The Great WarWhat passing-bells for these who die as cattle?Only the monstrous anger of the guns.Only the stuttering rifles’ rapid rattleCan patter out their hasty orisons.No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells, Nor any voices of mourning save the choirs, --The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

-From “Anthem for Doomed Youth” by Wilfred Owen

How it started

• There were many alliances within Europe– Russia/Britain/France– Austria/Germany– Russia/Serbia (secret treaty)

• Serbia was angered by Bosnia being annexed by Austria– Serbian terrorist organization called the “Black Hands” decide to assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austrian throne.

• June 28, 1914: Franz Ferdinand assassinated by the Black Hands in Sarajevo

• Since Russia and Serbia have a treaty, Russia sends troops to the Austrian/ Serbian/ German border

• Austria asks Germany to send troops to honor their treaty. Kaiser Wilhelm (German leader) was happy to comply since he has Russian troops on his border

The Schlieffen Plan

• German military plan– Half of the German army would move through neutral Belgium and capture Paris. With Paris captured, France would have to leave the war.

– The other half of the German army would then keep Russia at bay

• The Germans thought that they would be able to quickly and easily defeat France. Oh, how wrong they were....

August 1914: So it begins...

• Aug. 1: Germany declares war on Russia

• Aug. 3: Germany declares war on France

• Aug. 4: Britain (French ally) declares war on Germany

• People were very excited about this war; they thought it would be over by Christmas, and would be an easy victory over the Germans

Trench warfare

• Dug by hand, often under fire or by night

• Several different trenches made up one trench: communication, front line, shelters

• Filthy, rat-infested, muddy, and considerably smaller than you’d think

• Were often just shoulder height; you had to duck or risk getting hit by a sniper

• Ladders were used to go “over the top” when battle started

A communication trench

• Trenches went on for miles, and it was easy to get lost

• Were buttressed so that the enemy, should they advance that far, would be boxed in by soldiers on 3 sides

• “No Man’s Land” • Patrols sent out across

“NML” nightly to determine which regiment of the enemy they were fighting

Detail of a trench map

Aerial view of the trenches at Verdun

Canadian soldiers in their trench. Notice the periscope and the sandbags, which were for more protection.

Major battles of the Western Front

• The “Race to the Sea” • Mons

– First battle between British and German forces, Aug. 23, 1914

• Verdun (1916)– Longest battle of the war

• Somme (1916)• Ypres: First (1914), Second (1915), and Third, known as Passchendaele (1917)

• Belleau Wood (1918)

The damage to Ypres, after Passchendaele, 1917.

The Battle of the Somme

(1 July- 18 Nov. 1916)20,000 British soldiers died on the first day of the campaign: this is the largest amount of men lost in one day of battle

The Allies set off a series of large mines (including one 40,000 ton mine at Hawthorn Ridge) in an effort to destroy German defenses, including their trenches and barbed wire. It didn’t work. The infantry marched right into a killing spree and, if they managed to make it far enough, were caught in the barbed wire.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Tv5gBa9DQs

Two photos near Hawthorne Ridge, where the large bomb was exploded behind German lines ten minutes before the Battle of the Somme. You can see trenches and shell holes still exist today.

The War at Sea• The sinking of the RMS Lusitania (1915)– German U-boat fired a torpedo into the neutral British passenger ship

– 1,198 casualties, 128 of which were Americans

– Angered America and started anti-German protests

• (1917) German announcement of unrestricted submarine warfare drives America into the war– Wilson declares war on Germany Apr. 6, 1917• “War to end all wars”

RMS Lusitania

Final casualty counts(these are military only; no civilians

are included)Country Dead Wounded Missing Total

Britain 658,700 2,032,150 359,150 3,050,000

France 1,359,000 4,200,000 361,650 5,920,650

Germany 1,600,000 4,065,000 103,000 5,768,000

Russia 1,700,000 5,000,000 Not known 6,700,000

USA 58,480 189,955 14,290 262,725

Totals for all 23 countries involved in the War

7,956,888 dead

21,770,196 wounded

1,979,556 missing

31,706,640 in total were affected

Peace treaty and leading to WWII

• Armistice signed at 5 AM on Nov. 11, 1918, took effect at 11 AM.

• All fighting was to cease. Germany was demilitarized and lost much of its former land.

• Germany had to pay massive reparations to the Allies, essentially bankrupting the country. Many believe that the ensuing economic ruin in Germany led to the rise of the Nazi party and WWII.

Remembering the war

• After the war, thousands of memorials sprang up all over Europe to commemorate the men and women who fought during the Great War

• Many of these memorials are to the missing; many of those who died could not be found or identified

• The following slides show a few of the memorials dedicated to the Great War

Thiepval

Menin Gate

Scottish National War Memorial

Edinburgh Castle

This small metal box contains the original Rolls of the Dead from WWI. After the books were compiled, the Roll was placed back in this box and has never been opened again.

The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God. There shall no evil happen to them, they are in peace.

The Poets

Above all I am not concerned

with Poetry.

My subject is War, and the

pity of War.

The Poetry is in the pity.

Yet these elegies are to this generation in no sense consolatory. They may be to the next. All a poet can do today is warn. That is why the true Poets must be truthful.

--Wilfred Owen, in a preface for a book he never had time to prepare for publication.

Rupert Brooke (1887-1915)

Attended King’s College, Cambridge

Saw little action during the war; contracted blood poisoning and died in April 1915 in the Aegean

Wrote little poetry, but his 5 war poems are his best known

Their tone and content is very different from the later war poets--his poems inspired patriotism and described the glory of war

Siegfried Sassoon (1886-1967)

Joined the British Army in 1915 at the age of 28

Awarded the Military Cross in 1916 for helping a wounded man back to the trenches while under fire

Sassoon published a letter in 1917 accusing the British govt. and High Command of deliberately prolonging the war. This letter was read aloud to Parliament. To save Sassoon, a war hero, from being court-martialled, he was declared to be suffering from “shell-shock” (very like PTSD) and therefore did not mean what he said. He was sent to Craiglockhart (a mental hospital). At Craiglockhart, he met and befriended Wilfred Owen

Wilfred Owen (1893-4 Nov. 1918)

Sassoon’s and Owen’s poems were in stark contrast to the poems written in the early years of the war: their poems were stark, real, and shocking to the public. They strove to portray the war as it really was: horrific

Sassoon encouraged Owen to write about the real war during their time at Craiglockhart as part of his therapy for shell-shock

Owen died at the Sambre-Oise Canal in France one week before WWI ended. News of his death reached his family as the bells in town were signalling the beginning of the peace

“Anthem for Doomed Youth” --Wilfred Owen

What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?--Only the monstrous anger of the guns. Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattleCan patter out their hasty orisons.No mockeries for them from prayers or bells, Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs,-The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells; And bugles calling for them from sad shires.

What candles may be held to speed them all? Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyesShall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes. The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;Their flowers the tenderness of silent minds,And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.