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3-A Questions
STUDENT RESOURCE 3-A
These questions will help focus your attention during the video. Answering them will help you understand the meaning of "total war" and what the people thought, felt and did in reaction to this total war.
1. Define "total war" and state the major characteristics of a total war.
2. What is the meaning of "participant in the war" in the context of total war?
3. What are at least five important reasons a nation would deliberately treat territory miles from the battlefront and the civilian population of an enemy nation as legitimate military targets?
4. Describe the efforts of people who, like Mustafa Kemal, defended a particular location, and discuss what success and failure would mean to their nation.
5. What were the attitudes of some colonial citizens serving in the army of their Mother Country and how might their experiences have affected their respect for their Mother Country after the war?
6. Cite examples of the universal participation, universal commitment, universal bereavement and universal loss that characterize total war.
7. Describe the emotions of the participants in the Great War, including those who were on the front lines and those who waited at home.
8. What five specific contributions did women make to the war effort? What was the impact of these contributions on their health and lives?
9. Describe four of the new "rules of military engagement" that were introduced during the Great War. Explain the effects of implementing each rule.
10. What does the expression "battle for people's minds" mean? Describe specific activities and materials that were generated to win this battle.
11. What are "ethnic cleansing" and "genocide"? Why did the Turks commit such atrocities against the Armenians?
12. What are the advantages and disadvantages of being in a state of total war?
STUDENT RESOURCE 3-B
Context and Overview of the Great War: TOTAL WAR
Mobilizing for war now meant more than preparing men to fight and moving them to the battlefront. For the first time, mobilization was aimed at getting people in every part of society to take an active part in the war effort. People from all occupations and all classes of society were forced to collaborate to supply the armed forces with what they needed. Women were hired for jobs that had previously been male-only.
In this war, mobilization included the systematic and continuous arousing of the civilian people to hate the enemy, both soldiers and civilians. The level of the hatred was raised and directed toward anything that was connected with the enemy. In the U.S., for example, sauerkraut became "liberty lettuce," and many schools stopped teaching German. Many German Americans stopped speaking German in their homes. The propagandists used both visual and verbal messages-through popular media such as movies and song recordings-to keep people supporting the war effort.
The continued involvement of each nation in the war required the consent and financial support of its people; for the first time, nations found that they could not fight a war without the massive and continuous efforts of the civilian population. Governments that lost this support collapsed and were forced to drop out of the war.
QUESTIONS
1. During a traditional or typical war, what were the two focuses of military strategies?
2. In the traditional notion of warfare what was the military's typical attitude toward the enemy's civilian population?
3. In the Great War and in all "total wars," what is the military's attitude towards the enemy's civilian population?
4. For what reasons did government during the Great War justify their decisions to include civilians as legitimate military targets?
5. A particular use of three separate weapons illustrates a shift in strategies to defeat the enemy. What particular use of each weapon best illustrates the concept of "total war".
6. During this war and "total wars" since 1918, what were three important roles of propaganda?
7. What actions or conditions might be used as proof that the military attacks against civilians were getting the results the military intended?
STUDENT RESOURCE 3-C
Many weapons used in the Great War were either new or vastly improved over earlier versions. These weapons were used with varying degrees of success. Complete this chart of 10 weapons, describing where and when each weapon might be used and the effects of using the weapon.
The Weapons of War
|
Weapon
|
When
and where used
|
Effect
|
| machine gun | ||
| hand grenade | ||
| submarine | ||
| poison gas | ||
| dirigible | ||
| tank | ||
| airplane | ||
| long-range rifle | ||
| 75-mile artillery | ||
| flame thrower |
QUESTIONS
1. Which weapons would be the most effective in helping an army attain its objectives?
2. Imagine your enemy has all of these weapons. Which weapons would you most dread being used against you? Why?
3. Which of these weapons would be most effective for attacking targets miles behind the front lines?
4. Which of these weapons would be most effective for attacking civilian populations?
5. What are the advantages and disadvantages of each of these weapons?
STUDENT RESOURCE 3-D
Civilians at War
A number of civilian occupations were vital to the war-producing efforts of a nation, including those listed below. In the middle column, describe the specific contributions of each occupation to waging a war. In the right column, describe the possible risks facing people in each occupation.
QUESTIONS
Occupation
Specific contributions
Possible dangers and risks
munitions plant worker
worker on a ship carrying supplies across the ocean
field hospital nurse
coal miner
wheat farmer
spy
steel mill worker
long-range
rifle
1. Which of these occupations would contribute the most to the war-making activities of a nation? Why?
2. Which occupation is likely be the most dangerous? the safest?
3. If you had been alive during the Great War, but unable to serve in the military, which of these occupations would you have preferred?
4. In which of these occupations would you expect to find the highest percentage of women? the lowest percentage of women?
Gas Warfare
The gases were delivered either through pipes or in artillery shells. Because of the nature of these gases, the user had to ensure that the wind was favorable. Artillery shells could only hold a small amount of gas, and this small amount was susceptible to being diluted by the slightest breeze. However, these shells could deliver the gas miles behind the front lines. The deadlier delivery system was through pipes that extended across no man's land. 'These pipes could pour out large quantities of gas that would roll across the land like a morning fog and settle into the trenches and tunnels. 'These pipes were usually put out at night so that the gas could be released in the cool air of morning and settle into the enemy's trenches. Both sides used poison gases.
The gases included 26 different poisons; the most commonly used were chlorine and mustard gas, both of which had easily recognizable odors. When the gases were detected, a loud siren was sounded, signaling the men to put on their gas masks. Putting on the masks was difficult, and once on, the masks were very uncomfortable and hard to breathe through. Furthermore, the masks made it difficult for a person to move about. Many soldiers feared the discomfort of the masks almost as much as the gas itself.
A person who had inhaled one of the gases would feel nauseous and dizzy and would go into a violent coughing spell, which made keeping a mask on nearly impossible. The more deadly gases would result in immediate disability and suffering and-if the soldier was lucky-a quick death.
The gases killed all forms of animal life, from the birds in the area to the horses that were used as beasts of burden. After a gas attack, it was common to see wagons, carts and wheeled weapons hooked up to teams of dead horses. Removing the dead horses was a major effort that cost both sides time. In addition, the loss of horses created shortages or delays in sup
The machine gun was the deadliest defensive weapon used against troops during the Great War; some models fired between 300 and 450 bullets a minute. But a new weapon of this war-poison gas-still gets most of the attention. By the end of the war, an estimated 91,000 men had died from these gases, and over 1.2 million more had been casualties.
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.
Noteworthy Quotes: TOTAL WAR
War involves people, not just nations. These quotes will help you understand the thoughts and feelings of some of the people involved in the Great War. After watching the video, you should be able to interpret each quotation in the context of the person speaking and the situation in which the statement was made. (Quotes marked with an asterisk are from the video.)
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