Trenches - New Paltz Middle School



Trenches

|[pic] |French document describing German trench |

| |building techniques. |

|[pic] |Diagram of a dug-out as being used by the |

| |Australians in the photo above |

|[pic] |The front near Auchy-les-Labassee. No-man's-land|

| |is the white, blown out area in the middle. The |

| |German trenches are towards the upper right. The|

| |less intricate British trenches are on the lower|

| |left. |

Submarines

Allied and neutral ships lost during the war

| |1914 |1915 |1916 |1917 |1918 |

|To submarines |3 |396 |964 |2,439 |1,035 |

|To surface craft |55 |23 |32 |64 |3 |

|To mines |42 |97 |161 |170 |27 |

|To aircraft |- |- |- |3 |1 |

Source: Great War Historical Society

|[pic] |

|UC 44 Class U-boat: 1) Aft torpedo tubes 2) Electric motor 3) Main engine 4) Control room 5) Mine tubes 6) Forward torpedo tubes 7) Crew quarters |

|[pic] |Inside the cramped control room. The clean shaven crew is an indication that this|

| |photo was taken dockside and not at sea. |

Phases of the U-boat Campaign

The U-boat campaign can be broken into two distinct phases. The first was aimed at allied surface warships; The second, and ultimately more successful, was targeted towards allied shipping - using the U-boat as a tool to enforce an embargo. Early in the war efforts were almost exclusively concentrated towards surface warships with the results looking promising. On 22-Sep-1914 the U 9 under command of Kapitanleutnant Otto Weddigen sank the British light cruisers Abourkir, Hogue and Cressy in the English Channel. The problem here is that both sides soon refused to put their warships at risk by cruising the high seas. The great naval build-up of the last decade may have been one of the most monumental wastes of money of all time - both fleets spending the majority of the war at their home bases with the notable exception of Jutland.

On 4-Feb-1915 the Germans began their first campaign of submarine warfare aimed at allied and neutral merchant vessels in the waters surrounding the UK. At this point the practice of allowing the crew to disembark before the vessel was sunk (usually by deck gun since torpedoes were conserved if at all possible) was still generally followed. A notorious exception to this rule was the Lusitania, a Cunard passenger liner that was sunk by U 20 under command of Captain Schweiger on 7-May-1915 off the coast of Ireland. 124 Americans were among the 1,198 casualties...

By 1917 the situation was getting difficult for Germany. While the U-boat enforced embargo was proving to be an effective weapon, it also seemed that it would bring America into the war against Germany. The only hope now, it appeared, was to increase U-boat activity in an attempt for victory over Great Britain before America could get into the European picture. On 1-Feb-1917 Germany declares unrestricted submarine warfare for the third time. This action causes the United States to break off relations on 3-Feb-1917. The submarine, the weapon that had proven itself most useful in the war on commerce, had now sealed the fate of Germany by swinging the Great Neutral to the allied cause. America declares war on Germany on 6-Apr-1917.

U-boat activity intensified greatly in the first half of 1917 with British losses at 300,000 tons in Feb-1917, climbing to half a million by Jun-1917. This period marked the zenith for U-boats. The coming of the convoy system and other anti-submarine tactics would curtail British losses (never to rise beyond 100,000 tons per month) and would transform the predator into prey.

Source: Great War Historical Society

Gas

"[The] vapor settled to the ground like a swamp mist and drifted toward the French trenches on a brisk wind. Its effect on the French was a violent nausea and faintness, followed by an utter collapse. It is believed that the Germans, who charged in behind the vapor, met no resistance at all, the French at their front being virtually paralyzed."

The use of gas at Langemarck ø as reported in the New York Tribune, April 27, 1915

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The horrors of gas warfare had never been seen on a battlefield until 1915. The Germans have been credited with the first use, but the French and English were not far behind. Gas was a nuisance, a crippling nuisance, often only wounding and causing widespread panic instead of outright killing. Add a gas mask to the already surreal atmosphere of an offensive's rolling bombardments and heavy machine gun fire, and what you got must have been close to hell.

(See the paintings "Hell" by Leroux and "Soldats Masques" by Zingg

[pic]

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|[pic] |The first army issue gas masks were little more than gauze bandages |

| |with ties. These would be moistened with water to improve their |

| |effectiveness in filtering out the gas. |

|[pic] |The cannister gas mask was developed to protect the soldier from the |

| |use of chlorine gas and tearing agents such as xylyl bromide. This |

| |type of mask was not effective in filtering out the more deadly |

| |phosgene and diphosgene gases. There was no mask that could offer |

| |protection from the blistering mustard gas which attacks all exposed |

| |flesh. |

|[pic] |An aerial view of the beginning of a gas attack. Large gas cylinders |

| |were brought up to the front where the gas would be released under |

| |favorable wind conditions. On more than one occasion the wind would |

| |change direction and blow the gas back into the attacker's trenches. |

|[pic] |British gas casualties near Bois de l'Abbe France, May 1918. The eye |

| |bandages indicate that a blistering agent such as mustard gas was |

| |used. This gas was named for it's similarity in both faint smell and |

| |color to mustard. |

Source: Great War Society

The first reported use of gas was by the Germans on the eastern front on 3-Jan-1915. It was a tearing agent dispersed by artillery shell. The first use on the western front came several months later on 22-Apr-1915 at the village of Langemarck near Ypres. At 1700 hours the Germans released a 5 mile wide cloud of chlorine gas from some 520 cylinders (168 tons of the chemical). The greenish-yellow cloud drifted over and into the French and Algerian trenches where it caused wide spread panic and death. The age of chemical warfare had begun.

The British were ready to return the favor by early autumn. On 25-Sep-1915 they released chlorine gas from cylinders against the German trenches at Loos. Unfortunately a shift in the wind blew the gas laterally across the trench lines so that it also gassed some British troops. The use of cylinder gas was replaced with the safer gas artillery shell and projector. The projector was a device that lobbed a football size gas projectile into the enemy trench. The idea with both was to get the gas as far from friendly forces as possible before releasing it. Artillery men were soon referring to "yellow crosses" and "white crosses" - these were the markings used to differentiate the various gas shell types.

Gas was invented (and very successfully used) as a terror weapon meant to instill confusion and panic among the enemy prior to an offensive. It was a sort of physiological weapon with the non-lethal tearing agents inflicting as much panic as the dreaded mustard gas.

In the great carnage of 1916-17 there were approximately 17,700 gas casualties counting the Somme, Chemin des Dames, and Passchendaele alone. These numbers would grow considerably higher due to the large number of deaths after the war that would be directly attributed to gas exposure. Despite this high casualty count for both sides, the use of gas continued to grow. By 1918, one in every four artillery shells fired contained gas of one type or another.

In 1918 a German corporal by the name of Adolf Hitler was temporarily blinded by a British gas attack in Flanders. Having suffered the agonies of gas first hand, his fear of the weapon would prevent him from deploying it as a tactical weapon on the battlefields of the Second World War.

Source: adapted from Encyclopedia Britanica

Gas was available in three basic varieties:

Lachrymator (tearing agent)

Much like today's tear gas and mace, this gas caused temporary blindness and greatly inflamed the nose and throat of the victim. A gas mask offered very good protection from this type of gas. xylyl bromide was a popular tearing agent since it was easily brewed.

Asphyxiant

These are the poisonous gases. This class includes chlorine, phosgene and diphosgene. Chlorine inflicts damage by forming hydrochloric acid when coming in contact with moisture such as found in the lungs and eyes. It is lethal at a mix of 1:5000 (gas/air) whereas phosgene is deadly at 1:10,000 (gas/air) - twice as toxic! Diphosgene, first used by the Germans at Verdun on 22-Jun-1916, was deadlier still and could not be effectively filtered by standard issue gas masks.

Blistering Agent

Dichlorethylsulphide: the most dreaded of all chemical weapons in World War I - mustard gas. Unlike the other gases which attack the respiratory system, this gas acts on any exposed, moist skin. This includes, but is not limited to, the eyes, lungs, armpits and groin. A gas mask could offer very little protection. The oily agent would produce large burn-like blisters wherever it came in contact with skin. It also had a nasty way of hanging about in low areas for hours, even days, after being dispersed. A soldier jumping into a shell crater to seek cover could find himself blinded, with skin blistering and lungs bleeding.

Source: Great War Historical Society

List of gases used in World War I

benzyl bromide

German, tearing, first used 1915

bromacetone

Both sides, tearing/fatal in concentration, first used 1916

carbonyl chloride (phosgene)

both sides, asphyxiant, fatal with delayed action, first used 1915

chlorine

both sides, asphyxiant, fatal in concentration, first used in 1915, cylinder release only

chloromethyl chloroformate

both sides, tearing, first used in 1915, artillery shell

chloropircin

both sides, tearing, first used in 1916, artillery shell (green cross I)

cyanogen (cyanide) compounds

allies/Austria, asphyxiant, fatal in concentration, first used in 1916, artillery shell

dichlormethylether

German, tearing, first used 1918, artillery shell

dibrommethylethylketone

German, tearing, fatal in concentration, first used in 1916

dichloroethylsulphide (mustard gas)

both sides, blistering, artillery shell (yellow cross)

diphenylchloroarsine

German, asphyxiant, fatal in concentration, (dust - could not be filtered), first used in 1917, artillery shell (blue cross)

diphenylcyonoarsine

German, more powerful replacement for blue cross, first used in 1918

ethyldichloroarsine

German, less powerful replacement for blue cross, first used in 1918, artillery shell (yellow cross I, green cross III)

ethyl iodoacetate

British, tearing, first used in 1916

monobrommethylethylketone

German, more powerful replacement for bromacetone, first used 1916

trichloromethylchloroformate (diphosgene)

both sides, asphyxiant, fatal with delayed action, first used 1916

xylyl bromide

German, tearing, first used 1915

Source: Great War Historical Society

Guns

|[pic] |This howitzer was produced by the Skoda arms works in Austria. These siege guns|

| |were used by the Germans to soften the forts at Liege, Namur, and Maubeuge. The|

| |shells they fired weighed 1,786 pounds and they could fire one every 6 minutes.|

|[pic] |French 75mm. Rapid firing and accurate. It was a common artillery piece among |

| |the allies. Note the spent casing in the air. |

|[pic] |British 18-pounder being aimed by its crew. |

|[pic] |British 60-pounder in Salonika. |

|[pic] |German 42cm "Big Bertha", named for Bertha Krupp. |

|[pic] |German 17cm railway gun. The recoil was allowed to push the car down the tracks|

| |in order to be dispersed. |

|[pic] |French troops loading a 40cm shell into a railway gun. |

|[pic] |British officer with an unexploded German shell. This type of shell would have |

| |been fired by the large railway guns. |

|[pic] |Diagram of an British field howitzer. |

|[pic] |Water cooled British Vickers machine gun. |

| |Approx 500 rounds per minute. The gun could be|

| |broken down into two pieces for transport. |

|[pic] |British motorized machine gun battery near the|

| |Somme. |

|[pic] |Water cooled German Maxim machine gun. Same |

| |rpm as Vickers. This weapon accounted for 90% |

| |of the British casualties on the opening day |

| |of the Somme Offensive, 1-Jul-1916. |

|[pic] |German Machineengewehr 08 (Maxim). Designed by|

| |American Hiram Maxim and manufactured in |

| |Spandau, Germany. The Germans had 12,500 of |

| |these killers in 1914 as compared to the |

| |several hundred Vickers of the British army. |

| |The Germans would produce over 100,000 Maxims |

| |during the war. |

|Heavy Machine Guns |

|Type |Caliber |Feed |Weight (lbs) |Cooling |Rounds/min |

|German Maxim MG 08 |7.9mm |belt |41/sledmount 83 |water |600 |

|German Maxim MG 08/15 |7.92mm |belt |33/bipod 3 |water |600 |

|British Vickers Mk I |.303in |belt |35/tripod 52 |water |500 |

|French 1914 Hotchkiss |8mm |strip |52/tripod 65 |air |600 |

|Austrian Schwarzlose |8mm |belt |44/tripod 44 |water |400 |

|Russian 1910 Maxim Sokolov |7.62mm |belt |41/mount w/armour 121 |water |500-600 |

|American Colt |.30in |belt |36/tripod 56 |air |400-500 |

|American 1917 Browning |.30in |belt |33/tripod 53 |water |450-600 |

First weight is gun weight followed by accessory type and weight. Thanks to Robert Segel for these numbers.

|Light Machine Guns |

|Type |Caliber |Weight (lbs) |Feed |Rounds/min |

|Madsen |8mm |20 |magazine |450 |

|German 1915 Muskete |7.92mm |21.75 |magazine |450 |

|German Bergmann |7.92mm |30 |belt |600 |

|German MG 08/18 |7.92mm |32 |belt |600 |

|Lewis |.303in |25 |drum |500-600 |

|French Chauchat (CSRG) |8mm |20 |magazine |250 |

|American Chauchat |.30in |20 |magazine |250 |

|American BAR M1918 |.30in |19.5 |magazine |500 |

Source: Great War Historical Society

Tanks

|Tank Comparison Table |

| |Type |Arms |Armour (max) |Tons |Speed |Crew |

|[pic] |British Marks I-IV male |2x6-pounders, 4 MG |12mm |28 |3.7 |8 |

|[pic] |British Marks I-III female |5 MG |12mm |27 |3.7 |8 |

|[pic] |British Mark IV female |6 MG |12mm |27 |3.7 |8 |

|[pic] |British Mark V male |2x6-pounders, 4 MG |14mm |29 |4.6 |8 |

|[pic] |British Mark V female |6 MG |14mm |28 |4.6 |8 |

|[pic] |British Mark A (Whippet) |3 MG |14mm |14 |8.3 |3 |

|[pic] |British Mark B |4 MG |14mm |18 |7.9 |4 |

|[pic] |French Schneider |1x75mm, 2 MG |11.4-17.0mm |14.5 |5 |6 |

|[pic] |French St. Chamond |1x75mm, 4 MG |11mm |25 |5 |9 |

|[pic] |French Renault FT17 |1 MG (later 37mm) |16mm |6.5 |5-6 |2 |

|[pic] |German A7V |1x57mm, 6 MG |30mm |32 |8 |16 |

|[pic] |The house sized German A7V with part of its |

| |crew of 16. |

|[pic] |A pair of A7Vs on the move. |

|[pic] |The Hornsby was the first tracked vehicle to|

| |be used by the British army. It is shown |

| |here with an artillery piece in tow. |

|[pic] |French Schneider. |

|[pic] |Canadians get a lift on a British Mark IV. |

| |They wont get where they're going fast - |

| |this tank's top speed was 4 mph. |

|[pic] |A Mark IV destroyed at Ypres. |

|[pic] |Toppled German A7V, Elfriede, at Villers-Bretonneux,|

| |24-Apr-1918. |

|[pic] |This British Mark IV is under new management - |

| |German. |

|[pic] |British Whippet tank. Fast as far as its competition|

| |at 8 mph, it was powered by twin 45 h.p. Tylor |

| |engines. Its crew of three was armed with three |

| |Hotchkiss machine guns. The one in the photo has |

| |extra fuel hanging outside the track support. |

|[pic] |Canopied British Mark Vs on their way to the front. |

|[pic] |The majority of the A7V crew rides atop their |

| |vehicle at the railhead near Villers-Bretonneux , |

| |April 1918. This 32 ton monster required twin |

| |Daimler engines (105 h.p. each) and a crew of 16 for|

| |operation. It was armed with one 57mm cannon and six|

| |Maxim machine guns. |

|[pic] |A group of Renaults with their crews at Hamel, July |

| |1918. This two man tank had speed and mobility but |

| |could not cross trenches. The rotating turret could |

| |support either a 37mm cannon or a heavy machine gun.|

|[pic] |British Gun-Carrier armour vehicle. Its Daimler |

| |engine and four man driving crew made it similar to |

| |a Mark IV. Early on they were used to transport 6 |

| |in. howitzers or 60 pound guns. Later on they proved|

| |more useful in transporting supplies. Note the spare|

| |ammo stored on the side of the tank. |

|1915 |1916 |1917 |1918 |

|[pic] |[pic] |[pic] |[pic] |

|Caudron G.4 |Sopwith 1½ Strutter |Breguet Br.14B2 |Caudron R.11 |

|[pic] |[pic] |[pic] |[pic] |

|Breguet Br.M5 |A.E.G. G.IV |Airco D.H.4 |Caproni Ca.4 |

|[pic] |[pic] |[pic] |[pic] |

|Voisin 5 |Voisin 8 |Caproni Ca.3 |Vickers Vimy |

|[pic] |[pic] |[pic] |[pic] |

|Sikorsky Ilya Mourometz V |Short Bomber |Gotha G.V |Blackburn Kangaroo |

| | |[pic] |[pic] |

| | |Friedrichshafen G.III |Handley Page V/1500 |

| | |[pic] | |

| | |Zeppelin Staaken R.VI | |

Source: History of Aerial Warfare. 1989

Aircraft Timeline

1914 - In the first few months of the war, combat between airplanes was unknown; they were used for reconnaissance photographs and some far-sighted aviators could envision using them for bombing. After some pilots took up pistols and rifles, some planes had machine guns mounted in the observer's seat, which typically fired rearward or to the side. When a French pilot, Roland Garros, bolted steel deflectors to his propeller, which permitted him to fire a machine gun through it, the airplane became an offensive weapon.

1915 - Then Tony Fokker, a Dutch airplane builder and entrepreneur working for the Germans, installed interrupter gear, permitting a machine gun to fire through the prop with much more reliability. For a time, the Fokkers gave the Germans an edge. Over the course of the war, the quality of Allied fighters, or "scouts," generally matched the Germans. The quality advantage swung back and forth somewhat, but even the mid-1915 "Fokker Scourge" has been overstated; the Germans just never had very many Fokker Eindeckers. And the British pusher biplanes and the French Nieuport 11 were very effective opponents.

In 1917, with the introduction of the Albatros, again the Germans had a brief qualitative edge, but the Spads, S.E.5s, and Sopwith Camels held their own. This year also saw the innovative, but short-lived triplanes.

By 1918, when Fokker introduced the D.VII and D.VIII, the overwhelming Allied numbers mooted the question of whether they were better than the best Allied scouts.

Source: Adapted from History of Aerial Warfare, 1989

Ace Pilots of WWI

|American |German |

|James Norman Hall - flier and novelist |Oswald Boelcke - 40 victories |

| | |

|Raoul Lufbery - 17 aerial victories |Herman Göring - 22 |

| | |

|Frank Luke - The Balloon Buster, 18 |Max Immelmann - early ace, 15 |

| | |

|Billy Mitchell - airpower advocate |Erich Löwenhardt - 54 |

| | |

|Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker - top U.S. ace, 26 |Lothar von Richthofen - 40 |

| | |

|The Lafayette Escadrille - Americans in French Air Service |Manfred von Richthofen - The Red Baron, 80 |

| | |

| |Ernst Udet - 62 |

|Americans with British R.F.C. |British Empire |

| |Albert Ball - 44 |

| | |

|- Fred Gillet- 20 victories |Billy Barker - Canada, 50 |

| | |

|- Wilfred Beaver- 19; Brisfit pilot |Billy Bishop - Canada, 72 |

| | |

|- David Ingalls- 6; Naval aviator |Ray Collishaw - Canada, 62 |

| | |

|- Field Kindley- 12 |Edward "Mick" Mannock - 61 |

| | |

|- Reed Landis- 12 |James McCudden - 57 |

| |French |

|- Fred Libby - 14; first American ace |René Fonck - Top Allied ace, 75 |

| | |

|- O.C. "Boots" LeBoutillier - 10 |Roland Garros - first French ace |

| | |

|- Elliott Springs- 16 |Georges Guynemer - 53 victories |

| | |

| |Charles Nungesser - 43 |

Source: Great War Historical Society

Condition of Aerial Battles

On the Western Front, the British and French air force outnumbered the Germans during World War One. Together they produced 125,000 aircraft, while the Germans built less than 50,000. With these superior numbers, the Allies were generally able to take the fight to the Germans, bombing and reconnoitering over their lines.

This fundamental aspect of WWI's air combat meant that German fighter pilots usually flew over their own trenches, which required less fuel, less flying time, and also easier confirmation of downed aircraft. An added bonus for the German jagdflieger was the prevailing west wind. Any crippled German plane gliding for home had the wind at its back; while any damaged Allied plane faced head winds. Not a small consideration for the light craft of those years. Thus, while the Allies' greater numbers gave them the edge in the air war, many German aces were able to rack up impressive scores of downed British and French planes.

Source: Adapted from Great War Historical Society Summary

Baron Richthofen (the Red Baron) on his first kill…

“We were all beginners; none of us had previously been credited with a success. Whatever Boelcke told us was taken as gospel. We knew that in the last few days he had shot down at least one Englishman a day, and many times two every morning. . . . We approached the enemy squadron slowly, but it could no longer escape us. We were between the Front and the enemy. If he wanted to go back, he would have to go by us. We counted seven enemy airplanes, and opposed them with only five. . . . The Englishman near me was a big, dark-colored barge. I did not ponder long and took aim at him. He shot and I shot, but we both missed. The fight then began. I tried to get behind him because I could only shoot in the direction I was flying. This was not necessary for him, as his observer's rotating machine gun could reach all sides. But this fellow was no beginner, for he knew very well that the moment I succeeded in getting behind him, his last hour would be sounded. At the time I did not have the conviction I have now that "he must fall," but, rather, I was much more anxious to see if he would fall, and that is a significant difference. . . .

Then, suddenly, his propeller turned no more. Hit! The engine was probably shot to pieces, and he would have to land near our lines. Reaching his own positions was out of the question. I noticed the machine swaying from side to side; something was not quite right with the pilot. Also, the observer was not to be seen, his machine gun pointed unattended up in the air. I had no doubt hit him also, and he must have been lying on the floor of the fuselage.”

trench warfare, warfare in which opposing armed forces attack, counterattack, and defend from relatively permanent systems of trenches dug into the ground. The opposing systems of trenches are usually close to one another. Trench warfare is resorted to when the superior firepower of the defense compels the opposing forces to “dig in” so extensively as to sacrifice their mobility in order to gain protection.

A trench system may begin simply as a collection of foxholes hastily dug by troops using their entrenching tools. These holes may subsequently be deepened so that a soldier can safely stand up in one of them, and the individual foxholes may be connected by shallow crawl trenches. From this beginning a system of more permanent trenches may be constructed. In making a trench, soil from the excavation is used to create raised parapets running both in front of and behind the trench. Within the trench are firing positions along a raised forward step called a fire step, and duckboards are placed on the often muddy bottom of the trench to provide secure footing.

The tactical ancestor of modern trench warfare was the system of progressively extended trenches developed by the French military engineer Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban for the attack of fortresses in the 17th century. Trenches remained merely a part of siegecraft until the increasing firepower of small arms and cannon compelled both sides to make use of trenches in the American Civil War (1861–65). The trench lines of the Petersburg–Richmond theatre of operations in the final months of that war were the foremost example of trench warfare in the 19th century.

Trench warfare reached its highest development on the Western Front during World War I (1914–18), when armies of millions of men faced each other in a line of trenches extending from the Belgian coast through northeastern France to Switzerland. These trenches arose within the first few months of the war’s outbreak, after the great offensives launched by Germany and France had shattered against the deadly, withering fire of the machine gun and the rapid-firing artillery piece. The sheer quantity of bullets and shells flying through the air in the battle conditions of that war compelled soldiers to burrow into the soil to obtain shelter and survive.

The typical trench system in World War I consisted of a series of two, three, four, or more trench lines running parallel to each other and being at least 1 mile (1.6 km) in depth. Each trench was dug in a type of zigzag so that no enemy, standing at one end, could fire for more than a few yards down its length. Each of the main lines of trenches was connected to each other and to the rear by a series of communications trenches that were dug roughly perpendicular to them. Food, ammunition, fresh troops, mail, and orders were delivered through these trenches. The intricate network of trenches contained command posts, forward supply dumps, first-aid stations, kitchens, and latrines. Most importantly, it had machine-gun emplacements to defend against an assault, and it had dugouts deep enough to shelter large numbers of defending troops during an enemy bombardment.

Introduction of Poison Gas

The debut of the first poison gas however - in this instance, chlorine - came on 22 April 1915, at the start of the Second Battle of Ypres.

At this stage of the war the famed Ypres Salient, held by the British, Canadians and French, ran for some 10 miles and bulged into German occupied territory for five miles. A combination of French territorials and Algerian troops held the line to the left, with the British and Canadians tending the centre and line to their right.

During the morning of 22 April the Germans poured a heavy bombardment around Ypres, but the line fell silent as the afternoon grew. Towards evening, at around 5 pm, the bombardment began afresh - except that sentries posted among the French and Algerian troops noticed a curious yellow-green cloud drifting slowly towards their line.

Puzzled but suspicious the French suspected that the cloud masked an advance by German infantry and ordered their men to 'stand to' - that is, to mount the trench fire step in readiness for probable attack.

The cloud did not mask an infantry attack however; at least, not yet. It signalled in fact the first use of chlorine gas on the battlefield. Ironically its use ought not to have been a surprise to the Allied troops, for captured German soldiers had revealed the imminent use of gas on the Western Front. Their warnings were not passed on however.

The effects of chlorine gas were severe. Within seconds of inhaling its vapour it destroyed the victim's respiratory organs, bringing on choking attacks.

Phosgene

Following on the heels of chlorine gas came the use of phosgene. Phosgene as a weapon was more potent than chlorine in that while the latter was potentially deadly it caused the victim to violently cough and choke.

Phosgene caused much less coughing with the result that more of it was inhaled; it was consequently adopted by both German and Allied armies. Phosgene often had a delayed effect; apparently healthy soldiers were taken down with phosgene gas poisoning up to 48 hours after inhalation.

The so-called "white star" mixture of phosgene and chlorine was commonly used on the Somme: the chlorine content supplied the necessary vapour with which to carry the phosgene.

Mustard Gas

Remaining consistently ahead in terms of gas warfare development, Germany unveiled an enhanced form of gas weaponry against the Russians at Riga in September 1917: mustard gas (or Yperite) contained in artillery shells.

Mustard gas, an almost odourless chemical, was distinguished by the serious blisters it caused both internally and externally, brought on several hours after exposure. Protection against mustard gas proved more difficult than against either chlorine or phosgene gas.

The use of mustard gas - sometimes referred to as Yperite - also proved to have mixed benefits. While inflicting serious injury upon the enemy the chemical remained potent in soil for weeks after release: making capture of infected trenches a dangerous undertaking.

Protection Against Gas

[pic]The types of protection initially handed out to the troops around Ypres following the first use of chlorine in April 1915 were primitive in the extreme. 100,000 wads of cotton pads were quickly manufactured and made available. These were dipped in a solution of bicarbonate of soda and held over the face.

Soldiers were also advised that holding a urine drenched cloth over their face would serve in an emergency to protect against the effects of chlorine.

By 1918 soldiers on both sides were far better prepared to meet the ever-present threat of a gas attack. Filter respirators (using charcoal or antidote chemicals) were the norm and proved highly effective, although working in a trench while wearing such respirators generally proved difficult and tiring.

With the Armistice, such was the horror and disgust at the wartime use of poison gases that its use was outlawed in 1925 - a ban that is, at least nominally, still in force today.

Trench Conditions:

Death was a constant companion to those serving in the line, even when no raid or attack was launched or defended against. In busy sectors the constant shellfire directed by the enemy brought random death, whether their victims were lounging in a trench or lying in a dugout (many men were buried as a consequence of such large shell-bursts).

Similarly, novices were cautioned against their natural inclination to peer over the parapet of the trench into No Man's Land.

Many men died on their first day in the trenches as a consequence of a precisely aimed sniper's bullet.

It has been estimated that up to one third of Allied casualties on the Western Front were actually sustained in the trenches. Aside from enemy injuries, disease wrought a heavy toll.

Rat Infestation

Rats in their millions infested trenches. There were two main types, the brown and the black rat. Both were despised but the brown rat was especially feared. Gorging themselves on human remains (grotesquely disfiguring them by eating their eyes and liver) they could grow to the size of a cat.

Men, exasperated and afraid of these rats (which would even scamper across their faces in the dark), would attempt to rid the trenches of them by various methods: gunfire, with the bayonet, and even by clubbing them to death.

It was futile however: a single rat couple could produce up to 900 offspring in a year, spreading infection and contaminating food. The rat problem remained for the duration of the war (although many veteran soldiers swore that rats sensed impending heavy enemy shellfire and consequently disappeared from view).

Frogs, Lice and Worse

Rats were by no means the only source of infection and nuisance. Lice were a never-ending problem, breeding in the seams of filthy clothing and causing men to itch unceasingly.

Even when clothing was periodically washed and deloused, lice eggs invariably remained hidden in the seams; within a few hours of the clothes being re-worn the body heat generated would cause the eggs to hatch.

Lice caused Trench Fever, a particularly painful disease that began suddenly with severe pain followed by high fever. Recovery - away from the trenches - took up to twelve weeks. Lice were not actually identified as the culprit of Trench Fever until 1918.

Frogs by the score were found in shell holes covered in water; they were also found in the base of trenches. Slugs and horned beetles crowded the sides of the trench.

Many men chose to shave their heads entirely to avoid another prevalent scourge: nits.

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Trench Foot was another medical condition peculiar to trench life. It was a fungal infection of the feet caused by cold, wet and unsanitary trench conditions. It could turn gangrenous and result in amputation. Trench Foot was more of a problem at the start of trench warfare; as conditions improved in 1915 it rapidly faded, although a trickle of cases continued throughout the war.

The Machine Gun in 1914

The 1914 machine gun, usually positioned on a flat tripod, would require a gun crew of four to six operators. In theory they could fire 400-600 small-calibre rounds per minute, a figure that was to more than double by the war's end, with rounds fed via a fabric belt or a metal strip.

The reality however was that these early machine guns would rapidly overheat and become inoperative without the aid of cooling mechanisms; they were consequently fired in short rather than sustained bursts. Cooling generally took one of two forms: water cooled and, increasingly as the war developed, air cooled. Water jackets would provided for the former (which held around one gallon of liquid) and air vents would be built into the machine gun for the latter.

Water cooled machine guns would still overheat relatively quickly (sometimes within two minutes), with the consequence that large supplies of water would need to be on hand in the heat of a battle - and, when these ran out, it was not unknown for a machine gun crew to solve the problem by urinating into the jacket.

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Whether air or water cooled, machine guns still jammed frequently, especially in hot conditions or when used by inexperienced operators.

Consequently machine guns would often be grouped together to maintain a constant defensive position.

Estimates of their equivalent, accurate, rifle firepower varied, with some estimating a single machine gun to be worth as many as 60-100 rifles: a more consensual figure is around 80, still an impressively high figure.

Hiram Maxim, who designed the machine gun which bore his name in 1884, first offered use of the machine to Britain. Although rapid-firing weapons, such as the 0.50-inch calibre Gatling Gun (invented in 1862), existed many years prior to Maxim's invention, all required some form of manual intervention, e.g. hand cranking.

Unfortunately for Maxim the British army high command could see no real use for the oil-cooled machine gun he demonstrated to them in 1885; other officers even regarded the weapon as an improper form of warfare.

Not so the German army which quickly produced a version of Maxim's invention (the Maschinengewehr 08) in large quantities at a Spandau arsenal; by the time war broke out in August 1914 the Germans had 12,000 at their disposal, a number which eventually ballooned to 100,000.

In contrast the British and French had access to a mere few hundred equivalents when war began.

Simple Design

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In designing his machine gun, Hiram Maxim utilised a simple concept.

The gas produced by the explosion of powder in each machine gun cartridge created a recoil which served to continuously operate the machine gun mechanism. No external power was needed. His initial design, which was water cooled and belt fed, allowed for a theoretical rate of fire of up to 600 rounds per minute (half that number in practice). It was heavy however, weighing in at 62kg.

German Enthusiasm

As already noted the Germans quickly grasped the potential importance of machine guns on the battlefield. From the outset the German army demonstrated the value of the machine gun by creating separate machine gun companies to support infantry battalions.

The British however did not create their Machine Gun Corps until October 1915; until this time the few machine guns available were attached in sections to individual battalions. A mere two guns were allocated to each infantry battalion in 1914.

It was Churchill who, on Colonel Swinton's urging (and backed by Hankey), sponsored the establishment of the Landships Committee to investigate the potential of constructing what amounted to a new military weapon. The name of the committee was derived from the fact that, at least initially, the tank was seen an extension of sea-going warships - hence, a landship.

The Birth of the Landship - or Tank

Together the Landships Committee and the Inventions Committee, working with Colonel Swinton, agreed to go ahead with the design of the new weapon, which at that time remained nameless.

They therefore commissioned Lieutenant Walter Wilson of the Naval Air Service and William Tritton of William Foster & Co., based in Lincoln, to produce the first landship in secrecy. Its codename, given because the shape of the shell resembled water carriers, was 'tank'; the name, assigned in December 1915, stuck.

Swinton laid down certain key criteria that he argued must be part of the finished design. The tank must boast a minimum speed of four miles per hour, be able to climb a five foot high obstacle, successfully span a five foot trench, and - critically - be immune to the effects of small-arms fire. Furthermore, it should possess two machine guns, have a range of twenty miles and be maintained by a crew of ten men.

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This first tank was given the nickname 'Little Willie' (soon followed by 'Big Willie') and, as with its predecessors, possessed a Daimler engine. Weighing some 14 tons and bearing 12 feet long track frames, the tank could carry three people in cramped conditions. In the event its top speed was three miles per hour on level ground, two miles per hour on rough terrain (actual battlefield conditions in fact).

Tank Numbers

By the time the war drew to a close the British, the first to use them, had produced some 2,636 tanks. The French produced rather more, 3,870. The Germans, never convinced of its merits, and despite their record for technological innovation, produced just 20.

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With the French tanks proving more serviceable than their British equivalents they continued to be used beyond wartime.

The French Renault F.T. tank continued to grow in popularity as the concept of the tank as a close aid to advancing infantry prospered.

Both the U.S. and Italy produced their own tank designs which were based on the French Renault model, a testament to its design strengths. The Italians produced the Fiat 3000 and the U.S. the M1917.

Tank design continued to improve beyond the war and the tank, which helped to make trench warfare redundant, restored movement to the battlefield. Its widespread use continues to the present day.

Tank Production 1916-18

|Year |UK |France |Germany |Italy |USA |

|1916 |150 |- |- |- |- |

|1917 |1,277 |800 |- |- |- |

|1918 |1,391 |4,000 |20 |6 |84 |

Early Use of the Tank

Initially the Royal Navy supplied the crews for the tank. History was made on 15 September 1916 when Captain H. W. Mortimore guided a D1 tank into action at the notorious Delville Wood.

Shortly afterwards thirty-six tanks led the way in an attack at Flers. Although the attack was itself successful - the sudden appearance of the new weapon stunned their German opponents - these early tanks proved notoriously unreliable.

In part this was because the British, under Commander in Chief Sir Douglas Haig, deployed them before they were truly battle ready in an attempt to break the trench stalemate. They often broke down and became ditched - i.e. stuck in a muddy trench - more often than anticipated.

Conditions for the tank crews were also far from ideal. The heat generated inside the tank was tremendous and fumes often nearly choked the men inside. Nevertheless the first tank operators proved their mettle by operating under what amounted to appalling conditions.

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Tank Successes

In what many regard as the first truly successful demonstration of the potential of the tank, the entire British Tank Corps (consisting of 474 tanks) saw action at the Battle of Cambrai on 20 November 1917 (although the French can lay claim to its earlier successful use at Malmaison).

In a sweepingly successful start to the battle twelve miles of the German front was breached, with the capture of 10,000 German prisoners, 123 guns and 281 machine guns.

Unfortunately for the British this enormous initial success was effectively cancelled out in German counter-attacks because the British did not possess sufficient infantry troops to exploit the breach they had created.

Nevertheless the successful use of tanks at Cambrai restored dwindling faith in tank development. The U.S. army took note and undertook development of its own tank series.

Artillery in WWI

The most intensively and extensively used weapon in World War I was artillery. With more than 15,000 cannons of all sorts deployed on every battlefield, they outnumbered by far the number of artillery pieces fielded in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam put together. This was so, since aviation was still in its infancy and lacked the bombers and attack aircraft employed in these armed conflicts. Thus, to fulfill the role of support weapon for infantry attacks or defensive tactics, generals had to rely solely on the new artillery pieces, which were also the byproducts of the Second Industrial Revolution, with all the field guns and howitzers being breech-loaders and fitted with the new recoil system, which had been introduced by the French with their 75mm gun (canon de 75 M1897), that had a hydro-pneumatic recoil system. So, the Great War was the first armed struggle in history in which the guns used did not need to be re-aimed after every shot, due to the recoil systems introduced by the contending powers. Together with the machine guns, artillery was the culprit for the demise of cavalry a the beginning of the war.

Excerpt from Lt. Kenneth Wootton’s Diary…

'We escaped with nothing more than lumps of earth falling around us. The German front line had been smashed almost out of recognition as we passed through shell holes and most were filled with filthy water and bodies.

'Up the hill [my driver] and I felt we were in for it as the Germans still held Westhoek and Gelncorse wood. I was kept busy dodging from side to side on my tank as a great many shells fell around us. I should have got inside but I hate being boxed up in the stifling heat of a tank. I felt safer in the open.

'Captain Crew, our section commander dashed madly about to try and get our tank up to an impossible speed. He imagined a tank could behave like a new motor car. Heavens, how heart breaking it was to guide a tank over the frightful ground. Long lines of mules followed us carrying shells and stumbling over the broken ground.'

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Living aboard German Submarine U-Boat U9 in 1914

This account of life in a 1914 German U-Boat was written by Johannes Speiss, First Watch Officer of the early kerosine powered submarine U9, captained by Otto Weddigen. The use of kerosine gave off a large amount of smoke and necessitated the use of a demountable funnel, this funnel was not required in later Diesel powered submarines.

…"Further aft, the crew space was separated from the officers' compartment by a watertight bulkhead with a round watertight door for passage. On one side of the crews space a small electric range was supposed to serve for cooking - but the electric heating coil and the bake-oven short-circuited every time an attempt was made to use them. Meals were always prepared on deck! For this purpose we had a small paraffin stove such as was in common use on Norwegian fishing vessels. This had the particular advantage of being serviceable even in a high wind.

"The crew space had bunks for only a few of the crew - the rest slept in hammocks, when not on watch or on board the submarine mother-ship while in port.

"The living spaces were not cased with wood. Since the temperature inside the boat was considerably greater than the sea outside, moisture in the air condensed on the steel hull-plates; the condensation had a very disconcerting way of dropping on a sleeping face, with every movement of the vessel. Efforts were made to prevent this by covering the face with rain clothes or rubber sheets. It was in reality like a damp cellar.

"The storage battery cells, which were located under the living spaces and filled with acid and distilled water, generated gas [hydrogen gas] on charge and discharge: this was drawn off through the ventilation system. Ventilation failure risked explosion, a catastrophe which occurred in several German boats. If sea water got into the battery cells, poisonous chlorine gas was generated.

"From a hygienic standpoint the sleeping arrangements left much to be desired; one ' awoke in the morning with considerable mucus in the nostrils and a so-called 'oil-head'.

"The central station was abaft the crew space, dosed off by a bulkhead both forward and aft. Here was the gyro compass and also the depth rudder hand-operating gear with which the boat was kept at the required level similar to a Zeppelin. The bilge pumps, the blowers for clearing and filling the diving tanks - both electrically driven - as well as the air compressors were also here. In one small corner of this space stood a toilet screened by a curtain and, after seeing this arrangement, I understood why the officer I had relieved recommended the use of opium before all cruises which were to last over twelve hours…

"The Officer on Watch sat on the hatch coaming, the Petty Officer of the Watch near him, with his feet hanging through the hatch through which the air for the gas engines was being drawn. I still wonder why I was not afflicted with rheumatism in spite of leather trousers. The third man on watch, a seaman, stood on a small three-cornered platform above the conning tower; he was lashed to his station in heavy seas.

"This was the general arrangement for all seagoing boats at that time of the Types U-5 to U-18 with few exceptions."

World War I.

Germany was the first country to employ submarines in war as substitutes for surface commerce raiders. At the outset of World War I, German U-boats, though numbering only 38, achieved notable successes against British warships; but because of the reactions of neutral powers (especially the United States) Germany hesitated before adopting unrestricted U-boat warfare against merchant ships. The decision to do so in February 1917 was largely responsible for the entry of the United States into the war. The U-boat campaign then became a race between German sinkings of merchant ships and the building of ships, mainly in the United States, to replace them. In April 1917, 430 Allied and neutral ships totaling 852,000 tons were sunk, and it seemed likely that the German gamble would succeed. However, the introduction of convoys, the arrival of numerous U.S. destroyers, and the vast output of American shipyards turned the tables. By the end of the war Germany had built 334 U-boats and had 226 under construction. The peak U-boat strength of 140 was reached in October 1917, but there were never more than about 60 at sea at one time. In 1914–18 the destruction—more than 10,000,000 tons—caused by the U-boats was especially remarkable in view of the small size (less than l,000 tons), frailty, and vulnerability of the craft.

Encyclopedia Britanica

World War One, The Submarine

By the eve of World War I all of the major navies included submarines in their fleets, but these craft were relatively small, were considered of questionable military value, and generally were intended for coastal operations. The most significant exception to the concept of coastal activity was the German Deutschland class of merchant U-boats, each 315 feet long with two large cargo compartments. These submarines could carry 700 tons of cargo at 12- to 13-knot speeds on the surface and at seven knots submerged. The Deutschland itself became the U-155 when fitted with torpedo tubes and deck guns, and, with seven similar submarines, it served in a combat role during the latter stages of the war. In comparison, the "standard" submarine of World War I measured slightly over 200 feet in length and displaced less than 1,000 tons on the surface.

The prewar submarines generally had been armed with self-propelled torpedoes for attacking enemy ships. During the war submarines also were fitted with deck guns. This permitted them to approach enemy merchant ships on the surface and signal them to stop for searching (an early war policy) and later to sink small or unarmed ships that did not warrant expenditure of torpedoes. Most war-built submarines had one and sometimes two guns of about three- or four-inch caliber; however, several later German submarines carried 150-millimetre guns (including the Deutschland class in military configuration).

An important armament variation was the submarine modified to lay mines during covert missions off an enemy's harbors.

The Germans constructed several specialized submarines with vertical mine tubes through their hulls; some U-boats carried 48 mines in addition to their torpedoes.

Also noteworthy was the development, during the war, of the concept of an antisubmarine submarine. British submarines sank 17 German U-boats during the conflict

World History Project

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