Dead on the Wire Over the Top - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Dead on the WireSlide2

Over the TopSlide3

No Mans Land-FlandersSlide4

View from Fire StepSlide5

Machine Gun PostSlide6

De-LousingSlide7

Battle of Verdun 1916

German Chief of Staff – Von

Falkenhayn

“the forces of France will bleed to death”

21 February 1916

French shelled for 9 hours – 80,000 shells

French commander General PetainSlide8

What would break Scotland?

If we were invaded, what city would be try to defend at all costs?Slide9

VERDUN,

1916

http://

www.pbs.org/greatwar/maps/maps_verdun.htmlSlide10

German & French deadSlide11

German dead, VerdunSlide12

Before and AfterSlide13

Result of Verdun

French recaptured the Fort

Douaumont

377,000 French dead, missing or wounded

337,000

Germans

Over 750,000 casualties totalSlide14
Slide15

Battle of Somme

British & French wanted to create a gap in

German lines

French asked to attack to be brought forwarded

due to Verdun – 1

st

July 1916Slide16
Slide17

How would you attack the German trenches? What tactics would you use?

List as many as you can

Think what it would be like to be either a general or a soldier in the trenches and what you would want to do if you were attacking

5 MinutesSlide18

General Haig’s Plan

Week long artillery bombardment

Use of planes to target German forces

Shelling to destroy barbed wire

Having destroyed machine guns & trenches – allied troops would secure the German front

7.30am 1

st

July 1916 allied soldiers ordered

t

o fix bayonets to riffles & go

“over the top”Slide19

“

Good-morning; good-morning!” the General said

When we met him last week on our way to the line.

Now the soldiers he smiled at are most of ‘em dead,

And we’re cursing his staff for incompetent swine.

“He’s a cheery old card,” grunted Harry to Jack

As they slogged up to Arras with rifle and pack.

But he did for them both by his plan of attack.

Siegfried SassoonSlide20

German troops near Bapaume , Battle of SommeSlide21

British troops on way to front July 1916, Somme The General, SassoonSlide22

July 1

st

1916-

7:28 bombs are detonated under the German trenches- giving them a 2 minute warning

7:30 men go over the top

They are carrying a gas mask, groundsheet, field dressings, trench spade, 150 rounds of ammo and extras like – sandbags or a roll of barbed wire

Totalling 80

lbs

of equipment

Thinking German lines had been destroyed and that new recruits would be disorganised they ordered that men should walk in straight lines across no mans land

They were slaughtered!Slide23

“They went down in their hundreds. You didn’t have to aim, we just fired into them” wrote a German machine gunner

1 British battalion could not advance because they could not climb over the bodies of the dead and wounded that were in their way

Officers were ordered to carry only a pistol and to lead their men- were easily picked out and shot

A British commander decided to detonate a mine which had failed, the result--- he buried his own men under rock and soilSlide24

The End of the Somme

First Day

19,240 British dead

35,494 British wounded

2,152 unaccounted

foritish

missing

General Haig halted the battle in November

Allies had gained 125 sq mile

400,000 British casualties

200,000 French casualties

450,000 German casualtiesSlide25

Haig: lessons from the Somme

Haig recorded what he saw as the lessons from the Somme:

The only possible way of preventing the enemy from interfering with our artillery and photo machines is to force him to defend himself in his own country- for this large numbers of fighting machines of the best are essential

The great value of successful co-operation with the artillery

The great value of photographs taken from aeroplanes

The moral effect of superiority in the air upon our troops on the ground had been out of all proportion to casualties inflicted upon the enemySlide26

ABANDONED German trench 1916 SommeSlide27

Watching the

Battle of the

SommeSlide28

Dead on the SommeSlide29

Dead

BritishSlide30
Slide31
Slide32
Slide33