Trench Warfare on the Western Front 1914-18 (2) Flashcards
What uniform changes + use of cavalry made a difference to the nature of warfare?
- Issuing of metal helmets provided more protection
- The French had given up colourful uniforms and instead adopted khaki uniforms
- Cavalry was also now on a decline, the use of swords etc were not effective
- Cavalry running through no mans land was ineffective as it meant they were targets to machine guns
Give stats of the most common weapon, the 1914 rifle?
- Fire up to 15 rounds a minute
- Could hit a target up to 800 yard away
- Due to the noisiness of theses rifles, generals often had little control over their firing squad once they had told them to open fire
- Soldiers also now shot from their trenches and shell-holes as a means of cover
What were smokeless cartridges used for?
They prevented the tell-tale ‘puff’ of a sniper shot, allowing their position to remain hidden
Why did the French adopt a more aggressive attacking method by 1916?
They deemed the German trenches on French soil as a humiliation
What was the ‘fire and move’ tactic used by the French?
- One group o soldiers would rush forward under covering fire by supporting groups
- Groups would switch roles as required
- This would require high levels of training due to the attacks on a narrow front
What tactic did the British adopt in contrast to the French method of attack?
- They preferred the ‘wave and flow’ attack method on a mile wide front with hundreds of men leaving the trenches at a time
- They advanced using ‘companies’ - 500 men in each company
Explain the British method of attack ‘wave and flow’?
- Each wave would advance in 4 lines
- The men would be 2 or 3 yards apart and each line left a gap of 50-100 yard between it and the men behind
- The first wave would hold the German front trenches until the next wave arrived
- The second wave would push through and try to capture the next German trench etc, in waves
Why was the British ‘wave and flow’ not smooth sailing?
- Often the grounds were run down after artillery bombardment before the actual attack
- Every soldier had to carry up to 60 pounds of equipment and rations
Why were machine guns so desirable?
- They had greater killing power than a rifle and a rifleman required great skill whereas a machine gun could be used by new recruits
- All they had to do was feed ammunition and spray bullets at a wide arc at 60rpm
- Machine guns were often sited in pairs or batteries of up to 4 to 8
- They were hard to destroy as they were hidden in dugouts or pillboxes
What did pre 1914 tests show about the effectiveness of the machine gun in comparison to the rifle?
- Showed that they were worth 50 or more rifles in terms of firepower against infantry
What were different types of machine guns?
- The British Lewis machine gun could be carried by one man and the heavier Vickers gun needed 3 or more gunners
Give the ratio of rifles : machine guns in 1914 compared to 1917 and its effects.
- 1914 12:1
- 1917 2:1
- Britain had learnt how effective machine guns could be and its made cavalry and infantry obsolete
What were examples of grenades used?
- British Mills bomb
- The German stick grenade
Why did Germany abandon the use of flamethrowers?
Too bulky and soldiers could be easily shot
What were mortars?
- Small artillery weapons that lobbed small bombs to drop on a trench
- These were effective
- The British dreaded the German Minenwerfer mortar
What mortar did the British get in 1915?
- 1915 they got their own Stokes trench mortar
- This fired 25 bombs pet minute over 800 yards
What did BEF commander Sir John French believe about artillery?
Believed that high explosiveness was the key to victory and would break the stalemate as it would flatten barbed wire, destroy trenches + machine guns and demoralise enemies
What % of casualties did artillery account for and how did artillery numbers grow in the British Army?
- Artillery accounted for 70% of casualties
- Had 79 light and heavy guns, but by 1918 it had 1,000 heavy guns alone
What were different types of artillery available?
- Light 18 pounders firing 6,000 yards
- Heavy howitzers firing heavy shells 1,400 rounds over 10,000 yards
- The largest guns were used to reduce forts, hit long range targets and some were mounted on railway wagons
How did the use of artillery fail at the Battle of the Somme July 1916?
- The British fired 1.5 million artillery shells obliterating German positions
- This was what it looked like on the surface, their deep dugouts had survived and they used British shells as cover
- This led to 60,000 British Casualties in the first week
What was a timed fuse shell and a high explosive shell?
- Timed fuse shellExploded mid air and the shrapnel was effective against those in the open
- It was not effective against those behind barbed wire and in trenches
- A high explosive shell was meant to penetrate defences but were also ineffective at clearing barbed wire
- Many shells did not explode at all
How did British fuze 106 fix the issues of timed fuse shells and high explosive shells?
- Fuze 106 exploded shells sideways rather than burying them in the mud
- This was a sensitive percussion device and destroyed barbed wire creating a smokescreen
- Arrived in 1917 and solved the reportage of a ‘shell shortage’ that caused disputes
When did Germans begin using poisonous gas?
- They began using chlorine in April 1915 at Ypres
- They used 6,000 canisters of Chlorine gas which set on the ground the gas clouds made the French retreat
What was the result of Germans using poisonous gas?
Allies issued gas masks in June 1915
When did the French first use poisonous gas?
September 1915 at the Battle of Loos
When did Germany start using more poisonous gas?
December 1915
- They began using phosphene which was 6x more poisonous than chlorine
- This caused 80% of casualties
What was the final gas that the Germans used?
- They used mustard gas in July 1917
- This caused lung damage, skin damage and blindness
- This prompted the development of fabric gas masks to respirator masks with goggles and better inhalation
What did the Americans bring with them in 1917?
- Coincided with the first battle won by tanks
- American commander Pershing believed in mobility and rifle fire but made little use of tanks
How did the British use tanks at Cambrai?
- British used over 380 tanks at Cambrai in Nov 1917
- The tanks crossed three German lines with an advance of 5 miles
- ## The Germans regained the lost ground within 2 weeks
How many tanks did the allies have by 1918?
- Nearly 10,000 both light and heavy
- This created the psychological effect for the Germans that every tank was an enemy
What was good about a tanks mobility?
- Tanks offered an artillery weapon that did not need horses to pull it
- Its caterpillar tracks easily cleared most obstacles and trenches
How did Tanks fare at the Battle of Amiens August 1918?
- Allied tanks advanced 9 miles a day, a ‘breakthrough’
- The western front became more mobile
- Old waves of infantry became smaller with machine guns and tanks being used
What were the overall improvements by the end of the war?
Artillery fire was more accurate, comms improved and allies logistics were superior
When did the Germans abandon the Hindenburg line and what did this cause?
- 4th October 1918 they withdrew
- German high command asked for an armistice on 8th October
- Armistice was signed on the 11th November
