Last night we thought we were going over the top. Tonight we know. Our C.O. himself has told us so. Back come all the bogies of the previous night. I find myself engaged in calculating the chances of escape. Surely a quarter of our number will remain unscathed. I have one chance in four of coming out none the worse. And the other chances, what are they? Maybe they are three to one against being killed. 1
Reminder: Quiz retakes must be completed by Friday. 2
Slaughter on the Western Front Battle of Verdun and the Battle of the Somme 3
Context for the Battle of Verdun Merry Christmas! (Remember 1914?) Letter from Falkenhayn to Kaiser Wilhelm 4
Falkenhayn's Grand Revised Strategy Key to winning the war is the Western Front Starve Britain; bring back U boat blockade "Bleed France white" (attrition) 5
Cool Idea, Bro Paul von Hindenburg (Ludendorff) Disagrees We could capture the whole Russian army! 6
Falkenhayn's Target: Verdun Ancient fortress city Last fortress to fall in Franco Prussian War Strong symbolic value Not great STRATEGICALLY 7
Where the heck is Verdun? 8
Falkenhayn: Very crafty! French will have to defend a bad position to keep up morale of the people. 9
Verdun Begins Supposed to start February 12th... Delayed by weather till the 21st French C i C Joffre receives intelligence about the attack 10
Verdun Situation Part of a salient (attack on 3 sides) 1 million German attackers 200,000 French defenders 11
Verdun, Continued 21 hour preliminary bombardment 100,000 shells every hour 12
Verdun, More! Germans capture outer fort, Douamont To maintain French morale, it must be retaken Joffre appoints Petain, eventually Nivelle 13
So Much Death... Battle ends 18th of December, 1915 11 months of fighting 14
Results of Verdun? Falkenhayn loses his job to Hindenburg 550,000 French casualties 434,000 German casualties Half of all casualties are fatalities 15
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Battle of the Somme Thanks Haig and Joffre! 17
Wait... 18
Anyways... Joffre wants to divert German resources away from Verdun Haig wants a battle that will kill all of his men because he is a homicidal maniac (OK, not really) 19
Somme July 1, 1916 to November 18th, 1916 Preceded by 8 days of bombardment 20
Somme Bombardment warns Germans Now know when and where attack is going to take place. Where? Where the shells are. When? When they stop. 21
Somme How's the bombardment go? Doesn't work. German bunkers are great. 22
Verdun and the Somme 4th Hour Haig's Master Plan Bombardment Mines Infantry assault Cavalry Charge! 23
Somme British detonate 17 mines First mine: 40,600 pounds of ammonia Hawthorn Crater: 40 ft deep, 300 ft wide 24
Somme, First Advance 58,000 British casualties on July 1st 1/3 killed 1.5 New Berlins, or 2/3 of Waukesha 25
So, how does it go overall? Primary Sources! General Douglas Haig Crown Prince Rupprecht Alfred Ball Alfred Dambitsch (German) 26
General Haig 27
Rupprecht 28
Ball 29
Dambitsch 30
Somme, Total Casualties and Results Strategic Value? Maybe helped Verdun? 420,000 British casualties 200,000 French casualties 500,000 French casualties 31