Transcript 2. Trench Warfare PowerPoint

Creating the trenches…
-
How they looked
Inside the trench
Tools used
 Dangers in the trenches…
-
What the trenches were like… the worst part of trench life etc.
How the soldiers died in the trenches…snipers, hunger etc.
The diseases and problems within the trenches… lice, rats etc.
 Days in the trenches…
-
Time spent in the trenches
Duties in the trenches
Food/ Food supplies
How they Looked
Trench formation
Trench Construction diagram
from 1914 British Army Manual
Aerial View of Trench Systems
Inside the Trenches
• Fire-step
• Duckboards
• Dugouts/funk holes
• Latrines
Inside the trenches...
Building it
• Entrenching tool (early spade/shovel)
• Song -->
“O,O,O it’s a lovely war!
What do we want with eggs and ham?
When we have plum and apple jam
Form fours, right turn
How shall we spend the money we earn?
O,O,O it’s a lovely war!”
The Entrenching tool
Weapons of Trench Warfare
The Machine Gun
The Machine Gun
•The Machine Gun (GATLIN GUN) = efficient warfare.
• It was a way of keeping the other army in their trench.
• Also used in combo with barbed wire to funnel soldiers
• Once funneled into a specific area, soldiers could be killed
en masse
Barbed Wire
Barbed wire was used to slow down advancing troops.
The barbed wire was also used to force soldiers to charge
through certain openings in the fence.
Artillery
Artillery
• A barrage is a term used to
describe extensive artillery fire
against enemy positions.
– A light barrage = 6-7 per 10mins.
– A moderate barrage = 30 shells per
min.
– A heavy barrage = 50-60 shells per
min.
Poison Gas!
•
Chlorine & Mustard Gas were used
•
Chlorine Gas – inhaled to be deadly (at Ypres 1914)
•
Mustard gas was the more effective weapon (1917)
•
It was fired into the trenches in shells.
•
Colorless; almost odorless
•
Took 12 hours to take effect.
•
Effects include – blistering skin, vomiting,
sore eyes, internal and external bleeding.
•
Death can take up to 5 weeks.
•
More severe than Chlorine Gas due to the need to cover
the entire body
What the Trenches were Like…
• The trenches were filled with
water
• Constant mud
• Duckboards
• Latrines
• Trench grounds in winter and
autumn
• Dead bodies
The amount of water and mud in the trenches
How the Soldiers Died…
Soldiers picking up bodies from No Man’s Land
• Falling off duckboards and into the mud
• Buried alive
• Suicide
• Enemy snipers
• Diseases
• Lack of food
Trench walls collapsed
Dead soldiers on the ground
TRENCH FOOT!!!!
Mrs. Helmer’s “Trench Foot”
The Diseases and Problems…
• Trench foot
• The pyrrexhia or trench fever
• Lice
Soldiers sick from a diseases
• Rats
• Dysentery
Soldiers sick while in their
trenches
Rat Infestation
• Millions of rats infested trenches.
• The brown rat was especially feared.
• Gorging themselves on human remains (grotesquely
disfiguring them by eating their eyes and liver) they
could grow to the size of a cat.
• A single rat couple could produce up to 900 offspring
in a year, spreading infection and contaminating food.
Frogs, lice and worse…
• Lice caused intense itching
• Even when washed, eggs
remained everywhere
• Lice caused Trench Fever, a
particularly painful disease that
began suddenly with severe
pain followed by high fever.
•
Many men chose to shave their
heads entirely to avoid nits.
• Frogs by the score were found
in shell holes
Time spent in the trenches…
• Of a 32 Day period: 8 days in a front line
trench, 8 days in a reserve trench and 16
days away from the front, in a small town or
village nearby.
•A British/Canadian soldiers year could be
divided as : 15% front line, 10% support line,
30% reserve line, 20% rest, and 25% other. (
hospital, traveling, leave etc.)
•Everything could be changed if there’s and
offensive attack. Soldiers could spend up to
6 weeks in the front line trenches before
they could take a break.
•Time in the trenches alternated with long
periods of boredom, and short periods of fear.
Soldiers
during there
rest period.
•Soldiers quiet time
Soldiers looking over there trench.
Duties in the Trenches
Soldiers
switching
from line to
line.
•
Soldiers had to replace the barbed wire, repair the
flooded trenches, and clean the latrines. These
duties were all called “fatigues”
•
The maintenance and expansion of the barbed wire
fences and the trenches was done at dark, when it
was harder to be detected.
•
****The work was done at night … Most
of their work was done at night when patrols
were sent out to observe and check out on the
enemy trenches, and the repair of their own
front – line and gather of create/prepare other
defenses.
•
On breaks from fighting in the trenches, the
soldiers were assigned different duties such
as moving supplies or helping to repair things.
Soldiers working with there trenches
THE END!