This tactic was used, for example, at battles such as the Battle of Verdun and the Battle of the Somme in 1916, and the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917. This tactic, however, tended to result in huge casualty rates and neither side made significant gains. New weapons were also used in an attempt to break the stalemate on the Western Front. At first, artillery barrage was used to inflict constant barrage on the enemy and preceding front offensives. As the war drew on, other weapons such as gas and tanks were used by the Germans for the first time at the First Battle of Ypres in 1915, and became a major tool of warfare on the Western Front.
The tanks were also unwieldy to use as they were prone to getting stuck in the mud and breakdown, as well as being short-ranged and slow, travelling only 10 kilometres per hour. These first tanks had not been tested in trench conditions and were not developed enough. Over a third of the shells used were duds and did not explode on impact. However, the tanks were useful in gaining land and were very effective against machine gun fire as the infantry could follow behind it using it as a shield against the bullets. Later, at the Battle of Cambrai, they were to be used to much greater effect.
Germany faced many problems such as unemployment, debt and lack of money. Construction of Autobahns and schools would have created many jobs and brought in a huge amount of money. This is exactly how Schacht planned to solve Germanys economic problems, with The New Plan. The New Plan consisted of four major parts (Limiting imports, Trade agreements, Government spending and tackling unemployment). However, Hitler was not happy with this as his spending on the military was being limited, which meant only a certain number of tanks/planes were being produced.
During the war there was an imbalance of weapons with the Russian soldiers having one rifle between three men. The Lee Enfield was first produced in 1907; it had been designed by an American called James Lee and built at the Royal Small Arms Factory in Enfield - hence the rifle's name. The Lee Enfield enjoyed a good reputation with those who were issued with it. It had a ten-bullet magazine and its rate of fire in the hands of well-trained men was high. At the Battle of Mons, the advancing Germans believed that they were under fire from British machine guns.
The more the movie went into depth, the more stronger the similarities and differences presented themselves. As the stories of these heroes unraveled, comparing and contrasting the psyche, the brutality ,the moral and ethical conflicts in great war movies such as the “Lone Survivor”(Berg.2014), and “Apocalypse Now”(Coppola.1979), was not as hard as imagined. The psyche of a man in war is really captured in both these movies. Of the two movies,”Apocalypse now”() really captures a stronger sense of what war can do to a soldier’s mental status, one example of a deteering mind is Colonel Kurtz. This man reputation was one of the greatest to ever represent his country, he was the 4.0 kid who never did anything wrong and was on pace to be up at the very top of the ranks the military can offer.
Controlled Assessment Task Part (A) The First World War is associated strongly with Trench Warfare. How useful and reliable are these sources in explaining what conditions in the trenches were like? The public’s imagination of the Great War has been closely associated with Trench Warfare. Within the beginning period of the war August-September 1914 both armies expected a rapid war of movement, however the advances upon firing technology resulted in the complex trench systems being developed. The traditional interpretation was that soldiers spent all of their time in horrific conditions which they constantly experienced and they feared the factor of being sent ‘Over the top’ and that trenches were full of rats, lice and disease.
Firstly, the British leant from their mistakes from the beginning of the war and started placing commanders into the front line so that they could easily and quickly give out new commands. Also, German’s numbers were significantly diminished and even though the British lost a lot, the German’s also lost many men and materials. Even though we ended the war with many casualties, the German’s numbers were down to 650, 000 by the end. It is difficult to declare the Battle of the Somme a victory for either side. Many argue that the battle was a disaster, saying that the Battle of the Somme delivered so many deaths for the British.
These can be categorised into long term reasons and short term reasons. The most significant short term reason to why the war broke out was the assassination of Franz Ferdinand in Austria. This contributed to the war a lot and was the spark that started it off. There were many long term reasons too, but the most important ones were Imperialism, Militarism, nationalism and alliances. These influenced the war majorly and were the main explanation to why large quantities of countries were prepared for it when it took place in 1914.
Gas warfare was first introduced in World War I and continued to be used throughout World War II. It was most commonly used in the front lines, and was feared by many. Gas warfare was a very effective war tactic. The effects of gases were unbearable, which is what caused them to be so heavily feared. Luckily, by the time that World War II came about protective masks called, gas masks had been invented.
This can be claimed to be proof that war holds back development which in some cases this is almost completely true. On the other hand it can be said that it speeds up development for example a lot of surgical techniques were invented to deal with war casualties and nuclear power is also a result of war thanks to the German atomic physicists. Philosophers believe that necessity is the mother of invention and wars create lots of necessities some of which are useful in more peaceful times whilst others can cause absolute misery in war