Warm Up• What were the causes of WWI?

• What are the cons of alliances?

• Why did the US get pulled into WWI?

• How did Wilson convince Americans that the war was a good cause?

World War I: Battles & Technology

EQ: How was WWI fought?

8.H.3.2 Explain how changes brought about by technology and other innovations affected individuals and groups in North Carolina and the United States.

(Triple Alliance)Central Powers (Triple Entente)Allied

Powers

World War IWorld War I

Germany

Austria-Hungary

Ottoman Empire

Russia

France

Great Britain

United States (1917)

COMBATANTS OF WWI

Why was WWI a Stalemate?

• What’s a stalemate?–Neither side can make a move to win

• Both sides of the war threw arms and troops in to win but…………

• Millions die without gaining ground.

WHY?

Precursor to Battle of Verdun

• After two years of warfare, Germans realize they can’t break through the Allied lines in France.

• German General Falkenhayn proposes a war of attrition against the French Army.

• A war of attrition is about killing more people than you lose.

• Attack a position the French can’t afford to lose– Kill as many French troops as possible

The Battle of Verdun February 21, 1916

– December 18, 1916

One of the most costly battles of WWI.

Germans attempt to conquer key French city of Verdun.

Would have opened Paris up to invasion.

New Tactics

• Germans attack with flame throwers for the first time.– Flame throwers used to

clear French out of trenches

• German troops begin attack with grenades instead of rifles

• Manage to move forward three miles in a day.

• New types of poison gas introduced by Germans.

Results

• French Casualties– 550,000 dead

• German Casualties– 434,000 dead

• British begin battle of the Somme to relieve French army at Verdun.

• Neither French or German army gains a real advantage.

Significance

• French hold Verdun thanks to forts– Convinced that a system of fixed

heavy forts is the best defense

• WWI becomes a war of attrition. Armies fight lengthy battles, with very high casualties.

Trench Warfare

Trench Warfare – type of fighting during World War I in which both sides dug trenches protected by mines and barbed wire

• Trenches were dug from English Channel to Switzerland

• 6,250 miles• 6 to 8 feet deep• Immobilized both sides for 4 years

MYTH

REALITY

THE TRENCH SYSTEMLAYOUT:

• 1st: No Man’s Land

• 2nd: Barbed wire, mines, etc.

• 3rd: Front line• 4th:

Communication trench

• 5th: Support trenches

BRITISH TRENCH

LIFE IN THE TRENCHES

• Elaborate systems of defense– barbed wire– Concrete machine

gun nests– Mortar batteries– Troops lived in holes

underground

• Boredom– Soldiers read to

pass the time– Sarah Bernhardt

came out to the front to read poetry to the soldiers

“Death is Everywhere”

“We all had on us the stench of dead bodies.” Death numbed the soldier’s minds.

Shell shock (mental anguish)

Psychological devastation

▪ “Never such innocence again”

▪ Bitterness towards aristocratic officers whose lives were never in danger

TRENCH FOOT

WWI WEAPONRY

The countries fighting grew more and more desperate to break the stalemate. The war of attrition led to more terrifying ways to kill humans

What new weapons were used in WWI? Machine gun Poison gas (Mustard gas)

▪ Carried by the wind▪ Burned out soldier’s lungs▪ Deadly in the trenches

where it would sit at the bottom

Submarine Airplane Tank Hand grenades Flame Throwers Why these weapons? Why now?

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION!!!

New Technologies of WWI Tanks Initially used for

breaking through barbed wire between trenches.

Armed with small guns, and machine guns

Artillery

Germans produce massive guns for shelling French lines.

Some fire shells as large as 1000 pounds,

The “Paris Gun” is able to fire shells over 75 miles.

“BIG BERTHA”

Poisonous Gas

• Poisonous gasses like mustard gas used by both sides.

• Fired by artillery into opposing lines.

• Hundreds of thousands die due to exposure.

German submarines, called U-boats, torpedoed enemy ships and neutral ships trading with the enemy.

German U-Boat torpedoes a British ship

Air Combat

Airplanes initially used only for observation.

Enemy airplanes armed with machine guns to shoot down observation planes (dogfights).

Eventually planes used to drop bombs on enemy positions.

SPAD VII

Curtiss Jenny

Short video

Wrap-up

Why was a “war of attrition” used during WWI?

How did changes in military technology change the way wars are fought?

What effect might this war have on soldiers who survive the war?