WWI
WORLD WAR I: 1914-1918
NO MAN’S LAND= Ground
between the
opposing trenches. Contained
considerable amounts of barbed wire.
Advances across no man’s land was
very difficult. They had to avoid being
shot or blown up. There were large
water filled, shell-holes.
TRENCH
WARFARE
TRENCH FOOT= Infection
of the feet
caused by cold, wet, and unsanitary
conditions. Men would stand for hours
in waterlogged trenches without being
able to remove wet socks or boots.
SANDBAGS= absorbs
any bullets or shell
fragments
GAS ATTACKS=
poisoned gas bombs
fired to opposing trenches. French were
the first to use gas, but stopped because
they felt it was uncivilized. Germans
used Mustard Gas.
SHELL SHOCK= mental
breakdown
caused by heavy artillery. The
military thought they men were
trying to get out of fighting. Some
were court martialed and executed.
TRENCH RATS= large
rats that fed on
scraps and copses (about the size of
cats)
ARTILLERY SHELLS= bombs
that were
launched at the enemy. Shrapnel would
fly into soldiers
CASUALTIES IN THE TRENCHES= Amount
of people that died in the trenches from
being shot and disease. Only counted
the ones that died in combat, not the
ones that dies from their wounds or
infection. Did not count civilians that
were killed in the war or that starved to
death. Governments did not keep an
accurate number. Estimates vary from
8.5-12 million people died during
WWI.
Spanish Flu= 1918 Influenza Pandemic
spread to almost every part of the world.
Most of the victims were healthy young
adults. The virus caused the immune system
of the healthy to attack their own bodies.
50-100 million people died.
WWI
NO MAN’S LAND
WORLD WAR I: 1914-1918
No Man's Land is the term used by soldiers to describe the ground between the
two opposing trenches. Its width along the Western Front could vary a great deal.
The average distance in most sectors was about 250 yards (230 metres).
However, at Guillemont it was only 50 yards (46 metres) whereas at Cambrai it
was over 500 yards (460 metres). The narrowest gap was at Zonnebeke where
British and German soldiers were only about seven yards apart.
No Man's Land contained a considerable amount of barbed wire. In the areas
most likely to be attacked, there were ten belts of barbed wire just before the
front-line trenches. In some places the wire was more than a 100 feet (30 metres)
deep.
If the area had seen a lot of action No Man's Land would be full of broken and
abandoned military equipment. After an attack No Man's Land would also contain
a large number of bodies. Advances across No Man's Land was always very
difficult. Not only did the soldiers have to avoid being shot or blown-up, they also
had to cope with barbed wire and water-filled, shell-holes.
Soldiers were only occasionally involved in a full-scale attack across No Man's
Land. However, men were sometimes ordered into No Man's Land to obtain
information about the enemy. When a artillery shell had landed just in front of an
enemy trench, soldiers were often ordered to take control of the shell-hole and to
try and spy on the enemy.
Small patrols were also sent out to obtain information about the enemy. These
patrols would go out at night. They would have to crawl forward on their stomachs
in an attempt to get close enough to find out what the enemy was up to. If
possible, they would try and capture a sentry and bring him back for interrogation.
To stop British night patrols the Germans used a light-shell rocket. Suspended
from a small parachute, the flare blazed brightly for a minute giving the defending
troops a chance to kill the soldiers who had advanced into No Man's Land.
WWI
GAS ATTACKS!
WORLD WAR I: 1914-1918
Poisonous gases were known about for a long time before the First
World War but military officers were reluctant to use them as they
considered it to be a uncivilized weapon. The French Army were the first
to employ it as a weapon when in the first month of the war they fired
tear-gas grenades at the Germans.
In October 1914 the German Army began firing shrapnel shells in which
the steel balls had been treated with a chemical irritant. The Germans
first used chlorine gas cylinders in April 1915 when it was employed
against the French Army at Ypres. Chlorine gas destroyed the respiratory
organs of its victims and this led to a slow death by asphyxiation.
After the first German chlorine gas attacks, Allied troops were supplied
with masks of cotton pads that had been soaked in urine. It was found
that the ammonia in the pad neutralized the poison. Other soldiers
preferred to use handkerchiefs, a sock, a flannel body-belt, dampened
with a solution of bicarbonate of soda, and tied across the mouth and
nose until the gas passed over. It was not until July 1915 that soldiers
were given efficient gas masks and anti-asphyxiation respirators.
Mustard Gas (Yperite) was first used by the German Army in September
1917. The most lethal of all the poisonous chemicals used during the
war, it was almost odourless and took twelve hours to take effect. Yperite
was so powerful that only small amounts had to be added to high
explosive shells to be effective. Once in the soil, mustard gas remained
active for several weeks.
WWI
WORLD WAR I: 1914-1918
SHELL
SHOCK
By 1914 British doctors working in military hospitals noticed patients suffering from
"shell shock". Early symptoms included tiredness, irritability, giddiness, lack of
concentration and headaches. Eventually the men suffered mental breakdowns
making it impossible for them to remain in the front-line. Some came to the
conclusion that the soldiers condition was caused by the enemy's heavy artillery.
These doctors argued that a bursting shell creates a vacuum, and when the air
rushes into this vacuum it disturbs the cerebro-spinal fluid and this can upset the
working of the brain.
Some doctors argued that the only cure for shell-shock was a complete rest away
from the fighting. If you were an officer you were likely to be sent back home to
recuperate. However, the army was less sympathetic to ordinary soldiers with
shell-shock. Some senior officers took the view that these men were cowards who
were trying to get out of fighting.
Between 1914 and 1918 the British Army identified 80,000 men (2% of those who
saw active service) as suffering from shell-shock. A much larger number of soldiers
with these symptoms were classified as 'malingerers' and sent back to the frontline. In some cases men committed suicide. Others broke down under the pressure
and refused to obey the orders of their officers. Some responded to the pressures
of shell-shock by deserting. Sometimes soldiers who disobeyed orders got shot on
the spot. In some cases, soldiers were court-martialled.
Official figures said that 304 British soldiers were court-martialled and executed. A
common punishment for disobeying orders was Field Punishment Number One.
This involved the offender being attached to a fixed object for up to two hours a day
and for a period up to three months. These men were often put in a place within
range of enemy shell-fire.
WWI
TRENCH FOOT
WORLD WAR I: 1914-1918
Many soldiers fighting in the First World War suffered from trench foot. This was an
infection of the feet caused by cold, wet and unsanitary conditions. In the trenches
men stood for hours on end in waterlogged trenches without being able to remove
wet socks or boots. The feet would gradually go numb and the skin would turn red or
blue. If untreated, trench foot could turn gangrenous and result in amputation. Trench
foot was a particular problem in the early stages of the war. For example, during the
winter of 1914-15 over 20,000 men in the British Army were treated for trench foot.
The only remedy for trench foot was for the soldiers to dry their feet and change their
socks several times a day. By the end of 1915 British soldiers in the trenches had to
have three pairs of socks with them and were under orders to change their socks at
least twice a day. As well as drying their feet, soldiers were told to cover their feet
with a grease made from whale-oil. It has been estimated that a battalion at the front
would use ten gallons of whale-oil every day.
Most of the land on the Western Front was only a couple of feet above sea level. As
soon as soldiers began to dig trenches they would invariably find water just below the
surface. Constantly standing in water caused trench foot and other ailments. In an
attempt to alleviate the problem, wooden planking, known as duckboards, were
placed at the bottom of trenches and across other areas of muddy or waterlogged
ground.
WWI
TRENCH RATS
WORLD WAR I: 1914-1918
Many men killed in the trenches were buried almost where they fell. If a trench
subsided, or new trenches or dugouts were needed, large numbers of
decomposing bodies would be found just below the surface. These corpses, as
well as the food scraps that littered the trenches, attracted rats. One pair of rats
can produce 880 offspring in a year and so the trenches were soon swarming
with them.
Some of these rats grew extremely large. One soldier wrote: "The rats were huge.
They were so big they would eat a wounded man if he couldn't defend himself."
These rats became very bold and would attempt to take food from the pockets of
sleeping men. Two or three rats would always be found on a dead body. They
usually went for the eyes first and then they burrowed their way right into the
corpse.
One soldier described finding a group of dead bodies while on patrol: "I saw some
rats running from under the dead men's greatcoats, enormous rats, fat with
human flesh. My heart pounded as we edged towards one of the bodies. His
helmet had rolled off. The man displayed a grimacing face, stripped of flesh; the
skull bare, the eyes devoured and from the yawning mouth leapt a rat."
“Sometimes the men amused themselves by baiting the ends of their rifles with pieces of bacon
in order to have a shot at them at close quarters.”
“Rats. There are millions!! Some are huge fellows, nearly as big as cats. Several of our men
were awakened to find a rat snuggling down under the blanket alongside them!”
WWI
SAND BAGS
WORLD WAR I: 1914-1918
The top two or three feet of the parapet and the parados (the rear side of the trench) would consist
of a thick line of sandbags to absorb any bullets or shell fragments. Sandbags were filled with earth.
A filling party usually consisted of one soldier shovelling the earth and two holding and tying the
bags. The men stacking the filled bags worked in pairs and were expected to move sixty bags an
hour. Research by the British Army suggested that a typical bullet used in the First World War would
only penetrate fifteen inches into a sandbag.
“The trench was not a trench at all. The bottom may have been two feet below ground level. An
enormous breastwork rose in the darkness some ten or more feet high. All about us there was an air
of bustle. Men were lifting filled sandbags on to the parapet and beating them into the wall with
shovels. Bullets cracked in the darkness. Every now and then a figure would appear on the skyline
and drop skillfully on the firestep.”
“The fortification consists of breastworks, built up high to the front, with just a little shallow trench
dug behind. The reason is that drainage is so difficult. These breastworks are made of millions of
tightly-made sandbags laid one upon the other, packed well together. Every eight yards there is an
island traverse, a great mound of earth and sandbags strengthened by rivetting, round which the
trench winds. This is to localise the explosion of shells or prevent an enemy who might reach the
flank being able to pour fire right down the length of a trench. There are communication trenches
back every few yards and innumerable succeeding lines for the main army. The whole network
extends in most places for three or four miles. The dug-outs are all in lines, but mostly along the
communication trenches.”
WWI
ARTILLERY
SHELLFIRE
WORLD WAR I: 1914-1918
During the first two weeks of the Battle of Passchendaele the British, Australian and
Canadian guns fired 4,283,550 shells at the German defences. It is estimated that
throughout the First World War the Allies used 5,000,000 tons of artillery shells
against enemy positions. The Central Powers used a similar amount of shells in their
effort to win the war.
Soldiers subjected to continual exposure to shell-fire were in danger of developing
shell-shock. Early symptoms included tiredness, irritability, giddiness, lack of
concentration and headaches. Eventually the men suffered mental breakdowns
making it impossible for them to remain in the front-line. Between 1914 and 1918 the
British Army identified 80,000 men (2% of those who saw active service) as suffering
from shell-shock.
“The Germans can now throw a bomb 200 lbs in weight and 5ft long a distance of
1000 yards, it explodes like a mine and kills by concussion. They sent several over
every day and killed a good many. One of the four men of our Battalion who were
killed that way I knew quite well, he was the last of five brothers all of whom have
been killed in the war.”
“I crawled into a shell-hole into which another colleague of mine had also crawled.
He told me that he had been shot through the middle of the back and that the bullet
had emerged through his left ear. We had not long to wait before a shell burst on the
edge of our hole; it killed my colleague and injured me in such a way that I was
virtually emasculated. I considered the situation hopeless and that even if a miracle
happened and I did, in fact, get away, I would not be fit for anything in this world. I,
therefore, decided to kill myself.”
WWI
CASUALTIES IN
THE TRENCHES
WORLD WAR I: 1914-1918
The precise number of people kill ed during the First World War is difficult to measure.
Estimates vary from 8.5 to 12.0 million but with the collapse of government bureaucracies in
Russia, Germany, Austria-Hungary and Turkey accurate measurement becomes impossible.
Another problem involves the way death was defined. Most governments only published figures
for men who were killed during military action. Soldiers who died slowly from their wounds, gas
poisoning or disease, did not always appear in the statistics published after the war.
Most soldiers were killed during major offensives. Over 21,300 were killed on the first day of the
Somme and over 50 per sent of those who took part in the attack were wounded. Other major
offences such as those at Loos and Passchendaele resulted in large numbers being killed.
Being in front-line trenches was also extremely dangerous. Almost every day some enemy
artillery shells would fall on the trenches. One study suggested that one-third of all casualties
on the Western Front were killed or wounded while in the trenches.
There is considerable dispute about the number of civilian deaths during the First World War.
Bomb victims, merchant seamen and passengers on torpedoed ships were recorded. However,
the number of civilians killed by disease or war deprivation are not usually included. For
example, it is believed that about 500,000 German civilians died as a result of food shortages.
Other countries that suffered high civilian deaths include Russia (2 million), Serbia (650,000)
and Rumania (500,000). Considering the state of deprivation at the time, some commentators
believe that the estimated 70 million people that died during the influenza pandemic should
also be recorded as war deaths