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29.2 Europe plunges into war (Trench Warfare (Life in the trenches was…
29.2 Europe plunges into war
The battle on the eastern front
The Eastern Front
A stretch of battle field between Germany and Russia
The Russians and the Serbs battled the Germans and Austro Hungarians
The Eastern front
Which front was more important?
Early fighting
Russian forces attack Germans and Austria
Germans are able to crush the Russian army killing over 30,000 troops
Russian forces defeat Austria twice
Austria pushes back and gets Russia out of Austria
Conquest
War
Russia struggles
Russia is not yet industrialized
As a result the Russian army was very low on food, Guns, Ammunition, Clothes, Boots, and blankets
Allies are unable to help give Russia shipments due to Germany's navy
Consequence
The only thing Russia does have is numbers
No matter how many losses they suffered they were always able to build up their ranks
Made it so Germany couldn't just fight in the West
How many troops total?
Russia WW1
Eventually the fight would leave Europe and head to Africa and Asia, Making this a World War.
Why might the war on the Eastern Front have been more mobile than that on the Western Front?
They had more enemies on the west than the East so they were more easily pinned down
How did Russia’s industrialization affect its war effort?
Without industrialization they were short on ammo food and guns
Western Front - deadlocked region in northern France
Schlieffen Plan - Germany's battle strategy
Named after its designer, General Alfred Graf von Schlieffen
The plan called for attacking and defeating France in the west an then rushing east to fight Russia
They felt they could carry out this plan because Russia had lagged behind the rest of Europe in its railroad system and so it was take longer for supplies to hit the front lines
Speed was vital to this plan
German leaders knew that they needed to win a quick victory over France
Value
Invasion
Were there other ideas?
The Great War Begins
After Austria had declared war, Russia and Serbia's Allys had began moving towards the Russian-Austrian border.
Expected Germany to join Austria
Cooperation
Germany amounted Russia's mobilization to a declaration of War.
Germany declared war on Russia
Russia looked to France for help due to their ally but Germany did not wait for France to react.
A few days after, 2, Germany also declared war on France which led to Great Britain declaring war on Germany. Soon much of Europe was going to battle.
Conflict
Nations Takes Sides
By mid-August 1914, lines were established going into war and countries were divided.
Allied Powers
The Allied Powers were countries against the Central Powers. This consisted of Great Britain, France, and Russia
Japan and Italy later joined the Allied powers
Italy was part of the Triple Alliance with Germany and Austria-Hungary but they switched when they accused the Triple Alliance of unjustly starting war.
Allied powers
Central Powers
By mid-August 1914, Germany and Austria had joined together to make the Central Powers. This was due to their location in Europe
Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire would soon join the Central Powers in hopes of regaining lost land.
Central powers
What did the central powers have that the Allies didn't?
Alliance
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Millions marched into war because they thought it would be a quick war.
Britains Prime Minister, Sir Edward Grey, knew it wouldn't be a short war.
Why was Russia important?
Germany WW1
Why did Germany declare war on France?
They did not want to wait for France to attack first
What country had taken over territories that Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire wanted to regain?
Russia
By early September, the German forces had swept into France and reached the outside of Paris
A huge victory seemed only days away
September 5th - the Allies regrouped and attacked the Germans northeast of Paris
After four days of fighting, the German generals gave the order to retreat
The First Battle of Marne was perhaps the single most important event of the war
The defeat left the Schiieffen Plan in ruins
In the east, Russia had invaded Germany
Trench Warfare
In this type of warfare, soldiers fought each other from trenches
The armies traded huge losses of soldiers for small amounts of land gain
Life in the trenches was miserable
The men slept in mud and ate mud
Rats swarmed in the trenches
Fresh food was nonexistent
Sleep was nearly impossible
The space between the trenches was called "no man's land"
When officers ordered attacks the men would run out of their trenches into deadly machine gun fire
Staying put really was not any safer
Artillery fire was brought right into the trenches
It would blind, wound, and cripple soldiers
Soldiers was fly into the air from the bombs
Men said it was a living hell
Trenches
Balance
Why would they stay in the trenches if they were so uncomfortable?
The Western Front
It stretched over 500 miles from the North Sea to the Swiss border
Military strategies were at a loss
New tools were coming into use:
Machine guns
poison gas
armored tanks
larger artillery
Were any of these most vital?
The Germans launched a massive attack against the French near Verdun and each side lost more than 300,000 men
The Western front
War
https://www.historyonthenet.com/what-was-the-schlieffen-plan
Why did Germany attack France first?
They were going to defeat France then rush to the East
Why were land gains so small?
Being stuck in the trench made it impossible to move forward