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World War One - The War of Attrition The failure of the Schlieffen Plan and new technologies (machine guns, tanks & air planes) led to the trench system and thus a war of attrition - wearing each other down over a long time. Take point form notes throughout the lesson under the topic Trench Warfare.
Trench Warfare Over the Top!
War reached a peak of brutality and bloodshed on the Western Front in the First World War.
What did trenches look like?
Bird s Eye View Zig-zagged pattern Communication traverses
Why the zigzagged pattern? It prevented the enemy from being able to shoot down the length of the entire trench
This meant that a soldier could see no more than 10 meters along the length of the trench.
Why barbed wire? It was difficult to cut, and shelling it would only make it more entangled, providing an extra barrier from attack.
Trench Cross-Section
Why duckboards & a drainage sump? It reinforced the stability of the walls, and allowed for drainage of rainwater, blood, and other body fluids
Why sandbags? They protected soldiers from bullets and shrapnel
Why were trenches so effective in World War I?
Vickers Machine Gun This new and powerful weapon could mow down soldiers trying to attack. They shot 10 bullets a second
Machine guns needed 2-8 men to work them and had the fire power of 100 guns
Gas Attacks Chlorine and Mustard gas would slow down attackers, causing burns and suffocation
Blind Alleys These led nowhere and were built to confuse and slow down the enemy.
Underground These tunnels were dug under enemy trenches so that explosives could be placed under them and detonated
Attackers couldn t cross no man s land fast enough to avoid casualties
No man s land varied in distance depending on the battlefield. On the Western Front it was typically between 100 and 300 yards, though only 30 yards on Vimy Ridge.
Small trenches rapidly grew deeper and more complex, gradually becoming vast areas of interlocking defensive works British trenches German trenches
What was life like in the trenches?
Sanitary conditions in the trenches were quite poor, and common infections included dysentery, typhus, and cholera
Rats became common, and grew large as they would eat the soldier s food
Medical services were primitive and life-saving antibiotics had not yet been discovered
Relatively minor injuries could prove fatal through the onset of infection and gangrene
Poor hygiene also led to conditions such as trench mouth and trench foot
Official truces were organized so that the wounded could be recovered from no man's land and the dead could be buried
But what was life REALLY like in the trench?
At the age of 92, Arthur Savage was asked about his memories of life on the Western Front. My memories are of sheer terror and the horror of seeing men sobbing because they had trench foot that had turned gangrenous. They knew they were going to lose a leg.
Memories of lice in your clothing driving you crazy. Filth and lack of privacy. Of huge rats that showed no fear of you as they stole your food rations. And cold deep wet mud everywhere.
And of course, corpses. I'd never seen a dead body before I went to war. But in the trenches the dead are lying all around you. You could be talking to the fellow next to you when suddenly he'd be hit by a sniper and fall dead beside you. And there he d stay for days.
Front lines - 11 minutes 43