WWI Combat**ONLY copy down what is in

BLUE

NEW WAR TACTICS

• U-BOATS

• TRENCH WARFARE

• POISON GAS

• AIRCRAFT

- Zeppelins

- Fighter Planes

U- Boat(SUBMARINES)

• Primary Targets: - Supply ships and Troop transports

• On May 7th 1915,

- Lusitania was sunk

- 1,198 died

- 128 of them American.

***This is what causes the US to get involved

• 1917 Germany declares “Unrestricted Submarine Warfare” & attacks every ship they see

• U-Boats sank 5,000 allied ships in WWI

Trench Warfare

• “We dug through the mud and muck trying to get deeper and deeper…away from the shells and machine guns. We dug through mud, rocks, and bodies, it was impossible not to dig through rotting bodies…they were everywhere…..”

Trenches

• Main Function:

- Protect troops from shots & shells

• Secondary Function:

- Funneled attacking troops into areas covered by machine guns & cannon

Trench Foot

Attacking Trenches

“Over The Top”

sending waves of soldiers @ enemy trenches

Result: massive death count

Poison Gas:

would land in or seep into trenches killing unprepared soldiers

Going Over The Top

Shell Shock

• The constant pounding of artillery caused permanent brain damage referred to as “shell shock”.

• Soldiers would spend the rest of their lives shaking violently.

Dug Outs

Trench Weapons

• Guns were too long and fired too slow for fighting in the trenches

Barbed Wire

Purpose

• Slow down enemy to be picked off by snipers or machine gun fire

When men became caught on the wire they were easy targets

Poison Gas

• Types of Gas:

• Tear –(mace like): causes eyes to tear and nose to run excessively, blurring vision

• Chlorine – ruined lung tissue, soldiers drowned in their own blood and snot

• Mustard Gas – melted lung tissue, severely burnt eyes, lungs, armpits and groin

Mustard Gas Attack

Mustard Gas Wounds

Protection from Gas

• At first there was no such thing as a “gas mask” – someone figured out that if you covered your face with a rag soaked in urine it protected you

• Then they invented gas masks! Wow that must have been a relief!

• No true “protection” from mustard gas

Gas Masks

TANKS

PURPOSE• cross “No Man’s Land”• Shield for troops• protected infantry• smashed barbed wire a• crossed trenches

“Little Willie” – The 1st Tank (had no main gun)

Early German Tank

Tanks didn’t always have radios

Armored “Tank” Train

Aircraft

Zeppelins

• Blimp like

• Flew from Germany to England at night and bombed English cities

• Defense: machine guns

• Weakness: filled with flammable Hydrogen gas

Fighter Planes

• Purpose: attacking enemy zeppelins and hot air balloons, and each other

American Fighter Aces

• Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker – 1st American Ace

• Race car driver joined air corps

• Shot down 26 Germans

German Fighter Aces

• “The Red Baron”

– Manfred von Richthoven

• 80 kills

• Killed on Aug 21st 1918 – created big confusion, both Australian ground machine guns and Canadian pilots were shooting at him, who killed the Red Baron?