The Great War

WWI

July 28, 1914- Russia mobilized against Austria-Hungary (last act of diplomacy and first act of war)

July 30, 1914- Russia issues full mobilization orders against Austria-Hungary and Germany.

August 1, 1914- Germany declares war on Russia.

August 3, 1914- Germany declares war on France.

Chain reaction ensues and by the end of the first week of war, 44 declarations of war and mobilization orders were issued.

After the Explosion in the Balkans…

The Two CampsThe Allied Powers

(the Allies) consisted of Great Britain, France and Russia…later members would include Japan and Italy.

The Central Powers (named for their central location in Europe) consisted of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire.

The Schlieffen PlanCreated by General

Alfred Graf von

Schlieffen, the plan

solved the problem

of a two front war

with Russia in the

East and France in

the West. Plan

called for a fast

concentrated attack

of France and quick

victory. Once

victorious on the

western front,

troops could be

diverted to Russia in

the east.

A quick campaign could be won in the west against France.

The capture of a nation’s capital would result in an outright victory.

The slow movement of Russian troops to the eastern front due to the lack of railroads.

These assumptions would prove false because they did not take into consideration military technologies, the size of various armies, the difficulty of terrain and the popular effects of nationalism.

Assumptions of the Schlieffen Plan

September 3, 1914Under General Helmuth von Moltke, the Germans

were on the outskirts of Paris. French received intelligence on German movements

and planned an attack in the valley of the Marne River. In order to get every available soldier to the front,

General Joseph Joffre ordered more than 600 Parisian taxis to ferry the troops to the front.

After 4 days of fighting, the Germans ordered retreat. A quick victory on the Western Front is no longer

possible and a stalemate settles.

TAXI!!!

Trench Warfare A system of parallel trenches stretched from the North Sea to the Swiss boarder.

Trench systems on the front lines were made up of 3 parallel lines

fire trench- about 4 ft deep and built up with sandbags so the men could stand. The bottom of the trench ran a drainage runnel leading to sump pumps and covered with lengths of wooden ladder called duckboards.

Travel Trench

Located about 20

yards from firing

trench, it was a

clear path for the

quick movement

of troops to

needed points on

the trench line.

Support lines

More complex

with kitchens,

latrines, stores

and mortar

positions located

at the end of short

lead off trenches.

Dug outs were

where refuge

could be found by

the soldiers and

were made homey

with pictures,

chairs,

gramophones and

news from home.

No Man’s Land - This landscape was devastated by bombs, armed by landmines and made impassable by barriers of barbed wire.

Weapons of World War I

New military technologies changed the way that wars were fought and made the Great War, a war of

attrition.

Machine guns- allowed armies to wipe out waves of attackers and made it difficult for forces to advance.

Poison Gas - first used by Germans in April 1915, both sides used it. Some gases caused blinding or severe blisters, others caused death by choking.

On seeing the approach of the greenish-grey gas cloud during the Battle of Ypres, word was passed among the Canadian troops to urinate on their handkerchiefs and place these over their noses and mouths. The Germans were using chlorine gas.

Tanks – armored combat vehicle that moved on chain tracks. First used by British (Mark IV) at the Battle of the Somme in 1916. They often got stuck on the rough terrain.

Airplanes- first used in combat in World War I. At first hot air balloons were used for surveillance. Soon planes were used to take photographs.

Eventually, both sides used them to drop bombs and guns were attached to the planes.

Pilots fought each other in the air. The iconic image of the “Red Barron” comes from this war.

Manfred von Richthofen

Submarines- first used by Germans in 1914, it proved to be as effective as a warship. Known as U-boats, they waged unrestricted warfare on Allied ships . They used a self-propelled underwater missile called torpedoes.