Trench Warfare

• Trench Warfare

  • change from calvary charge to infantry charge to wear down enemy
  • 1916, steel helmets introduced
  • sappers specialised infantry who dug tunnels below trenches to blow up enemy ones
• Trench Hygiene

  • lice and rat infestation
  • rotting corpses, unwashed soldiers
• Communication trenches

  • deliver supplies, ammunition, troops up to frontline
  • telephone cables to call HQ
  • zig-zag shape for defence
• Land Weapons

  • bolt action rifle - 15 rounds per minute
  • machine guns - equivalent of 100 bolt action rifles, 4-6 men crew
  • heavy artillery
  • tanks
  • chlorine gas - fatal until gas masks provided
  • mustard gas - 2/3 casualties died
  • phosgene gas - 85% of gas related deaths
  • bombardment
• Air Weapons

  • aeroplanes - spying, then firing, fly at 130mph
  • zeppelins - German airships to bomb cities
• Sea Weapons

  • dreadnoughts
  • U-boats - German submarines attacked merchant ships
  • Q-ships - armed merchant ships with hidden weaponry