It is evident that WW1 soldiers were deeply impacted by the war. Historians have found numerous journals and diaries that tells personal experiences from soldiers. Especially since this was a war that had a lot of new inventions, these soldiers had a lot to write about. Trench warfare changed the war entirely. Generals had to come up with better fighting tactics to make advances during the war. Prior to WW1 battles were fought out in the open and with less protection. There was no barb wire or sandbags to protect these soldiers. Life in the trenches were rough with constant firing occurring every few seconds. This made it very difficult for them to rest. In the trench soldiers are active all day and have to be ready for combat at all times. The daily journal of Pvt. Donald Fraser gives great detail of what actually took place on the battlefield. The living arrangements were terrible and most of your time was spent inside of the trenches. Pvt. Fraser recounts his first night in the …show more content…
Pvt. Fraser goes into detail in his journal about the day they were under attack. Fraser felt like there was no escaping the bullets they were flying from all directions and bodies were dropping too. Men were trying to dig in hopes of finding shelter but, this was very difficult to do while being under fire. The saddest story was a Red Cross worker who was attempting to bandage his leg but he died before he could finish due to his wound. Another soldier as he was dying told his fellow mates to tell his parents he died like a soldier. Experiences like this are life changing many soldiers have to live with these images of war every day and I know mentally that it is difficult. Pvt. Fraser story is one of many a lot of soldiers kept journals in hope that it would get back to their family one day. Writing allowed them to express how they really felt about the war and give vital information about there
The novel All Quiet On the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque, the poem, “In Flanders Field,” by John McCrae and the film, Gallipoli, Demonstrates how war makes men feel unimportant and, forces soldiers to make hard decisions that no one should half to make. In war people were forced to fight for their lives. Men were forced to kill one another to get their opinion across to the opposing sides. When men went home to their families they were too scared to say what had happened to them in the war. Many people had a glorified thought about how war is, Soldiers didn't tell them what had truly happened to them.
World War I, also known as the Great War, lasted from the summer of 1914 until the late fall of 1918. The war was fought between the Allies, which consisted mainly of the United Kingdom, France, and the Russian Empire, and the Central Powers, which consisted mainly of the German Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Kingdom of Bulgaria (Alliances - Entente and Central Powers). In total, it is estimated that twelve million civilians and nine million combatants died during this horrific and devastating war (DeGroot 1). When the war first began in 1914, many people thought that it would be a war of movement that would quickly be over. However, that changed when the Germans, who were trying to reach and capture the city of Paris in France, were forced to retreat during the Battle of the Marne in September 1914 (Ellis 10). German General von Falkenhayn, who felt that his troops must at all cost hold onto the parts of France and Belgium that they had overtaken, ordered his men to dig in and form defensive trench lines (Ellis 10). The Allies could not break through the enemies lines and were forced to create trenches of their own (Ellis 10). This was only the beginning of trench warfare. A war of movement had quickly come to a standstill on the Western Front. A massive trench line, 475 miles long, quickly spread and extended from the North Sea to the Swiss Frontier (Ellis 10). With neither side budging, soldiers were forced to live in the most miserable of conditions. Simply put, life in the trenches was a living hell. A lieutenant of the 2nd Scottish rifles wrote, “No one who was not there can fully appreciate the excruciating agonies and misery through which the men had to go [through] in those da...
The First World War saw a new form of warfare known as Trench warfare which involved trenches which were deep long dugouts made by the soldiers that lived in these trenches. The trenches proved useful as they protected the soldiers from artillery and bomb fire and were most likely situated in the eastern and western fronts of Europe. However the conditions of the trenches were far from exuberant but were in fact severely terrible. There was bad hygiene throughout the trenches, for example soldiers bathed probably only once a month and as such were prone to diseases such as trenches fever (which were due to the lice attracted by the bad hygiene). The weather was no exception as well, in the summer it would be too hot and in the winter it would be too cold and due to the nature of the trenches, when it rained the trenches would be filled with water, and due to such conditions welcomed the disease known as trench foot which was due to prolonged exposure to water and claimed the foots of many soldiers. There was also the constant danger of bomb fire and snipers would always be on the lookout for any movement. Latrines, which were toilets used in the trenches also sprouted fear as the enemy could see them in this area of the trenches and therefore were in constant danger of death. Soldiers also had to follow a strict code of conduct which was known as trench etiquette which ordered them to respect higher officers and they would have to be punished if the trench etiquette was ignored.
Life on the Western Front During World War One A dispassionate look at the numbers of the horrendous casualties sustained by the armies of the Allies and the Central Powers on the Western Front in WW1, clearly indicate that these casualties figures are far inferior to what might be anticipated if, indeed, total war had reigned in every location, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and along all the 475 miles of trenches that extended from the North Sea to Switzerland. A couple of simple examples will readily make the case. Imagine two front-line trenches separated by only 20 to 30 yards of ‘No Man’s Land’ (in some extraordinary situations, distances were even less). A determined and prolonged effort by a few hand-grenade bombers on either side could make any hope of a sustained tenancy quite impossible. Again, given the accuracy and rapidity which trench mortars could be deployed against routinely manned trenches (one battalion per 1,000 yards) and their associated dug-outs, a quite short, but determined, and mutually hostile, barrage could readily reduce both trench systems to total ruin.
I found this story not only good but, it was also a little disturbing because, the connection between the text and my own personal life is I remember when my father came home after the war was over suffering from Post-Traumatic Disorder. He did not return the same man that had left to go off to war. We lived in the backwoods of a small town and he would always be staring at the tree line waiting for Charlie to make his presence known. I thought that this story would go along nicely with the movie Full Metal Jacket because, that movie was the most realistic war movie ever made about how they trained the people that was being sent to
taken a shower so once again they had to put up with it. When it
Most soldiers would spend anywhere from one day up to two weeks in the trenches at a time. They spent some time in the frontline trenches, time in the support trenches and also time resting. Even when they weren’t fighting, soldiers had to work to do – including repairing the trenches, moving supplies, cleaning weapons, undergoing inspections or guard duty.
Trench Warfare was used in World War one and it was very dangerous and deadly. Trench warfare was used because during the First Battle of the Marne September 1914 the Germans were pushed back by the Allied army. When they became stalemate the Allies began digging protective trenches because they couldn’t break through the German defense line. These trenches turned into one of the main features of the war for the next four years.
World War I changed the definition of the word “war”; previously wars were fluid offensive operations with not a lot of defensive action. World War I was almost entirely different with the new strategy of trench warfare. Trench warfare was solely developed due to the use of machine guns and rapid fire that required a strong defense system. The development of trench warfare was a big shock to the major powers because it was new and different. Although it may have been effective, it came with horrific conditions, such as influenza outbreaks, trench fever and trench foot, along with the freezing temperatures and the lack of hygiene that made the lives of soldiers miserable. Trench warfare negatively impacted the French and British soldiers through,
Trench warfare became a common practice in World War One, leading to a war of attrition. Both the Allies as well as the Germans enacted similar basic defense strategies and dealt with many of the same debilitating trench conditions. Trenches were built in an elaborate networking system, with three major sections, the front lines, the support, and the reserves. There was a rotation schedule for soldiers in the trenches, so that each regiment served time at the front lines. Trench conditions were horrendous including rodent infestation as well as unsanitary living spaces; many were infected with diseases such as trench foot with most trenches were filled with dead corpses for weeks after they were first killed. Defense mechanisms included creating dense fields of barbed wire in No Man’s Land, between the enemy trenches, in order to prevent an attack on the trench. Trench sanitation and defense were not the only reasons for the stalemate connected with World War One. The weather played
soldiers and the civilians alike, had it very rough. The conditions were harsh and the
The First World War, also known as the Great War, began in about 1914 and went on until 1918. This brutal war was an extremely bloody time for Europe and the soldiers that fought in it. These men spent their days in trenches holding down bases and taking in attacks from all sides. The soldier's only free time was consumed with writing letters to those on the home front. The letters they wrote contain heart breaking stories of how their days were spent and the terrible signs of war. The War consumed them and many of them let out all their true feelings of war in their letters to loved ones. In The First World War: A brief History With Documents we can find some of these letters that help us understand what the First World War might have been like for these young and desperate soldiers.
The Development of the Trenches in Spring 1915 The spring of 1915 saw a new frontier develop: the trenches. Trench
The First World War introduced a new type of warfare. New weapons were combined with old strategies and tactics. Needless to say, the results were horrific. However, a new type of warfare was introduced: trench warfare. In the movie War Horse, the character that owned the horse originally while he worked on his farm, Albert Narracott, finally was old enough to join the army. His first sight of battle was the Battle of Somme which took place in France near the Somme River. During this battle, the British troops start out in trenches, which were pretty much tunnels dug strategically to avoid gunfire. The soldiers would wait until they were told to advance, and they would run from one trench to the next. Trenches and the area between trenches were muddy and the trenches themselves were poorly conditioned (http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/chapters/ch1_trench.html). Many of the soldiers who fought in trenches succumbed to a foot disease called trench foot and if not treated immediately, gangrene could infect the foot and an amputation would be necessary for survival. Commanding officers ordered one or t...
It included changes to weapons, such as advancements on firearms, the machine gun, use of airplanes, tanks, and gas. Many men, like Graves, would enter in a battle and be subject to a war that was much different than previously seen wars. Graves fought alongside men who had traveled the world in the name of the English Crown to fight and defend imperial territories but were not prepared for the slaughter of men that World War One created. As stated before both England and the United States had armies that had combat experience but neither were prepared for what the enemy had in store. In his narrative about his life, Graves connects his own personal thoughts and feelings to the events that occurred around him providing readers a clear image of what it was like to fight in World War One. Not only were the men subjected to firing of new and advanced weaponry, they were also subjected to trench warfare. The men would be trapped inside the trenches subjected to illness and extreme weather conditions and in some cases with no relief. According to Graves the men needed to keep a positive moral during this time or else they could become subject to the depression that encompassed the trench. However, after the Great War ended many felt as if it was time to heal and move forward from the events. Graves himself continued his education and his writing as he traveled through Europe and Africa. Many