World War I - Western FrontA New Style of Warfare

American History

World War I CasualtiesAllies

• Belgium 45,550

• British Empire 942,135

• France 1,368,000

• Greece 23,098

• Italy 680,000

• Japan 1,344

• Montenegro 3,000

• Portugal 8,145

• Romania 300,000

• Russia 1,700,000

• Serbia 45,000

• United States 116,516

Central Powers

• Austria-Hungary 1,200,000

• Bulgaria 87,495

• Germany 1,935,000

• Ottoman Empire 725,000

• Total Casualties

• 65 million mobilized both sides

• 8.5 million killed

• 21 million wounded

• 7.7 million POW’s and missing

• 37million total casualties

• 57% of all men mobilized

Weapons of World War I

Rifles

• The main weapon used by British soldiers in the trenches was the bolt-action rifle. 15 rounds could be fired in a minute and a person 1500 yards away could be killed.

Machine Gun

• Machine guns, usually positioned on a flat tripod, would require a gun crew of four to six operators. They had the fire-power of 100 guns.

• The 1914 machine gun, in theory, could fire 400-600 small-caliber rounds per minute, a figure that was to more than double by the war's end, with rounds fed via a fabric belt or a metal strip.

Poison Gas

• Chlorine Gas

• The German army were the first to use chlorine gas at the battle of Ypres in 1915. Chlorine gas causes a burning sensation in the throat and chest pains. Death is painful – you suffocate! The problem with chlorine gas is that the weather must be right. If the wind is in the wrong direction it could end up killing your own troops rather than the enemy.

Poison Gas• Mustard Gas

• Mustard gas was the most deadly weapon used. It was fired into the trenches in shells. It is colorless and takes 12 hours to take effect. Effects include – blistering skin, vomiting, sore eyes, internal and external bleeding. Death can take up to 5 weeks.

• Mustard gas, an almost odorless chemical, was distinguished by the serious blisters it caused both internally and externally, brought on several hours after exposure. Protection against mustard gas proved more difficult than against either chlorine or phosgene gas.

Dogs in Gas Masks

Blimps

• The Zeppelin, also known as blimp was an airship that was used during the early part of the war in bombing raids by the Germans. They carried machine guns and bombs. However, they were abandoned because they were easy to shoot out of the sky.

Tanks

• Tanks were used for the first time in the First World War at the Battle of the Somme. They were developed to cope with the conditions on the Western Front. The first tank was called ‘Little Willie’ and needed a crew of 3. Its maximum speed was 3mph and it could not cross trenches

• The more modern tank was not developed until just before the end of the war. It could carry 10 men, had a revolving turret and could reach 4 mph

Submarines - U-Boats

• Germans used submarines or U-Boats (unterseeboots) to launch torpedoes.

• Torpedoes were used to blow up ships carrying supplies from America to Britain. Also used to sink passenger ships.

Flame-throwers

• The basic idea of a flame-thrower is to spread fire by launching burning fuel.

• Quite aside from the worries of handling the device - it was entirely feasible that the cylinder carrying the fuel might unexpectedly explode – The carrier’s life expectancy was therefore short.

During the war the Germans launched in excess of 650 flame-thrower attacks; no numbers exist for British or French attacks.

Airplanes

• Planes were also used for the first time. At first they were used to for spying and then delivering bombs but became fighter aircraft armed with machine guns . Fights between two planes in the sky became known as ‘dogfights’

• Light machine guns were added with the German addition of interrupter equipment, which enabled the pilot to fire the gun through the aircraft's propeller blades.

Ace Pilots

• To become an Ace Pilot, one must shoot down ___ planes?

• The best pilot of WWI was Manfred Von Richtofen, better known as _______. He shot down ____ planes.

• The best pilot for the US was Eddie Rickenbacker. He shot down _____ planes.