First World War - Land Warfare

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Firepower

  • At the core of the connundrum - FIREPOWER - Artillery 
  • Step change of the conduct of the warfare
    • Collishion of mass armies backed up by artiliery economies - Larger, desructive wars
    • Nature of the destuctiveness - Late 19th Century - Artillery pieces become bigger, more accurate, longer range and fire faster - Move away from artillery firing directly - Target you can see - Firing indirectly - Shooting at something you cannot see - Rely on someone else observing giving directions - BIG SHIFT 
  • Initial in battles of 1914 - Fairly light artilery pieces - As war of movement - Siexes - both sides can brign up larger atilery to support - More field guns - Start to use heavuy guns and siege guns - Would have previously only be placed in forts and moved around by railway - Due to static nature of the front line you can move them - Makes the static nature of the front self reinforcement - Because you have incredible artiliery - Cant break through the front line - Self reinforces
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Trenches

  • Trenches existed before WWI - Any troops in proximity to gun powder - Dig down 
  • Pre-War and Early part:End of 1914 - Germans decide to stand on defensive - Greater effort with trenches - Deeper and Greater engernering - Can't have one trenchline - Need several trechlines - Allies capture first tenches - Will need to get the other
    • Trenches are shallow 
    • Presummed only pausing slighting
  • Trenches on their own - Not enough - 1914 - Once high explosives used - Destroyed trenches - Dig down further - Trenchline - Along line - Deeper dug outs 
  • Middle of war - Sophisticated networks - Series of frontlines, support lines, communication lines - Barbed wire - Front and behind trenches - Lots of very deep dug outs 
  • Core thing - Trenches are not constant - Changes throughtout the war - Depend on Geographic location (Land) - What you can do in the Somme, you cant do in Flanders
  • Germans - Best defensive positons because they are on defensive in the west
  • Battles of 1916 and 17 - Large amount ofhigh explosives - Obliterate the trenchlines - Germans move away from holding trenchlines - To holding strongpoints - Some set in Concrete - PILL BOXES - Set these out - Shoot machine guns to protect one another - Response to allied attacks - Hold area with fewer troops 
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Infantry Solider - Evolution

  • British Soilder
  • John Bourne - Dress and equipt like a game keeper on an estate - Fights as indivdiaul marksman - Havisack with rashions in 
  • 1918 - Conscript - Limited rifel training -  Last resort weapon - Most likely to carry ammunition to man with machine gun - Handsack with grenades - Has a gas mask - Steel helmet - Industrialisation of warfare - Bits and peices for infantry to be effective 
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Gas

  • Germans - Worlds leading Chemical industry - 1914
  • 1914 Dec - Experimenting with 'Tear Gas' - Fritz Haber - Says should be allowed to use Chlorine gas - When wind in right direction open cylinder - Gas goes over enemy
  • Ypers Arpil - Great success for them - Don't follow up on this as they focus on Eastern Front 
  • Also need the wind to be blowing towards the enemy - Most of the prevailing winds head towards the Germans 
  • Enemies - British - Copy - September 1915 - British use gas against Germans
  • Evolution of how you deliver the gas - Develop different gases
  • None lethal gases which are being used - Mustard gas - Causes blisters - Usually not fatal - For every action you take in gas warfare - Clear response to prevent it - Not a way to break deadlock
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Tanks

  • Battle of the Somme - Sep 1916 - Limited and only local effect
  • 3 main problems:
    • Immature tech - First tanks can only move at walking pass - Only operate at short time - Engine releases a gas - Can't leave soilders in their for long - Low reliabilty - Improves throughout war
    • Ground conditions - Need to be good conditions - Not lots of mud 
    • Tanks cant keep up - If you are successful - Tanks because they break down often - You have to take it to battle on a train - Once war of movement starts again - They can't keep up - Requires weeks and months of planning to move
  • German tanks are poor - British lead the way with tanks 
  • Useful and helpful - Not in self a way to break trench deadlock and not a war winner 
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'Enduring'

  • Motivation of the army - How different armies managed there troops endurance - Important in understanding victory and defeat - British Propoganda - Stick with it to the bitter end - Certain points - Troops reach their limit - Considerable impact
  • Basic human needs - Food, sleep and shelter - Importance of rotation policy - Troops with endure frontline experience if they know they will be moved to recoperation - Can you garantee food? - Is your national economy configured to make sure troops are well fed - Shelter in all areas - Alchol, tabaco, letters from home, washing facilities 
    • How much alchol should they be allowed?
    • Can you get hold of tabacco?
    • Do you have functioning mail system? - Food parcels from home - Or will they be stolen
    • How do you censor what soilders are sending in letters?
    • Do you have resources to wash clothes? - Stop spread of disease
  • Lots of investment
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Trenches - Part Two

  • Trenches - Lived experience
    • Soilders are only spending small amount of time in trenches - Troops rotate through trenches - Tours of duty very different 
    • More often - Support position - Supporting Trench network - Some lived in houses and moved into back trenches when emergencies happened 
    • Time in trenches - Depending on your army 
  • Charles Carrington - 1916
    • 65 days - Frontline
      • Only fighting Germans for four of them 
    • 36 days - Support
    • 120 days - Reserve
    • 73 days - Rest
    • 10 days - Hospital 
    • 17 days - Leave
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Firepower - Part Two

  • Cornerstone fo the war - Central to success of attacks and defensives - Large amounts of weapons used, needing large amount of infanstructure - Horses to move them - Large amounts of ammunition and need to move them - Targeting processes to decide where to fire them and then you need someone closer to the target to tell you where you need to aim - In ground or air - Communication network - Can communicate between the places - Huge amounts of time to build - You can't order an attack in a few days time, you need a few weeks to prepare - Usually give a few months notice
  • Three Options:
    • Shrapnel - Primary artillery you were firing - Shell - Fire at enemy - Bursts in air over your enemy - Metal balls fired down on enemy - Effective on men and horses out in the open - Solution is to DIG - If your troops get under cover - Metal balls don't hit them 
    • High explosive shells - Fuse on the front - Either explode when hit the ground or go little way into the ground before they explode
    • Artilery shells - Deliver gas attacks - High quality fuse - PROBLEM - Fuse is hard to produce - If you expand munitions quickly and quality poor - Fuses dont work - Lots of shells are fired and dont go bang - Impact on how you fight 
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Firepower - Part Three

Why fire so many shells?

  • Not all go bang so have to fire lots of them 
  • Problem of accuracy - First half of war - Hard to fire shell and hit target - Get observer to tell you if you are close and where you should aim - Ranging shot and then correct the fire - Once you have the range - Fire lots of them - Wind effects - Cant guaratee hitting target - Fire lots in hope that 1 or 2 hti target - Create deverstation across battlefield - Rains - Mud - Magor feauture of popular understanding of trench warfare 
  • Short of range weapons at the back - Morters - Fire and can lob shells into trenches - More accurate
  • Machine guns - Direct fire - Later indirect weapon - Set these up - Fire across no mans land - If someone is coming to attack trench - Run through Machine Gun fire - Difficult to hit with artilery - Portable - Taken down to dug out 
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'Enduring' - Part Two

  • Social and Sexual needs - How are you going to cater? - Regulate their relations with the population - Are the locals friendly or hostile to the troops 
    • Why the British can endure - Don't have crisis - Due to positive relation to the French - Gibson 
    • Sexual needs - Moralist at home - Not happy they are up to this stuff - Regulate sex workers - Shut down brothels or do you regulate them?
    • Home leave system - Fair? - As long as leave is fairly distributed 
  • Cultural needs of soilders - Intellecutual needs - Spiritual needs 
    • High tech cinemas - News?
    • Books? - Large chunks of time with nothing happening - They will get bored 
    • Concert parties? - Entertain them 
      • WMCA - Tea and Cake huts - Food - Religious service for spiritual needs
    • Do you have enough spiritual leaders? From the right demominiations? - Catholic, COE? - If you believe you will be killed soon - Minister is important 
  • Army has to have a stick - Disipline - Execute for crimes? Which crimes? How will you do that? Is the code tough enough to stop them running away? Enough military police men to hold them to account? - Death penalty was important to make sure your forces were disiplined
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NO

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