The Great War 1914-1918

The Death of a Generation

In the Beginning 1914

“Home before the leaves fall!” The Schlieffen Plan

“Gentlemen, we will fight on the Marne.” 1914-1917

• Schlieffen Plan fails.• For next three years, the western

front will move less than 3 miles either way. It stretched from the North Sea to Switzerland.

• The battles of the Marne, Somme, Ypres, and Verdun will be legendary for their ferocity and their futility. Millions will die.

No Man’s Land

A New Kind of War

• World War I was the first modern war.• Tanks, poison gas, machine guns, long

range artillery, hand grenades, airplanes and submarines will used- some for the first time.

• “Dog Tags” were created for the first time to identify dead soldiers.

• Tactics had not caught up to the new technologies and the loss of life was horrendous.

The Coming of the End 1917-1918

• The United States enters the war in April of 1917 due to Allied propaganda, unrestricted submarine warfare by the Germans and the Zimmerman Telegram.

• Russia leaves the war in November of 1917 due to Bolshevik revolution.

• It becomes a race between the two sides to get fresh troops to the western front for a spring offensive to end the war.

The End November 11, 1918

• The Germans massed a spring offensive that failed at the Marne River again.

• The Allies, led by the fresh US troops launched a fall offensive through the Argonne Forest which ended the war.

• Armistice signed in a railcar on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.

The Death of A GenerationIN Flanders fields the poppies blowBetween the crosses, row on row,That mark our place; and in the skyThe larks, still bravely singing, flyScarce heard amid the guns below.We are the Dead. Short days agoWe lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,Loved and were loved, and now we lie,In Flanders fields.Take up our quarrel with the foe:To you from failing hands we throwThe torch; be yours to hold it high.If ye break faith with us who dieWe shall not sleep, though poppies growIn Flanders fields.John McCrae (1872-1918)

Significance of the War

• Deaths• Cost 200 Billion in 1918 dollars- today

that would be 2.7 trillion dollars. ($1 in 1918 = $13.48 today)

• Problems in Middle East today created due to WWI (Palestine issues, Iraq, Iran)

• First weapons of mass destruction created (gas)

• Holocaust of WWII direct result of WWI