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World War I - The Great War (1914-1918)
A)
Summary of Events Leading Up to War
• European countries had established treaties with each other that included promises to
defend each other, militarily. If one went to war, they all had to:
• ‘The Allies’ - Britain, France and Russia
• ‘The Central Powers’ - Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey
• Russia also had an alliance with Serbia
• On June 28, 1914, Serbian, Gavrilo Princip, assassinated Archduke Franz-Ferdinand
of Austria(the heir to the Austria-Hungarian Empire) in Sarajevo
• Austria wanted to punish Serbia for the assassination, which meant that Kaiser
Wilhelm of Germany had to support Austria-Hungary
• Russia had to back Serbia - and Russia’s allies France and Britain, in turn, had to go
to war to support Russia
• In the weeks after the assassination, none of the critical leaders had the power or will
to slow down the decisions, actions, reactions and attitude shifts of key government
and military leaders. By August, millions of Europeans -- especially the military and
diplomatic leaders of Austria-Hungary, Germany and Russia -- saw war as the way to
save their honour, as well as to solve the internal and international problems that
needed to be resolved.
B)Stalemate
From the very beginning, the war grew rapidly out of control. New styles of warfare, like
the use of gas and heavy artillery, produced new kinds of horror and unprecedented
levels of suffering and death. As a Germans army crossed into Belgium, heading for
Paris, the Russian Army - moving faster than the German generals had anticipated -was already pushing into East Prussia. The German forces on the Eastern Front,
however, quickly defeated the Tsar's army at the Battle of Tannenberg.
In the west, as the German army invaded Belgium, rumors and stories quickly spread of
the atrocities the German soldiers inflicted upon Belgium civilians.
The French, believing the German thrust into Belgium to be a fake, launched their own
offensive on the eastern border between France and Germany the operations were
disastrous, with the French army losing 27,000 soldiers in a single day.
When the German invasion of France failed to take Paris or destroy French and British
resistance, stalemate quickly followed, and a line of trenches soon stretched along the
war's Western Front from the Swiss Alps to the English Channel. Christmas Eve of 1914
saw an extraordinary truce between the men fighting in the trenches.
C)Trench Warfare
By the war's end, each
side had dug at least
12,000 miles of trenches.
The first major trench
lines were completed in
late November 1914. At
their peak, the trenches
built by both sides
extended nearly 400
miles from Nieuport, on
the Belgian coast, to the
Swiss border. Among the
Allies, the Belgians
occupied 40 miles, the
British occupied 90 miles
and the French occupied the rest. Experts calculate that along the western front, the
Allies and Central Powers dug nearly 6,2500 miles of trenches by the end of 1914.
The Allies used four "types" of
trenches. The first, the front-line trench
(or firing-and-attack trench), was
located from 50 yards to 1 mile from
the German's front trench. Several
hundred yards behind the front-line
trench was the support trench, with
men and supplies that could
immediately assist those on the front
line. The reserve trench was dug
several hundred yards further back and
contained men and supplies that were
available in emergencies should the
first trenches be overrun.
Connecting these trenches were
communication trenches, which
allowed movement of messages,
supplies, and men among the trenches.
Some underground networks
connected gun emplacements and
bunkers with the communication
trenches.
German trench life was much different.
They constructed elaborate and
sophisticated tunnel and trench
structures, sometimes with living
quarters more than 50 feet below the
surface. These trenches had electricity,
beds, toilets and other niceties of life
that contrasted sharply with the openair trenches of the Allies.
No man's land: The Territory Between the Trenches
By mid-November 1914, the territory between the
opposing front trenches was marked with huge
craters caused by the shelling; nearly all vegetation
was destroyed. Whenever possible, both sides filled
this land with barbed wire to slow down any rapid
advances by the enemy. The machine gun and the
new long-range rifles made movement in this area
almost impossible.
Timing of Movements at the Front
Both sides quickly recognized that assaults against the enemy trenches were suicide if
begun in broad daylight, so attacks tended to take place just before dawn or right at
dawn. Poison gases tended to be more effective in the mornings, as the colder air and
absence of wind allowed the gases to stay closer to the ground for longer periods of
time.
Except for artillery shelling, daytime was relatively safe for the soldiers on the front line.
Once the sun went down, men crawled out of their trenches to conduct raids,
investigate the layout of the terrain, and eavesdrop near the enemy lines to pick up
information on their strengths, weakness and strategies.
D) Total War
In the spring of 1915 the trenches along the western front were filled with millions of
soldiers, at the average rate of one soldier per four inches of trench. The job behind the
front lines was to keep the men fed, equipped and ready to continue the fighting until
the end came.
The civilians behind the lines were as important to victory as the men on the lines.
Because of their value to the war-making power of each nation, civilians became the
target of the enemy. Since both sides targeted both civilians and military personnel, and
mobilized men and resources at an unprecedented rate, the Great War was a "total
war."
By 1915, the conflict had spread across boundaries between continents and peoples,
becoming a global war. The European countries turned to their colonies and
commonwealth countries, including Canada, to provide soldiers and support services to
the war effort.
This total war effected the lives of many different people: in some communities
unprecedented casualty rates left very few men; West African soldiers were shipped in
from the colonies to fight in the trenches; brave women traded other jobs for more
dangerous jobs in weapons factories. Everyone was affected.
E) Slaughter
In early 1916, the British had over 1 million men in Belgium and France, while the
French and German armies had re-supplied their front line troops. The stage was set for
both sides to try to make the breakthrough on the battlefield that would assure each
victory.
Instead, by year's end, both sides would lose nearly one million men with very little
change in position of the front line trenches. The battlefields became "killing fields" and
only one word, "slaughter", accurately describes the extent of the killing, violence and
destruction.
In 1916, some of the most appalling battles in human history took place on the Western
Front. The Battle of Verdun became for the French what Gettysburg is for Americans;
Verdun symbolized for the French the strength and fortitude of their armed forces and
the solidarity of the entire nation.
The goal of the German commander was not territory, but to bleed his enemy to death.
The battle lasted nine months and in the end the front lines were nearly the same, while
over 300,000 French and Germans were killed and over 750,000 were wounded.
The British offered the same unspeakable sacrifice at the river Somme, where another
million died, and at Ypres [Passchendaele], in Belgium, a graveyard for half a million
more, many of them Canadian soldiers.
E) Mutiny
In 1917, after the loss of millions of live, the stalemate on the front lines, and the
disruption of nearly every aspect of daily life in all the combatant nations, many people civilians and soldiers alike - still wanted to continue fighting to victory. The combatant
nations rejected all the peace initiatives that were proposed in 1917. As the months
passed, however, people on both sides of the conflict began to question the violence
and massive slaughter. People everywhere sought ways to cope with, if not escape, the
environment of war. Russian front line soldiers grew increasingly disillusioned and
apathetic. Many refused to obey orders, retreating when commanded to advance; they
deserted the military and engage in open rebellion and mass mutiny. In France, a failed
offensive in the spring of 1917 resulted in a mutiny not against the war but against the
way it was waged by the general staff. After three years of war, men, armies and nations were nearing a breaking point. For
individual soldiers, it emerged as "shell shock," a personal withdrawal from an
intolerable reality of trench warfare. For armies, it was outright rebellion; half the French
army mutinied in 1917, refusing to undertake senseless attacks. Most of their demands
were met, and only a small number of the mutineers were punished severely.
Entire populations were becoming restless and resentful with the conflict. In Russia,
both the army and civilian population refused to fight anymore for the Tsar, who
abdicated on March 15, 1917. Alexander Kerensky led the fragile democracy that
emerged to govern Russia, but made the catastrophic mistake of continuing the war.
Recognizing the weakness for the army and the refusal of the men to fight, he
authorized women to be trained and sent to the front.
As Kerensky's offensive failed and army desertions increased, his popularity decreased.
Mobilizing anti-war sentiment, Lenin and his Bolsheviks quickly took over, and signed an
armistice (peace treaty) with Germany.
F) End of the War
The year 1918 started with a major German offensive on the western front, which the
Allies stopped. With the help of the Americans -- who declared war on Germany in 1917
-- the Allies then engaged in a highly successful set of offensives of their own.
Germany's civilian support for the war eventually collapsed, and a mutiny by the
German navy that sparked civil riots swept through the cities. In early November, the
Kaiser resigned as the leader and fled to neutral Holland. On the 11th hour of the 11th
day of the 11th month of 1918, a cease-fire went into effect for all combatants. The war
was over.