The Stalemate and the Horrors of the Trenches
Due to the equal loss of life on both sides, and no land being gained, the war eventually stopped due to the fact that nobody was winning. The soldiers hid in trenches and shot at anything that they thought was alive, including birds and lit cigarette butts. The horrors of the trenches included the numerous gases used in the warfare, which could burn people from the inside out, rotting bodies of friends and family, rotting, old food, and diseases such as trench foot caused by the damp conditions of the trenches, which caused the affected person's foot/feet to literally rot away.
Quotes
- "On the firestep in the trenches during the night, you could hear the groaning of the dying — but you couldn't go out to help them. There were rats feeding on their flesh. They were dying there, dying in misery and pain, and the rats were nibbling away at their flesh." -Cecil Withers, British private
- "When we started firing we just had to load and reload. They went down in their hundreds. You didn't have to aim, we just fired into them." -German machine gunner
- "The first thing I saw were two legs sticking out of the ground... There was a skull high up in a tree and helmets with bits of head in them and legs galore." -John Masefield, British visitor to the front
- "All day long they lie there, being decimated, getting themselves killed next to the bodies of those killed earlier." -French officer
- "I can still see the bewilderment and fear on the men's faces when we went over the top. All over the battlefield, the wounded were lying there — English and German, all asking for help... You couldn't help them. I came across a Cornishman, ripped from shoulder to waist with shrapnel, his stomach on the ground beside him in a pool of blood." -Harry Patch, British private
The various wars of WW1
- Gallipoli: Gallipoli was a plan thought up by Winston Churchill to start a new war that would be too much for the Central Powers to handle. This plan failed miserably, leading to several losses in naval and on-land forces, only causing the Allies to suffer more.
- The Battle of Verdun: This battle was fought in Verdun, France, during the year 1916. The war began with the British trying to take some of the German forces away from the French army to try and relieve pressure. It ended on December 16th, during the year 1916, with the French being the "victors," but complications afterward led the British battle of Somme.
New Weapons: The Rifle
The main weapon used by British soldiers in the trenches was the bolt-action rifle. It was able to fire 15 rounds per minute, and could kill a person from 1,400 meters away. The rifle came into use after issues with machine guns caused problems for soldiers. The machine gun was very hard to move from place to place due to its weight and size. This led to the major use of pistols and rifles, although pistols weren't usually used during war, and were given to higher ranking officers instead.
The Machine Gun
Machine guns needed about 4-6 people to man them due to their size, and had to be on a flat surface to use them. They had the firepower of roughly 100 guns, making them a very efficient weapon during the war. The larger machine guns ("Field Guns") required as many as 12 people to man them. Their gun shells exploded on impact causing this weapon to be an even bigger threat the its smaller counterpart.
The Zeppelin
The zeppelin, also referred to as a blimp, was an airship used in bombing raids by Germans during the early parts of the war. Some carried machine guns and other bombs as well, adding even more of a threat to the large balloon-like weapons. They were eventually abandoned though, due to their large size making them an easy target.