These mistakes had a massive affect on July 1st. these mistakes cost thousands of men their lives. The bombardment cost many lives. I know this because it says ‘The five day bombardment on the German trenches had little effect’. The Germans had spotted the allied forces getting ready for an attack so they retreated to their deep well built dugouts. These provided the Germans with protection from the British bombardment. This meant that when the allied troops advanced, the German troops were waiting for them equipped with machine guns, they had caused complete devastation. The bombardment had not only failed to kill the Germans, but it had also failed to destroy the German wire. A soldier who survived, George Coppard, said, ‘Many died on the enemy wire as on the ground, like fish caught on a net’. This quote tells us that the bombardment just made no mans land harder to cross. Some soldier also referred to the men caught on the barbed wire as ‘ insects caught on a spiders web’.
The fact that Haig thought that his guns had smashed the German lines did not go in favour of the soldiers because once again Haig and his staff were wrong. Jack wren said ‘ Haig kept a running chronicle of events. A half hour after the assault whistle blew, he was pleased to record that all reports were ‘satisfactory our troops had everywhere crossed the enemy’s front trenches’ actually at this moment his troops were falling by the thousands, under German fire, well before reaching the front line’. Haig then felt that the Germans were now weakening so he sent 200,000 men over the top. Thousand of them would never return. Another mistake Haig made was to send men over the top carrying to much weight. This factor meant that it was even harder for men to cross no mans land. So all these mistakes made by the generals played a big part in the soldiers dying.
The Third battle of Ypres often called Passendeale began on July 31st 1917. The Ypres sailent was a disastrous place form which to launch an attack, the German Army surrounded it on three sides. Haig started the battle with a bombardment of 4,500,000 shells. This once again churned the soaking ground into a sea of liquid mud. Hen soldiers advanced, even strong men could hardly move as they sunk up to their waists. They put down duckboards to cross the mud but tired men or the wounded slipped off easily and drown in shell holes filled with slime. When the corpses of men and horses began to rot beneath the mud, the battlefields began to stink. The generals who were over 8 kilometeres away in their head quarters could smell the decaying flesh. The oozing ground turned poisonus and mud on a wound usually mad it gangrenous. 250,000 British were killed or wounded in Passendeale and by the end of the battle, they had only won 800 metres of mud, the Canadians took Passendeale on November 6th. The village has been wiped out. On November 10th a halt was called.
The generals made many mistakes during the Thrid Battle of Ypres [Passendeale]. One of the mistakes was the bombardment of nearlt 4,500,000 shells. This was a mistake because the shells had churned the soaking ground into a sea of liquid mud. This made the battlefield extremely difficult for the soldiers to cross. The bombardment was the cause of many soldiers death as they could not cross no mans land as they just sank into the mud. Many men drown in shell holes. Men did attempt to cross the battlefields using duckboards but tired or wounded men would easily fall off and drown. Ypres was also a salient, the Germans surrounded it so it was a disastrous place to launch an attack from. a quote says ‘ the Ypres salient was a disastrous place from which to launch an attack, it was surrounded on three sides by the Germans’. This quote tells us that Ypres was not the best place from which to attack. Rosemary Rees wrote this quote. Basil Liddell Hart also talks about how the Ypres Salient was a bad place to attack. ‘Haig chose the spot most difficult for himself and least vital to his enemy’. This quote tells us that Ypres was not important to the German army but as the most difficult place for him to attack. These sources support each other in the theory that Haig made two major mistakes in the third battle of Ypres. All these sources state that the bombardment at Passendeale and the decision to attack the Ypres salient was a mistake. Source 34 shows us pictures of before and after the battle at Passendeale. The ‘before’ picture shows us that Ypres was a large town with lots of buildings. The second picture shows complete devastation. Everything has been destroyed. It is just a big battlefield. Source 36 supports these pictures as it says ‘When the Canadians finally took the village of Passendeale, on November 6th it had been wiped out’ this quote supports the pictures as they both talk and show the destruction of the town. Source 35 says ‘ the bombardment churned the ground into a sea of liquid mud’ this quote tells us that the bombardment was a failure and source 36 supports source 35. Source 36 says ’The commanders depended to much on the artillery barrage and bombardment.’ The officers did not think about what damage the bombardment had caused so when Haig sent an officer to the trenches [Haig actually never visited the battlefield] he broke down in tears and said the words; My God, did we send the men to fight in this’. These quotes show us that sources 34,35and 36 are reliable because each source talks about and say virtually the same thing.
During the Battle of Ypres, some mistakes were made that were also made during the Battle of the Somme. In both battles Haig ordered a bombardment of shells to be fire. In both cases the bombardment made the battlefields impassable. Also general Haig did not visit the Battlefields. He did not know what was happening in the trenches while he was giving orders. If he had visited, maybe, he would not have given some orders and thousands of soldiers may have been saved. Another mistakes common in both battles, was the location. In the Somme they were attacking a piece f land that was too big. They attacked a 30km stretch of German trenches when other battles were only over 10 or 15 km of trenches. In Passendeale, it was a salient. Germans surrounded 3 slides of the place they were attacking.
Although Haig was at fault and partly responsible for what happened. There is evidence, which contradicts this. A quote in Haig defence, he had doubts about the readiness of his troops. The French chose the battleground and as French army became weaker. It relied heavily upon the British troops. Joffre pushed Haig to bring forward the attack on the Somme. Haig in fairness, created a first class army from raw recruits. 58 generals were actually killed on the Somme, so not all of the generals were miles and miles behind the front lines in their big chateaus drinking wine. They took part in the battle. Also, one of the major problems for Haig was that the Germans were able to bring in reserve troops, there by lessening the effects of an allied attack.
I am now going to look at Trench warfare. Three factors that made it difficult to attack the trenches are, the barbed wire, this prevented you even getting to the enemy trenches, as it was impossible to pass. The zig zag trench system meant that it was difficult to capture and attack the whole trench because if a shell were to land in the trench few people would feel the impact f the shell, the zig zag trenches prevented the enemy firing along the whole trench if they captured a small part. The dugout made it difficult to attack the trenches as, if there was a bombardment before the attack, the dug out would protect the enemy so they would be waiting for the attack.
The barbed wire was a problem for the attackers because people could not pass it to reach the enemy lines. A song sung by the soldiers during the First World War says ‘ If you want to find a battalion, I know where they are, their hanging on the old barbed wire’. This tells us that people would get stuck in the wire. Another source says ‘Any Tommy could of told them that shell fire would lift up the wire and drop it in a worse tangle than before’ and another quote says ‘We ran up against large uncut pieces of wire’. All these quotes tell us that the barbed wire is extremely difficult to cross.
According to source 21, the only method of attacking the enemy trench line was ‘to simply bombard the enemy with guns until his position was battered and his senses reeling’. This quote tells us that they thought that the only way to attack was by using a bombardment. The source also tells us that they should then get the infantry out of their trenches and across no mans land to make a hand to hand assault.
Sources 28 and 23 support the opinions in source 21. Source 23 says ‘Artillery blazed away at the enemy’s wire and trenches for weeks on end’. This quite from source 23 supports the ideas in source 21. Source 28 says ‘Attacks on the western front were preceded by an artillery bombardment lasting several days’. This quote supports source 21 and 23 so makes them more reliable.
The attacks broke down because, according to source 21, ‘There was a failure to provide the attack with sufficient strength’. Also there was a problem with munitions. Neither side was provided enough ammunition to launch an attack. Source 21 also says ‘One of the prime causes of failure was simply that once an attack had began, fire control was virtually impossible’. This quote tells us that once the infantry had climbed out of their trenches and went forward, into the smoke and gas the Generals would lose control. These reasons along with poor communications resulted in a huge number of casualties.
It was impossible to run across n mans land because each man carried 30 kilograms. Source 26 says ‘Each man carried 39 kilograms, over half his body weight, which made it difficult to get out of a trench, impossible to move much greater than a slow walk or to rise and lay down quickly’. This quote tells us that it was very difficult for a soldier to cross no mans land. Source 26 is a secondary source written by B.H. Liddell Hart for a book called ‘History of the First World War’. The book was written in 1970.
Training or lack of it in Britains case was a major issue when it came to casualties. I am now going to look at the lack of training and the germans recruitment system. The german recruitment system was better than the British model because the german army introduced a system to which every physically able citizen was liable to serve. The german army took in the men and trained them to arms for a short period of time. This factor meant that every member of the german army was trained. The german army was strong and powerful. The germans also had a huge reserve list of trained men, so if many men were lost in a battle the germans had the replacements ready and waiting. This information came from a textbook names ‘ history of World War One’ that was written by Basil Liddell hart in 1970.
The British army was very different. A source, which was written by Martin Middlebrook in 1971 for a book entitled ‘The First Day of the Somme’ says ‘Britain was the only major European country who’s army was not based on conscription but relied upon voluntary enlistment’. This was bad because the british army was approximately made up of 100,000 well trained men, but by the end of 1914 there were only 10,000 men left, 90,000 had been killed and because it was voluntary there were no reserves to replace them.
Lord Kitchener needed to build a new army. Source 13 written by Martin Middlebrook in 1971 says ‘He would use the countries regiment system and their depots but that would be all. The officers, staff and non commissioned officers he would get from where he could, the private soldiers would come from a direct appeal to the civilian population’. By the end of august, Kitchener had made his appeal for ‘the first hundred thousand’. This was the birth of what officially became known as the ‘New Army’.
There were lots of problems in Kitchener’s new army. Lack of training was a major one. There was a shortage of experienced officers to train the men. Lieutenant colonel APB Irwin said ‘We only have two elderly retired officers and a quarter-master, and a very good sergeant major who was the only NCO’. This quote tells us that retired men who did not no the new training techniques were training the new recruits. Also it says that ‘anybody’ who had been in charge of anyone or ‘anyone who wanted to’ could become an officer, this means that even if u didn’t have any training you could become an officer.
Modern Technology was over looked and this aspect of World War one proved to be devastating. Modern Technology was one of the main reasons for such a high loss of life.
In 1914 generals failed to appreciate the impact of Modern Technology. The germans believed that the machine guns were such an effective weapon, because, they could fire 600 bullets a minute. Soldiers on the attack could be mown down in minutes by a hail of lead. A German Machine gunner said ‘When we started firing we just had to load and reload. They went down in their hundreds’. This tells us that the machine gun was a very affective new weapon of war because it killed so many men with very little energy being used. A quote written by SAB says, ‘they were massacred by german artillery and machine guns, first as they plodded across no mans land and then as they bunched together to struggle through such gaps that existed in the often uncut wire’. This quote tells us those British soldiers were just mown down by the machine guns. There was nothing they could do to escape the terror of them. Their death was almost inevitable if they came up against a German machine gunner.
The British also had a new weapon of war. The Tank. The Tank was designed and built by a designer of farm machinery. British believed that the tanks were good because when they were first used in battle in 1916, the Germans were so scared by the sight that they panicked and fled. The advantages of the tank (according to a British rifleman} were that they could bursts through hedges, cross trenches, demolish walls and even snap small trees. However, there were disadvantages. The tank could only move at 6 kilometres per hour. They were first used in 1916 at the battle of the Somme, 50 tanks were used but 29 did not start and the ones that did start just got stuck in the mud.
British soldiers were equip with bayonets, although it was difficult to use them during a battle because, you would have to come face to face with the enemy to actually use them, which was difficult and if u actually did make it to the enemy’s trenches you couldn’t use the bayonet because the trenches were too narrow to fight in.
British generals also relied too much on the week long bombardments. Heavy artillery or the big guns ‘Howitzers’ were the best-liked weapon of war. Both sides bombarded each other before starting an attack. The guns had enormous power. The howitzers could fire shells, which exploded into metal splinters called shrapnel over a distance of 13 kilometres. Soldiers in the trenches could identify what shell was being fired by the noise that it made. The british called the german 77 millimetre shells ‘whizz bangs’. They were actually an 18lb shell named the ‘Black Moriah’. The affects of the bombardments were horrifying. A French gunner said ‘You have no idea of the number of boches [germans] killed, what a horrible sight in the woods in which not a single tree has been spared’. The gunner is telling us that the bombardment had destroyed the surroundings. A wood, which had taken hundreds and hundreds of years to form, was completely demolished in the space of a few hours. He also goes on to say how he witnessed german troops being catapulted into the air, sometimes as high as 400ft. 400,000 shells were used each month.
The noise of the constant bombardment t resulted in men’s br4ains being damaged, their ear bleeding and shell shock. The shells also churned no man land into a sea of rotting corpses, liquid mud and shell craters. This made attacks even harder than they already were.
Poison gas was another new weapon of war. It was first used on April 22nd 1915 by German troops at the Second Battle of Ypres. A british officer who was watching from a nearby trench describes the affect f chlorine gas on the French soldiers. ‘In front of the French lines rose that strange green cloud of death…they fought with terror, running blindly in the gas cloud, and the slow poison of suffocation mantling their dark faces. Hundreds of them fell and died’. From this quote you can see that at first the chlorine gas attacks were affective because it would kill hundreds of men with little effort. There were three types of gas used. Chlorine and Phosgene, which worked by suffocating the lungs. They killed by asphyxiation. Also there was mustard gas. This was far the worst. The affects of mustard gas did not show until hours after the attack and by this time the gas had already began to rot the body. The victim’s skin would blister and the eyes would bulge out. The linings of the lungs would be stripped raw. The pain was unbearable which resulted in victims being needed to be strapped to their beds. Fortunately both sides soon stopped using gas because it was easy to counter attack with gas masks and also you had to rely on the wind to be blowing in the right direction otherwise the gas may be blown back over your own trenches. By 1917 every soldier had an affective gas mask. 3% of war casualties were due to gas.
Also in the war grenades were used. Soldiers preferred grenades to bayonets. The British used the pineapple shape Mills bomb, while the Germans used stick shaped grenade known as ‘potato mashers’.
So in conclusion one can see that not only the generals who were in charge were responsible for the high casualty figures. The high figures were due to many different aspects. Men died due to the lack of concern of modern technology. German machine guns killed british soldiers by the hundreds. So I think that the generals were partly responsible for the high casualty figures as they were the people who gave the orders, which resulted in nearly 60,000 people being wounded or killed in just one day. Although I also think things such as poison gas, machine guns, artillery and the lack of training contributed to the amount of casualties. Machine guns wiped out thousands of people and three per cent of casualties were due to poison gas. So not only the generals like sir Douglas Haig were responsible for the high casualty figures during World War One.
Bibliography
20th Century World
Understanding History 3
Internet www.topmarks.co.uk
www.bbc.co.uk
www.trenchesontheweb.co.uk
Search engines (google,dogpile,www etc…)
Library (school, Public)
The Great War Correlli Barnett 1979
The Great Battles of WW1 Jack Wren
History of the First World War 1979 basil Liddell Hart
First Day of the Somme Martin Middlebrook 1971
The Great War Josh Brooman 1985
The Western Front Rosemary Rees
War Walks BBC professor Richard Holmes