World War One Advances in technology and weaponry that caused world war one to be as bloody and

detrimental as it was.~Mia Colombo~

Content Submarines: *how they advanced the battle field of the war. *German U-Boat Navy: how submarines were used.*H.M.S Lusitania incident. *Photos of the H.M.S Lusitania and German U-boats Poison Gas: *How gas was used against enemies. *Affects of poison gas (mustard gas). *Examples of victims of gas. Airplanes: *Invention and use of airplanes in world war one. *How airplanes effected the military’s ability to kill. *The Red Baron (German). Trench warfare: *How trenches effected the first world war. *Trench conditions. *Verdun: 700,000 deaths. ***Works Cited***

Submarines in WWI • On the eve of World War I, the art of submarine warfare was

barely a dozen years old, and no nation had submarine-qualified officers serving at the senior staff level. Ancient prejudice against submarines remained: they represented an unethical form of warfare, and they did not "fit" in the classic, balanced structure of a navy – where battleships were king. No nation had developed any method for detecting submarines, or attacking them if found.

• Even though most countries did not have more than 15 submarines in service, and almost just as few skilled officers, Germany shaped up to have the most used and effective U-boat navy that lasted through the entire war.

German U-boat Navy • New Year's Day 1915 was welcomed by SM U 24 (Kptlt. Rudolf Schneider)

with a very special kind of fireworks, when it sank the old battleship HMS Formidable (15,000 tons) in the Western Channel.

• In February 1915 then, Admiral von Pohl's plans were realized: The seas around the British isles were declared a war zone by the German government and any ship found there on or after 18th February faced sinking without warning: unrestricted U-boat warfare began for the first time in history. A neutral flag was considered to be no guarantee for safety, it was regarded as a common war deception: The British Cunard liner RMS Lusitania e.g. flew the Stars and Stripes in the Irish Sea on 31st January because U-boats (SM U 21) were reported to be in the vicinity. U-boat skippers were ordered to be absolutely sure a ship was neutral before sparing it.

H.M.S (R.M.S) Lusitania • The most spectacular incident of the First World War

happened on 7th May 1915, when SM U 20 (Kptlt. Walther Schwieger) fired one torpedo aimed at RMS Lusitania (30,000 tons) south of Ireland. After the explosion of the torpedo, the proud one- liner was shattered by a devastating second explosion (which was caused by coal dust) and sank within 18 mins with the loss of nearly 1,200 lives, among them 128 Americans.

• This was one of two actions taken by the Germanys that provoked America to finally join World War One. It wast until the Zimmermann telegram, though, to Mexico that America made the final call and declared war on Germany on August 6th, 1917.

The Lusitania (Before and after sinking)Average German U-boat in WWI

Poison Gas: Development and Use • The Germans used mustard gas for the first time during war in 1917. They outfitted

artillery shells and grenades with mustard gas that they fired in the vicinity of the troop target. After encountering several attacks, the Allies referred to mustard gas as Hot Stuff or H.S., eventually dropping the S and just referring to it as H. By the end of the war, more than two dozen chemical agents had injured 1 million soldiers and civilians, killed 100,000 people and earned the well-deserved title of weapons of mass destruction.

• We know mustard gas is difficult to detect unless you're under a direct attack. It's even harder to notice in contaminated areas where the gas has settled. That posed a problem for soldiers walking through an exposed area that underwent an attack say two days earlier. The chemical agent would stay in the ground for weeks, depending on the temperature. The colder the ground, the longer the mustard gas would linger.

• It was originally used for the purpose of breaking stalemates that were caused by trench warfare. Because trench warfare involved a very little amount of actual man- to-man contact, weapons such as poison gas were invented to kill people in the opposing trenches without actually seeing them and combating them.

What did poison gas do to you? • Mustard gas harmed and killed soldiers by the thousands and affected battle

lines. Because of this versatility, mustard gas served as the most desirable chemical agent during World War I for both sides.

• Once in contact with an unsuspecting victim, they damage skin and internal areas such as mucous membranes inside your nose and throat. Mustard gas is an alkylating agent, meaning its chemicals destroy DNA and cells and liquefy tissue. In essence, mustard gas kills tissue and membranes in the areas it touches. Alkylating agents also are often used in cancer drugs.

• When you first encounter mustard gas, you may not even know anything is about to affect you. The best way to detect mustard gas is through smell, but usually by then it was too late, considering the gas would burn out nasal passages. Soldiers exposed to mustard gas had a hard time detecting a gas attack but noticed a funny smell. Even under heavy doses, however, their noses adapted to the smell quickly, giving them the impression that the gas had dissipated.

Victims of Poison Gas • Poison gas was indiscriminate and could be used on the trenches even when no

attack was going on. Whereas the machine gun killed more soldiers overall during the war, death was frequently instant or not drawn out and soldiers could find some shelter in bomb/shell craters from gunfire. A poison gas attack meant soldiers having to put on crude gas masks and if these were unsuccessful, an attack could leave a victim in agony for days and weeks before he finally succumbed to his injuries.

Airplanes in World War OneInvention:

• The French were the first to develop an effective solution. On April 1, 1915 French pilot Roland Garros took to the air in an airplane armed with a machine gun that fired through its propeller. This feat was accomplished by protecting the lower section of the propeller blades with steel armor plates that deflected any bullets that might strike the spinning blades. It was a crude solution but it worked, on his first flight Garros downed a German observation plane. Within two weeks Garros added four more planes to his list of kills. Garros became a national hero and his total of five enemy kills became the benchmark for an air "Ace."

• However, on April 19, Garros was forced down behind enemy lines and his secret revealed to the Germans. Dutch aircraft manufacturer Anthony Fokker, whose factory was nearby, was immediately summoned to inspect the plane. The Germans ordered Fokker to return to his factory, duplicate the French machinegun and demonstrate it to them within 48 hours. Fokker did what he was told and then some. Aware that the French device was crude and would ultimately result in damaging the propeller, Fokker and his engineers looked for a better solution. The result was a machinegun whose rate of fire was controlled by the turning of the propeller. This synchronization assured that the bullets would pass harmlessly through the empty space between the propeller blades.

Airplanes in Warfare

• During this time in war, it became more and more easy to kill people in war without having to look at them. In the past, it was common that one soldier would have to be fairly close in order to aim and shoot at an enemy to kill them. This did effect the psychology of killing, as it was harder to kill people that they had to look at, but when new inventions came along in World War One, soldiers could find it easy to just aim a machine gun in general direction of the opposing troops, and take fire, without having to see the results and consequences of taking a life. The invention of airplanes only pushed this new era forwards, as people could fly over enemy grounds and drop gas cartridges or even fly at an enemy plane and shoot it down. Both uses of airplanes in World War One involved the new distance that killing required.

Airplanes: The Red Baron • Manfred von Richthofen (1892-1918) earned

widespread fame as a World War I ace fighter pilot. After starting the war as a German cavalry officer on the Eastern Front, Richthofen served in the infantry before seeking his pilot’s license. He transferred to the Imperial Air Service in 1915, and the following year began to distinguish himself in battle. The leader of a squadron known as the Flying Circus, Richthofen developed a formidable reputation in his bright red Fokker triplane. He was credited with 80 kills before being shot down, his legend as the fearsome Red Baron enduring well after his death.

• This was a massive achievement due to the fact that not many people lasted in air battles too long without being shot down themselves. The fact that Manfred made it past 20 kills is worthy of making him a hero.

• Now there is a pizza company named after him. What a hero.

Trench Warfare • Trench warfare reached its highest development on the Western Front during

World War I (1914–18), when armies of millions of men faced each other in a line of trenches extending from the Belgian coast through northeastern France to Switzerland. These trenches arose within the first few months of the war’s outbreak, after the great offensives launched by Germany and France had shattered against the deadly, withering fire of the machine gun and the rapid-firing artillery piece. The sheer quantity of bullets and shells flying through the air in the battle conditions of that war compelled soldiers to burrow into the soil to obtain shelter and survive.

• Throughout most of World War I, the opposing armies on the Western Front tried to break through the enemy’s trench system by mounting infantry assaults preceded by intense artillery bombardments of the defending trenches. These attacks usually failed, partly because the preliminary bombardment alerted the defenders to the imminence of an attack, thus allowing them time to bring up reserves for a counterattack, and because the bombardments themselves turned the “no-man’s-land” between the opposing sides into rough, shell-pocked terrain that slowed down the attacking infantry. The crucial elements in attacking a trench system, surprise and overwhelming numbers of infantry, were thus almost impossible to attain.

Elements and Conditions of Trench Warfare

• Soldiers in the trenches endured conditions ranging from barely tolerable to utterly horrific. Exposed to the elements, trenches filled with water and became muddy quagmires. One of the worst fears of the common Western Front soldier was ‘trench foot': a gangrene of the feet and toes, caused by constant immersion in water. Trench soldiers also contended with ticks, lice, rats, flies and mosquitos. Diseases like cholera, typhus and dysentery thrived because of vermin, poor sewage and waste disposal, stagnant water, spoiled food and unburied bodies. If the Western Front was a breeding ground for disease then the territory between its opposing front lines – ‘no man’s land’ – was a veritable nightmare. Chewed into mud and craters by shell fire, strewn with barbed wire, discarded rubbish, bodies and body parts in all stages of decomposition, the soldiers dreaded it.

• Barbed wire became an element used as defense and also as a weapon in this time period of the first world war. Troops within in a trench would build a wall of dense barbed wire a couple of meters high, and expect it to ensnare any soldier that attempted to invade their opposing trenches. This proved to be a highly effective method used in trench warfare; men would become caught in the barb wire once across “no mans land”, and await their death by being shot while stuck like a fly in a spider web.

Battle of Verdun (700,000 deaths) • The Battle of Verdun in 1916 was the longest single battle of World War One.

The casualties from Verdun and the impact the battle had on the French Army was a primary reason for the British starting the Battle of the Somme in July 1916 in an effort to take German pressure off of the French at Verdun. The Battle of Verdun started on February 21st 1916 and ended on December 16th in 1916.

• 140,000 German troops started the attack. They were supported by 1,200 artillery guns that targeted 2,500,000 shells at the Verdun region. 1,300 ammunition trains were needed to supply these guns. The Germans also had complete air supremacy with 168 planes located in the area - the largest concentration of planes in history up to that point. To start with, the French only had 30,000 troops to oppose the Germans. On the day the battle started, February 21st, 1000 German artillery guns fired on a six mile line along the French front.

• This battle lasted for ten months, and was fought completely via trench warfare and airplanes. 700,000 men died within several square miles just at the battle of Verdun within their country’s trenches. The Battle of Verdun is evidence that World War One was, and still is today, the most bloody war ever seen.

Word search

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• Answer key is available below the search.

Helpful links

• http://www.submarine-history.com/NOVAtwo.htm

• http://www.uboat.net/history/wwi/part3.htm• http://science.howstuffworks.com/mustard-gas2.h

tm• http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/poison_gas_

and_world_war_one.htm• http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/fokker.htm• http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-i/manfr

ed-baron-von-richthofen• http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/604

210/trench-warfare• http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/battle_of_ve

rdun.htm• http://alphahistory.com/worldwar1/trench-warfar

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World War One mini lesson ~Mia Colombo