History : Great war

• People joined the army in 1914 due to propaganda, pay, Nationalism, guilt, travel, white feathers, honor, optimism and pals battalions.
• By mid September 1914, 500,000 people had joined up and by the end of 1914, 1,000,000 had volunteered.
• Psychological dangers of trenches included shell shock, which was caused by noise, danger of death, friends and family dying, fear, mutilation of bodies around you and the disgusting sights.
• Treatments for shell shock included shock therapy, consultation, hypnosis and rest.
• Symptoms of shell shock included sobbing, shaking, paralysis, freezing, clawing at mouth and being able to sleep.
• Propaganda is information of a biased or misleading nature used to promote a political cause or point of view.
• White feathers were handed to men who wore civilians clothes to pressure them into joining up.
• Pals battalions were when many friends joined up together in a way to see the world together.
• Pals battalions were quickly abolished as many men from one village were wiped out in one go at certain battlefields, for example the battle of the somme.
• Conscription was introduced in 1916 and it forced all unmarried men between 18-41 to join up.
• Conscientious objectors, also known as conchies, were people who refused to fight due to religion, political views, feeling like they couldn't murder or they believed it was a denial of their freedom.
• Around 16000 men refused to fight and 7000 joined non-combat services such as stretcher bearers, a job with very high death rates.
• The battle of the somme began on July 1st of 1916 and ended in November of 1916.
• The lice were all over clothes and soldiers often sat around burning live eggs from their uniforms, this was called chatting.
• In total there were 420,000 British casualties, 200,000 french causalities and 500,000 German casualties.
• Conditions in the trenches were terrible, there were lots of rats who ate ratons, crawled on sleeping soldiers, carried disease and were as big as cats.
• The toilets were crowded, they smelled and there was no running water for them to wash or clean anything.
• On the first day British had 57,000 casualties with 20,000 dying.
• Due to the slow pacing of the war and massive amount of casualties this was known as a war of attrition (wearing down enemies to the point of defeat by continuously attacking their forces until they are exhausted and cannot continue).
• The weather was either too damp or too warm.
• Trench foot was a condition where the flesh on your foot would swell up due to the constant moisture and rot the flesh, in severe cases amputation had to be considered.
• The battle started with a week long bombardment where 1738000 shells were fired which Haig believed would destroy Germans, their fire arms and the barbed wire, this bombardment failed as many shells failed to detonate or missed aswell as the fact Germans hid in their deep dug out and remained unharmed, the barbed wire also failed to be destroyed and the shells only tangled it further.
• The somme was picked to split the German army as they were attacking the French town of Verdun.
• Spilling the German army weakened them and eased the pressure on Verdun, which increased chances of victory.
• Why were white feathers toxic ?

  Some men that received them were underaged and joined up as they felt guilty