The Deepening of the War

1915 Chronology: Not Over By Christmas

• January Introduction of food rationing in Germany• Feb.-March Allied attempts to take the Dardanelles• Feb.-Sept. Intensive German submarine warfare begins• March 21 First German air raid on Paris• April 8 Turkey initiates deportation and massacre of

Armenians• April 22-May 27 Second Battle of Ypres; introduction of gas

warfare• April 25 Allied land campaign against Turks in Gallipoli begins• May 7 Sinking of the Lusitania by German U-boat• May 23 Italy enters war on Allied side• July Coal miners strike in South Wales; Munitions of War

Act passed in Britain• Sept. 24 Battle of Loos

How the war proceeds: The Big Picture

Stuart Robson’s Distinct Periods of WWI by Year:

1914. War of Movement bogs down

1915. Badly planned offensive disasters in west and trench warfare; German successes against Russia; at home, state-controlled war economy emerges

1916. The “Classic” Phase

1917. The Despair Phase

1918. It’s over Phase

“Two Nations” and Many Fronts

• Between workers and middle class

• Between generations

• Between dominant power and ethnic minorities

• Between women and men

• Between pacifism and militarism

• Between urban and rural

Fronts of War

• War Front: Trench

• Home Front: Women, Workers, Governments

• “Rejection” of Fronts

• Non-western Fronts

• “Internal” Fronts

How did these front experiences shape self, state, and society during the war and after the war? What becomes the new normal?

5 Key Questions PosedHeather Jones, “As the Centenary Approaches: The Regeneration of First World War Historiography” in The Historical Journal, Vol 56 (2013)

• Why did war break out? √

• Why did the allies win?

• Were the generals to blame for the high casualty rates (especially Haig!)?

• How did men endure trench warfare?

• To what extent did civilian society accept and endorse the war effort?

Endurance the norm?

• Alexander Watson’s Enduring the War (2008):

• Men adapted, resiliency most standard response and kept fighting

• Good leadership made critical difference in morale (especially with junior officers)

• Religion/Patriotism/Propaganda

• Military Discipline not so harsh?

• Mutinies rare, revolution rarer still

Structure of Army• Army under General ~200,000 soldiers

• Corps under Lieutenant-General ~50,000 soldiers

• Division under Major-General ~12,000 soldiers

• Brigade under Brigadier ~4,000 soldiers

• Regiment under Colonel ~2,000 soldiers

• Battalion under Major ~1,000 soldiers

• Company under Captain ~250 soldiers

• Platoon under Subaltern ~60 soldiers

• Section under Lance-Corporal ~15 soldiers

1915: The Death of Innocence?

Lyn Macdonald, 1915: The Death of Innocence (1995).

Stalemate by 1915

Pte. L. Mitchell, 24th Field Ambulance, 8 Div. on Battle of Aubers Ridge (British offensive on the Western Front) 9 May 1915. A disaster.

Normalizing War (or how to normalize the abnormal?)

1915: The Subterranean World of Trenches and the Institutionalization of War

The Troglodyte World

• John Ellis in Eye-Deep in Hell: Trench Warfare in World War I (1976)

• George L Mosse, Fallen Soldiers: Reshaping the Memory of the World Wars (1990)

• Stephane Audoin-Rouzeau and Annette Becker, 14-18: Understanding the Great War (French 2000, USA 2002).

“Total Battle” “unprecedented Level of violence” (Stephane Audoin-Rouzeau and Annette Becker, 14-18)

Argue war has been sanitized, “cleaned-up” so that violence of war diminished. (Unacceptable)

French historians prefer not to dwell on the violence of WWI; British and American historians have done a better job of developing military history (e.g. John Keegan’s The Face of Battle).

How to make sense of the violence?

Fallen Soldiers Intro.• Mosse: “More than twice as many men died in action

or of their wounds in the First World War as were killed in all major wars between 1790 and 1914.” (p.3).

• “Some thirteen million men died in the First World War, while Napoleon in the war against Russia, the bloodiest campaign before that time, lost 400,000 men—some 600,000 fewer than fell on all sides in the inconclusive battle of the Somme in 1916.” (p. 3).

• The greatest war in 19th C., Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871): 150,000 French dead and 44,780 Prussians.

After WWIAudoin-Rouzeau and Becker on loss of life per WWI to WWII: “on average almost 900 Frenchmen and 1,300 Germans died everyday between the outbreak of war in August 1914 and the armistice in November 1918.” (p. 22) When average # of daily casualties losses compared between WWI and WWII, WWI mortality rates higher except for Russia (which had heavier losses in WWII). Britain in WWII (1939-45) lost 147 men per day, in WWI lost 457 men a day (p. 22). Somme (1 July 1916): 20,000 men from British empire killed, 40,000 wounded. “No day in the Second World War was so deadly, even on the Eastern Front.” (p. 23).

Dehumanization of War• Fire power turns skill, training, and courage into

gruel, matter of “luck” if survive?

• Hit by large-caliber shells no identifiable remains.

Endurance?

• Audoin-Rouzeau and Becker: “More than half of the 70 million soldiers engaged in the Great War suffered physically from its violence, whether it killed them or “only” wounded them.” (p. 25) “and we should not rule out the possibility that almost half of the survivors sustained more of less serious psychological disturbances.” (p. 25)

The Troglodyte World (Fussell)475 miles long, from North Sea through Belgium, Flanders, and France to Switzerland. Between trenches: “no-man’s land”Over 12,000 miles of trenches on the allied side, add Central Powers, about 25,000 miles of trenches, zig-zagged, “equal to a trench sufficient to circle the earth. Theoretically it would have been possible to walk from Belgium to Switzerland entirely below ground . . . .” (Fussell, 37) The British part of the line normally populated by about 800 battalions of 1000 men each. Concentrated in Ypres Salient in Flanders and Somme in Picardy.

The Inversion of War:Trenches define combat

Inversion of war from offensive to defensive: “Inverted” sieges of extended duration

Siegfried Sasson on trenches: “When all is said and done, the war was mainly a matter of holes and ditches.”

Transformation of war, transformation of soldiers: Image of WWI combatant?

How the holes began

• Individual foxhole to protect from shells, then individual foxholes linked. Become basis for trench lines and soldiers become underground creatures.

• Trenches appear on all fronts but develop first on western front

• Trenches on other fronts more rudimentary in part because war remained more fluid.

• Germans better trained at building field defenses and took the lead in creating systematic trench networks and would always have better trenches, pioneered the use of concrete blocks and use of electricity.

national differences in trenches

• Pimp my trench! Germans better: deeper, even “comfortable” trenches. Doorbells, water tanks with taps, cupboards and mirrors, real kitchens, heated, wallpaper. Efficient, clean, and permanent.

• French: nasty, cynical, efficient, temporary.

• British: amateur, vague, ad hoc, temporary (always hoping for the break-out so trenches not a priority) (Fussell, 45)

Trenches reflect views of war?

• Germans: Invaders. Durable trench viable strategy: Principle of “in-depth defense”--successive lines of trenches separated by 2-3 km., supported by concrete pillboxes with machine gun posts. Sept. 1916 Hindenburg line created fortified zone.

• French and Russian situation “temporary,” hence trenches temporary. Accounts obsession of the breakthrough, futile assaults.

Unseen World War I photos:German Trenches

By Dean Putney

French trench at Côte 304, Verdun, 1916

Easier to Draw than Maintain

Trench construction diagram from a 1914 British infantry manual

Trenches• Front-line trench

• Support trench line

• Reserve line

• Three kinds of trenches: firing trenches, communication trenches, saps

• From the rear, follow communication trench up line, by time reached reserve line, well below ground level.

Trenches• Funk Holes: One or two men holes

• Floor of trench: covered with wooden duckboards with sumps to collect water. Walls supported by sandbags, corrugated iron, bundles of sticks.

• Barbed wire (an American invention)

• Directional and traffic control signs everywhere in trenches, an underground city or inverted fortress.

Kensington Gardens “Ideal” Trench

Trench exhibitions. Reality much different: wet , cold, smelly, squalid, shabby.

Soldiers Endure

• Soldiers march 15-20 miles per day; 10 minutes of rest allowed each hour. Carried from 60-77 pounds of supplies.

• British recruit weighed on average 132 pounds. Grossly overloaded (the French even more so with a kit of 85 pounds). Poor quality British boots weighed 5 pounds. Men confined to barracks waiting for new boots. Great coat weighed 7 pounds before water and mud added, add 20 pounds for water-logged coat, and another 7 plus pounds for mud, coat averaged between 34-58 pounds. (Ellis, 45)

A typical day in the British trenches:5am - 'Stand-to' (short for 'Stand-to-Arms', meaning to be on high-alert for enemy attack) half an hour before daylight5.30am - Rum ration6am - Stand-to half an hour after daylight7am - Breakfast (usually bacon and tea)After 8am - Clean themselves, clean weapons, tidy trenchHear from veteran Tommies

Soldier on watch while others restWatch a clip with veteran Tommies describing life in the trenchesNoon - DinnerAfter dinner - Sleep and downtime (one man per ten on duty)5pm - Tea6pm - Stand-to half an hour before dusk6.30pm - Stand-down half an hour after dusk6.30pm onwards - Work all night with some time for rest (patrols, digging trenches, putting up barbed wire, getting stores, replacement of unit of soldiers every five days)

Night Creatures and “ant-work” (Fussell)

• Combat exception rather than rule.• During day, men cleaned weapons, did repairs, slept, wrote. • At night, work began: wiring parties, digging parties, carrying

parties, night patrols, raiding parties. Communication lines fragile and field telephones in constant need of repair.

• By 4:30 back underground. I• In trenches: “One saw two things only: the walls of an unlocalized,

undifferentiated earth and the sky above.” (Fussell, 51) Sunrise and sunsets at stand-to’s. Sky became reference point, only escape from ugliness of front. Often times sky reflects the shabbiness and greyness of front by delivering torrential rains, constant drizzle, and freezing, overcast days.

logistical problems

• Constant issues: Lack of troop mobility (how to move in a maze?), transporting supplies

• Troops would get lost for hours in trenches, compound exhaustion.

Who Will Stop the Rain?Between 25 October 1914 and 10 March 1915, only 18 days without rain and out of these 18 days, 11 had temperatures below freezing.In 1916, Continent experienced the heaviest rainfall in 35 years; torrential rains. Flooded Trenches: Mud suck men in and not release them. Soldiers forced to walk on top of the trench.

November 1916, one Guards battalion at Somme lost 16 men through exhaustion and drowning in the mud. Drowning in the mud an enormous fear for men at the front. (Ellis, 45) Dampness creates “trench foot” problem which could lead to gangrene. 74,711 British troops admitted to hospitals in France with trench foot or frostbite. Need to keep feet dry and need dry socks. Not enough dry socks and too much rain. (Ellis, 48)

Two British soldiers standing in a flooded communication trench during World War One

Chateau Wood, Ypres, 1917

Lice, Rats, Flies, and Stench• “Lousy”: Great War word • Rats a constant. Big, black, wet, muddy. Swarms feed off of

cadavers and dead horses. One pair of rats could produce some 880 offspring in a year (Ellis, 52).

• Flies cover everything. • Stench of death Could smell front line miles before arrived.• Ellis sums up combination of rain and stench: “Yet all the

rain that fell on the Western Front was not enough to wash away the accumulated filth. The rubbish, urine, excreta, corpses in the trenches, as well as the unwashed state of the men, produced every type of pestilence and disease associated with such conditions.” (p. 52)

Advertisement for Sunlight Soap in the trenches (1915)

Norming the AbnormalRoutines, rules and codes of conduct created. Sports: boxing, football, rugby (manliness, cohesion, team spirit)

Gambling

Concerts with songs and sketches.

Reading not very popular

Ultimately survival main focus.

Germans playing cards next to the garden.

A barber in a French trench

1915: The first football kickoffFirst Battalion of the 18th London Regiment at Loos in 1915. Kick football while attacking. War is sport, sport is war.Most famous football episode: Capt. W.P. Nevill(company commander in 8th East Surreys) at the Somme, brought 4 footballs, one for each platoon, and offered a prize to the platoon who kicked its football to the German frontline first. Nevill killed instantly. Reinforced the sporting image and sense of fair play that was seen as so important for the Brits.

A cartoon depicting the men of the London Irish Rifles booting their football towards the German Front Line

1915: first use of poisonous gas. • Jan. 1915 used on Eastern Front at Bolimov . Weather conditions poor (too

cold, gas—xylyl bromide—could not evaporate.

• Second Battle of Ypres, Germans test poisonous gas as new weapon. Mortars begin to fire (April 22) and at same time Germans released chlorine gas from canisters (cylinder gas) from their own trenches. Gas drifted towards Allied lines, caught by surprise (although German deserters had warned them). Yellowish-green cloud. Chlorine a choking agent that silently attacks the lungs and respiratory system. Painful death, frightening, panic. Left 4 mile wide gap while French colonial troops from Algeria and French fled. German Commander failed to take advantage of opportunity for breakthrough. Canadians resisted advancing Germans, also caught up in gas attack but drenched rags in canteen water and covered their mouths. By 1916, artillery shells could deliver gas, eliminating dependence on wind direction.

• Gas too unpredictable to be war-winning weapon but morale affected. Cause panic, soldiers hated gas mask.

Gassed (1919) by John Singer Sargent

Detail from Otto Dix's StormtroopersAdvancing Under a Gas Attack, from his 1924 set of first world war drawings,

Gas• All sides used gas but Germany produced and used more gas (more than 68,000

tons), France (almost 37,000 tons) and Britain (more than 25,000).• Cylinder gas in vapor form; shell gas liquid. Classified as lethal or irritant. Some

compounds resulted in instant death, some delayed-action. Some create years of suffering. Gas dependent on climatic conditions, besides wind directions, also rain. Some gas might remain active for days, others dispersed quickly—most frightening aspect of gas was the uncertainty if gas had been released and if still active. Gas casualties small (3-4% overall) but TERROR effective.

• Best weather conditions: little wind, moist atmosphere, and no sun. Many varieties of gas compounds: best known “mustard gas” (Dichlorethylsulphide), also known as yellow cross. Introduced in 1917. One of the most effective, though not officially lethal, blistered and burned the skin, even through clothing, caused blindness (usually temporary) and if inhaled could cause death from bronchial pneumonia, burning the respiratory system. Shell carried and remained potent for several days in favorable climate. Blue Cross, Germans introduced in 1917, fine particles could penetrate gasmasks—effects of retching, headaches, severe headaches. Phosgene (carbonyl chloride) introduced in 1915, delayed action, could cause sudden death after 48 hours of exposure with victim not realizing he had been gassed.

1915 and Tanks(a weapon of the future)

Tank not fully utilized. British navy developed heavy armored vehicle on treads and the stalemate of 1915 created more favorable environment to idea.

Haig hoped that its use would lead to the highly-anticipated breakthrough. Didn’t happened.

Dehumanizing, frightening. Heavy tanks as the “land version of the naval warship” and light tanks as the battlefield successor of the horse”. (AudoinRouzeu, Combat, 183)