Transcript TRENCH WARFARE

TRENCH
WARFARE
How They Looked
How They Looked
What the Trenches were like…
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Filled with water and
mud
Duckboards along the
bottom of the trench
No privacy
Dead bodies often left
for days at a time
Filled with rats and other
rodents
A Duckboard is
a platform
made of
wooden slats
built over
muddy ground
to form a dry
passageway.
Trench foot is a medical condition caused by
prolonged exposure of the feet to damp,
unsanitary and cold conditions
Symptoms of Trench foot
•Infected feet
•Numb
•turning red or blue as a result of poor vascular supply
•decaying odor
•swelling
Advanced stages involves:
•Blisters and open sores
•Fungal infections (jungle rot).
•Untreated, trench foot usually results in gangrene which
usually means amputation.
•If treated properly, complete recovery is normal. There is
some pain and trench foot leaves sufferers more susceptible
to it in the future.
…no coming back from this one…
Soldiers died…
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Falling off duckboards
into the mud
Buried alive
Suicide
Killed by enemy
snipers
From diseases
From lack of food
Duties in the Trenches…
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Replace barbed wire
–in “No man’s Land”
so done at night to
avoid detection
Repair flooded
trenches
Move supplies
Often men were
bored and simply
waiting for a battle
No man's land is a term for land that is
unoccupied or is under dispute between
parties that leave it unoccupied due to fear
or uncertainty.
First World War – the area of land between
two enemy trenches
No one wanted to take control of due to
fear of being attacked by the enemy in the
process.
All’s Quiet on the Western front
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7
300946306109319965#
The Battle of Ypres
April 1915 in Belgium (near city of Ypres, in
region of Flanders)
Task: to hold 3.5 km of the line in the face of
heavy German attack
This battle saw the first use of chlorine gas by the
Germans
Canadians used makeshift gas masks to hold the
line with British reinforcements
6000 Canadian casualties (dead, missing, or
wounded)
The poem “In Flanders Fields” was written at this
battle by Doctor John McCrae
The Battle of the Somme
July to November 1916 in France
Canadians fought as part of British forces,
led by Sir Douglas Haig
Allies used old tactics and were mowed
down by German machine gun fire –
disaster!
58,000 Allied casualties in one day
**First use of tanks –broke through barbed
wire and gave Allies the advantage
After 5 months –gained only 8 km
Battle of Vimy Ridge
April 1917
Canada’s greatest victory –succeeded where
French and British had failed
Well-prepared -used planes to gather information
and constructed model ridge to practice
100,000 Canadians led attack
New strategy called “leap-frogging” meant troops
weren’t as tired
11,000 Canadian casualties
Morale boost for Canada, beginning of national
pride
Battle of Passchendaele
November 1917, near Ypres in Belgium
Bitter disaster for Canadians
Incredible mud –horses and men sucked in
and drowned
Canadians led by Sir Arthur Currie, a
Canadian
16000 Allied troops dead, 8000 Canadian
casualties
Gained only 7 km of mud that was soon
lost again
The last 100 Days
August to November 1918
USA entered the war, Germany desperate
Germany launched huge attack along the
Western Front
Advanced within 80km of Paris but stopped by
Allied counter attack (including Canadians)
France and Belgium liberated
Canadians defeated a quarter of the German
army –more than American force that was 6
times as big
Germans surrendered on November 11, 1918
Canadians treated as heroes by Belgians