First Years of World War I

First Years of WWICanada in the War When the start of the war was officially declared on July 28, 1914 and Britain – and by extension Canada – joining in a few days later on August 3, it was time for Canadians to head over to England to begin training with the British army. On October 14, 1914, the first group of Canadians landed in England and were stationed on Salisbury Plain for four months for advanced training.

First Years of WWITheir time in England, however, was miserable – they did not see any action, and during the 123 days that they were stationed on Salisbury Plain, it rained for 89 of those days. The troops even booed General Sam Hughes when he came over for an official inspection. The troops were eager for action, especially as they had been told by Prime Minister Robert Borden that they had a duty to defend the Empire and bring honour to Canada.

First Years of WWI

The Canadians would first see action in February 1915, when they were shipped from England over to France and sent to the Ypres area to occupy a series of trenches between the British and French forces. While fighting in late April at what later became known as the Battle of First Ypres, the Canadians experienced the first use of a secret German weapon.

First Years of WWI

As the men stood around waiting in the trenches, a greenish cloud rolled towards them; when the cloud reached the first line of trenches, the men began to cough and choke. They grabbed their throats and collapsed in agony. The Canadians became to first victim of a chlorine gas attack – also known as Mustard Gas.

First Years of WWI

Panic quickly took hold of the men in the lines – nobody had ever experienced this before, and they were unsure of what to do. Soon the French troops broke from the trenches and ran; this created a large opening in the lines of the Triple Entente, and the Germans looked to exploit this new found hole. They jumped out of their trenches and rushed towards the Canadians. Rather than run, the Canadians used their handkerchiefs to cover their mouths and stood their ground and held off the German advance until reinforcements arrived, thus helping to save the Entente line.

First Years of WWI

This had been the first time ever that gas had been used this way in warfare. While it was a very unreliable method of war, it was devastating. The gas would be released and using the winds, it would carry over to the enemy side, severely damaging the men in the trenches. It would shred the lungs of whoever inhaled the toxic fumes – those who were lucky were killed. If you did not die immediately, you faced a long and painful recovery. The skin of the infected would burn and become infected.

First Years of WWI

In response to the mustard gas attacks, gas masks were issued to all troops – and anything else that was a living being. Horses and dogs were also given masks, as seen below. In retaliation, the British also began using gas against the Germans.

First Years of WWI

CLASS DISCUSSION

After the Germans used gas at the Battle of Ypres, the Allies felt that they were justified in doing the same. Read the following reasons given by the British for the use of gas:

First Years of WWIFrom a military point of view there can be no doubt as to the wisdom, in fact of the necessity, of using gas in order to reply to the many German attacks of this nature. The question of morale was bound up in this retaliation. Had the Germans continued their chemical attacks in a variety and extent as they did, and had it been realized that for some reason or other we were not able to retaliate as they did, and had it been realized that for some reason or other we were not able to retaliate in kind, none by the gravest consequences could have resulted with regard to morale...

First Years of WWI

•What is the source of this quote? How can identifying the source indicate a bias?•What is morale? How is the writer justifying the use of gas in relation to the soldiers’ morale?•Why do you think the writer felt compelled to justify the use of gas?•Do you agree with the writer’s argument?

First Years of WWICanada in the Air World War I also witnessed the invention of another form of fighting – that in the air. The airplane was still a relatively new invention, and World War I was the first time that it was armed with machine guns and bombs. The pilots of the War felt that they were the Knights of the War, flying high above the trenches and the gas below. A pilot who killed five enemy planes would earn the title of “Ace” – and Canada’s most famous Ace was Billy Bishop, who was credited with 72 kills and eventually was awarded the Victoria Cross.

First Years of WWIBishop was celebrated in Canada and seen as a hero who was single-handily winning the war for the Triple Entente. He was handsome, brash, and boastful about what he did – which made him exceptionally popular and a great story. He became a hero to millions of Canadians at a time when the nation needed somebody to hail as a saviour. The problem was that not everything Bishop claimed was true; only years later did any serious doubt arise about the missions he flew over Germany.

First Years of WWI

Canada on the SeaThe final frontier of the war was on the sea. If you remember back, one of the main causes of the war was the MILITARISM of the European nations, especially Britain and Germany. Between 1903 and 1914, the two naval rivals were in a race against one another to build the most powerful and sophisticated dreadnoughts – the most advanced warships of the time.

First Years of WWI

Britain had developed the larger fleet, although Germany was not that far behind. The greatest threat to the British navy was the German use of submarines, which were known as U-Boats. By 1918, German U-Boats had sunk over 6 million tonnes of British shipping and was a constant threat to anything sailing across the Atlantic.

First Years of WWI

In order to combat the presence and success of the U-Boats, the British developed the convoy system, where military ships would escort merchant and supply ships across the Atlantic Ocean and in the waters around Europe.

First Years of WWI

This was designed to help protect any people and cargo that was aboard the ship. The warships were to locate U-Boats by observing their periscopes and attack them by dropping mines, all while the cargo ships sailed safely to their destination. This would be vital for Britain, as it allowed its colonies, including Canada, to safely supply the motherland with anything and everything that they needed.

First Years of WWICanada in the Trenches One of the reasons that the use of mustard gas proved ineffective was the trench system. As we learned last day, the trenches came about because the Schlieffen Plan had failed as the Germans had hoped. They were unable to take France because they had to split their army in two in order to hold off the Russians on the Eastern Front. As a result, both side – the Entente and the Alliance – were forced to dig into the ground and create an elaborate set of trenches in order to make sure that neither side gained too much land.

First Years of WWI

By 1916, the third year of the war, the fighting had become a stalemate. The sides would fight over as little as a few hundred yards of land during each engagement, and the war became more permanent as the trench system became a fact of the war.

First Years of WWIThe trenches were organized into two major zones: the front line and support trenches were connected by communication tunnels, which the second line of trenches included latrines, medical areas and rest areas. The front line trenches were those nearest to the enemy, and therefore the most dangerous. Immediately in front of the front line trenches were massive amounts of barbed wire, which were designed to prevent the enemy from charging into your trench.

First Years of WWI

First Years of WWI

First Years of WWI

Not only that, but the trench needed to be deep enough to conceal a standing soldier from enemy snipers. In order for soldier to jump out of the trench and go “Over the Top,” there were steps build immediately before the ledge of the front line trench.

First Years of WWI

First Years of WWI

In going “Over the Top,” soldiers faced an incredible difficulty getting to the enemy trench. After jumping out of their trench, soldiers would have to cut through the barbed wire; from there, they had to cross No Man’s Land, a brutal area where soldiers were out in the open and completely open to fire upon. While soldiers were crossing No Man’s Land, remaining soldiers in the trenches would shell the enemy’s trench with heavy artillery and even mustard gas – all in an attempt to help your own soldiers get across alive.

First Years of WWI

The trenches were widespread all over Europe. Both the British and the Germans had developed complex and incredible trench networks that provided support and living arrangements for their soldiers. You could move for hundreds of miles throughout the trench systems without ever seeing the enemy – the problem, however, was that if you could not see the enemy, there was the chance that you would never move forward, leaving the possibility of a stalemate that could last forever.

First Years of WWILife in the trenches was awful. As the trenches were often built close to waterways, the trenches would flood quite often. Many men suffered from a severe condition known as trench foot, with was an inflammation similar to frostbite. If not treated quickly, a soldier could lose their foot. To prevent this condition, soldiers were ordered to keep their feet dry and rub oil on them to keep moisture away. This would prove to be impossible because of the constant flooding and lack of dry space in the trenches.

First Years of WWI

Shell shock was also a common occurrence for men in the trenches. Men on the front lines faced constant levels of high stress and rarely slept; the consistent fire and shelling of the trenches caused some men severe psychological damage. Many men suffered nervous breakdowns and were unable to fight.

First Years of WWI

Many of the new weapons that were developed in the twentieth century contributed to the soldiers’ psychological stress. The machine gun made its first major appearance in war. These weapons would move to side to side, spraying then men with bullets in an unrelenting fashion. When men would go “Over the Top,” the enemy could simply mow them down.

First Years of WWI

The constant attacks that each side launched against the other failed to establish any major breakthroughs on the ground. Little new land was ever captures by either side. Whenever one side captured any land, the other side would usually quickly take it back.

First Years of WWIThe tank was also a weapon that made its debut in World War I. The tank could simply roll over the barbed wire and trenches, but they proved to be unreliable as the engines would often stall or break down, or the inside of the tank would fill with gas fumes. Eventually, some generals sent tanks without anybody inside of them across to the enemy trench in hopes that it would do enough damage that the soldiers could then take over the land.