The Great War, 1914-1918: Front, Home, and Total War
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Presentation Transcript
Why did the Schlieffen Plan fail? • Belgium • Liege • Namur • British Expeditionary Force (BEF) • Advanced too quickly for soldiers and supply lines • Eastern Front drew troops • First Battle of the Marne, 6-12 September 1914 • French General Joffre • German General von Moltke • “Race to the sea”
Trench Warfare • machine guns • rapid-firing artillery • Foxholes • Trenches • Muck • Rats • Poison gas
Schneider Obusiers de 520. This French 520mm howitzer was the biggest gun of the Great War. It could deliver a 3,100 pound shell (600 lbs of explosive) over 10 miles. The gun car was just under 100 feet long and weighed 290 tons.
Trench Warfare • The Offensive • ‘softening up’ • artillery • ‘over the top’ • “no man’s land”
Battle of Gallipoli / ÇanakkaleSavaşı, 25 April 1915-9 January 1916 • British attempt to forge supply route to Russian Empire and relieve Caucasus • W. Churchill, first Lord of the Admiralty • ANZAC troops • Ottoman forces prove very tough • Battle of Chunuk Bair, Sept 1915: Mustafa Kemal leads Ottoman forces to drive Allies’ troops from heights • Dec. 1915: British evacuated.
Battle of VerdunFebruary-July 1916 • German General Erich von Falkenhayn • Bleed France white • French General Henri Pétain • French “won” • 337,000 German soldiers lost • 377,000 French soldiers lost
First Battle of the SommeJuly 1–November 13, 1916 • 60,000 casualties on the first day
Battle of the Somme • 420,000 British casualties • 200,000 French casualties • About 500,000 German casualties • British and French gained 12 kilometers
Total War • Lack of clear and achievable war aims • No sacrifice too great (as opposed to limited war) • Home Front completely engaged • Whole societies mobilized for war • Armaments and uniform production
Total war (cont.) • Women involved more in factory production • took over men’s jobs • Recruited men • Joined armies
Total War (cont.) • Germany • Hindenburg Plan • Walter Rathenau • War Raw Materials Board • Russia • Military-Industrial Committee
Created great divisions • Home Front versus Front lines • Men versus women • Rank and File versus Command • Polarized politics, especially ethno-politics, and spread to civilians….
Civilians as targets: Mass deportations and killings • German army’s brutal occupation of Belgium • Russian army deportation of suspected Germans and Jews • May 1915: Moscow pogrom • Eastern Galicia: Russian Army tried to make it Russian • Deportations of Armenians in Eastern Anatolia (1-1.5 million deaths) • Russian civil war, 1918-1921 (about 5 million civilians killed)