1. Felix Schaber

2. Outline  The beginning of Trench Warfare  Weapons of Trench Warfare  Life in the Trenches  Strategies to break through the enemy lines and defend their own  Facts and figures

3. The beginning of Trench Warfare  3rd August, 1914, German troops crossed the Belgian border in the narrow gap between Holland and France.  Germans are quickly victorious over the Belgians  The French an British are defeated at Sambre (22nd August) and Mons (23rd August).  The German army marches for Paris but is unable to break through due to a French counterattack (Battle of the Marne 4th to 10th September)  The German commander, General Erich von Falkenhayn, decided that his troops must hold onto those parts of France and Belgium that Germany still occupied.  Falkenhayn ordered his men to dig trenches that would provide them with protection from the advancing French and British troops.  The Allies soon realized that they could not break through this line and they also began to dig trenches.  After a few months these trenches had spread from the North Sea to the Swiss Frontier.  For the next three years neither side advanced more than a few miles along this line that became known as the Western Front.

4. Weapons of Trench Warfare

5. Infantry  At the beginning improvised weapons  Rifle  Bayonet  Shotgun  Hand grenades  Flamethrowers

7. Machine guns  British: Vickers machine guns Later changed to Lewis Gun  German: Maschinengewehr 08  Mostly used to defend  Heavy machine guns

9. Tanks  British innovation  First use: Battle of Somme  At first they were very ineffective  Later became essential

11. Artillery  Essential for any attack  Shaped the landscape at the Western Front  Fragmentation, highly explosive and gas shells  German 420 mm howitzer: Weight: 20 tons Could fire a one-ton shell over 10 km

13. Gas  Mustard gas  Chlorine  Phosgene 85% of the 100,000 deaths caused by chemical weapons during World War I  Gas masks: Urinating over a handkerchief Later developed  Not very effective due to countermeasures

15. Life in the Trenches

16. Water in the Trenches  Germans had the higher and therefore better positions  Water would be found 2-3 feet below surface  Rain would collect in the trenches  Caused trench foot

18. Trench Foot  Infection of the feet  Caused by: Cold Wet Unsanitary conditions  Sometimes feet had to be amputated

20. Food  Caned food  Nothing fresh  Rats ate some  Rations got lower and lower over the course of the war

21. Self Inflicted Wounds  Hoped to be released home  Mostly shot themselves in the arm or foot  Could be sentenced with execution

22. Strategies to break through the enemy lines and defend their own

23. Barb Wire  In front of the trenches in the No-Mans- Land  Worsened with the artillery fire  Redone at night

25. Cavalry  High place value at the beginning  Equipped with: Sword Rifle Lance  Massacred by machine gun fire

27. Miners  Specialist Miners-Not soldiers!  Objective: Blow up the trenches from below Then start a quick attack  Other side tried to hear them  Could take a year to dig

28. Facts and Figures

29. BattleYearAlliesGerman 1st Marne263,000220,000 1st Ypres1914126,921 - 161,921134,315 Verdun1916400,000 - 542,000355,000 - 434,000 Somme1916623,907465,000 - 595,294 2nd Aisne1917118,00040,000 3rd Ypres1917200,000 - 448,000260,000 - 400,000 Spring Offensive1918851,374688,341 Hundred Days Offensive19181,069,636785,733 Total Casualties from Major Western Front Battles 1914-19183,619,838 - 4,077,8382,948,389 - 3,297,683 1914 Over 450,000 civilian deaths

30. Bibliography  Information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poison_gas_in_World_War_I http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trench_warfare http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWtrench.htm http://www.jop-kriegskunst.de/1welt.htm http://www.historyman.co.uk/ww1/Trenwar.html www.mrberlin.com/8th/WWI/trench_warfare.ppt www.mrberlin.com/8th/WWI/trench_warfare.ppt http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/trench.htm  Pictures: http://mgb-home.de/Zar-Beginn-Erster-Weltkrieg.jpg http://serbien.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/04.jpg?w=450 http://de.academic.ru/pictures/dewiki/66/British_tank_crossing_a_trench.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Passchendaele_aerial_view.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4b/Various_gas_masks_WWI.jpg http://www.worldwar1.com/foto/fww2352.jpg http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWfoot.jpg http://military.brucemuseum.ca/d/14299-1/A95-01%2307+-+No+Man_s+Land.jpg http://einestages.spiegel.de/hund- images/2008/04/22/51/00ec5247681886e9cc9c295488a2e97d_image_document_large_featured _borderless.jpg http://einestages.spiegel.de/hund- images/2008/04/22/51/00ec5247681886e9cc9c295488a2e97d_image_document_large_featured _borderless.jpg