Early War 1914-15 Flashcards
Describe the features of the battle of the Marne.
This happened on September 5th.
A gap created between Generals von Kluck and Bulow allowed the British to fill the gap and the Germans were soon exhausted by the British and French.
Parisians fled during the battle and French soldiers were sent to the Marne from Paris in taxis.
A week of fighting.
Describe the features of Ypres.
A race to the sea to prevent the British from receiving reinforcements at the British channel.
The British reached Ypres by October and for 4 weeks there was fighting in the woods.
8000 BEF deaths.
20,000 German deaths.
Channel Ports saved in Belgium.
What was the situation by Christmas 1914?
A deadlock was reached as the German attempts with Marne and the Schlieffen plan had failed.
A network of trenches was built from the ports to Switzerland.
The soldiers would remain in their trenches until 1915 to recover losses.
Half a million dead on each side.
What happened on Christmas Day?
Carols were sang and men entered no man’s land to smoke and play football.
What were some health issues with trench warfare?
There were diseases caused by lice eating corpses and soldiers.
Contaminated food caused cholera, typhus, and dysentery.
Shell shock caused soldiers to get shot.
A lack of variation in diet with corned beef and bread.
Chloride of lime would be added to water.
What were the conditions like in trenches?
Monotonous lives.
Dangers of bombardment and getting shot by snipers over the parapet as well as poison gas.
Zig zag trenches prevented the enemy from opening fire in trenches and V shaped walls prevented absorbing of bombs.
Dug outs were there for soldiers and there were communication trenches between front line and reserve trenches.
What weapons were developed and what were the problems?
Tanks were ineffective and heavy guns couldn’t destroy the trenches and barbed wire.
Gas masks were developed for gas.
Guns killed 90% at Sommes.
German Maxim machine gun killed 90# at Sommes.
Barbed wire and sandbags didn’t allow allied attacks.
Why was Haig the butcher of the Somme? Why wasn’t he?
He liked the use of traditional offensive infantry attacks - attrition to wear down allies despite the costs.
However this new warfare was hard to understand and it was difficult to win.
