the Weastern Front

?
When did the war start?
August 1914
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What did the British do at the start of the war?
Sent the British Expeditionary Force to fight.
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How many BEFs were sent to the war at the start?
70,000
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What happened at the Battle of Mons?
The BEFs were outnumbered 2 to 1 in Belgium.
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At the Battle of Mons, what type of gun did the British use, and was it efficient?
They used Lee Enfield rifles and they were so efficient that the Germans thought that they were facing machine guns.
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What had the Kaiser called the BEFs?
He called them a "Contemptible little army," and it gave them the nick name Old Contemptibles.
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What did the BEFs achieve at Mons?
They slowed the German advance and retreated to the river Marns.
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What was the German plan that BEF and the French wee trying to stop working?
Schlieffen Plan
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What was the schlieffen plan?
A German plan to quickly win Paris, and encircle it before Russia joined so that they could avoid a war on two sides.
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When did the German retreat and what did it mean?
They retreated after the battle of the Marne between September 5th and 11th 1914 and it meant that the Schlieffen plan had failed.
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What was the race to the sea?
The two sides dug into trenches and tried to outflank the other side by reaching the sea first.
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When was the battle at Ypres?
November 1914
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What happened at Ypres?
The Germans failed to break through British and French defenses. It lead to a stalemate because both sides were dug in for 600km between the channel coast to Switzerland.
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How long was it thought the war would last in 1914?
Until Christmas
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What was the state of the war in 1915?
It had halted as both sides were equally strong.
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What did Kitchener say in 1915?
"I don't know what is to be done. This isn't war."
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Who was secretary of state for war in 1915?
Kitchener
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What were trenches guarded by?
Sand bags and barbed wire.
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What was the land between trenches called?
No mans land
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What did the generals think would happen, and what did they do?
They thought that the war could be won on the western front so they sent more and more troops into the area.
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What was the policy of breakthrough replaced with?
Attrition. It meant wearing out the enemy so that they would run out of men and materials first.
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Where was attrition wee illustrated?
Verdun in 1916.
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Who was the German general at Verdun?
Falkenhayn
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Why was Verdun so important and what did the French prime minister say to the generals there?
It was a symbol of military strength. The French generals were told, "if you lose Verdun, I'll sack the lot of you."
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What happened in February 1916?
The Germans attacked Verdun
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Why did the Germans cal of the attack of verdun?
In mid-July the British attacked the Somme.
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At Verdun, between February and July, how many casualties were there?
French 500,000. German 400,000
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What development made attack in WW1 hard?
Machine guns.
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How many machine guns did Germany have in 1914 and at the end of the war?
1914 - 12,000. End of the war - 100,000
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How many bullets could a machine gun fire a minute?
400-600
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When was poison gas first used?
April 1915 by the Germans, at the second battle at Ypres.
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What three types of gas were used?
Chlorine and phosgene gas caused blindness and mustard gas that ate away at the lungs.
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gas became less frequent during war. Why?
Both sides had masks to protect them and the success was dependent of the weather.
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At the start what was thought to be the most useful weapon?
Artillery guns that could fire up to 13km.
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How many artillery shells were fired during the war by the British?
170 million shells.
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What was the aim of artllery bombardment?
Destroy enemy trenches and allow the crossing of no-mans land. In reality it made the conditions harder to cross.
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What is meant by creeping barrage?
Artillery fire just in front of the moving infantry to shelter them. it moved at 50 metres a minute.
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What was a newly developed weapon in the war?
Tanks.
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When were tanks first used? Where they successful?
Somme. The Germans were terrified and they were more successful than the generals thought they would be.
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Were tanks a complete success?
No. They could only move at walking pace and often broke down in the mud making them unreliable.
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At Cambrai 1917 tanks were a success. What did they manage to do?
Push the germans back 8km.
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What had the Germans developed in 1918?
Bullets that could kill tank operators.
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When was the Somme attack?
1st July 1916
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Who was the British commander in chief general at the Somme?
Haig. He wanted a breakthrough.
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What happened before the attack of the Somme?
A 7 day artillery bombardment where half a million shells were fired into German trenches.
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How did the British cross no mans land at the Somme?
They walked slowly.
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What happened when they first tried to cross the Somme?
It went well and there was no resistance.
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How did the Germans survive the bombardment at the Somme? What happened after?
They had hidden in underground bunkers and after it stopped they set up machine guns. If the British had hurried they might have survived and got there before they could set up guns.
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What were the casualties of the Somme's first day?
20,000 died and 40,000 were injured.
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What happened after the first day of the Somme?
Haig changed his plan from breakthrough to attrition.
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What was the end result of the Somme?
By November 1916 500,000 Germans were dead and 620,000 British and French were dead.
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When did the USA join the war?
April 1917
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What did the joining of the USA in the war mean?
Germany had to win before the huge numbers of US troops arrived.
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When did Germany and Russia make peace?
March 3rd 1918.
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When was the Michael Offensive, and who launched it.
March 21st 1918, German Commander Ludendroff
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What was involved in the Michael Offensive?
63 division of attack against the British and French along a 90km front.
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What was the initial result of the Michael Offensive, and what eventually happened?
The British fell back 40km and Parisians planned an evacuation. The Germans had supply problems and 250,000 dead and we stopped them 20km from Paris.
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What happened in 1918 between April and July.
Germany launched many desperate attacks.
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By July 1918, how many US troops arrived every month?
250,000
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When and where did the Germans officially surrender?
11am of 11th November 1918 in a railway carriage in a French forest at Campigne.
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Other cards in this set

Card 2

Front

What did the British do at the start of the war?

Back

Sent the British Expeditionary Force to fight.

Card 3

Front

How many BEFs were sent to the war at the start?

Back

Preview of the front of card 3

Card 4

Front

What happened at the Battle of Mons?

Back

Preview of the front of card 4

Card 5

Front

At the Battle of Mons, what type of gun did the British use, and was it efficient?

Back

Preview of the front of card 5
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