Additionally, men died during The Great War as a result of the leadership present at the time. For example, during the first of July 1916 – The Battle of The Somme took place with General Haig as leader. Exactly 432,000 British men died overall. Firstly, Haig only ever visited the trenches once and actually lived in a cozy chateau 30 miles away from the trenches. Furthermore, a recent book about the WW1 states ‘Haig was as stubborn as a donkey.’ In addition, the battle ‘Gallipoli’ in 1915 was almost as deadly, killing 200,000. For instance, on the 25th April 1915, British forces had landed at 5 beaches at Cape Helles soon to find the leaders unsure of what action to take; meaning troops had to wait for further instructions thus putting them at high risk of attack. Due to this, the lack of support and stubbornness sent thousands of men to their deaths. Moreover, the ignorance and indecisiveness of the leaders left troops in danger of an attack from the enemies, which could have resulted in a quick death for many, therefore proving that leadership was one main reason why the First World War was deadly.
As well as the lack of leadership, The Great War was also deadly due to the living conditions. For instance; rats, lice and frogs were all present within the trenches. Despite how grotesque rats were, there were bigger problems; for example, between 1914 and 1918, 80,000 men suffered from shell shock. To illustrate, early symptoms would include: tiredness, irritability, giddiness, lack of concentration, temporary paralysis (freeze ups) and headaches. Moreover, dysentery, a terrible disease affecting the large intestine, put over 400 men to suffering and killed more than 100 men. According to Bill East, a soldier within 1918 “We were down to skin and bones. Dysentery just ate away our intestines.” Consequently, a weak stomach and a serious mental disability was most definitely deadly for the soldiers, because the men would either be too dehydrated and weak, or mentally disturbed and scared to move, run or defend themselves, thus resulting in certain death or injury.
In conclusion, the weapons provided great speed, distance and sometimes shock-therefore it was very hard to hide and/or run from the weapons, therefore causing certain injury of death and also making weapons deadly. The leadership was neither efficient nor successful, as there was no planning involved, leaders were unable to be flexible when it came to tactics, and it was rare that anyone took their initiative. Because of all the previous reasons mentioned soldiers were unable to fight to their full potential as their leaders were incapable, thus making the World War deadly. Finally, the living conditions were inhumane and soldiers had to go through countless diseases and mental issues during the deadly war. After going through all of the reasons stated above, I have come to the decision that the most important reasons why the First World War was so deadly, was because of a combination in the leadership and weapons. For instance, the leaders would instruct useless tactics and sometimes no action to take whatsoever, consequently leaving their soldiers to then face the rapid, powerful and deadly weapons. The reason I have chosen the leadership and weapons, is because the weapons were so deadly and high tech at the time that not even the helmets or trenches could fully protect the soldiers, and even though there were leaders in charge of devising a plan to win the war and protect the soldiers, there were quite stubborn and ignorant, hence leaving the soldiers to possibly die and most probably get severely injured (shot, beaten, suffocated - through the use of gas)
