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Daniel
Hine 3Kb
Why did trench
warfare cost so many lives in World War I?
Contents
Introduction - The build up to WW1 Tactics - How the war was meant to be won Trench
Layout – How trenches were designed Conditions
in the trenches – What soldiers lived in Weapons
used in WWI - And how effective they were Conclusion – What was the cause of so many deaths? My
feelings – About the soldiers who fought in WWI Bibliography – Where I found out all my information In
this investigation I will attempt to answer the following question, Why did trench warfare
cost so many lives in World War I? After
an introduction to how trench warfare started, I will look at four
aspects of trench warfare Tactics –
How the war was meant to be won Trench
Layout – How
trenches were designed Conditions
in the trenches – What soldiers lived in Weapons
used in WWI – And how effective they were Then
in a conclusion I will look at the causes of death in WWI and then
state what I think was the main reason that trench warfare cost so
many lives in WWI. Finally
I will say a little about my feelings concerning the soldiers who gave
their lives in WWI and finish with a bibliography.
Introduction
– The build up to WW1
On the 28th June 1914 Arch Duke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary was assassinated by Serbian terrorists. A month later Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia and within another week the whole of Europe and their European colonies worldwide were involved in a war which cost 10million lives and ruined millions of others. Why did such a costly world war result, because of one man’s murder? To explain this we have to go back 50 years to 1871, when Germany defeated France in a war. France wanted revenge, but couldn’t fight Germany without allies. The German general Von Schlieffen made treaties with all the major European powers (except France), so that France had no one to ally herself with and consequently France couldn’t fight another war. If things had stayed like this there might never have been WW1, but unfortunately they changed. When Kaiser Wilhelm II became king of Germany, he sacked Bismark and let the treaties lapse. He was determined to make Germany into a great colonial power and didn’t care to be diplomatic. The Kaiser was depicted as power mad, as shown in the cartoon below.
An Italian cartoon from 1915 Kaiser Wilhelm began to build up his navy, which Britain felt was a threat to her colonies, which were defended by Britain’s navy, the strongest in the world. This caused tension between Britain and Germany, who were traditionally friends. Also, Wilhelm tried to stir up trouble between France and Britain over African colonies, notably Morocco, but Britain supported France and the Kaiser was forced to back down, leaving him humiliated. This strengthened Britain’s relationship with France. By letting the treaties Bismark had made lapse, Wilhelm gave Germany’s former ally Russia the chance to ally herself with France, though Germany stayed allied to Austria-Hungary. By 1914 each of the major European powers had made various alliances promising to support their allies if a war broke out. Europe was divided into two armed camps.
When
Austria-Hungary, with Germany’s support, declared war on Serbia,
Russia mobilised her army and rushed to help Serbia, her Slavic
neighbour.
Germany then
declared war on Russia and so France declared war on Germany.
Germany was now faced with a war on two fronts, in the east and
west against Russia and France. Many years before WWI, Count Von Schlieffen had devised a plan to
enable Germany to fight a war on two fronts. He reckoned it would take Russia six weeks to mobilise her troops
and bring them all to the German border. So if German troops could reach Paris and defeat France in six
weeks, she could then bring most of her troops to the eastern front to
defeat Russia. This plan
came very close to working, but failed in the end for a number of
reasons. The first part of
the plan, was that Germany would send many troops through neutral
Belgium en route to France, rather than try and cross the heavily
fortified Germany-France border. This
was done and Britain said if the German troops didn’t retreat, Britain
would enter the war against Germany. The Germans pressed on and on the 4th August 1914,
Britain declared war on Germany. The
First World War had begun. We
have seen how the war began, but what caused trench warfare? Well, it was caused by the Failure of the Schlieffen plan, which
happened for the following reasons. Firstly the Belgians, who put up stout resistance, slowed down
the Germans and also the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) a group of
slightly under 150,000 highly trained professionals from Britain,
delayed the Germans. Secondly
the Germans turned too early and instead of troops surrounding Paris,
all the troops came in from the north. Yet despite these mistakes the Germans were within sight of the
Eiffel Tower, when news came of the Russians attacking after just two
weeks. Troops had to be
sent to the eastern front, weakening the army heading for Paris. Finally the French managed to bring troops to Paris at the last
minute. After a fierce
battle at the River Marne in September 1914, the Germans and French dug
trenches for shelter, then they each tried to outflank each other. Soon opposite lines of trenches stretched from Switzerland to the
English Channel. Both
armies dug deeper into the ground and fortified these trenches as winter
approached, expecting a war of movement to return in the spring, but
this did not happen and trench warfare had begu |
