Today’s Objective: You will describe the realities of trench warfare by creating a circle map and writing a postcard describing a soldier’s experiences in the trenches. Today’s Warm Up: What do you think a day in the life of a soldier would be like?

The British government wanted to encourage men to enlist for war. They said the war would be safe, hardly any fighting, a good lark and over by Christmas. They used advertising posters to encourage this idea! A picture of soldiers going ‘Over the Top’

The reality of ‘going over the top’ was very different!

New weapons developed because of the Industrial Revolution! ► Tanks-destructive ► Machine guns: Rapid fire. Could Kill 500 soldiers per minute. ► Artillery- bombs ► Poisoned Gas: Killed or left permanent scars. Painful.

In response to these new weapons soldiers dug trenches to protect themselves. In response to these new weapons soldiers dug trenches to protect themselves. ► Why you think the trenches are arranged as zigzag, not straight, lines? ► If you had to get from your headquarters behind the lines (marked X) to the front-line position (marked Y), how would you get there? X Y

Change 1: Trench Warfare

French barbed wire team Germans were considered the most effective users of barbed wire If you were an attacking soldier how could you get through these barbed wire defenses? How might the following factors affect your answer? -It is completely dark -You are being fired on -You are carrying heavy equipment -You are wearing a gas mask

How the uniform and equipment changed after just three weeks in the trenches…

No smiling and relaxed faces… No clean uniforms… Their equipment is scattered everywhere… Tight Living conditions Boredom and sleep are obvious…

Day-to-Day Tasks  Digging & repairing trenches  Carting supplies up communication trenches  Sentry duty (looking through periscopes)  Manning listening posts  Simply manning the trenches  Boredom!!! 

Trench foot From having wet feet most of the time and nowhere to dry them out

Around 8.8 million men were wounded during the First World War.

Artillery Became the Most Powerful Weapon (Bomb, Bomb, Bomb) Artillery Became the Most Powerful Weapon (Bomb, Bomb, Bomb)  weeks at a time it pounded enemy trenches  Example: Battle of the Somme; (B&F) shelled (G) trenches for 7 days (168 hours), throwing 1.5 million shells at the Kaiser’s soldiers (21,300 soldiers died in one day)  50% of soldiers that took part in the battle were wounded.  Caused more casualties than any other weapon

Dead bodies…. Left to rot in the trenches because of the machine gun fire that kept the soldiers in the trenches An easy food source for rats and a place to breed disease

Hunting Rats

Lice- What a louse looks like if it were large enough to see.

Poison Gas Poison Gas ► April 1915: (G) first use gas  Chlorine gas panicked (GB) troops  7 mile whole in British lines  (G) never expected such success, so wasn’t prepared to advance through British trenches ► Perfecting the vile mist  More deadly gases (mustard gas) developed  Purpose changed from disabling to killing ► Gas masks developed  Very effective if put on in time  Only 3,000 British troops actually died from gas, yet it was the most feared weapon

Trench Warfare: ► Trench warfare had left horrific scars on the land and on man. ► Destruction was so extreme, no one ever wanted another war.

Around 9.7 million soldiers died in WWI.

Today’s Objective: You will describe the realities of trench warfare by creating a circle map and writing a postcard describing a soldier’s experiences in the trenches.

Pretend you are a soldier in the trenches of World War I. Write a postcard describing your experiences. Use your circle map and sentence frames for help! ____________can be described as ___________. For example, yesterday____________________. In addition, _____________________________. Also,___________________________________. Initially, I thought ________________________. However, I now believe ____________________.

* It is sweet and proper to die for your country Wilfred Owen, died 1918 In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning. If in some smothering dreams you too could pace Behind the wagon that we flung him in, And watch the white eyes writhing in his face, His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin; If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,-- My friend, you would not tell with such high zest To children ardent for some desperate glory, The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est Pro patria mori. *