Soldier’s experiences
Disease, lack of medicine, trench warfare.
The treeless background
summarises the bombardment the region suffered from and the conditions the soldiers lived in.
The theoretical daily rations for a British soldier were:
20 ounces of bread 1/10 gill lime if vegetables not issued
16 ounces of flour instead of above ½ gill of rum
3 ounces of cheese maximum of 20 ounces of tobacco
5/8 ounces of tea 1/3 chocolate – optional
4 ounces of jam 4 ounces of oatmeal instead of bread
½ ounce of salt 1 pint of porter instead of rum
1/36 ounce of pepper 4 ounces of dried fruit instead of jam
1/20 ounce of mustard 4 ounces of butter/margarine
8 ounces of fresh vegetables or 2 ounces of dried vegetables
The theoretical daily rations for a German soldier were:
26 ½ ounces of bread or
17 ½ of field biscuits or
14 ounces of egg biscuit
53 ounces of potatoes
4 ½ ounces vegetables
2 ounces dried vegetables
“Whilst asleep during the night, we were frequently awakened by rats
running over us. When this happened too often for my liking, I would
lie on my back and wait for a rat to linger on my legs; then violently
heave my legs upwards, throwing the rat into the air. Occasionally, I
would hear a grunt when the rat landed on a fellow victim.”
(R L Venables)
“If you have never had trench foot described to you, I will explain.
Your feet swell to two to three times their normal size and go
completely dead. You can stick a bayonet into them and not feel a
thing. If you are lucky enough not to lose your feet and the swelling
starts to go down, it is then that the most indescribable agony begins.
I have heard men cry and scream with pain and many have had to
have their feet and legs amputated. I was one of the lucky ones, but
one more day in that trench and it may have been too late.”
(Harry Roberts)
“The water in the trenches through which we waded was alive with a
multitude of swimming frogs. Red slugs crawled up the side of the
trenches and strange beetles with dangerous looking horns wriggled
along dry ledges and invaded the dugouts, in search of the lice that
infested them.”
(unknown journalist)
“To get a „cushy‟ one is all the old hands think about. A bloke in the
Camerons wanted a „cushy‟ bad! Fed up and far from home he was. He
puts his finger over the top and gets his trigger finger taken off and
two more besides. “I‟m off to bonny Scotland!” he says laughing. But
on the way down to the dressing station, he forgets to stoop low where
an old sniper is working. He gets it through the head.”
(Robert Graves)
“We slept in our clothes and cut our hair short so that it would tuck
inside our caps. Dressing simply meant putting on our boots. There
were times when we had to scrape the lice off with the blunt edge of a
knife and our underclothes stuck to us. “
(Elizabeth de T‟Serclaes – a nurse on the front line)
“No 1……2 Private A B; the Battalion (Pioneers) South Staffordshire
Regiment was tried by FGCM on the following charges:
“Misbehaving in such a manner as to show cowardice”. The
accused, when proceeding with a party for work in the trenches, ran
away owing to the bursting of a shell and did not rejoin the party.
The sentence of the court was to suffer death by being shot."
"We must looked out for our bread. The rats have become much
more numerous lately because the trenches are no longer in good
condition. The rats here are particularly repulsive, they are so fat -
the kind we call corpse-rats. They have shocking, evil, naked faces,
and it is nauseating to see their long, nude tails."
Erich Maria Remarque
Battle of VerdunOnthe day the battle started, February 21st, 1000 German artillery guns
fired on a six mile line along the French front. One French soldier wrote about the
artillery bombardment:
"Men were squashed. Cut in two or divided from top to bottom.
Blown into showers; bellies turned inside out; skulls forced
into the chest as if by a blow from a club."
"You eat beside the dead; you drink beside the dead, you relieve yourself beside the dead and you
sleep beside the dead."
French soldiers
"Hell cannot be so terrible as this. Humanity is mad; it must be mad to do what it is doing."
"An artery of French blood was spilt on February 21st and it flows incessantly in large spurts."
"I saw a man drinking avidly from a green scum-covered marsh, where lay, his black face
downward in the water, a dead man lying on his stomach and swollen as if he had not stopped
filling himself with water for days."
"To die from a bullet seems to be nothing; parts of our being remain intact; but to be
dismembered, torn to pieces, reduced to pulp, this is the fear that flesh cannot support and which
is fundamentally the great suffering of the bombardment."
Anonymous French soldiers
Battle of Verdun
Total War Defnition
-the utilization of all available resources to destroy another nation’s ability to continue war
-caused by the rapid industrialization of the 19th century
-growth of capital and natural resources
-growth of factories
-countries were involved in mobilization their entire populations and resources
Domestic:
Defence of the Realm Act 1914 governed all lives in Britain
no-one was allowed to talk about naval or military matters in public places
no-one was allowed to spread rumours about military matters
no-one was allowed to buy binoculars
no-one was allowed to trespass on railway lines or bridges
no-one was allowed to melt down gold or silver
no-one was allowed to light bonfires or fireworks
no-one was allowed to give bread to horses, horses or chickens
no-one was allowed to use invisible ink when writing abroad
no-one was allowed to buy brandy or whisky in a railway refreshment room
no-one was allowed to ring church bells
the government could take over any factory or workshop
the government could try any civilian breaking these laws
the government could take over any land it wanted to
the government could censor newspapers
As the war continued and evolved, the government introduced more acts to DORA.
the government introduced British Summer Time to give more daylight for extra work
opening hours in pubs were cut
beer was watered down
customers in pubs were not allowed to buy a round of drinks
The Home Front saw a massive change in the role of women, rationing, the bombing of parts of
Britain by the Germans (the first time civilians were targeted in war), conscientious objectors
and strikes by discontented workers. The whole nation was under the jurisdiction of DORA
(Defence of the Realm Act).
When war was declared in August 1914, there were street celebrations throughout the length
and breadth of Great Britain. Such scenes were repeated throughout Europe. Many believed
that the war would be over by Christmas 1914 and many young men rushed to answer the call
to arms - as did many men who were too old to serve but wanted to show their patriotism. The
government asked for 100,000 volunteers but got 750,000 in just one month. The public was
quickly deluged with numerous propaganda posters to encourage everyone in their nation's time
of need.
Those who did not want to join the military could be targeted by people as cowards - being
handed white feathers and being refused service by shops and pubs etc. Many believed that
victory against Germany - and a quick one at that - was a certainty and the vast bulk of the
nation was supportive not only of the declaration of war but also of any man who wanted to join
up.
After the Battle of the Marne, it became obvious that there would be not quick victory and as
trench warfare took its hold, the true reality of a modern war became obvious to all. War-
weariness set in. The government could not hide the fact that many thousands of men had been
killed or severely wounded. The return of wounded soldiers to London rail stations late at night
did nothing to detract from the knowledge that casualties were horrendous.
The war led to inflation and many poorer families could not afford the increase in food prices.
The impact of the German U-boat campaign also led to food shortages and this hit home when
rationing was brought in by the government in February 1918. As nearly everything was directed
towards the war effort, fuel was also in short supply and this was also rationed.
The Germans also attacked Britain itself. For the fist time, civilians themselves were targeted
with bombing raids by Zeppelins.The first Zeppelin raid on London was at midnight on May 31st
1915, when Hauptmann Linnarz bombed the capital killing seven people and making £18,000
worth of damage. In the months that followed, fifty further Zeppelin raids took place and a
blackout was imposed on the city. By October 1915, these raids effectively ended when pilots
from the Royal Naval Air Service flew night patrols to protect the city.
"The whole street seemed to explode. There was smoke and flames all over, but the worst of it
was the screams of the dying and the wounded and mothers looking frantically for their kids."
Eye-witness to a Zeppelin attack
Rationing was introduced in response to an effective U-boat campaign and during World War
One, the Defence of the Realm Act (DORA) was used to ensure that food shortages never
occurred.
In 1917, the government took over 2.5 million acres of land for farming. By the end of the war,
Britain had an extra three million acres of farming land. Those who would have usually worked
the land - young men - had been called up, so the work was done by the Women's Land Army.
Conscientious objectors also worked on the land.
DORA had already given the government of the day immense power over the people of Britain.
This had led to disputes with the trade unions but one way or another, these disputes were
resolved. Strikes, though outlawed for the duration of the war, did occur. In many areas the
government took control of vital industries. At the start of the war, railways had been taken over
by the government; in December 1916, the coalfields of South Wales were also taken under the
government's wing. The government created 'national factories' to produce munitions - by the
end of the war there were 218 of them. This was to ensure that a munitions shortage never
occurred again. In 1916, in an effort to protect those who worked in munitions, the National
Insurance Act was extended to them and to people who worked in industries closely linked to
munitions. Nurseries were built in or near factories to help the many thousands of mothers who
joined the workforce of factories.
In May 1916, all men aged between 18 and 41 were eligible for conscription
Two million acres of rough land was ploughed up and cultivated for grain crops. In 1918,
rationing was introduced for certain foods (butter, eggs, sugar and meat). In April 1918, the
government took over flour mills. The government also introduced powers that allowed it to take
over land that was not being farmed properly or simply not being cultivated if it had farming
potential.
To finance the war, the government also extended tax. The 1913 budget allowed for the
spending of £200 million. In 1918, the figure stood at £2,579 million.
Total war meant that the government was involved in nearly every aspect of life in Britain -
however, it was to bring success in the war.
A war cabinet was formed under the leadership of Lloyd George, a much small unit Lloyd
George believed that this would make the War Office a much more effective unit
i) “French doctors infect German wells with plague
germs”
ii) “German prisoners blinded by Allied captors”
ne of the most infamous stories that went around was adapted the further it got from the
Western Front. The story went from monks in Antwerp being forced to ring bells to celebrate the
Germans occupation of the city to the monks refusing to do this and being tied to the clappers of
the bells and being used as human clappers – and being killed. It was all nonsense but to the
minds of the British, where the story all but ended, it seemed to encapsulate the evil of the
Germans and justify why the fight was going on. The one thing that suffered in the war was the
truth. There were numerous stories in Britain of German soldiers parading round Belgium towns
with babies on their bayonets
However, the media was used for other purposes. British newspapers published casualty
figures that were acceptable to the government but less than accurate. British success in battles
was emphasised as opposed to the minimal gains actually made. All countries were guilty of
this. Parisians did not know about the danger Verdun was in during the initial stages of the
German attack despite being just 150 miles from the city. The French authorities simply
clamped down on the truth. Anybody caught spreading the truth regarding Verdun was liable for
arrest as an agent provocateur.
“To the north of Ypres our progress has been continued, especially on our left. We have taken six
quick-firers, two bomb-throwers, and much material; and made several hundred prisoners,
including several officers.
The losses of the enemy were extremely high. At a single point on the front, in the proximity of the
canal we counted more than six hundred German dead.
On the heights of the Meuse, on the front Les Eparges-St Remy-Calonne trench, we have
continued to gain ground, about one kilometre, and have inflicted on the enemy very severe
losses.”
No British newspaper described the scenes at Victoria Station when carriages of
wounded soldiers arrived back in London - but very late at night or in the early hours of
the morning in an effort to blot out the sheer numbers lost in battle - be it Ypres or the
Somme.
Regarding the same battle, a German newspaper reported that:
"In Flanders the British yesterday again attempted to regain the ground they
had lost. In the afternoon they attacked from both sides but the attack
completely broke down. An evening attack further east failed, with severe
British losses."
Strategy: blockade despite American protests and threat of American involvement, get Mexico as
an ally, Br and Fr want to get US as an ally, British blockade of German ports despite the international
law which forbades it
Schlieffen believed that the most decisive area for any future war in Europe would be in the
western sector. Here, Schlieffen identified France as Germany's most dangerous opponent,
thus the bulk of Germany’s forces concentrated in defeating France through Belgium before
Russia mobilizes assuming it will take 6 weeks. Germany had 6 months. Plan was to defeat
France and then defeat the Russians/ However, his success depended on British non-
interference. Howeever, the attack in August 1914 nearly succeeded and was only defeated by
the first Battle of the Marne. Poor communication between the frontline commanders and the
army's headquarters in Berlin did not help. Also the withdrawal of German troops in response to
a higher than expected threat on the Russian front, meant that the Germans did not have the
military clout that Schlieffen had built into his original plan
Battle of the Somme
By the end of the battle, the British Army had suffered 420,000 casualties including nearly
60,000 on the first day alone. The French lost 200,000 men and the Germans nearly 500,000.
For a number of months the French had been taking severe losses at Verdun – to the east of
Paris. To relieve the French, the Allied High Command decided to attack the Germans to the
north of Verdun therefore requiring the Germans to move some of their men away from the
Verdun battlefield thus relieving the French.After the war, Sir William Robertson, Chief of
the Imperial General Staff, explained what this strategy was:
The battle at the Somme started with a weeklong artillery bombardment of the German
lines. 1,738,000 shells were fired at the Germans. The logic behind this was so that the
artillery guns would destroy the German trenches and barbed wire placed in front of the
trenches. The use of artillery was heavily supported by Field Marshall Haig:
The enemy's position to be attacked was of a very considerable character,
situated on high, undulating tract of ground. (They had) deep trenches....bomb
proof shelters......wire entanglements forty yards broad often as thick as a man's
finger. Defences of this nature could only be attacked with the prospect of
success after careful artillery preparation
In fact, the Germans had deep dugouts for their men and all they had to do when the
bombardment started was to move these men into the relative safety of the deep
dugouts. When the bombardment stopped, the Germans would have known that this
would have been the signal for an infantry advance. They moved from the safety of their
dugouts and manned their machine guns to face the British and French.
In October 1914, the Germans attacked Neuve Chapelle. Here they fired gas shells at
the French that contained a chemical that caused violent sneezing fits. Once again, the
gas was not designed to kill rather than to incapacitate an enemy so that they were
incapable of defending their positions. Poisionious gas
"Our precise problem is how to inflict heavy damage on the enemy at critical points at relatively small cost to
ourselves. But we must not overlook the fact that previous experience of mass attacks in this war offers little
inducement to imitate them. It would almost seem as if the questions of command and supply in these attacks
were insoluble."
German Chief of General Staff, von Falkenhayn
The attack on Verdun (the Germans code-named it
'Judgment') came about because of a plan by the German Chief of General Staff, von
Falkenhayn. He wanted to “bleed France white” by launching a massive German attack on a
narrow stretch of land that had historic sentiment for the French – Verdun. By fighting to the last
man, Falkenhayn believed that the French would lose so many men that the battle would
change the course of the war. Plus the fact that French would not simply allow these forts to fall
b/c the national sentiment would be too much
"The string in France has reached breaking point. A mass break-through - which in any case is
beyond our means - is unnecessary. Within our reach there are objectives for the retention of
which the French General Staff would be compelled to throw in every man they have. If they do so
the forces of France will bleed to death."
Falkenhayn to Kaiser William II
On March 21st, 1918, Luderndorff launched the offensive. In just five hours, the Germans fired
one million artillery shells at the British lines held by the Fifth Army – over 3000 shells fired
every minute. The artillery bombardment was followed by an attack by elite storm troopers.
These soldiers travelled lightly and were skilled in fast, hard-hitting attacks before moving on to
their next target. Unlike soldiers burdened with weighty kit etc, the storm troopers carried little
except weaponry (such as flame throwers) that could cause much panic, as proved to be the
case in this attack. German Spring Offensive of 1918 before the Americans can throw the
support in, the Germans launched a major attack on the Western Front They had spent three
years used to static warfare and suddenly they had to cope with a German onslaught.
Trench Warfare
Technology: In the Sclieffen Plan, Germany needed
the modernised rail system to move troops from the French operation to the Russian front.
Machine Guns; Machine guns could shoot hundreds of rounds of ammunition a minute and the
standard military tactic of World War One was the infantry charge. Casualties were huge. Many
soldiers barely got out of their trench before they were cut down.
A Vickers machine gun in
action at the battle of Somme At the Battle of the Somme, their
efficiency lead to the deaths of thousands of British troops within minutes of the battle starting.
Poison gas might even provoke a mass mutiny along a frontline thus causing it to collapse. In
other words, poison gas was the answer for the war's lack of mobility.
n the Ypres attack, the German had delivered their chlorine by using pressurised cylinders. For
the attack at Loos, the British also used gas cylinders. When the wind was in a favourable
direction, chlorine gas was released from the British front line so that it could drift over to the
German front line. This was then to be followed by an infantry attack. However, along parts of
the British front line, the wind changed direction and the chlorine was blown back onto the
British causing over 2,000 casualties with seven fatalities.
The development in the use of poison gases led to both phosgene and mustard gas being used.
Phosgene was especially potent as its impact was frequently felt only 48 hours after it had been
inhaled and by then it had already bedded itself in the respiratory organs of the body and little
could be done to eradicate it. Also it was much less apparent that someone had inhaled
phosgene as it did not cause as much violent coughing. By the time that phosgene had got into
a person's bodily system, it was too late. Mustard gas was first used by the Germans against
the Russians at Riga in September 1917. This gas caused both internal and external blisters on
the victim within hours of being exposed to it. Such damage to the lungs and other internal
organs were very painful and occasionally fatal. Many who did survive were blinded by the gas.
Though it was crude, the hypo helmet was a sign to British troops in the trenches that
something was being done to help them during a gas attack and that they were not being left
out for slaughter. As the months passed and the use of poison gas occurred more frequently,
more sophisticated masks were developed and introduced.
Spring Offensive 1918 The Germans had built the world’s largest artillery gun. Three Krupps
cannons were moved to the front line and used to shell Paris. Paris was 120 kilometres from the
front line but a shell from the huge guns only took just over 200 seconds to reach the city and
183 huge shells landed on the capital of France causing many Parisians to leave the city.
The Mark 1 howitzer was used by the British It weighed 15 tons It weighed 15 tons powerful
but hard to operate and carry because of its size It fired a 131 kg shell of high explosives
It could fire this weight shell 9,198 meters
Though the tank was highly unreliable – as one would expect from a new machine – it did a
great deal to end the horrors of trench warfare and brought back some mobility to the Western
Front.
The idea of the tank came from a development of farming vehicles that could cross difficult land
with ease by using caterpillar tracks. However, the British army’s hierarchy was dominated by
officers from the various cavalry regiments that existed. At the start of World War One, the first
engagement between the British and Germans had involved cavalry near Mons. This seemed to
emphasise the importance of such regiments. However, trench warfare had made the use of
cavalry null and void. Cavalry engagements fought in mud proved very costly and from a military
point of view, hopeless. Despite this seemingly obvious fact, senior military commanders were
hostile to the use of armoured vehicles, as they would have challenged the use of cavalry in the
field.
"It seems, as the tanks are an auxiliary to the infantry, that they must be counted as infantry and
in an operation be under the same command."
Swinton
"I and my crew did not have a tank of our own the whole time we were in England. Ours went
wrong the day it arrived. We had no reconnaissance or map reading....no practices or lectures on
the compass....we had no signaling....and no practice in considering orders. We had no
knowledge of where to look for information that would be necessary for us as tank commanders,
nor did we know what information we should be likely to require."
One tank commander
Costs:
The British army (including the British Empire) had 188,000 gas casualties but only 8,100
fatalities amongst them. It is believed that the nation that suffered the most fatalities was Russia
(over 50,000 men) while France had 8,000 fatalities. In total there were about 1,250,000 gas
casualties in the war but only 91,000 fatalities (less than 10%) with over 50% of these fatalities
being Russian. However, these figures do not take into account the number of men who died
from poison gas related injuries years after the end of the war; nor do they take into account the
number of men who survived but were so badly incapacitated by poison gas that they could hold
down no job once they had been released by the army. Result of gas poisoning.
The Germans also suffered huge losses. By the end of April, the Germans had lost 120,000
men and the French 133,000 men Battle of Verdun alone It is said that the French lost over
360,000 and the Germans nearly 340,000.
Between March and July 1918, the Germans lost one million men.
Domestic: Propaganda, rationing (booming industry for US), converts industries into factories to
produce weapons, seeking help from the Americans resulting in a huge debt, men’s production
jobs replaced by women, men served in the army through conscription,
captured german arms