WW1 Revision PDF

1. By around 1850, Britain’s 6. Germany spent a lot of money 11. A Serbian nationalist 12. Austria-Hungary was a factories had made her the after 1900 to try and catch up terrorist Gavrilo Princip powerful empire a...

1. By around 1850, Britain’s 6. Germany spent a lot of money 11. A Serbian nationalist 12. Austria-Hungary was a factories had made her the after 1900 to try and catch up terrorist Gavrilo Princip powerful empire at the heart of 1. Causes of richest country in the world. She built more and more ships to protect her massive empire. with Britain’s large navy. murdered the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand on 28th June 1914. He was heir to Europe who feared it would be broken up if it gave into nationalists and terrorists in World War I the Austria-Hungary throne. 1914. 5. There was a desire by many 10. Serbia had won some 15. Europe’s main powers were 14. The Triple Entente alliance European countries to have a big important wars in 1912 and arranged in alliances. This was made up of Great Britain, Empire. This meant there was 1913. It dearly wanted to join all alliance system pulled all the Russia and France. They tension and fierce rivalries at Serbs in one nation. This great powers into war by the supported Serbia in the Alliances Loyalty to another country the start of the 20th century. included Bosnia, who was still summer of 1914. This meant summer of 1914. e.g. Britain/America (unhappily) under Austria- that when countries were Hungary. threatened, they would look for Militarism Who had the biggest armed friends to back them up. forces Nationalism A strong pride in your country 13. The central powers of 2. Since the 1870s Russia had 9. Each of the great powers had 7. By 1911 Germany believed Germany and Austria Hungary tried hard to gain support in increased the size of their she Empire Having/gaining all control were allied together. They saw South Eastern Europe by armies and navies between was surrounded by an enemy Serbia as their enemy in the helping different nationalist 1912 and 1914.This was alliance. over other countries or summer of 1914. groups who operated there. This because they wanted to show colonies included Serbia. their country as the most powerful and strong. Each country did this to outdo the other, growing into an Arms Race. 4. In 1888 Germany’s new 3. In 1871 Germany had become 8. As armies grew bigger 16. The alliance system in 1914 emperor, Kaiser Wilhelm a new nation when she between 1912 and 1914, the meant that if one small wanted to increase the size of defeated France in a bitterly bigger the desire grew to use disagreement occurred between his countries empire. fought war. They were keen to them. two countries, many others show their independence and could be dragged in. strength. 1. The First World War involved a lot of countries! This is a map showing the countries at the time. 1. What do you think the colours mean? 2. What do you think I mean by countries ‘at the time’ ?  2. The Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfO7TduevHA Here is a 5 minute clip which explains what happened on that fateful day, 28th June 1914.  2. 1. 28th July 1914 2. 29th July 1914 3. 1st August 1914 4. 2nd August 1914 Austria-Hungary blames Serbia for killing the Russia, which had promised to protect Serbia Germany, which supports Austria-Hungary, Britain prepares its warships. Archduke and attacks Serbia. against attack, gets its army ready to attack hears about Russian preparations for war. Austria-Hungary. Germany declares war on Russia. 5. 3rd August 1914 6. 3rd August 1914 7. 6th August 1914 8. 12th August 1914 Germany, which is more worried about the Germany asks Belgium to allow German Austria-Hungary declares war on Russia. Britain and France declare war on Austria- French army than about the Russians, soldiers to march through Belgium to attack Hungary. decides to attack France first. It declares war France. Belgium says ‘no’. Germany marches on France, hoping to defeat the French in anyway two days later. Britain, which has a quickly, and then on to face the Russians. deal to protect Belgium from attack (dating back to 1869), declares war on Germany. 3. 2. What actually happened? (1. Highlight causes of the Schlieffen’s Plan failure. 2. Rank the causes in order of importance.) 1. What was the Schlieffen Plan?  Gavrilo Princip assassinated Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand in June, 1914 and the Schlieffen (Fill in the missing words and answer the question) Plan was put into action. However, it did not go to plan. In 1904, France and Russia agreed that if a European war started,  To Germany’s surprise, the Belgian army was ready and waiting to fight. Belgium was also supported they would join together and fight against Germany. The Germans by a small British Expeditionary Force (B.E.F) that had been sent out to help them. Britain declared were scared because this meant she would have enemies on two war on Germany in order to protect Belgium – as agreed in 1839. sides. France in the West and Russia in the East. To solve this  In the Battle of Mons, the Belgians and the B.E.F were able to hold back the Germans for 10 days problem, a German general named Kurt Von Schlieffen came up before eventually being pushed aside. with the Schlieffen Plan.  Once through Belgium, the Germans marched into northern France. The Schlieffen Plan had called Schlieffen’s idea involved knocking France out of the war quickly by using 90% of the German army. To get France, Schlieffen thought it for the northern and southern armies to join up and encircle Paris. However, the German would be quicker to march through neutral Belgium. commanders failed to do this properly. The French commanders spotted this mistake and rushed Germany decided to walk through Belgium because: soldiers out of Paris, many of them in taxis, to drive a wedge between the 2 German armies. This stopped Paris from being surrounded. 1. Belgium’s army was small and the Belgian borders were not as  The French and the B.E.F. fought back in the Battle of the Marne and the exhausted German army well defended as the French border. was pushed back over the river Aisne where they set up a defensive line. 2. The Germans did not believe that Britain would go to war over  Meanwhile, in the east, the Russians had mobilised in just 10 days not 6 weeks as the Schlieffen their 1839 treaty with Belgium, which they described as a ‘scrap of Plan had expected. To defend Germany against Russia, many German soldiers had to be moved east paper’. before France was beaten. Germany was now left fighting a war on 2 front. The plan had failed. 3. Even if Britain did defend Belgium, the Kaiser believed that there was no need to fear the British Expeditionary Force, which he called a ‘contemptible little army’. 3. The Aftermath Once into northern France, Germany’s main army would link up (Draw and label a diagram to describe the aftermath of the Schlieffen Plan). with a smaller German army that would invade from the south. Together the two armies would surround the French capital, Paris, To protect their positions, both sides began digging trenches in the ground. Following that is known as and knock France out of the war. ‘the race to the sea’, a line of trenches ran from the northern coast of Europe, all the way to the Mediterranean coast in the south. A new phase of the war had begin. This was to be know as trench It was believed that Russia would take 6 weeks to mobilise her warfare. troops. The plan was to quickly defeat France then transport most of the German troops east to the fight the Russians. In summary: smash through Belgium quickly knock out Paris, then head east and destroy the slow Russians. 4. 4. Mustard gas was first used by the German Many men were killed in the trenches and On Christmas Eve, 1914, men of the British Many soldiers in the First World War Army in September 1917. It was one of the were buried almost where they fell. These Expeditionary Force heard German troops singing suffered from trench foot. This was an most lethal of all the poisonous chemicals corpses (dead bodies), as well as the food Christmas carols. The following day, British and infection of the feet causes by cold, wet used during the war. It was almost scraps in the trenches, attracted rats. One German soldiers met in no man’s land, exchanged gifts and unsanitary conditions. In the odourless (without smell) and took 12 pair of rats can produce 880 offspring in a and took photographs. On Christmas Day there was a trenches men stood for hours on end in hours to take effect. The skin of victims of year and so the trenches were soon football match and trenches were repaired. The truce waterlogged trenches without being mustard gas blistered, the eyes became swarming with them. Some of these rats did not happen everywhere and after 1914, High able to remove wet socks or boots. very sore and they began to vomit. Mustard grew extremely large with one soldier writing Commands tried to prevent this happening again. Water could be knee deep, in winter gas caused internal and external bleeding ‘they were so big they would eat a wounded However, in quiet sectors of the front line, there was the mud could freeze as hard as a rock. and attacked organs used for breathing. It man if he couldn’t defend himself.’ sometimes brief pauses in fighting for both sides to The feet would gradually go numb and usually took a person four or five weeks to repair their trenches or gather their dead. the skin would turn red and blue. die of mustard gas poisoning. Daily medical checks were also part of the If left untreated, trench foot could turn At the beginning of the war, British soldiers were fed Trenches were most active at night soldier’s daily routine. Every soldier was gangrenous (where skin tissue dies) and well, but as the war went on, food started to be when an attack was most likely. Sentries crawling with lice – in their hair, on their result in amputation (having your foot cut rationed (only given a small amount). Soldiers mainly (a soldier stationed to keep guard or to body, in their clothes. Additionally, trench off). During the winter of 1914-15 over ate tinned corned beef, thin pea-soup with lumps of control access to a place), had to keep a water was usually brought to the front line 20,000 men in the British Army were treated horsemeat in it, bread and biscuits. The bread and careful watch, while others repaired in petrol cans with chloride of lime was for trench foot. biscuits were usually stale. Due to the time taken for defences or barbed wire, or carried out added to kill off bacteria. This gave water food to arrive, soldiers in the trenches sometimes went scouting or spying missions. an awful taste. days without food. In the trenches, every day was much the The Germany Army first used chlorine gas in Gas same as the last. Nothing really changed April 1915. French soldiers reported seeing Dysentery is a disease that causes inflammation of the Disease unless there was a battle. To keep busy, yellow-green clouds drifting towards the large intestine. This inflammation leads to stomach soldiers played cards, wrote letters or read trenches which smelt of pineapple and pains and diarrhoea and even sickness and fever. The Rats to pass the time. There were also mundane pepper. The gas made it hard for people to bacteria could enter the body through dirty food or jobs to do such as repairing damage to the breathe and destroyed soldier’s respiratory Food water and struck men in the trench due to there being trench, filling sandbags, carrying supplies organs. Many soldiers died as doctors were no proper sanitation. Soldiers had to go to the toilet in Daily life and cleaning latrines (toilets). Every soldier unable to find a treatment. pits and they couldn’t keep clean. also had a rifle to keep clean.  Preparation for the Attack The Attack Field Marshall Haig planned the attack. Before the On 1st July 1916, after 10 days of artillery bombardment, the 5. attack, on 21st June 1916, the British artillery began to British attack began. At 07.30am, nearly 100,000 British troops fire shells at the German trenches. The British thought climbed out of their trenches and walked towards the German that this would kills the Germans, destroy their guns and front line. The British artillery was ordered to remain silent for the barbed wire defences. The British soldiers could 10 minutes to allowed soldiers to cross No Man’s Land without then walk across No Man’s Land and take the German being shelled by their own side. trenches. 4 For 10 days the bombardment continued. with an unbelievable 1,732,873 shells fired by the British artillery. The bombardment was so great that it could be heard in England. 5. The Battle of the A Failed Plan However, something had gone badly wrong. The British bombardment had not killed the German soldiers who Somme had been sheltering in very deep and well-built dug outs and tunnels. To make matters worse, the artillery bombardment had turned No Man’s Land into a sea of shell craters and the German wire had not been broken The End making it very difficult to pass. German machine guns On 18th November, following weeks of bad ripped into the advancing British troops. On the 1st July weather, the Battle of the Somme ended 1916, the British army suffered the worst ever with no one side having won a decisive casualties in its history. Over 20,000 soldiers were killed victory. or missing and over 34,000 were wounded. From July to November, the British and French had only gained 12km of land and pressure had been relieved at Verdun. However, there were 420,000 British casualties and 200,000 French. There were also around 500,000 German casualties. It War Continues remains one of the bloodiest battles in When the British troops did not break through German lines on 1st July, Haig told them to keep up “a steady history. pressure on the Somme battle.” They were to wear down the enemy troops (a plan called ‘attrition’). Some people say that Haig made bad The troops did their best, but the Somme, like the whole war on the Western Front, killed thousands on both decisions and blame him for so many people sides while getting nowhere. dying. In the three months after 1st July 1916 the British continued to attack and gradually capture the German positions on the German front and continued to suffer huge casualties. 6. 6. 7. German offensive Strikes in Germany USA entered the war Germany needed to defeat the allies on the Western front before the Americans arrived to help the allied attack. They had a plan called the ‘March Offensive’. A last all out attack. In 1918 there were strikes in Germany about the effects of America entered the war in 1917 bringing fresh troops to Within 4 days they had advanced 14miles. Further attacks the war on ordinary German people. Hours were long, pay help the allies against Germany. These men volunteered and came in April and May, getting as close as 56 miles from Paris. was low, men were dying or wounded, each family was had never been in a major war before. By 1918, 250,000 suffering. troops were coming every month. Why the allies won the war. Abdication of the Kaiser Starvation in Germany Kaiser Wilhelm – the German king – abdicated (left the British ships blocked German ports so food supplies could throne) on November 9th 1918. Germany tried to negotiate German Mutiny not be delivered to Germany. German people were starving terms for a surrender, but the allies would only accept total surrender with the abdication of the Kaiser key to their demands In October 1918 a popular General – Ludendorff – resigned. The German navy (soldiers at sea) mutinied (refused to fight, disobeying orders). This spread to the Dock workers in the sea ports like Kiel and Hamburg, and then factories.