trench warfare and ww1 medicine

• World War One descended into a process of trench warfare, which was not how people expected the war to be fought
• Schlieffen Plan


  German plan to bypass French defenses by going through neutral Belgium
• The Schlieffen Plan failed because the German Army faced much fiercer Belgian resistance than expected, allowing the British Expeditionary Force to arrive and the French army to stop the Germans at the Battle of the Marne
• Development of trench warfare


  Both sides dug in for protection, leading to a stalemate with neither side able to outflank the other
• Trench


  • Sharp corners to help contain bomb blasts
  • Command trench about 20 meters behind front line
  • Communications trenches joining trenches
  • Support trench up to 200 meters behind line with headquarters, reserves, latrines, dressing station
• Soldiers spent only about 15% of their time in the front line trenches, 40% in command or support trenches, and 45% behind the lines
• Types of sources


  • Written sources (private, official, unofficial)
  • Oral/spoken sources
  • Non-written sources (archaeology, landscape, artifacts)
• Written sources


  • Diaries
  • Government records
  • Newspaper reports
• Oral/spoken sources


  • Eyewitness interviews
• Source B (Scots stretcher bearers)


  Corroborates difficulties of movement described in Source C (British soldier's description)
• Trench warfare was muddy, uncomfortable, and led to disease as well as danger, with the biggest day-to-day threat being artillery
• Historians rely on a variety of evidence, or sources, to learn about the past, and these sources have different features that can make them useful or have limitations