Stalemate in the First World War (AQA GCSE History: Wider World Depth Study (Paper 1: Section B)): Flashcards

Machine guns contributed to the stalemate because their rapid fire stopped attackers crossing no-man's land.

Germany finally broke the stalemate in spring 1918 with the Spring (Ludendorff) Offensive.

No-man's land was the dangerous ground between opposing trenches, full of mud, craters and barbed wire, owned by neither side.

Trenches were built in a zig-zag pattern to limit blast damage and stop the enemy firing straight down the line.

No-man's land was sometimes only 50 to 200 metres wide.

Three defensive features of a First World War trench were sandbags, barbed wire and machine guns (also duckboards and fire steps).

The infantry (an infantry attack) replaced the cavalry charge as the main attacking tactic in trench warfare.

The usual first step of a trench attack was an artillery bombardment of the enemy trenches.

Attacking soldiers left their trench by 'going over the top'.

False.

Advances across no-man's land were rarely successful, causing stalemate.

Artillery shelling often failed to break the enemy line because shells rarely damaged the concrete German trenches or cut the barbed wire.

The 'creeping barrage', first used at the Somme in 1916, was slow-moving artillery fire acting as a screen for infantry advancing behind it.

It was hard to hold captured ground because troops who took enemy trenches often had no support and had to fall back.

The enemy could often predict a trench attack because the artillery shelling would stop just before soldiers went over the top, and generals kept using the same attacking strategies.

Trench foot was a disease caused by cold, waterlogged trenches that could turn gangrenous and require amputation.

The disease spread by body lice in the trenches was trench fever.

'Shell shock' was a trauma condition (today PTSD) caused by the constant fear and horrors of the front.

In the British army, 306 men were shot at dawn for supposed cowardice or desertion.

False.

Life was often difficult and boring, with fighting varying by day and place.

Three constant threats to a soldier's life in the trenches were enemy fire, rats and disease (also weather, lack of food, boredom).

Rats were a problem in the trenches because they stole food and spread disease.

Soldiers were woken before dawn on high alert, a routine called 'stand to'.

A soldier typically served about four days in a front-line trench at a time.

Trench drinking water tasted bad because it was purified with chemicals; soldiers drank tea to hide the taste.

Two foods in a typical trench diet were stew and bread (also biscuits, vegetables, jam).

'The Wipers Times' was an unofficial newspaper made by British soldiers, full of jokes and cartoons.

About 60% of all wounds in the First World War were caused by artillery.

The purpose of an artillery bombardment before an infantry attack was to destroy enemy trenches, cut the barbed wire and lower enemy morale.

British soldiers were issued with the Lee Enfield rifle.

The bayonet was a 40-cm knife attached to a rifle for close combat.

A machine gun is a fully automatic firearm; in WW1 it could fire up to ten bullets per second.

A team of two to four soldiers was needed to operate a First World War machine gun.

The gas Germany first released, at the Second Battle of Ypres in 1915, was chlorine gas.

False.

The wind could blow it back onto the side that released it.

The invention that reduced the success of gas attacks was the gas mask.

Tanks were first created to cross rough, muddy ground, crush barbed wire and cross no-man's land.

Early tanks were unreliable because they often broke down and could only travel about five miles per hour.

In 1914 aeroplanes were mainly used for reconnaissance — scouting enemy positions.

Aerial battles between fighter pilots were nicknamed 'dog fights'.

By the end of the war, the German 'Paris gun' could fire shells up to 130 kilometres.

The Battle of Verdun was fought from 21 February to 18 December 1916.

The Battle of Verdun is remembered as unique among WW1 battles because it was the longest battle of the war, lasting about 300 days.

The German commander who planned the Battle of Verdun was Erich von Falkenhayn.

A war of attrition is a strategy of wearing down the enemy by inflicting continuous heavy losses; used by Germany at Verdun.

Germany's aim at Verdun was to 'bleed the French white'.

Germany targeted Verdun specifically because it was a fortress town and a symbol of French national pride, so its loss would devastate morale.

The French commander who reorganised the defence of Verdun was Philippe Pétain.

The 'Sacred Way' (Voie Sacrée) was the single road used to bring supplies and troops into Verdun.

The 1916 battle that relieved pressure on the French at Verdun was the Battle of the Somme.

False.

France held Verdun and claimed victory.

Each side lost about 377,000 French and 330,000 German soldiers at Verdun.

The 'Red Zone' around Verdun is an area still full of unexploded shells left after the war.

The Battle of the Somme was fought from 1 July to 19 November 1916.

The British commander at the Somme was General Sir Douglas Haig.

The two main British aims at the Somme were to break the stalemate and relieve pressure on the French at Verdun.

On the first day of the Somme, the British suffered over 60,000 casualties.

About 20,000 British soldiers died on the first day of the Somme.

The week-long artillery bombardment failed because it didn't cut the barbed wire or destroy the concrete German dugouts, and it warned the Germans an attack was coming.

True.

Tanks and the creeping barrage were both first used there.

After the Somme, Haig earned the nickname 'The Butcher of the Somme'.

'Lions led by donkeys' is a phrase suggesting brave soldiers (lions) were led to their deaths by incompetent generals (donkeys).

At the Somme, the Allies gained roughly an area about 25 km long and 6 km wide.

Despite huge losses, the Somme is often seen as an Allied victory because it relieved Verdun, gained German land and badly weakened the German army.

After the Somme, Germany began 'unrestricted' submarine warfare to try to knock Britain out of the war.

The Battle of Passchendaele is also known as the Third Battle of Ypres.

The Battle of Passchendaele is most remembered for being the muddiest battle of the war, where men and horses drowned in the mud.

The British at Passchendaele were commanded by General Sir Douglas Haig.

The Battle of Passchendaele was fought from 31 July to 6 November 1917.

Haig's main aim at Passchendaele was to break out of the Ypres Salient by taking the high ground and reaching the German-held Belgian ports.

The German-held Belgian ports mattered to Britain because they were vital to the German U-boat campaign against British shipping.

The bombardment coincided with the heaviest rainfall in 30 years, turning craters to mud.

The 'bite and hold' tactic used by General Plumer was shelling and capturing a small part of the German line, digging in, then attacking the next section.

False.

He failed; troops never broke through to the ports.

Britain and its Empire suffered roughly about 400,000 casualties at Passchendaele.

Passchendaele damaged Haig's reputation because the huge losses and the failed bombardment suggested he hadn't learned from the Somme.

The village of Passchendaele lay only eight kilometres from the starting front line.

Türkiye (the Ottoman Empire) joined Germany and the Central Powers in the First World War.

The Allies wanted to control the Dardanelles Strait to send supplies to Russia via the Black Sea and open a third front against the Central Powers.

The Gallipoli Campaign was planned by Winston Churchill, head of the British Royal Navy.

Churchill's original plan to defeat Türkiye was a naval attack alone — destroy the Dardanelles forts and sail to Constantinople.

When the naval attack failed, the Allies were forced to launch a land invasion.

The troops famous at Gallipoli who landed at Anzac Cove were the ANZACs (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps).

False.

Strong Turkish defences pinned the Allies down, leading to stalemate.

The illness contaminated water caused in about 80% of the ANZAC army was dysentery.

Roughly about 200,000 Allied soldiers died at Gallipoli.

The one clear success of the Gallipoli Campaign was the secret evacuation of about 80,000 soldiers without a single death.

The person who resigned with a damaged reputation after Gallipoli failed was Winston Churchill.

One reason the conflict is called a 'world war', beyond Europe, is that fighting spread to colonies in Africa, the Middle East and Asia, and troops came from across the empires (e.g. India, ANZAC).

In 1914, Japan declared war on Germany and seized its colonies in the Pacific.

A blockade is using naval power to stop enemy ships bringing in supplies; Britain blockaded Germany in the North Sea.

Britain began its naval blockade of Germany in 1914, when the war broke out.

The 'Turnip Winter' of 1916–17 was a period when the blockade and a poor harvest forced Germans to live largely on turnips.

By 1918, about 420,000 Germans had died from starvation caused by the blockade.

The Battle of Jutland (1916) was the war's biggest naval battle, fought between the British and German fleets in the North Sea.

False.

There was no clear winner, though Britain kept control of the sea.

Jutland is seen as a long-term British success because the German fleet stayed in port for the rest of the war and the blockade continued.

A U-boat was a German submarine used in the First World War.

Unrestricted submarine warfare was Germany's policy of using U-boats to sink any ship entering the North Sea, including neutral ones.

The 1915 sinking, killing 123 Americans, that helped push the USA towards war was the sinking of the RMS Lusitania.

The convoy system was groups of supply ships sailing together, protected by British warships, to defend against U-boats.

The convoy system was very successful — between July and August 1917 only five of 800 British supply ships were sunk.

Heavily armed merchant ships used to lure U-boats to the surface were called Q-ships.