Download The War to End All Wars

The War to End
All Wars
The Battles of the
Great War
Soldiers Mobilized
14
12
Millions
10
8
6
4
2
0
France
Germany
Russia
Britain
Schlieffen Plan
 Problem:
Germany had enemies on
both west & east borders
 Solution:
Germany could
defeat France
quickly before
Russia could
enter war;
Then fight
Russia
The
Schlieffen
Plan
But…the
France
Germans
went
anticipated
a
AROUND
these
German
attack
&
defenses
&
built
up defenses
attacked
between through
France
&Belgium
Germany
Battle
of the Marne
Battle offaster
Tannenberg
Meanwhile,
Russia&
mobilized
than
expected,
soSchlieffen
Germany had
divert troops
The
Plantoseemed
to
from France
to fight
army
be working
asthe
theRussia
German
army had early wins & seemed
ready to take Paris
But, English & French saved
Paris
at thewas
Battle
the Marne
Because
France
not of
taken
quickly & Russia
got ready too fast, Germany had to abandon the
Schlieffen Plan & fight a 2-front war
Total War
War 1 became the 1st war
to use total war tactics
–Governments committed all their
nation’s resources & took over
industry to win the war
–Soldiers were drafted, the media
was censored, propaganda was
created to support the war
–The enemy became the other
nation, not just its soldiers
 World
Total War
 New
weapons were introduced:
Machine guns, tanks, airplanes,
flame throwers, poison gas,
blimps, heavy artillery,
submarines (u-boats)
 To protect themselves
from the enemy, both
the Allies & Central
Powers built trenches
Krupp’s “Big Bertha” Gun
French Renault Tank
U-Boats
Allied Ships Sunk by U-Boats
The Airplane
“Squadron Over the Brenta”
Max Edler von Poosch, 1917
The Zeppelin
Grenade
Launchers
Flame
Throwers
The Western Front
Trench Warfare
Trench Warfare
“No Man’s
Land”
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.
Verdun – February, 1916
e German offensive.
e Each side had 500,000 casualties.
The Somme – July, 1916
e 60,000 British soldiers killed in one day.
e Over 1,000,000 killed in 5 months.
Trench Warfare
 Trench
warfare made it difficult for
either side to win a victory
 World War I became a war of
attrition