WWI Flashcards
who was on each side of the war?
between central powers ( germany, austria-hunagry, hungaria, bulgaria and ottomoan empire) and the allied powers ( france, russia, belgium, serbia and britain) later joined by USA and Italy
start and end of the war
started july 28th 1914, ended november 11th 1918
why did the war happen?
- militarism, nationalism, imperialism, alliances, and economic rivalry
triple entente
britain, russia and france formed in 1907
triple alliance
german, austria-hungary and italy, may 1882
july days
days in between the assassination and the start of the war
schlieffen plan
-created december 1905, employed august 1914
-created by senior general in german army, count alfred von schlieffem
-germany was worried being encircled by france and russia
why did the schelieffen plan fail
-6 week timetable
-BEF slowed down at battle of Mons
- belgium army slowed down german advance at forts around leige
plan 17-slowed down german supplies of food and ammunition by 2 weeks
-soldiers were tired, hungry and un-equipped
-General Von Kluck changes the plan
-battle of marne- germans forced back to the river aisne, began to dig trenches
-russia mobolised in 15 days instead of 6 weeks
what was deadlock on the western front?
both sides dug trenches from which they launched repeated attacks
-very little gain
-high number of casualties
why was there deadlock?
-failure of schlieffen plan, strength of defences, ineffective weapons, no new tactics, the mud
role of aircraft
-gather intelligence on the enemy
–> monitoring troop movements, trench layout and supply chains
- at first in 1914, airplanes were extremely primitive, unarmed and unreliable and highly dangerous ‘string bags’
how did aircraft improve in 1918?
-fighters, fitted with machine guns, much faster and menurverable
-bombers, could carry heavy loads of bombs and drop them on distant targets
-by 1918, 10,000 planes were being used and over 50,000 airmen killed
role of machine guns
- defends trenches, fairly new weapon
-fires 400 to 600 bullets per minute with a range of 2,000km
-germans had 12,000 in 1914, Britain didnt use machine guns until 1915
-required 4 to 6 operators, more suited for defence than attack
-could overheat or jam
-prolonged stalemate rather than breaking it
improvement of machine guns
-1918, being used by all armies
-rate of fire vastly increased and some handheld ‘light machine guns’ had been developed
–> e.g. the lewis gun
role of poison gas
-help soldiers break into enemys trench–> causes terror
-released from canisters into no mans land
what was poison gas like in 1914
-chlorine gas was first used by the germans at the 2nd battle of ypres, 1915
-britain used chlorine gas at the battle of loos (sept 1915)
improvement of poison gas
-1917, more lethal gases were developed–> mustard gas
-gas shells were introduced, overcomed problem of wind direction
-specialised gas masks and protective clothing for soldiers, dogs, horses and pigeons
-psychological weapon, little impact on breaking stalemate
role of tanks
-used to cross difficult ground, destroy machine guns, provide cover for advancing infantry and crush barbed wire in front of enemy trenches
what were tanks like in 1914?
-used first by british at the battle of the somme (1916)
-they moved at a walking pace, not very meneurverable
-more than half broke down
- germs didnt use tanks until 1918
improvment of tanks
-1917 at cambrai, over 400 tanks were used and achieved great success, infantry couldnt keep up
role of artillery
-bombarded enemy lines by firing huge shells (up to 108kg)
what was artillery like?
-1914, not very accurate and difficult to range targets
-sometimes bombarded their own trenches
-1915, 50% of british shells were duds
how did artillery improve
- shells improved in quality
-new tactics–> the creeping barrage and the box barrage
-spotter aircraft, spotter balloons, being used to send live info to the artillery about where and what to fire at
battle of the somme date
1st july 1916 to 18th november 1916
took place on the river of the somme in france
4 key outcomes of the battle of the somme
-57,000 british casualties and 8,000 german casualties
-by november, 620000 for the allies and 450,000 for the germans
-at most, the allies advanced 15km along the western front
-germans called off their attacks at verdun
why was the battle of the somme unsuccessful?
-new attack was coming
- week b4 the attack: 1.73 million shells were fired at german lines
- general haig told soldiers to advance slowly towards enemy trenches, believed they would be undefended
battle of Passchendaele
-july 1917, 10th november 1917
-british and canada VS the germans led by the general haig
result of the battle of Passchendaele
- 3 months of fighting, Paschendaele was cauptured
- 240,000 british and 220,000 germans wounded or killed
-allies captured 800m of territory, haig failed to complete the main objective (connection to the northern coast)
why did the battle of Passchendaele fail?
-germans knew the attack was coming
-heavy rain turned the battle field into quagmire, knee-deep in liquid mud, britain fired 4 million shells in the first week with heavy rain
what was the german naval threat
-britain had the largest navi in 1914
-naval arms race, caused a stalemate at sea for most of the war
battle of heligoland
-28th august 1914
-british attacks on german destroyers in the north sea
-british sqaudron of 31 destroyers, 2 cruisers, 8 submarines attacked a german patrol
