The History Tutor Online

Life in the Trenches

Volunteers, recruitment posters, the tedium of trench life, night patrols, digging latrines, repairing trenches, carrying up rations and supplies, limited military action, stand to's at dawn and dusk, kit weighed about 60 lbs, importance of comfortable boots, soft cap replaced by helmet, reduction in head wounds, hot meals were rare, bread, bully beef and hard biscuits, lack of drinking water, black market in food supply chain, cigarettes, officers had better food, hampers from Fortnum & Mason's in London

The First World War in Colour

    Now unavailable
Visual information includes conditions in winter, mud, standing water, digging trenches, heavy artillery, going 'over the top', barbed wire, machine guns, light artillery, the wounded, dugouts, poison gas, gas masks, lice, 'No Man's Land', gas shells, bunkers, sandbags, grenades, flame throwers, compassion, tanks, the dead, shell craters, desolated lanscapes.

Categorise the images under headings such as weaponry to support your work

General Douglas Haig

    Now unavailable
In 1916, General Haig was ordered to relieve pressure on Britain's ally, France.

By the time of the Battle of the Somme, Haig had been promoted to Commander-in-Chief. The Somme campaign failed to make the breakthrough to end the stalemate.

Haig believed that 'the nation must be taught to bear losses ..... and ..... patience, self-sacrifice and confidence to win the war in the long run'.

Victory was achieved through attrition. Entente troops and their American allies eventually wore down the German army through force of numbers.

Investigation: The Battle of the Somme 1

Why was the first day of the Battle of the Somme such a disaster?

Fighting on the Western Front had reached a stalemate. French forces at Verdun were close to collapse. The Somme attack was designed to divert German attention.

1. 50,000 artillerymen manning 1400 guns fired more than one and a half million shells at the German positions over 7 days and nights. Why then were the German defences intact when British troops were sent 'over the top'? The answer lies in defective ammunition, insufficiently trained gun crews and a lack of heavy guns. Furthermore air-bursting shrapnel shells did not destroy the barbed wire.

Investigation: The Battle of the Somme 4

Completes communication trenches failure. Many British units didn't reach the front line.

6. British troops were overloaded with equipment. Many carried more than the basic 72 lbs. Whole battalions were annihilated by German light artillery and machine gun fire. A reconstruction demonstates that greater mobility would have significantly reduced British casualties.

Investigation: The Battle of the Somme 3

Completes steel helmet comparison.
 
4. The Germans used the contours of the land to build formidable defensive positions; deep virtually shell-proof dug-outs.

5. British communication trenches were too narrow to bring troops forward to the front line and take the wounded back to field hospitals at the same time. Within two hours of the start of the advance, the flow of casualties caused the communication trench system to begin to break down.