Trench Warfare - WWI History (PDF)

# Trench Warfare - WWI ## Life in the trenches was harsh, rather unbearable - **Disease:** Spread rapidly through the trenches due to unsanitary conditions - eg trench fever, influenza TB, Dysentery. - **Food:** Soldiers were fed very basic food - stew, hard biscuits, bacon and cheese. Warm food w...

# Trench Warfare - WWI ## Life in the trenches was harsh, rather unbearable - **Disease:** Spread rapidly through the trenches due to unsanitary conditions - eg trench fever, influenza TB, Dysentery. - **Food:** Soldiers were fed very basic food - stew, hard biscuits, bacon and cheese. Warm food was a luxury, as by the time it reached the front lines it was virtually cold. Care packages from home including chocolate and cigarettes were always welcome. - **Shell Shock:** The horrendous conditions in the trenches caused many men to suffer with PTSD or shell shock: exhaustion, constant fear of death & being witnesses of their fellow comrades losing their lives impacted the soldiers. ## Pests - Lice: Serious as drats could only be removed with a tin of nail burned off the seams of clothing with a candle 'nano' - this took hours, becoming a social gathering known as 'chatting' - ALL soldiers were invested with lice, small, transparent, reeds on blood for up to 12 hours a day. ## Shells - For most of the time, soldiers lived with shells constantly rolling - so soldiers lived with the ever-present fear of being killed with an exploding shell, a snipers bullet, or a poison gas attack. # Development of Weapons Tech during WWI ## Artillery - Became much more technologically advanced as the stalemate meant that each side needed long-range weapons. Artillery weapons accounted for over 60% of the fatalities on the Western Front. They became so advanced, German long-range guns could fire a shell 25 miles into the air, to target Paris 74 miles away. ## Machine Guns - They were refined and made easier to carry during WWI. Lewis guns also required men to fire - bemoans despised it. It’s full potential was shown when it killed or wounded 60k soldiers in one day. ## Poison Gas - Initially used in 1914 by the French, but in 1915 Germans became the first country to employ the use of lethal poison gasses eg chlorines, which suffocates the victims lungs. ## Tanks - First tanks were not very mobile, however, British & French developed more sophisticated tanks and they scored a significant victory over Germans on the Western Front due to this (more advanced tanks). # Medical Advancements during WWI ## Prosthetics - Due to the level of shelling, many soldiers suffered military limb injuries, consequently major advancements in prosthetic limb production to meet the needs of hundreds of thousands of amputees - prosthetic technology to an industrial standard. ## X-Ray - WWI saw the debut of portable x-ray machines - Marie Curie organized a campaign to turn cars into x-ray vans to help scan wounds at the front - allowing doctors to save lives and prevent disabilities by detecting fractured bones, shrapnel and bullets lodged in tissue. ## Blood - US Army doc. Oswald Robert realized the need to sterilise blood before giving it to US military casualties. He established the first blood bank on the Western Front in 1901. Soldiers using Sodium Citrate to stop coagulation. This is arguably one of the most important medical advancements of the war. ## Thomas Splint - Secured a broken leg splint was renamed the pioneering Welsh surgeon H.O Thomas. At the beginning of the war, 80% of soldiers with a broken leg died by 1916, 50% survived - splint was a massive boost to survival rates. ## Psychiatry - Stress and horrors of war had long lasting effects on thousands of soldiers, leading to thousands of soldiers ending up with shell shock, symptoms including limb paralysis, loss of speech, disorientation - Special units for sufferers techniques like gentle talking therapy. ## Plastic Surgery - Many facial wounds during the war caused by shrapnel and exploding shells leading to permanent disfiguration. A team of surgeons from Queens Hospital London attempted to repair injuries using grafted skin transplanted from rib bones. ## Speed of Treatment - ..... .... # Territorial Change after WWI ## Empires that collapsed as a result of the war - German Empire - Austro-Hungarian Empire - Ottoman Empire - Russian Empire ## New Countries Created - Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Estonia, Romania, Yugoslavia, Turkey, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany ## How Did Territorial Changes Caused by WW1 Treaty of Versailles Partly Cause WW2? - Germany was held responsible for starting the war - Lost 13% territory and 10% population - Leads to humiliation and anger felt by many Germans, this had devastating repercussions as AH exploits it to gain support - Polish Corridor divided the country, separated East Prussia from rest of Germany - hightered tensions between Germany & Poland, contributing to the animosity that played a part in the outbreak of WW2. # Women's Experiences & Status After WWI ## Positive - War had shifted societal perceptions, as in many fields - women had proved they were capable and no longer the weaker sex, rather they were just as capable as men. - Allowed representation of women after 1918. Women over the age of 30 to vote (enfranchisement). - In 1925, equal franchisement to all voting rights as men - 15 million women vote (women). - Cultural changes - drastic change for women, non having short hair, short skirts, new forms of interaction between class lines & sexes. ## Negative - 1914 Restoration of wartime jobs/roles as women were forced back to care home as factories switched to production. - Women who headed a household often the loss of the male faced immense hardships. - Women did not receive close to gaining equal pay for comparable work. - Expectations about gravity & domestic life as the non-cover for women remained unaltered. - Things like going to war standing as a representative reminded humanity the presence of men. ## The Suffragettes - Formation of National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, under Millicent Fawcett, 1897 - Emmeline Pankhurst decides to break with N.U.W.S. & set up a separate society known as Womens Social & Political Union (W.S.P.U) - 1903. - First hunger strikes by suffragettes, convinced the government, as if they died it would give the movement martyrs. Force feeding employed, leading to notoriety - 1909. - 1912 - Suffragettes believe more militant in their actions - 1912. - “Cat and Mouse Act” - (prisoners temporary discharge of ill health, allowed suffragettes to be released when they were ill; when they recover, they are re-arrested – 1913). - Emily Davison through herself under the King's horse, becoming the suff - suffrage efforts stopped due to war efforts - I.C.H # Tsar Nicholas II ## His Blunders - Early 20th Century - **Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05** - Russia's defeat by Japan 'The Rising Sun of the East' in the led to a feeling of humiliation for the Russian army & navy, being humiliated by one of their great rivals. - **Massacre of Bloody Sunday Jan 1905** - Workers ordered a peaceful protest to the Tsar’s palace to ask the Tsar for help to improve living conditions. The Tsar was actually absent from the capital, but the procession was met with a hail of bullets and a sabre charge by the troops guarding the winter palace. When the hacking and firing stopped, hundreds of workers lay dead in the snow. - **Allowance of a Duma** - In response to the disturbances of 1903, the Tsar reluctantly agreed to allow a Duma (Parliament) to be set up. He hoped this would restore calm, however, he soon showed he was unwilling to share power with the Duma. Most power remained in the hands of the Tsar as his close circle of advisors. Anger and discontent continued to simmer during the years leading up to the Great War. Any reforms introduced by the Tsar were too little, too late. # Life in Russia under Tsar Nicholas II ## The Peasantry - 130 million peasants - Scattered across vast Russian countryside - Conservative-minded: afraid of new ideas - Generally very poor - Many still saw the Tsar as their religious leader - Wanted to own the land they farmed and the freedom to sell their own produce. - Uneducated, illiterate. ## The Workers - 10 million industrial workers - Concentrated in great cities - Moscow, St Petersburg - Not as conservative, more open-minded - Some could read so spread of revolutionary ideas - Generally very poor - Religion not as strong - Wanted better conditions - core food, better housing, better hours - Lived in Barracks ## How Was Russia Governed? - Autocratic - Russia had been ruled by Tsars (emperors) of Romanov Dynasty - Tsars controlled the government, command of imperial arms, and stood head of the Russian Orthodox Church - Tsar Nicholas II ruled by himself, divine right of kings. - No Parliament ## Economic Problems - Geographical difficulties due to Russia's vast size - Communication is tough, so it’s hard to co-ordinate economy. - Poor transportation system. Tsar cannot get to factories quickly, needed to get to factories are due to ineffective railway system. ## Industrialization - Belated industrial revolution - Appalling poverty faced by industrial workers, crammed into densely packed cities. - Economically backward. - Slowly starting to industrialise, but miles behind other powers. - Workers want change and they are willing to protest. ## 3 Pillars of Support - Army - Russian Orthodox Church - Aristocracy