mental breakdowns as a result of the conditions in the trenches. • They suffered from a condition known as “shell-shock”. • symptoms included • tiredness, • irritability, • giddiness, • lack of concentration • headaches. • Uncontrollable twitching, • screaming, • loss of motor control. • Eventually the men suffered mental breakdowns making it impossible for them to remain in the front-line. • Many doctors of the time believed that many sufferers of “shell-shock” were simply faking mental illness to try and avoid the fighting. • Some came to the conclusion that the soldiers condition was caused by the enemy's heavy artillery.

34. How Did Men Cope? • Many men had difficulty coping with trench life. • As well as the constant fear of attack, they had to deal with the horrible conditions, brutal discipline and the constant noise of dropping shells around them. • The answer that most generals came up with was to give each soldier a ration of rum with his morning tea and another ration of rum before a major attack. • Some soldiers ran away. They were caught and shot as deserters. • Others injured themselves in some way to try and get out of fighting. • These men were given medical treatment and then sent back into the trenches. • Some soldiers simply refused to obey their superior officer’s orders to attack. • Unless they changed their minds, they were shot for insubordination. • Soldiers could not even tell their loved ones about their situation, as their letters were opened and censored by the military.

35. A Canadian trench on the Western Front Going “over-the-top”

37. A busy scene in a trench dugout before Verdun French troops firing over their own dead

38. Barrier of electrified wire in front a French trench A letter from home read in a dug-out

40. End