Y9 History

Week beginning 27/04/20

What made trenches such good defensive

features?

Please spend ONE HOUR on each lesson this week.

Lesson One:

1. Study the diagrams of the trenches and then complete the table

about the defensive features.

2. Label the fill-in-the-blank diagram of a trench.

3. Label as many features of trenches as you can on the photos of WWI

trenches.

Trenches made attack very difficult. Traditional infantry advances were

ineffective against well-defended trenches.

Source A:

Source B:

Look at sources A and B. They show a cross section of a trench and an

overhead view of a trench system. Use the diagrams to write two lists:

Features defending against

machine guns and artillery

Problems a soldier would face when

attacking enemy trenches

Without using the above work, how many features of a WWI trench can you

identify? Label the blanks on the diagram:

Now label as many features as you can identify on the photos of WWI

trenches:

Lesson Two:

The Battles of Verdun and the Somme (1916)

1. Read the information on the Battles of Verdun and the Somme.

2. Complete the fact-files on the two battles.

3. Save or print your work.

Verdun:

The Motive

German Chief of General Staff, von Falkenhayn, ordered the attack on Verdun. As

he put it, he wanted to “bleed France white” through a massive German attack on

a narrow stretch of land that had historic sentiment for the French. Verdun had

twenty major forts and forty smaller ones that had been used previously to protect

France’s eastern border and had been modernised in the early years of the 20th

century.

France’s pride lay in those forts and it would be a national humiliation if the forts fell.

It was a shrewd plan by Falkenhayn because he knew that the French would fight to

the last man to defend their pride and in so doing they would lose so many soldiers

that it would change the course of the war.

The Battle

The attack was started by 140,000 German troops. In the Verdun region, they had

1,200 artillery guns that were equipped with 2,500,000 shells and had 1,300

ammunition trains to supply these guns. The German air force also provided some

more firepower as they had 168 planes located in the area. These numbers were the

largest in history up to that point. On the other side, the French only had 30,000

troops to fight off the Germans. On February 21st, when the battle started, 1,000

German artillery guns fired on a six-mile line along the French front. The impact of

these artillery guns was retold by one French soldier who managed to survive. He

said, “Men were squashed, cut in two or divided from top to bottom, blown into

showers, bellies turned inside out.”

These attacks continued and the subsequent battle lasted for more than 300 days.

Germany advanced the eight miles needed to capture Verdun thanks to a large

number of flamethrowers. 10,000 French soldiers were captured by the 25th of

February. German soldiers were surprised at the little resistance they got from the

huge fort of Douaumont, which was considered to be the most powerful fort in the

world. Only 56 elderly part-time gunners were manning it. In an attempt to hide their

losses, the French public was not immediately told about the fall of Douaumont by

the government. As a matter of fact, some Parisian newspapers did not even carry

any stories about its loss, claiming that the battle around Verdun was going well for

the French. The fort at Douaumont was only five miles from Verdun.

General Philippe Pétain, in charge of defending Verdun, was in an extremely difficult

situation. The road leading to Verdun was just a narrow path not designed for

vehicles and military tanks, so calling for reinforcements would be hard. 6,000

vehicles were supposed to help defend Verdun by ferrying 25,000 tons of

ammunition and 90,000 soldiers into Verdun. The road was nicknamed “Sacred Way”

by the French. Despite all these reinforcements, the French suffered badly and this

was summed up by two French soldiers present at the war who described their

ordeal. They said, “You eat beside the dead; you drink beside the dead and you

sleep beside the dead. People will read that the front line was Hell. How can people

begin to know what that one word – Hell – means?”

In all wars, both sides suffer and the Germans also suffered huge losses. By the end of

April, the Germans had lost 120,000 men compared to the French who had lost

133,000 men. General Pétain said, “When they came out of the battle, what a pitiful

sight they were. Their expressions seemed frozen by a wisdom of terror; they sagged

beneath the weight of horrifying memories.”

In the spring of 1916, Pétain asked the government for more and more men until it

got to a point where they said no. He asked for men because he had planned an

attack on Somme. General Pétain was eventually replaced by General Nivelle, a

person who believed that you always had to be on the offensive in order to win a

war. Soon, summer descended upon the soldiers and by then France had gained

an edge over their enemies in terms of air supremacy.

In Paris, 150 miles away, life went on as ‘normal’. Some soldiers were fortunate

enough to survive Verdun but they returned to an alien world. Food was plentiful,

unlike what they had been used to in the war. Theatres were also open and people

entertained themselves. A few brave souls talked about the situation just 150 miles

away. French soldiers found their pay did not go far in Paris. Mutiny started to occur

in the fields as French factory workers were earning about sixty times the pay of

French soldiers over the course of a week. This disparity became profound in the

summer of 1916.

When it was time for the last push to conquer Verdun, German troops were

stretched to their limit as they had given their all and could give no more. They were

now only 2.5 miles away from Verdun. On June 24th, the explosions in Somme could

be heard at Verdun and things shifted within days. The battle at the Somme was to

change things on the Western Front. In October 1916, two forts at Vaux and

Douaumont had been recaptured by the French but the surrounding land where

the initial stages of the battle had taken place since February, was a wasteland. The

battle at Verdun, however, continued to December.

The Aftermath

The number of casualties that were experienced in this battle was astronomical.

Reference books that recorded this battle offer different statistics on how many

people died. An accurate figure will never be gotten. It is approximated that the

French lost over 360,000 and the Germans nearly 340,000. The battle of Somme was

started to help the French and the British hoped that a swift victory here would force

the Germans to remove troops from the Verdun area. They did not know what they

were getting into as this battle lasted for months.

(Article adapted from schoolhistory.co.uk)

The Battle of Verdun

Date When did it take place?

Location Where did it take place?

Significance Why was this Battle important?

Belligerents Who took part in the Battle?

Casualties and Losses How many people were injured and died on each side?

Result Who won the Battle? How and why?

Consequences What effect might this have on the War?

The Somme

The Battle of the Somme started in July 1st 1916. It lasted until November 1916.

For many years those who led the British campaign received criticism for the way the

Battle of the Somme was fought – especially General Sir Douglas Haig. This criticism

was based on the appalling casualty figures suffered by the British and the French.

By the end of the battle, the British Army had suffered 420,000 casualties including

nearly 60,000 on the first day alone. The French lost 200,000 men and the Germans

nearly 500,000.

The battle at the Somme started with a weeklong artillery bombardment of the

German lines. 1,738,000 shells were fired at the Germans. The logic behind this was

that the artillery guns would destroy the German trenches and barbed wire placed

in front of the trenches.

In fact, the Germans had deep dugouts for their men and all they had to do when

the bombardment started was to move these men into the relative safety of the

deep dugouts. When the bombardment stopped, the Germans would have known

that this would have been the signal for an infantry advance. They moved from the

safety of their dugouts and manned their machine guns to face the British and

French.

On the first day of fighting, July 1, 1916, thousands of British soldiers got out of their

trenches and began to advance on the German lines. Many were gunned down in

no man’s land. However due to the huge number of troops attacking the German

line soldiers did get through. They were followed by cavalry. This was not a great

success. The muddy conditions made horses a slow and riders easy targets. The man

to man combat that followed was bloody and horrific. It was the worst day in the

history of British warfare. They suffered around 60,000 casualties including 20,000

dead on that first day of battle.

The average British fighter carried at least 30kg of equipment with him while going

over the trenches in the initial phases of the battle and the furthest advance of any

allied force during the battle was just 5 miles.

The Battle of the Somme was the first battle in WW1 to use tanks, with varied results,

many broke down and when working were only able to go at a maximum speed of

4 miles per hour.

On 19 November 1916 the battle was suspended, mainly due to the harsh winter

weather and dwindling supplies. Some historians argue that if the Allies had

continued a few weeks they could have broken through German lines while others

claim they never had a realistic chance. By the end of the battle, in November 1916,

the British had lost 420,000, the French lost nearly 200,000 men and the Germans

500,000. The Allied forces had advanced along a thirty-mile strip that was seven

miles deep at its maximum.

(Article adapted from schoolhistory.co.uk)

The Battle of the Somme

Date When did it take place?

Location Where did it take place?

Significance Why was this Battle important?

Belligerents Who took part in the Battle?

Casualties and Losses How many people were injured and died on each side?

Result Who won the Battle? How and why?

Consequences What effect might this have on the War?