War in the Trenches

2

Hindenburg Line

• Crucial stronghold

• Formidable barrier to Allied advances

• Operation Alberich

Generals Hindenburg and Lundendorff

General Hindenburg, Kaiser Wilhelm II, and General Lundendorff

review battle plans

• British forces breeched the line in early

October of 1918

Key1 Communication Trench2 Machine Gun Nest3 Underground Bunker4 Traverse5 Wire Break6 Listening Post+ Trench Block

http://www.laurencecook.com/speakman/wwi/trenchdetail0.jpg

9

Shell Shock• Symptoms• Shell-

shocked soldiers first viewed as cowards; many were executed

• Treatment improved once the condition was identified

Nurse and wounded French soldier

Eastern Front

• Line of fighting on eastern side of Europe

• Germany and Austria-Hungary vs. Russia

• Attack and counter-attack for over 2 years

• 1917 Russian revolution-Bolsheviks took over, stopped fighting in WWI

11

Scorched Earth

• Tactic implemented by the Russians, borrowed by the Germans

• Retreating armies would burn buildings, ravage crops, cut down trees, and force inhabitants to flee

• Goal was to leave nothing of value behind that opposing forces could use

Ruins of a French town after German troops retreated through it, 1918

Italian Front • Italy had an alliance

with Central Powers

• Switched sides in hopes of gaining back land

• Fighting in mountains vs. Austria-Hungary

Gallipoli• Need to send

supplies to Russia on the Eastern Front

• Water route through the Black Sea-through the Dardanelles

• Mission was a failure More to come!