Trench Warfare Sources

The Bayonet was a psychological tool. Added to the front of a standard issue rifle, it was to be used in cases of
close combat. But the trenches rarely allowed for close combat (soldier-to-soldier). Bayonets were used to stoke
the fire and pick lice from the seams of a soldier’s uniform in the trenches.
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“Copping a
packet”
The horrendous nature of death in industrialised conflict was reflected, possibly in an attempt to cope with it,
by numerous creative ways of avoiding saying "killed": for example, becoming a landowner, going home, being
buzzed or huffed, drawing your full issue, being topped off, or clicking it.
“Narpoo”
From the French il n'y a plus, meaning "none left", this phrase was one of the most familiar of the war, used to
indicate a sense of failure or mediocrity, "finished" or even "dead". It could close a conversation in any
indefinite way, or describe the way the Allies feared the war might end. For German soldiers a naplü was a
beer, and a naplüchen a cognac – clearly alcohol was in short supply on that side of the front.
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The tank was a new invention in World War I battle. They were first used by the British. They were designed to
cross trenches and plow through barbed wire and other obstacles. Their metal armour protected them from
machine-gun fire and shrapnel (the pieces of metal that spray in all directions when artillery shells explode).
Tanks often broke down or got stuck in the mud of the battlefield, but the technology was quick to improve and
develop.
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The German forces had better machine guns when the war began (they had developed the Maxim machine gun
for conflicts in Africa at the end of the 1800s). This is why so many Allied soldiers were gunned down as they
tried to cross no-man’s-land. Machine guns could fire between 400 and 600 rounds per minute.
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John William Law. Regimental # 55086, 19th Battalion. Born in
Toronto on March 26, 1892, Law was working as a clerk when he
enlisted on Nov. 7, 1914. He served overseas for five years, first in
the Army and then joined the Royal Flying Corps in 1917. He
survived the war and returned to Canada in 1919.
Dec. 12, 1915
Belgium
My Dear Mother and Father:
I see you are having snow at home. Oh what a pleasure to see it
instead of the rain and sleet. The weather here seldom freezes, but
one day in the trench everything froze up, and it was a pleasure to
be in that day to feel the solid ground under your feet once more,
but the next day melted and the mud from then on has been knee
deep … I wonder will they have a truce like they did last year.
Seeing I can’t be with you I am looking forward to spending
Christmas in the trench in the hope that there is a truce. At times
the Germans are very quiet, sometimes hardly a rifle shot, and at
other times, when a different battalion are in things are livelier …
Here I am with a candle on a box of a thousand rounds of
ammunition, the gun two feet away, a little coke fire that took all
day to get going at my feet, two comrades at my back snoring and
sleeping their heads off, with their stomachs full of Quaker Oats
and Oxo made on the above mentioned coke stove. In a halfhour
I’ll wake one of them tell him to get on guard and take my place,
while I crawl under his blanket. I know he’s lousy and all that, but
I guess I am, too.
Will close now with Best Wishes to you all for a very Merry
Christmas and a Bright and Happy New Year.
Your loving son, John
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Many poison gasses were used for the first time in World War I. Chlorine gas (the most deadly) was used by the
Germans. It burned the eyes and lungs, causing victims to choke, gag, and suffocate to death. Both sides
equipped their troops with gas masks, because both sides used poisonous gas. In the end, gas attacks were not
very effective as they relied on prevailing winds to carry the gas toward the enemy.
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Airplanes were initially used for reconnaissance (spying and gathering information of enemy trench activity).
By the end of the war, airplane technology had improved tremendously. Special fighter aircraft had been
designed to shoot down enemy planes, or to carry bombs. Fighting between planes in the air was called a
“dogfight”.
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SOURCES
Photo on Page 1 – Men in trench fixing bayonet
Photo courtesy of Spartacus Educational http://spartacus-educational.com/FWWbayonet.htm
Photo on Page 4 – WW1 Tank
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanks_in_World_War_I#/media/File:British_Mark_I_male_
tank_Somme_25_September_1916.jpg
Photo on Page 5 – Dead soldier in barbed wire
Photo courtesy of Flashbak
http://flashbak.com/behind-enemy-lines-over-100-photographs-of-german-soldiers-fightingworld-war-one-7617/
Photo on Page 6 – Soldiers behind barbed wire
Photo courtesy of The Great War Project
http://greatwarproject.org/2014/10/21/a-german-war-diary/
Photo on Page 7 – Soldiers manning a machine gun
Photo courtesy of Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_I#/media/File:Vickers_machine_gun_in_the_Ba
ttle_of_Passchendaele_-_September_1917.jpg
Photo on Page 8 – Soldiers standing in muddy trench
Photo courtesy of The Guardian
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/22/first-world-war-diaries-sports-trenchesnational-archive
Photo on Page 9 – Soldiers scaling out of trench
Photo courtesy of History.com
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-i/world-war-i-history/pictures/world-war-itrench-warfare/german-front-line-trenches
Photo on Page 12 – Empty Trench/Dented Helmet
Photo courtesy of http://ww1.canada.com/battlefront/images-life-in-the-trenches
Page 13 – Men standing up to advance
Photo courtesy of Canadian Expeditionary Force 1914-1919
http://canadianexpeditionaryforce1914-1919.blogspot.ca/2016/01/the-last-day-of-sommenovember-18-1916.html
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Page 14 – Men in line in trench
Photo courtesy of Historiana
http://historiana.eu/sources/show/trench-warfare-soon-developed-on-the-western-frontduring-wwii
Page 15 – Man sleeping in trench
Photo courtesy of the National Library of Scotland
http://digital.nls.uk/first-world-war-official-photographs/pageturner.cfm?id=74546762
Page 16 – Men living in tiered trench
Photo courtesy of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment
http://www.rnfldr.ca/history.aspx?item=192
Page 17 – Diorama of Trenches
Photo courtesy of Contently
https://contently.com/strategist/2014/02/05/the-bbcs-interactive-wwi-museum-is-puremultimedia-awesomeness/
Page 18 – Soldier keeping guard
Photo courtesy of The Telegraph
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/world-war-one/inside-first-world-war/partten/10862647/life-first-world-war-trenches.html
Page 19 – Cartoon depicting soldier’s kit (original?)
Photo courtesy of
https://schoolhistory.co.uk/gcselinks/wars/firstwwlinks/worksheets/soldiersequipment.pdf
Page 20 – Coloured drawing of trench schematic
Photo courtesy of http://lizettperez.weebly.com/page-3.html
Page 21 – Coloured drawing of trench schematic #2
Photo courtesy of Spartacus Educational
http://spartacus-educational.com/FWWtrenchsystem.htm
Page 23 – Men washing in water logged shell hol
Photo courtesy of the Canadian War Museum
http://www.warmuseum.ca/firstworldwar/objects-and-photos/photographs/life-at-the-frontphotographs/making-use-of-a-shell-hole/?back=1592&anchor=2729
Page 24 – Soldier writing on artillery shell
Photo courtesy of the CBC
http://www.cbc.ca/radio/ideas/the-bugle-and-the-passing-bell-part-1-canada-answers-thecall-1.3122702
Page 25 – Soldier using trench periscope
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Photo courtesy of the Royal Montreal Regiment
http://www.royalmontrealregiment.com/trench-periscopes/
Page 26 – Soldiers eating in trench
Photo courtesy of Hungry History
http://hungryhistory.com/what-did-soldiers-eat-during-wwi-and-wwii/
Page 27 – Soldiers leaning against trench using periscope
Photo courtesy of UK National Archives
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/pathways/firstworldwar/service_records/p_dominion.ht
m
Page 28 – Soldier being tended to by medics
Photo courtesy of National Film Board: Images of a Forgotten War
http://www3.nfb.ca/ww1/search-visimage.php?search_in=images&q=&id_film=538111&act=film&id_doc=592264
Page 29 – Soldier writing while sitting on rubble
Photo courtesy of Library and Archives Canada http://data2.archives.ca/ap/a/a001388.jpg
Page 30 – Newfoundland Regiment soldiers posing together
Photo courtesy of The Canadian Centre for the Great War
https://greatwarcentre.com/2014/11/21/not-suitable-for-a-boy-russell-redman-and-the-boysbattalion/
Page 31 – Soldier in gas mask
Photo courtesy of Library and Archives Canada
https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/cool/002027-2004-e.html
Page 32 – Bi-plane flying above battlefield
Photo courtesy of The Atlantic http://www.theatlantic.com/static/infocus/wwi/wwiair/
Page 33 – Soldiers carrying wounded on stretcher through muddy field
Photo courtesy of The Atlantic http://www.theatlantic.com/static/infocus/wwi/introduction/
Page 34 – Soldiers huddling in trench
Photo courtesy of The Soldiers’ Reality
https://web.viu.ca/davies/h482.wwi/soldiers.reality.photos.htm
Page 35 – Soldiers marching
Photo courtesy of The Legion Magazine https://legionmagazine.com/en/2011/09/546/
Page 36 – 221st Battalion Propaganda Poster “Thrust!”
Photo courtesy of Soldiers: The Drive to Recruit
https://web.viu.ca/davies/h482.wwi/soldiers.the.drive.to.recruit.images.htm
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Page 37 – “Send More Men” Poster
Photo courtesy of Ontario Provincial Archives
http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/en/explore/online/posters/recruitment.aspx
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