The Great War, 1914-1918:Front, Home, and Total War

Schlieffen Plan, August 1914

Why did the Schlieffen Plan fail?

Belgium Liege Namur

British Expeditionary Force (BEF) Advanced too quickly for soldiers and supply

lines Eastern Front drew troops First Battle of the Marne, 6-12 September 1914 French General Joffre German General von Moltke “Race to the sea”

Trench Warfare

machine guns rapid-firing artillery Foxholes Trenches Muck Rats Poison gas

Schneider Obusiers de 520. This French 520mm howitzer was the biggest gun of the Great War. It could deliver a 3,100 pound shell (600 lbs of explosive) over 10 miles. The gun car was just under 100 feet long and weighed 290 tons.

Trench Warfare

The Offensive ‘softening up’ artillery ‘over the top’ “no man’s land”

Battle of Gallipoli / Çanakkale Savaşı, 25 April

1915-9 January 1916• British attempt to forge supply route to Russian Empire and relieve Caucasus

• W. Churchill, first Lord of the Admiralty

• ANZAC troops• Ottoman forces prove very tough

• Battle of Chunuk Bair, Sept 1915: Mustafa Kemal leads Ottoman forces to drive Allies’ troops from heights

• Dec. 1915: British evacuated.

Gallipoli CasualtiesGallipoli Casualties  Dead Wounded

Missing&

PrisonersTotal

Ottoman Empire 56,643 107,007 11,178 174,828

United Kingdom 34,072 78,520 7,654 120,246

France 9,798 17,371 – 27,169

Australia 8,709 19,441 – 28,150

New Zealand 2,721 4,752 – 7,473

British India 1,358 3,421 – 4,779

Newfoundland 49 93 – 142

Total Allies 56,707 123,598 7,654 187,959

Battle of VerdunFebruary-July 1916

German General Erich von Falkenhayn Bleed France white

French General Henri Pétain

French “won” 337,000 German

soldiers lost 377,000 French

soldiers lost

First Battle of the SommeJuly 1–November 13, 1916

60,000 casualties on the first day

Battle of the Somme

420,000 British casualties

200,000 French casualties

About 500,000 German casualties

British and French gained 12 kilometers

Total War

Lack of clear and achievable war aims No sacrifice too great (as opposed to

limited war) Home Front completely engaged Whole societies mobilized for war Armaments and uniform production

Total war (cont.)

Women involved more in factory production

took over men’s jobs Recruited men Joined armies

Women’s battalions of Death

Total War (cont.)

Germany Hindenburg Plan Walter Rathenau War Raw Materials

Board

Russia Military-Industrial

Committee

Created great divisions

Home Front versus Front lines Men versus women Rank and File versus Command Polarized politics, especially ethno-

politics, and spread to civilians….

Civilians as targets: Mass deportations and

killings• German army’s brutal occupation of Belgium

• Russian army deportation of suspected Germans and Jews

• May 1915: Moscow pogrom• Eastern Galicia: Russian Army tried to make it Russian

• Deportations of Armenians in Eastern Anatolia (1-1.5 million deaths)

• Russian civil war, 1918-1921 (about 5 million civilians killed)