In 1914 the First World War, or the Great War, broke out in Europe.

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History Coursework

Chris Grindrod 11SRH

        In 1914 the First World War, or the Great War, broke out in Europe. It involved the two main alliances of Europe at the time; one alliance was the triple entente with Germany, Austro-Hungary and Serbia, the other alliance, the triple alliances, had Britain, France and Russia creating a ring of steel around Germany. This war of attrition was to take the lives of 8.5 million combatants and would change the way warfare was conducted and portrayed forever, it would involve 65 million men from 30 countries around the globe and Russia and America would emerge as the two great superpowers of the 20th century. After the war there would be great criticism of the allied generals, the British and French generals came under particular fire from their countries leaders. The British prime minister of the time famously said “Haig is brilliant up to the top of his army boots”, when he was commenting on the British general Sir Douglas Haig. Another famous quote came from two defeated German offices, one is supposed to have said “The British fight like lions” where his colleague replied “yes, but they are led by donkeys” Since then historians have argued whether this was an accurate interpretation of the conduct of British generals.

        The main abuse that the generals suffered was brought on by the tactics that they employed during the First World War, many people believe that the reason that there was such high allied losses was the lack of imagination in the plans of attack and that, even when the goal was nearly impossible, more and more men were thrown in to the equation until some gain was made. They got criticism because little was gained for sheer numbers of men that died. So many men died for a number of reasons; the fact that wave after wave of men were made to attack enemy machine guns in a frontal attack when they were being massacred in their thousands, the way in which attacks were given away by shelling being stopped and whistles being blown, men having to walk across no mans land (only in some cases) and the lack of communication between different battle groups. During the battle of Verdun British artillery started to fire upon British infantry during an attack causing heavy casualties. These were all seen as foolish acts and it was shown, and still is shown, in various pieces of literature. In source C it shows the enormity of the killing at the Somme and the differences in losses between the two sides. It was written by John keegan, who is a qualified historian and there shouldn’t be any reason for bias on his part and in this source he does contain many facts to support his views so it is quite a reliable source.

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        On the other hand the generals could not have been tactically inept and blind to the minimal gains that some attacks were having because as the war progressed new tactics and innovative ways of attacking were brought to the front line and used with great effect. Ideas like the rolling barrage where men would creep behind shells that were continually firing while inching forward, another idea was night attacks where men would attack enemy positions during the night to minimise allied casualties. There was certainly a learning curve involved with this war and mistakes were made but then were not ...

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