Poison Gas: Most of people assume that poison gas was used first by the German. It’s not really accurate. It was used by the French to stop the seemingly unstoppable German army advancing throughout Belgium and North-Eastern France. In one sense, it was an act of desperation but went against the 'rules' of war. However, while the French were the first to use a gas against an enemy, the Germans had been giving a great deal of thought to the use of poison gas as a way of defeating enemy.
Haig only intention was to breakthrough to get the German trenches and defeat the army once and for all. The battle took more than 1,000,000 lives and as it was the bloodiest battle throughout the history, it is said that more than 20,000 soldiers died in the first hour and more than 60,000 casualties on the first day. The soldiers that took part in this insidious war were as young as 14 and had no training and they did not know that they’ll die so young. The Somme ended in bloodshed and the human cost was very high, 420,000 British soldiers and 200,000 French soldiers had died for their country, almost as many as the Germans added together. This insidious war The Somme was the most tragic moment for Britain and British history.
Trench warfare Trench warfare is where rival armies dug themselves a trench, in order to protect themselves from gun fire from side. Life in the Trenches during World War 1 was terrible. Conditions were disgusting, the first thing a new recruit would notice was the smell, rotting bodies barely buried under the ground, men who hadn’t washed in weeks because there were no facilities for them to use. Although these smells were repulsive, new recruits soon got used to them and contributed to it with their own bodily odour. Disease and infection was very common in these conditions.
That’s why the supplies never reached the 308th and many of his men had to die without medical and food supplies. However him and his army were able withstand such pressure and hold the stand suffering from waves of soldiers, heavy artillery fire, grenades and other explosions and even flamethrowers. This makes me wonder where the soldiers from the 308th found their motivation to go on, when many others would have already given up and tried to escape or suicide; Patriotism and the love for their country must have been the key. For this reason I think that this action-packed movie portrayed American society in WW1 and in general very well: determined and proud soldiers who never give up the fight for their country and for their rights. In comparison to “All Quiet on the Western Front” “Lost Battalion” contained
Also, the Germans were able to get their support trenches and reserve trenches full of men waiting for the British. They also managed to hide in concrete bunkers built deep underground with machine guns so when the British were ordered to go over the top towards the enemy trenches, they were slaughtered. 19,000 men died on the first day alone. A further 34,000 were injured. It was particularly disastrous at the Northern end of the battlefield, where the first Battalion, Essex regiment was virtually wiped out and the 1st Newfoundland Regiment suffering a 91% casualty rate.
This incredible war story shows us that, even though they display great bravery and valour in battle, the only thing young men who fight in wars accomplish is an early death. The novel talks about many soldiers dying. So many of these soldiers are dead, that in the trenches they can smell the stench of rotting flesh, as the dead men often do not get buried. Those young men lying out in No Man’s Land, unburied, all went to war for the same reason, to prove that they were brave, not cowardly, and to fight for their country. All they end up doing though is becoming another casualty, another statistic, dying in a war that had no real reason.
How important were the actions of officers rather than conditions in causing a high death toll in WW1. In World War One the amount of deaths were staggeringly high, this came down to many different reasons. Over the four years many men died from diseases, the conditions of the trenches and ‘no mans land’. However the most deaths came from within the army itself, it usually came from the poor actions that the officers made. Firstly, a main point that their actions were to blame would be that repetitive tactics and how they would refuse to change them.
Throughout world war one the people of Germany had been led to believe they would be triumphant in winning the war by the Kaiser. Government propaganda had been used to great effect to ensure German civilians they were successful with only military leaders, Hindenburg and Luderndorff knowing the true state of Germanys military. As well as this, throughout the First World War Germany was being starved of food and all goods due to the British Navy Blockade. All food went to their troops leaving civilians starving causing even more outrage when realising they lost the war. Losing the war angered and shocked German people as they felt stabbed in the back, additionally they were looking for someone to blame.
Diseases that are easily treatable here in the United States are basically death sentences to the poor people of Afghanistan. About 48,545 children die each year in Afghanistan due to diarrheal diseases alone (TOLOnews). That is about eighty percent of the children who die from unsafe water. These kids died from ingesting water, which is a very troubling sentence to type. The families are left with choice of using this dirty water or not use any water at all.
Why did World War 1 last so long? World War 1 or Total war is known for having been a long war with a lot of destruction all around the world. However the war begun in 1914 and ended in 1918, which isn’t that long, if, one can say. So one has to see trough another point of view the definition of long. To the populations of Europe war seemed to be necessary and all thought that it would be a short war.