3. WWI- A first hand horror
Today we will examine the life of a soldier fighting in the war. To start with, your task is to define these three things.
This video will explain a little bit about why World War 1 happened.
If you get an error code, refresh the page, click on the video again, then click on the words "Youtube". This will send it to the Youtube video player and you'll be able to watch.
This video will help to explain the lesson itself
Step 1: Define the following words in blue
Trench Warfare
Treaty
No Man's Land
Feel free to watch these videos, which give us a humorous, yet honest look at life in the trenches.
Step 2. Please read the following first hand accounts:
A typical machine gun training trench.
-Gas
Suddenly down the road from the Yser Canal came a galloping team of
horses, the riders goading on their mounts in a frenzied way; then
another and another, till the road became a seething mass with a pall of
dust over all.
Plainly something terrible was happening. What was it? Officers, and
Staff officers too, stood gazing at the scene, awestruck and
dumbfounded; for in the northerly breeze there came a pungent
nauseating smell that tickled the throat and made our eyes smart. The
horses and men were still pouring down the road. two or three men on a horse, I saw, while over the fields streamed mobs of infantry, the dusky warriors of French Africa; away went their rifles, equipment, even their tunics that they might run the faster.
One man came stumbling through our lines. An officer of ours held him
up with levelled revolver, "What's the matter, you bloody lot of
cowards?" says he. The Zouave was frothing at the mouth, his eyes
started from their sockets, and he fell writhing at the officer's feet. "Fall
in!" Ah! we expected that cry; and soon we moved across the fields in
the direction of the line for about a mile. The battalion is formed into
line, and we dig ourselves in.
-Building Trenches
After a few trys, we arrived in the front line one quiet evening just before dusk, waiting in the open trench until our eyes had got their night sight. Then we set off, this night four of us working in twos. We worked from left to right, reaching the German wire about twelve o'clock midnight. Then we lay listening.
The guns were silent; now and then a rocket would soar up into the air from the German lines, and we would take rough bearings of the position of the mortar that fired it (to figure out where the enemy was). We could hear the clack of talk in their front line, only 10 or 15 yards away; from behind we could hear the rumble of their transport bringing up rations under the cover of darkness.
Now and then a sniper's bullet would ping towards our lines. Sometimes, when our own side had a working party out, we could hear the strident tones of a particularly noted-voiced sergeant-major, "Come on, get them spades crackin'. A set of old women ud dig quicker than you limey folk."
Then one of us would touch the other and we would grin in the darkness at the little touch of humour that relieved our tension. Often we could hear the clink of German picks as they dug or mended trenches; once a working-party of fifty of them marched past where we lay in the grass and began to work about 100 yards away.
We had to lie there until within an hour of dawn before they ceased, and the crawl back to our lines in the slowly increasing light was one that we patted ourselves on the back for as equalling any Native American's stalking in its noiselessness.
-Tanks
The tanks were at once a delight and a disappointment. They were fairly easily ditched, but at the same time they were impregnable (unable to penetrate it's armor). I saw a party of the enemy clamber on to one in motion and endeavor to put it out of action, after firing at it point blank with a machine gun and throwing bombs from about 5 yards range.
I saw another run along a thick belt of barbed wire in a sunken road, and cleared the way for us. Yet another spotted a machine gun in a house in Flers; this fellow (tank) wandered up the road, did a sharp turn, and ambled through the house (ran over the house).
-French Army Gets Gassed
Utterly unprepared for what was to come, the [French] divisions gazed for a short while spellbound at the strange phenomenon they saw coming slowly toward them.
Like some liquid the heavy-coloured vapour poured relentlessly into the trenches, filled them, and passed on.
For a few seconds nothing happened; the sweet-smelling stuff merely tickled their nostrils; they failed to realize the danger. Then, with inconceivable rapidity, the gas worked, and blind panic spread.
Hundreds, after a dreadful fight for air, became unconscious and died where they lay - a death of hideous torture, with the frothing bubbles gurgling in their throats and the foul liquid welling up in their lungs. With blackened faces and twisted limbs one by one they drowned - only that which drowned them came from inside and not from out.
Others, staggering, falling, lurching on, and of their ignorance keeping pace with the gas, went back.
A hail of rifle fire and shrapnel mowed them down, and the line was broken. There was nothing on the British left - their flank was up in the air. The northeast corner of the salient around Ypres had been pierced. From in front of St. Julien away up north toward Boesinghe there was no one in front of the Germans.
-Life in the Trenches
“Whilst asleep during the night, we were frequently awakened by rats running over us. When this happened too often for my liking, I would lie on my back and wait for a rat to linger on my legs; then violently heave my legs upwards, throwing the rat into the air. Occasionally, I would hear a grunt when the rat landed on a fellow victim.”
(R L Venables)
“If you have never had trench foot described to you, I will explain. Your feet swell to two to three times their normal size and go completely dead. You can stick a bayonet into them and not feel a thing. If you are lucky enough not to lose your feet and the swelling starts to go down, it is then that the most indescribable agony begins. I have heard men cry and scream with pain and many have had to have their feet and legs amputated. I was one of the lucky ones, but one more day in that trench and it may have been too late.”
(Harry Roberts)
The water in the trenches through which we waded was alive with a multitude of swimming frogs. Red slugs crawled up the side of the trenches and strange beetles with dangerous looking horns wriggled along dry ledges and invaded the dugouts, in search of the lice that infested them.”
(unknown journalist)
“We slept in our clothes and cut our hair short so that it would tuck inside our caps. Dressing simply meant putting on our boots. There were times when we had to scrape the lice off with the blunt edge of a knife and our underclothes stuck to us. “
(Elizabeth de T’Serclaes – a nurse on the front line)
Step 3. Answer the following questions. If the form is not showing up you need to open another window and go to google, click on log in and do so, then go back to the assignment page and it should you up. It is also linked in Google Classroom.
Now that you've completed the quick check, read this funny take on WW1, as if it were a bar fight.
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/forum/if-first-world-war-was-barfight
Step 4.
2024- Do not do
Your task now, is to create an interview. You and your partner are going to use the information you've gathered, and create an interview in the style of one that would go on the news.
-Your partner and yourself will need to decide who will play the role of the interviewer, and who will play the role of the WWI soldier being interviewed.
-You may use props and dress appropriate for this video.
-Your video needs to be long enough to answer a few questions, just like a real interview for a news program
-Your questions should center around the experience of being on the front lines, in the trenches. You can choose who your character is going to be, but please keep this serious and straight forward. I will not be impressed by someone attempting to tell stories that try to truly gross everyone out. I realize there are some unpleasant things that happened in the trenches, but please try to have some tact when describing them.
-You may interview where ever you find a quiet place to record, BUT you must be within line of sight of my front door. Keep this in mind...background is key. If the lockers are in the background, your video will not be as credible. If you have the American flag, or a blank wall, or some other prop that relates, your video will be more credible.
Here are some additional resources if you need or want more information.
First Hand Accounts of Life in the Trenches from British Soldiers
First hand accounts. Some pictures as well
http://firstworldwar.com/diaries/index.htm
http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/citizensoldier/conflicts/WWI/pschaming.cfm