1.3 Fighting the war

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1.3 Fighting the war

Goals for this lesson

At the end of this lesson you...

• can point out the influence the industrial revolution in the way the Great War was fought.
• can explain why 1917 was such a decisive year for the war.
• can explain the term total war.

c. 4,000,000 rifles

c. 250,000 machine guns

c. 52,000 airplanes

c. 2,800 tanks

c. 25,000 artillery pieces

c. 170,000,000 rounds of artillery shells

That was only British production...

Continuity

(What stays the same)

Trenches

Battles

Cavalry

 Change

Airplanes

Submarines (U-boat)

Chemical weapons (gas)

Tanks

Poem - Wilfred Owen

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys! An ecstasy of fumbling 

Fitting the clumsy helmet just in time,

But someone still was yelling out and stumbling

And floud'ring like a man in fire or lime.

Dim through the misty panes and thick green light, 

As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

Stalemate

• During the first few years of the war the frontlines only moved back and forth.
• Multiple offensives were started, but they didn't change the situation much. 

Which country joined the war in 1917?

Important event (1/2)

• The USA joins the war in 1917 on the side of the Allied forces.
• Cause 1: Germany declares total war at sea (1915).
• Cause 2: Zimmerman Telegram = Germany tried to get Mexico to join war against the USA (1917).

Zimmerman Telegram

Important event (2/2)

• The Germans used supported the leader of the revolution, Vladimir Lenin, to take control of the Russian government.
• When he was in power he signed a peace treaty with the Germans.
• Russia leaves the war with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk.

After 1917

• 1918: Spring offensive by Germany to win before the Americans arrive on the battlefield.
• This offensive failed and the combined economies and forces of ENG, FR and the USA proved too strong.

Total war

= Not just the army, but the whole of society was involved. 

• National economy: raw materials and production of goods used for army (arms, uniforms, etc.).
• Enormous number of casualties