World War 1

14 Diaries of the First World War- The Tipping Point (Part 8)

Topics 1. Film sequence 2. Contents and summary 3. Russian Civil War 4. Course of the war 1918 5. The Spring Offensive 6. Battle of Amiens / Losses at the battle 7. Western front 8. Chemical Weapons 9. Stap- in- the back- myth 10.Why did the soldiers suffer 11.Our paintings 12.Casualties / total amounts 13.Civil inventions 14.The end of the First World War 15. List of sources

2. 14 Diaries of the First World War The Tipping Point

The movie is about the end of the First World War especially about the Western front and the use of chemical weapons and civil inventions. It describes how the power balance in Europe has changed. .

3. Russian Civil War

• beginning controversial : November 1917 or spring of 1918.

• Red Army is established in the course of the civil war- want to introduce communism

• Red Army is against Cossacks – Tsar family is shot

• about 8 to 10 million people lose their lives in the civil war: almost as many victims as in battles of World War 1.

4. Course of the War 1918

• 02.10.1918 Russian - German peace negotiations failed • 21.3. 1918 battles on the Western front flared up again

• 03.03.1918 signing of the German-Russian peace treaty

• 07.03.1918 signing of the German Finnish peace treaty

• 16.07.1918 the Russian Tsar family was shot

• 08. 8.1918 Battle of Amiens • • 11.11.1918 armistice and end of World War I

5. The Spring Offensive

• a series of five offensives on the western front in 1918

• aim: to find a good ending for the war

• attack of the German army unexpected for the entente

• crisis between France and Great Britain

French marshal Ferdinand Foch receives the supreme command

the German army breaks down

• Germans: unable to move supplies and reinforcements fast enough to maintain their advance

6. Battle of Amiens

6. Battle of Amiens

• France, USA, UK, Canada and Australia fight against Germany and win the battle

• German losses on 8 August amount up to about 60,000 men, about half of them are prisoners

6. Losses at the battle

• dead: 2.596 German soldiers

• ill: 20.065

• wounded: 14.533

• missing: 26.492

7. Western Front

• retreat in a northwest direction through the endless fields of France

• the war on the western front is immense suffering of the soldiers

• in the red zone are still many ammunition and poison gas remains in the ground

• the front line of trench warfare can still be seen today at many places

7. The Red Zone

• areas in which the destructed zones in France

are described

8. Chemical Weapons

First German gas attack in Ypern/Belgium

Later gas is used by all nations.

8. Gases and their Effects

• chlorine lung warfare agent; irritates the respiratory system, eyes decomposed body proteins, death from pulmonary edema

• mustard gas skin poison; lung poison; eyes and lungs and damaging to the skin; penetrates fabrics; leads to blindness

• cyanide contact poison; leads to suffocation

9. Stab-in-the-back myth

• Stab-in-the-back was articulated in 1919 most prominently by General Erich Ludendorff, one of the two top German commanders. He blamed the Berlin government and the civilian population for the armistice/surrender of November 1918, saying they had failed to support him, had let him down, and had proved themselves unworthy of the traditions of a fighting nation.

10. Why did the soldiers suffer?

• Very poor supply of troops

• No motivation of the soldiers, because they were badly equipped

• some soldiers were traumatized

• bad hygiene

• bad weather

11. Conditions in the native country

11. Our painting

• This painting is about life in a trench. You can see soldiers who are fighting each other. Some soldiers are injured. One showing a picture of his family and then he is dying. He won´t see his wife and his children any more. The soldier on the left is dead. He died with a lot of pain because he had lost so much blood. The other soldiers are traumatized because they had to kill so many people.

11. Opinion of the population about the war

Our second painting

• The German point of view was an imperialistic one. The army wanted power and money and tried to achieve that by using force. They wanted to conquer other nations by using land and naval forces.

12. Casualties

Country Number of killed soldiers Number of killed civilians

Germany 2.037.700 960.000

France 1.243.800 40.000

United Kingdom 710.386 31.000

Italy 650.000 1.021.000

Russia 1.700.000 2.000.000

Serbia 450.000 650.000

Belgium 13.716 30.000

USA 126.000 200

Austria/Hungary 1.200.000 300.000

12. Total amounts

Numbers of killed soldiers : 9.340.916

Numbers of killed civilians : 7.874.330

13. Civil Inventions

• zip

- used by the US military

- combat uniforms were waterproof

• blood bottle

- researchers can prevent blood clotting in 1914 for the first time

14. The end of the first World War

• In 1918 the First World War ends with the armistice of Compiègne.

• Officially the First World War ended in 1919 with the peace treaty of Versaille

• In this contract Germany is blamed for the war.

• Austria-Hungary was partitioned into several successor states

15. List of sources

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_World_War

• http://www.sueddeutsche.de/politik/innovationen-im-ersten-weltkrieg-erfindungen-die-das-leben-erleichtern-1.1956058

• http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westfront_(Erster_Weltkrieg)

• http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaskrieg_w%C3%A4hrend_des_Ersten_Weltkrieges

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6eM_SUUfNo

• http://www.n24.de/n24/Wissen/History/d/3815306/der-waffenstillstand-von-compi%C3%A8gne.html