World War I

Life in the Trenches &

The lasting effects of new
Technology

Trenches werent always built

the way they were planned.

 Canadian troops on the front in Europe in 1916 during

the First World War get medical attention

Trench Diagram (cross-section)

Changing
Technology

This photo shows horses being loaded

onto a transport ship to be sent
overseas to join the war effort.
Horses were still being used in great
numbers during World War I. High
ranking army officers commonly
rode horses during World War I.
Horses and mules were also used to
carry heavy equipment to and from
the front during the war.
Unfortunately, many of these horses
and mules died before they got to
the front because of the harsh
journey overseas. Horses and
mules also died in WWI because of
their inability to free themselves
from the thick mud. Many others
were wounded and killed during
battle. There was a tremendous
shortage of horses in Canada during
the latter stages of WWI.
Photo: Courtesy Queens University Archives

Technology
Machine Gun
o Killing machines
approx 500 rounds per
minute
Airplanes
o originally used for
surveillance
Bombs and machine
guns attached later
Artillery
o Long range shells weighing
up to 1,000 pounds
o Could travel long distances

Submarine
o Used primarily by the
Germans
Patrolled the North
Atlantic Ocean
sinking Allied ships
Chlorine/Mustard Gas
o First used during the
battle of Ypres
Tanks
o First used by British
during the Battle of the
Somme

New Technology in WWI

Machine Guns
- Kill entire lines of
advancing soldiers

Heavy Artillery
- Claimed more lives
than any other weapon

Grenades
- Clear our trenches

Poison Gas
Chlorine Gas Burned the
Lungs
Mustard Gas Burned the Skin

Chemical Warfare
The horror and disgust at the wartime use
of poison gases was so great that its use
was outlawed in 1925 - a ban that, at least
in theory, is still in force today.
Photos: Courtesy Unites States Air Force Air War College
Table Source: First World War.com

Casualties
Country from Gas

AustriaHungary
British
Empire
France
Germany
Italy
Russia
USA
Others

Death

100,000

3,000

188,706
190,000
200,000
60,000
419,340
72,807
10,000

8,109
8,000
9,000
4,627
56,000
1,462
1,000

Tanks
Tanks
Evolved from
invention of
automobile
Used to cross no mans
land

Planes
Used by Germans at first to spy, but then for machine gun fire & bombs

U-boats
-German U-Boats threatened Britains Navy & commercial passage

Impact of New Technology: TOTAL WAR

Old military tactics + new technology =
deaths by the millions!!!
Whole generations were lost
Clear that the power and resilience of each state
would drag this war out much longer than just a
summer
States were willing to make any sacrifice in lives
and other resources to obtain a complete victory

Conditions in the trenches

Conditions were
terrible in the
trenches
o
o
o
o
o
o

Trenchfoot
Trench Mouth
Lice
Shell Shock
Rats
Snipers/Artillery

Trench Foot

Rats
To add to the general discomfort, the trenches
were alive with rats. The knowledge that the
gigantic rats had grown fat through feeding on
the dead bodies in no man's land made the
soldiers hate them more fiercely than almost
anything else. The soldiers often beat the rats,
stomped on them or shot them but they always
came back.

Lice
The vermin were in
every dugout, millions
of descendants of the
originals. We burned
the seams of our shirts
with cigarettes or
candles. We fought
hem constantly but
never won.

And the food

The food was monotonous and barely adequate biscuit that
had to be soaked in water before it could be eaten, tinned
meat that was all too often tainted when opened. No attempts
at all were made to achieve a diet that would give strength to
the body. The cookhouse in the training camp near the
Chateau de la Haie had a hard-tack biscuit nailed to the door
over a sign that read: "A square meal."
H.F. Wood. Vinyl. P.47