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Welcome to the Museum of[World War One]

Curator’s Offices

AnimatedMap/Timeline

Room 1

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Artifact 1 Artifact

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[Weapons/Technology] Room

Room 2

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Artifact 5 Artifact

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[Trench Warfare] Room

Room 3

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Artifact 9 Artifact

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[Propaganda Posters] Room

Room 4

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Artifact 13

[First-Hand Accounts] Room

Room 5

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Artifact 17

Artifact 18

[Animated Map/Timeline] Room

Machine Gun

In the trenches, the weapon carried by all British soldiers was the bolt-action rifle. It was possible for the soldier to fire 15 rounds per minute and could kill someone up to 1,400 meters away. French soldiers used the bayonet.  Unlike today, machine guns were not the main weapons of soldiers. They needed 4-6 men to man them in 1914 and had to be positioned on a flat surface. They could fire up to 400 rounds per minute and had the fire power of 100 guns!Artillery is the word used to describe large-calibre mounted field guns. The calibre is the diameter of the barrel. The picture to the right is an example of the heavy artillery that was used in the trenches. The stalemate meant they needed long-range weapons that could deliver devastating blows to the enemy. They needed crews of up to 12 men to work them; the shells weighed up to 900lb –very heavy.

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Artifact 1: types of guns

Precautionary Measures

This war was also the first to use chlorine and mustard gas. The German army was the first to use chlorine in 1915 at Ypres. French soldiers had not come across this before and assumed that it was a smoke screen. It has a distinctive smell – a mixture of pepper and pineapple – and they only realized they were being gassed when they started to have chest pains and a burning sensation in their throats! Death is painful – you suffocate!The problem with using chlorine is, weather conditions must be right before it is used.Afterwards, Allied forces discovered that urine-soaked cotton pads neutralized the chlorine. However, they found it difficult to fight like this!!  Mustard gas was the most deadly biological weapon that was used in the trenches. It was odorless and took 12 hours to take effect! It was also very powerful, only small amounts needed to be added to shells to be effective and it remained active for several weeks when it landed in the soil! The nastiest thing about mustard gas is that it made the skin blister, the eyes sore and the victim would start to vomit. It would cause internal and external bleeding, and would target the lungs. It could take up to 5 weeks to die!

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Artifact 2: Chlorine & Mustard Gas

Inside a Fiat Tipo

The Zeppelin, or blimp as it is also known, is an airship and it was used during the early part of the war in bombing raids by the Germans. These airships weighed 12 tons and contained over 400,000 cubic feet of hydrogen. They were propelled along by 2 Daimler engines, which enabled the craft to travel at speeds of up to 136mph and heights of 4250 meters! They usually carried machine guns and around 4,400lb of bombs!They carried out many raids and were eventually abandoned as they were easy targets for artillery.  Tanks also started to be used in warfare in this war, since armored cars could not cope with the terrain. The first tank was nicknamed “Little Willie”, it had a Daimler engine, a caterpillar track and needed a crew of 3. Its maximum speed was 3mph and it was unable to cross trenches. Not a success for the Allies. The more modern tank was not completed until several weeks before the end of the war. It was called the Fiat Tipo! It could fit a maximum of 10 men, had the first revolving turret and could reach speeds of 4mph! 

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Artifact 3: War Machines

Dogfight Over Trenches

This war also had another first: planes and submarines Planes started to be used to deliver bombs. Planes became fighter aircraft armed with machine guns, bombs, and even cannons. They were even used for reconnaissance work. Pilots were even known to fight enemy aircraft in the air, in “dogfights” to protect the men on the ground.

Submarines: these underwater ships, or U-boats, could launch torpedoes, or guided underwater bombs. Used by Germany to destroy Allied shipping, U-boast attacks helped bring the United States into the war.

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Artifact 4: Planes & Submarines

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Artifact 5: Trench Warfare Real Footage

“Whilst asleep during the night, we were frequently awakened by rats running over us. When this happened too often for my liking, I would lie on my back and wait for a rat to linger on my legs; then violently heave my legs upwards, throwing the rat into the air. Occasionally, I would hear a grunt when the rat landed on a fellow victim.”  (R L Venables)

“We slept in our clothes and cut our hair short so that it would tuck inside our caps. Dressing simply meant putting on our boots. There were times when we had to scrape the lice off with the blunt edge of a knife and our underclothes stuck to us. “  (Elizabeth de T’Serclaes – a nurse on the front line)

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Artifact 6: Life in the Trenches

No Man’s Land

Scene from “Legends of the Falls” (click on link)

“No man's land”: The Territory Between the TrenchesBy 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 FrontBoth 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.

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Artifact 7: Trenches “Symbol of Stalemate”

Linked citation goes here

“If you have never had trench foot described to you, I will explain. Your feet swell to two to three times their normal size and go completely dead. You can stick a bayonet into them and not feel a thing. If you are lucky enough not to lose your feet and the swelling starts to go down, it is then that the most indescribable agony begins. I have heard men cry and scream with pain and many have had to have their feet and legs amputated. I was one of the lucky ones, but one more day in that trench and it may have been too late.”  (Harry Roberts)

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Artifact 8: Trench Foot

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Artifact 9: Propaganda Posters (France)

Les Alsacians et les Lorrains sont Français!. LOC Summary: An Alsatian woman with her hand chained to a brick wall. Alsace and Lorraine were lost to Germany in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71.

“They Shall Not Pass”

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Artifact 10: Propaganda Posters (U.S.A.)

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Artifact 11: Propaganda Posters (Germany)

British fighter biplane plunging towards the ground and trailing smoke after being hit by German fire.

German Propaganda posters like this were designed to uplift the morale of the German people.

God Punish England

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Artifact 12: Propaganda Posters (Canada/Great Britain)

Erich Maria Remarque: All Quiet on the Western FrontErich Maria Remarque (1898–1970) was wounded five times while serving in the German army during World War I. In 1929, he published All Quiet on the Western Front, which is often considered the greatest novel about World War I.It follows the narrator, Paul Baumer, from eager recruit to disillusioned veteran. In this passage, Paul is trapped for hours in a foxhole with a French soldier he has just killed.

In the afternoon, about three, he is dead. I breathe freely again. But only for a short time. Soon the silence is more unbearable than the groans. I wish the gurgling were there again, gasping hoarse, now whistling softly and again hoarse and loud. It is mad, what I do. But I must do something. I prop the dead man up again so that he lies comfortably, although he feels nothing any more. I close his eyes. They are brown, his hair is black and a bit curly at the sides. . . .

The silence spreads. I talk and must talk. So I speak to him and say to him: “Comrade, I did not want to kill you. If you jumped in here again, I would not do it, if you would be sensible too. But you were only an idea to me before, an abstraction1 that lived in my mind and called forth its appropriate response. It was that abstraction I stabbed. But now, for the first time, I see you are a man like me. I thought of your hand grenades, of your bayonet, of your rifle; now I see your wife and your face and our fellowship. Forgive me, comrade. We always see it too late. Why do they never tell us that you are poor devils like us, that your mothers are just as anxious as ours, and that we have the same fear of death, and the same dying and the same agony—Forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy? If we threw away these rifles and this uniform you could be my brother just like Kat and Albert. Take twenty years of my life, comrade, and stand up—take more, for I do not know what I can even attempt to do with it now.”

It is quiet, the front is still except for the crackle of rifle fire. The bullets rain over, they are not fired haphazard, but shrewdly aimed from all sides. I cannot get out.

Return to ExhibitArtifact 13: All Quiet on the Western Front

Audio Interview with G.N. Francoeur (officer 22nd battalion from Canada)

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Artifact 14: Interview with WWI veteran

A Canadian Soldier in WWI

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Date Summary Detailed Information

28 June 1914Assassination of Franz

Ferdinand

The Balkan states of Bosnia and Herzegovina, had been annexed from Turkey and taken into the

Austro-Hungarian Empire. This was strongly resented by many Serbs and Croats.

A Serbian nationalist student, Gavrilo Princip, assassinated the Austrian Archduke Ferdinand and his

wife, when their open car stopped at a corner on its way out of the town.

28 July 1914Austria declared war on

Serbia

The Austrian gov’t blamed the Serbian gov’t for the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and his wife and

declared war on Serbia.

Although Russia was allied with Serbia, Germany did not believe that she would mobilize and offered

to support Austria if necessary.

However, Russia did mobilize and, through their alliance with France, called on the French to mobilize.

1 Aug 1914Germany declared war on

RussiaGermany declared war on Russia.

3 Aug 1914Germany declared war on

FranceGermany declared war on France. German troops poured into Belgium as directed under the Schleiffen Plan, drawn up in 1905.

4 Aug 1914 British declaration of war Germany did not withdraw from Belgium and Britain declared war on Germany.

13 Aug 1914Japan declared war on

GermanyJapan declared war on Germany through her alliance with Great Britain, signed in 1902

29 Oct 1914 TurkeyTurkey entered the war on the side of the central powers and gave help to a German naval bombardment of Russia.

2 Nov 1914Russia declared war on

TurkeyBecause of the help given by Turkey to the German attack of Russia, Russia declared war on Turkey.

5 Nov 1914Britain and France

declared war on TurkeyBritain and France, Russia's allies, declared war on Turkey, because of the help given to the German attack on Russia.

Linked citation goes here

Go to the site and answer the questions based on the animated map

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive/animations/western_front/index_embed.shtml

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Artifact 18: Animated Map WWI

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Artifact 19: Chain of Friendship Political Cartoon