The opening weeks of the war were characterized by massive mobilization of troops, and hundreds of thousands of men moved across large sections of territory. Then the battlefront became deadlocked in a stalemate that lasted for much of the rest of the war. Both sides made continuous efforts to break the stalemate and force the opposing side to surrender.

These questions will help focus your attention during the video. Answering them will help you understand this era and what the people thought, felt and did.

1. Identify at least three reasons the leaders of both sides originally believed that the war would be very short in length.

2. Define "offensive strategy" and explain the impact of this type of strategy for the men on the front lines of an army.

3. Explain the expression "poor little Belgium," and describe the actions of the German army that led to this expression.

4. Describe specific ways that the reality of the battlefield in December 1914 differed from the plans made by both sides in early August.

5. Describe the reactions of the Belgian and French civilians to the actions on the battlefield in the opening weeks of the war.

6. Describe the efforts of the various nations, particularly Britain, to call for more volunteers to join the army.

7. Describe the differences between what the army volunteers expected to find on the battlefields of Europe and what they actually found.

8. Explain why the Battle of the Marne was significant for both France and Germany.

9. Explain the phrase "race to the sea" in the context of the front lines in the fall of 1914.

10. Define the term "stalemate," and describe the conditions on the battlefront in December 1914 that produced and perpetuated a stalemate at that time.

11. Describe life in the trenches, as well as the physical environment of the trenches and the area surrounding the trenches.

12. Identify at least five ways that men tried to adjust to and cope with living in the trenches.

13. Describe the meaning of the Christmas truce of 1914, both for the men on the battlefield that evening and in terms of the nature of warfare before and after that evening.

The Great War was different from any war fought either before or since. However, in the first four months of the war, military leaders on both sides made decisions based on their experiences in earlier wars; they assumed that this war would be much like previous wars, but on a larger scale. They also believed that the war would be over within weeks, or a few months at the longest, and that a swift offensive movement would force a surrender.

However, the first day of the actual fighting revealed that this war would be unlike all earlier wars in a number of ways. In the first five months of the war, violence in every form became an everyday reality for the millions of people-both military and civilian-in the war zones. The daily casualties frequently numbered in the tens of thousands.

By mid-October 1914, leaders on both sides started fighting a war of attrition; that is, they tried to wear down the enemy by costly battles, wherein soldiers became expendable and each side struggled to outlast the other. Old tactics of battlefield movement would not work, even though the generals continued to order mass offensives. New inventions were tried, but none were effective. Besides violence, massive destruction and death, the key features of the battlefront in the late fall of 1914 were stalemate and the trenches.

Both sides had to make major adjustments to trench warfare, an entirely new kind of war. The closest comparison was siege warfare, which was used in some battles during the Middle Ages and the American Civil War. Four types of trenches were dug, each with its own purposes and living conditions. The soldiers on the front knew the deadly effects of the machine guns (some of which fired between 300 and 450 bullets per minute) and massive, well-placed heavy artillery shells. They knew also that "going over the top" meant being mowed down. "No man's land" was aptly named.

By mid-December 1914, the Axis powers had lost the war, but, unfortunately, neither they nor the Allies knew it or would accept a truce. The stalemate on the battlefields was seen as a temporary condition, rather than permanent. Neither military nor civilian leaders believed the stalemate would last for long. Both sides were certain that, as in all previous wars, victory would go to the offensive armies. Generals on both sides continued to believe that in order to win the war quickly and decisively, all they needed was the right attack at the right spot with sufficient military forces. Four years later, after the deaths of over eight million men, both sides at last agreed that a permanent truce was necessary.

QUESTIONS

1. The war opened with great optimism on both sides and the belief that the war would be short, but the armies quickly came to a stalemate. What factors might have contributed to creating a stalemate? What factors might have contributed to preserving a stalemate on the battlefield?

2. What value would high mobility have on the battlefield?

3. The stalemate forced leaders and soldiers to make major adjustments to waging war and defending their territory. Name at least five adjustments that men along the western front had to make by October 1914.

Besides drafting soldiers, the governments of all sides of this war tried a variety of ways to get men to join the army. The examples below show how they tried to persuade women to encourage the men in their lives to join.

1. Imagine that you are a mother, wife or girlfriend in Britain in the Summer of 1917 and you are reading these posters. To what extent might they persuade you to encourage your man or men to enlist?

2. Imagine that you are a man during this same time and you are reading these posters. What specific effects might they have on your decision to volunteer?

3. After reading these posters, what is your attitude toward the government that created such posters?

4. How do these posters suggest that the government wanted the entire society to participate in this war?

The Trenches: Symbols of the Stalemate

The first major trench lines were completed in late November 1914. At their peak, the trenches built by both sides extended nearly 400 miles from Nieuport, on the Belgian coast, to the Swiss border. Among the Allies, the Belgians occupied 40 miles, the British occupied 90 miles and the French occupied the rest. Experts calculate that along the western front, the Allies and Central Powers dug nearly 6,250 miles of trenches by the end of 1914. By the war's end, each side had dug at least 12,000 miles of trenches.

Organization of the trenches

The Allies used four "types" of trenches. The first, the front-line trench (or firing-and-attack trench), was located from 50 yards to 1 mile from the German's front trench. Several hundred yards behind the front-line trench was the support trench, with men and supplies that could immediately assist those on the front line. The reserve trench was dug several hundred yards further back and contained men and supplies that were available in emergencies should the first trenches be overrun. Connecting these trenches were communication trenches, which allowed movement of messages, supplies, and men among the trenches. Some underground networks connected gun emplacements and bunkers with the communication trenches.

German trench life was much different. They constructed elaborate and sophisticated tunnel and trench structures, sometimes with living quarters more than 50 feet below the surface. These trenches had electricity, beds, toilets and other niceties of life that contrasted sharply with the open-air trenches of the Allies.

The British front and support trenches were typically defended by 800,000 men. On the average, daily losses for the British soldiers were nearly 7,000 men killed, disabled or wounded. This figure remained fairly constant throughout the war. To keep morale as high as possible and to keep the soldiers on the front as fresh as possible, the British established a three-week rotation schedule. A week in the front trench was followed by a week in the support trench, which was followed by a week in the reserve trenches or even farther back. During this third week, the men could relax with sports, concerts and plays, keeping their minds away from life on the front.

No Man's Land: The Territory Between the Trenches

By mid-November 1914, the territory between the opposing front trenches was marked with huge craters caused by the shelling; nearly all vegetation was destroyed. Whenever possible, both sides filled this land with barbed wire to slow down any rapid advances by the enemy. The machine gun and the new long-range rifles made movement in this area almost impossible.

Timing of Movements at the Front

Both sides quickly recognized that assaults against the enemy trenches were suicide if begun in broad daylight, so attacks tended to take place just before dawn or right at dawn. Poison gases tended to be more effective in the mornings, as the colder air and absence of

wind allowed the gases to stay closer to the ground for longer periods of time. Except for artillery shelling, daytime was relatively safe for the soldiers on the front line. Once the sun went down, men crawled out of their trenches to conduct raids, investigate the layout of the terrain, and eavesdrop near the enemy lines to pick up information on their strengths, weaknesses and strategies.

Life in the Trenches

An American journalist who was in France during the war, Philip Gibbs, made the following observation about conditions in the trenches: "Lice crawled over them in legions. Human flesh, rotting and stinking, mere pulp, was pasted into the mud banks. If they dug to get deeper cover, their shovels went into the softness of dead bodies who had been their comrades. Scraps of flesh, booted legs, blackened hands, eyeless heads, came falling over them when the enemy trench-mortared their position or blew up a new mine shaft."

During the day, men who looked across no man's land saw the destruction that had yet to be cleared. Bodies that had been there for one or two days began to swell and stink. As poet, novelist and critic Robert Graves wrote, the bodies "we could not get from the German wire continued to swell until the wall of the stomach collapsed, either naturally or when punctured by a bullet; a disgusting smell would float across. The color of the dead faces changed from white to yellow-grey, to red, to purple, to green, to black."

QUESTIONS

1. Imagine that you are a World War I reporter visiting the trenches on the western front. Write a front-page account of your experiences.

2. Imagine that you are a soldier who has been in the trenches for several weeks. How would you describe your life in the trench? How would you describe your emotional reactions to the conditions in and around the trench?

3. In what ways was this war extremely violent, horrible and deadly?

I've a Little Wet Home in a Trench
I've a little wet home in a trench,
Where the rainstorms continually drench,
There's a dead cow close by
With her feet in towards the sky
And she gives off a terrible stench.
Underneath, in the place of a floor,
There's a mass of wet mud and some straw,
But with shells dropping there,
There's no place to compare,
With my little wet home in the trench.

Written by John Lucy, these words can be sung to the tune of "My Little Grey Home in the West" (Cited in Martin Gilbert, p. 122).

QUESTIONS

1. What characteristics of trench life does Lucy emphasize?

2. Based on the evidence of this poem, what "emotion" words most likely describe Lucy's feelings about his trench environment?

3. The word "home" usually refers to a place that is more or less permanent, safe and comfortable. How might those on the front lines consider Lucy's trench a home?

4. Given what you know about trenches and life in the trenches, imagine you are in such a trench. Write a poem that describes your environment, your feelings about the trench and your feelings about being in the trench.