WarWhat do you think of?

Is this clip relevant? Clip 1 – documentary on War in Iraq

What do we know about the War in Iraq?

• NZ represented there• Saddam Hussein• War on Terror• Death of local Iraqis and international

soldiers• United Nations involved• Officially started in 2004… and still

going• Strong USA involvement

What do you know about WWI?

• 1914-1918• Europe centred• ANZACs• USA didn’t join in until 1917

WWI: 1914-1918

6o yards from the German trenches

Mainly fought in Europe yet involving many from New Zealand and Australia (ANZACS), the reality of WWI was that it was physically exhausting, draining and men were EXPECTED to happily go to fight for their families and their country.

Trench Warfare

For many of the soldiers of WW1 they literally fought the war from trenches – long gullies cut into the soil . The trenches stank, were not water proof, were cramped and riddled with rats and insects. Soldiers not only slept here but they wept, shared secrets and dreamt of home.

And the rats come out to play

Many men killed in the trenches

were buried almost where they fell.

If a trench subsided, or new

trenches or dugouts were needed,

large numbers of decomposing

bodies would be found just below

the surface. These corpses, as well

as the food scraps that littered the

trenches, attracted rats. One pair of

rats can produce 880 offspring in a

year and so the trenches were soon

swarming with them.

Richard Beasley, interviewed in 1993.“If you left your food the rats would soon grab it. Those rats were fearless. Sometimes we would shoot the filthy swines. But you would be put on a charge for wasting ammo, if the sergeant caught you.”

Gas Masks

These awkward cumbersome masks were designed to save the lives of both soldiers and civilians from the mustard gases used in warfare.

Photo taken in Iraq, May 2011

In nearly 100 years, what, if anything, have we learned

about the reality of war?

POINT – EXAMPLE –EXPLAIN - LINKWhen you get the part in your essay paragraph (PEEL) where you have to try to relate the ideas in the poetry of WWI to today – remember these two images. Although they are taken 97 years apart, they show the reality that war has not changed that much – weapons may be more dangerous, more accurate and the enemy may be a different ethnic group – but ultimately, war is horrible, harsh, unrelenting and savage.