dead on the wire
DESCRIPTION
Over the TopTRANSCRIPT
Dead on the Wire
Over the Top
No Mans Land-Flanders
View from Fire Step
Machine Gun Post
De-Lousing
Battle of Verdun 1916German Chief of Staff – Von Falkenhayn
“the forces of France will bleed to death”
21 February 1916
French shelled for 9 hours – 80,000 shells
French commander General Petain
What would break Scotland?
• If we were invaded, what city would be try to defend at all costs?
VERDUN, 1916http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/maps/maps_verdun.html
German & French dead
German dead, Verdun
Before and After
Result of Verdun
French recaptured the Fort Douaumont377,000 French dead, missing or wounded337,000 Germans
Over 750,000 casualties total
Battle of Somme
British & French wanted to create a gap inGerman lines
French asked to attack to be brought forwardeddue to Verdun – 1st July 1916
• How would you attack the German trenches? What tactics would you use?–List as many as you can–Think what it would be like to be either
a general or a soldier in the trenches and what you would want to do if you were attacking
–5 Minutes
General Haig’s Plan
1. Week long artillery bombardment2. Use of planes to target German forces3. Shelling to destroy barbed wire4. Having destroyed machine guns & trenches –
allied troops would secure the German front
7.30am 1st July 1916 allied soldiers ordered to fix bayonets to riffles & go
“over the top”
“Good-morning; good-morning!” the General saidWhen we met him last week on our way to the line.Now the soldiers he smiled at are most of ‘em dead,And we’re cursing his staff for incompetent swine.“He’s a cheery old card,” grunted Harry to JackAs they slogged up to Arras with rifle and pack.
But he did for them both by his plan of attack.
Siegfried Sassoon
German troops near Bapaume , Battle of Somme
British troops on way to front July 1916, Somme The General, Sassoon
July 1st 1916-
7:28 bombs are detonated under the German trenches- giving them a 2 minute warning7:30 men go over the top
They are carrying a gas mask, groundsheet, field dressings, trench spade, 150 rounds of ammo and extras like – sandbags or a roll of barbed wire
Totalling 80 lbs of equipment
Thinking German lines had been destroyed and that new recruits would be disorganised they ordered that men should walk in straight lines across no mans land
They were slaughtered!
“They went down in their hundreds. You didn’t have to aim, we just fired into them” wrote a German machine gunner
1 British battalion could not advance because they could not climb over the bodies of the dead and wounded that were in their way
Officers were ordered to carry only a pistol and to lead their men- were easily picked out and shot
A British commander decided to detonate a mine which had failed, the result--- he buried his own men under rock and soil
The End of the Somme
First Day• 19,240 British dead• 35,494 British wounded• 2,152 unaccounted foritish missing
General Haig halted the battle in November• Allies had gained 125 sq mile• 400,000 British casualties• 200,000 French casualties• 450,000 German casualties
Haig: lessons from the Somme• Haig recorded what he saw as the lessons from the
Somme:– The only possible way of preventing the enemy from interfering
with our artillery and photo machines is to force him to defend himself in his own country- for this large numbers of fighting machines of the best are essential
– The great value of successful co-operation with the artillery– The great value of photographs taken from aeroplanes– The moral effect of superiority in the air upon our troops on the
ground had been out of all proportion to casualties inflicted upon the enemy
ABANDONED German trench 1916 Somme
Watching theBattle of the Somme
Dead on the Somme
Dead British