What was life like in the trenches?
History Assessment Before the war began it was long anticipated. Friction between the main powers in Europe had been building. When the war finally came about any feelings against the war disappeared and many people saw England as being the saviour of Europe fighting the evil Germany. Men rushed to the recruitment offices in frenzy to share a little bit of patriotism. If only they had for seen the brutal reality of trench warfare, and the mass loss of life that it caused. What was life like in the trenches? Life and conditions in the trenches Trench warfare is simply the fighting in trenches. The things that the soldiers had to do and the way they lived and fought was horrible it seems. When the word "war" is said one tends to think of death. Death by artillery, bombs etc. But in fact particularly in the case of the 1st World War many soldiers died from the life and conditions they faced in the trenches. These 2 factors go hand in hand. The conditions in the trenches created the life soldiers in the trenches lived. Most of the soldiers were split into groups. A battalion of their county- 1000 men, then into a company of 240 men down to a platoon which had 60 men in it or a section which was just 14 men. The soldiers had routine jobs that they had to do such as filling the sand bags, latrines and getting supplies. The soldiers standard of life was partly
The war on the Western Front
Nick Taylor 2nd October 01 Coursework Assignment: The war on the Western Front . Source A and B both have advantages and disadvantages. Source A discusses many valid and different points to B and B always shows valid and different points. Artillery is shown in photograph B to destroy the enemies' defences, so the attacker can advance and take the enemies fortification or trench, but the picture looks suspicious because there is a British soldier is standing over the remains of a German machine gun post and that would be unlikely in September 1916 and probably propaganda for current battle The Somme which ended in a stalemate and the trench also looks suspicious because a lot of German trenches were concrete and very advanced, but this particular trench is wooden and primitive. Source A explains what British soldiers were told and then explains the harsh reality that Artillery was not as affective as people were led to believe and this led to a slaughter. Many shared this view of Historian Craig Mair such as Private Coppard (survivor of the Somme) " Any Tommy could have told them that shell fire lifts wire up and drops it... in a worse tangle than before". Source A therefore is more effective than he is led to believe because after 63 years the evidence can be gathered to give less blinkered viewpoint from variety of people
The war on the western front.
The war on the western front. . Source A was written by Craig Mair in 1982 for a textbook in a British School, the source was written 63 years after the First World War which makes it a secondary source. The Source describes clearly the events of the battle of the Somme. In the source there are mainly facts which are read as from my own knowledge I know the British army was told all the Germans would be dead and were unaware they had build deep bunkers below, thousands were killed. The Source was written for a British textbook so it seems unlikely the source will be inaccurate and there is little evidence indicating the source is biased. Craig Mair was not an eye-witness and must have collected information from others therefore his source must have been put together with different people's views on things. Most historians have there own opinion on accounts so that may have influenced his source. However the source does describe the effects of artillery and is reliable in the account the information in the source is correct. Source B is a photograph taken in September 1916 near the remains of a German machine gun post near Guillemont. As the photograph was taken during the war it's a primary source. Although the source is a photograph we must not automatically assume the source is reliable. This source could have been staged as we don't know what is around the area
The Western Front.
Introduction After the Battle of Marne in September 1914, the German army was forced to retreat. They had failed their objective to pressurise France into an early surrender. Rather than give up the territory that they already held the Germans dug trenches to protect themselves from the weapons of the advancing Allies. The Allies couldn't break the German trench lines and so followed the German example. The trench lines soon spread from the North Sea to Switzerland, this was known as the Western Front. Trenches Arriving At Etaples Base Camp: British soldiers intended for the Western Front usually landed at the French ports of Le Havre and Boulogne. The men were then transported to the main base camp just outside the French town of Etaples. As many as 100,000 soldiers at a time were housed at the camp. The soldiers were trained here, instead of in Britain in case they were needed quickly. Soldiers were trained on how to use all the equipment and taught tactics and movements. In the sand dunes at Etaples was the notorious Bull Ring training camp. Here attempts were made to prepare men for life in the trenches. The new soldiers also received lectures on how to deal with problems such as lice, trench foot and poison gas. Private Frank Bass write this is his diary about Etaples (September 1916): 16th September: Parade at 9 a.m. and march to Boulogne Station. We start for
The Tradition Of War Poetry
The Tradition Of War Poetry By comparing and contrasting a selection of war poems consider the ways in which attitudes to war have been explored and expressed. When considering poetry written post 1900 concentrate on a selection of poems written by Wilfred Owen. Humans have turned to poetry in many different instances as a way of expressing them selves, using the best combination of words, in the best order to express exactly how they are feeling at that moment. Poetry is one of the most powerful means of communication that uses words very sparingly, and often defines the era in which the poet lived and died. I think that is why many poems are written about war, as anyone who was involved in that experience would obviously have strong views and opinions about their encounters, which they would wish to express. This essay will explore the tradition of war poetry. I will be doing this by looking at a variety of poems from different wars and then exploring the ways in which attitudes have been explored and expressed. An early expression of war poetry is to be found in an extract from the play Henry V by William Shakespeare, before the final attack on Harfleur. The situation in the poem is that Henry V is trying to rouse his troops before battle by making war sound exciting and noble. I think the purpose of the poem was to inspire his troops and to give them courage when
Was there much change in warfare on the Western front between the end of 1914 and March 1918?
GCSE COURSEWORK - AO 2 Following the battle of the Marne and the race to the Sea a trench line was set up from Switzerland to the North Sea. This trench line was in place by the end of 1914. In March 1918 the Germans launched a major attack under the code name "Operation Michael". Was there much change in warfare on the Western front between the end of 1914 and March 1918? Explain your answer. The period of World War One was a time of great change. Transformations occurred in many fields of life, but in other ways many things stayed the same. Technology was greatly improved upon during the course of the war. Aeroplanes, tanks, artillery, gas and machine guns were all created or significantly improved upon. Possibly the biggest advance of these was that of aircraft. Blacks sent over from British colonised Africa were amazed by them, calling them "Steam engines of the air". The plane had only been created eleven years earlier by the Wright brothers and, at the beginning of the war, was still temperamental and deemed of limited use by Commanders. The early machines were weak and fragile and none of the great powers possessed a significant amount of them. They were first used as reconnaissance planes because they were unable to inflict enough damage to major enemy targets to change the course of a battle or campaign. During the war, air power made huge technological
Wilfred Owen
Wilfred Owen Wilfred Edward Salter Owen, born 1893, was a British poet during the First World War, He wrote poetry from an early age and was inspired by religion. In 1913 he went to France to teach English and on returning he decided to enlist in the army to fight in the World War. He entered the war in 1917 and fought in the battle of the Somme but was hospitalized for shell shock and met Siegfreid Sassoon (a poet) and his works were in harmony with Owen's concerns. In the poem 'Dulce et Decorum est' the soldiers are marching hopelessly and desperately back to their 'distant rest'. The men are positioned amongst the bombardment of German flares and shells dropping as they suffer a gas attack. Owen describes the men's panicking as one of the men fails to put on his gas mask in time. Owen uses this incident to challenge the suffering in the war. Shown in ; "Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots of tired outstripped five-nines that dropped behind" The opening of 'Dulce et decorum est' instantly brings an image of tired soldiers; "Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge," The men are no longer fit and full of enthusiasm instead Owen describes a group of men which have been broken down by excruciating pain and mental trauma, they have become 'old beggars' and coughing 'hags'. The exhaustion, which the men
Wilfred Owen
In October 1917 Wilfred Owen wrote to his mother from Craiglockhart, "Here is a gas poem, done yesterday........the famous Latin tag (from Horace, Odes) means of course it is sweet and meet to die for one's country. Sweet! and decorous!" While the earliest surviving draft is dated 8th October 1917, a few months later, at Scarborough or Ripon, he revised it. The title is ironic. The intention was not so much to induce pity as to shock, especially civilians at home who believed war was noble and glorious. It comprises four unequal stanzas, the first two in sonnet form, the last two looser in structure. Stanza 1 sets the scene. The soldiers are limping back from the Front, an appalling picture expressed through simile and metaphor. Such is the men's wretched condition that they can be compared to old beggars, hags (ugly old women). Yet they were young! Barely awake from lack of sleep, their once smart uniforms resembling sacks, they cannot walk straight as their blood-caked feet try to negotiate the mud. "Blood-shod" seems a dehumanising image- we think of horses shod not men. Physically and mentally they are crushed. Owen uses words that set up ripples of meaning beyond the literal and exploit ambiguity. "Distant rest" - what kind of rest? For some the permanent kind? "Coughing" finds an echo later in the poem, while gas shells dropping softly suggests a menace stealthy and
World war 1 poetry
During the First World War it is estimated that a total of 10 million people were killed and twice that number were wounded. The war lasted from 1914 to 1918. The war was fought between Britain and her allies and Germany and her allies. Most of the fighting took place in France and Belgium. At first, British people thought that Britain would win very quickly and the soldiers were lucky to be able to fight the Germans. Men were eager to join up because they wanted to impress their families and girlfriends. However, as the war progressed, people realised that it was not going to be that easy. British and French soldiers faced the Germans in their trenches and both sides used bombs and guns to kill each other. When the British side tried to advance by sending men over the top of the trenches, they suffered huge casualties. Altogether 750,000 British soldiers were killed, 2,500,000 were wounded and many were permanently disabled. By the time the war had ended the British people were fed up with the fighting and just wanted to get back to normal. The returned soldiers who were wounded were an unwelcome reminder of the war. During the war writers and poets were beginning to write about the horrors of war rather than the glory. Two important poets of the war were Siegfried Sassoon and Wilfred Owen. Wilfred Owen was born in 1893 in Shropshire. He signed up in 1915, but by 1917 he
Women and the war effort in Britain 1914-1918
Coursework Assignment: Women and the war effort in Britain 1914-1918 World war one beginning in 1914 and ending in 1918 brought around many changes in Britain. One change was that many women were invited into the work place because men were fighting in war. Most of the work changes though came after conscription where men were forced to join the army. Many people and historians argue that these work changes for women would have happened anyway but just later and that war acted as a catalyst and sped up this process. I will be discussing various points on sources A to H, and answering three main questions. Source A is propaganda and is unreliable but gives us an insight into what the government were really thinking. The source is unreliable because it has a very obvious aim, to get women into the work place. The poster, made in 1917 after subscription, shows us women being 'equal to men. After subscription where it was mandatory for men to be in the army women were needed in the factories and propaganda was released to entice women into the work place. After careful study of the poster I found faults, which show that men still thought of themselves as higher than women. Small things such as the woman having to hold the flag with two hands and the mans flag being in front of hers shows that although women were 'equal' men were still the dominant race. I believe these faults
