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Tommy Atkins (often just Tommy) is a term for a common soldier in the British Army that is particularly associated with World
War I. German soldiers would call out to Tommy across no man's land if they wished to speak to a British soldier. French and
Commonwealth troops would also call British soldiers "Tommies". In more recent times, the term Tommy Atkins has
been used less frequently, although the name "Tom" is occasionally still heard, especially with regard to paratroopers.
Trench warfare is a form of warfare where both combatants have fortified positions and fighting lines are static. Trench
warfare arose when there was a revolution in firepower without similar advances in mobility. The result was a slow and grueling
form of defense-oriented warfare in which both sides constructed elaborate and heavily armed trench and dugout systems opposing
each other along a front, with soldiers in both trench lines largely defiladed from the other's small arms fire and enclosed
by barbed wire. The area between opposing trench lines (known as "no man's land") was fully exposed to small-arms
and artillery fire from both sides. Attacks, even successful ones, often sustained severe casualties as a matter of course.
Periods of trench warfare occurred during the American Civil War, the Russo-Japanese War, and reached peak bloodshed on the
Western Front of World War I. Trench warfare is often a sign of attrition warfare.
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| Haut-Rhin, France, 1917 |
Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium,
then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with
the Battle of the Marne. Both sides then dug in along a meandering line of fortified trenches, stretching from the North Sea
to the Swiss frontier with France. This line remained essentially unchanged for most of the war.
Between 1915 and 1917 there were several major offensives along this front. The attacks employed massive artillery bombardments
and massed infantry advances. However, a combination of entrenchments, machine gun nests, barbed wire, and artillery repeatedly
inflicted severe casualties on the attackers and counter attacking defenders. As a result, no significant advances were made.
In an effort to break the deadlock, this front saw the introduction of new military technology, including poison gas,
aircraft, and tanks. But it was only after the adoption of improved tactics that some degree of mobility was restored.
In spite of the generally stagnant nature of this front, this theater would prove decisive. The inexorable advance of
the Allied armies in 1918 persuaded the German commanders that defeat was inevitable, and the government was forced to sue
for conditions of an armistice.
Henry John Patch (born June 17, 1898 in Combe Down, a village in Somerset, England) is, at the age of 109 years, the second-oldest
living man in the UK. He is one of the last three surviving British veterans of the First World War still living in the country,
and also one of the last three to have seen action. He is the last surviving Tommy to have faced combat, as Sydney Lucas was
still in training. Following the death of Lazare Ponticelli, Patch is the last serviceman in the world to have fought in the
trenches of the Western Front.
Any one of them could have been me. Millions of men came to fight in this war and I find it incredible that I am the only
one left
During the war, Patch was conscripted into the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry, serving as an assistant gunner in a
Lewis Gun section. He was a private at the Battle of Passchendaele (also known as the Third Battle of Ypres). After the war,
Patch returned to work as a plumber, during which time he spent four years working on the Wills Memorial Building in Bristol
and, during the Second World War, a fireman.
Patch featured in the 2003 television series World War I in Colour, and was quoted as saying "if any man tells you
he went over the top and he wasn't scared, he's a damn liar."
In the same series, he reflected upon his lost friends and the moment when he came face to face with a German soldier.
He recalled Moses descending from Mount Sinai with God's commandment, 'thou shalt not kill', and couldn't kill the German.
He shot him above the knee, and in the ankle. Patch said, "I had about five seconds to make the decision. I brought him
down, but I didn't kill him".
In November 2004 (at the age of 106), he met Charles Kuentz, a 108-year-old veteran who had fought on the German side
at the battlefield of Passchendaele (and on the French side in World War II). Patch was quoted as saying: "I was a bit
doubtful before meeting a German soldier. Herr Kuentz is a very nice gentleman however. He is all for a united Europe and
peace and so am I". Kuentz had brought along a tin of Alsatian biscuits and Patch gave him a bottle of Somerset cider
in return.
Battle of the Yser
The entire Belgian Army was deployed to defend the front. The troops were exhausted and low on ammunition after two months
of fighting and retreat. France reinforced the Belgians with 6,000 Marines and an infantry division.
The first skirmishes started on 16 October 1914. The town of Diksmuide was attacked but the Germans were repelled by French
marines and Belgian artillery. The following day German troops (consisting of trained conscripts, reservists and untrained
students) moved southwards from Bruges and Ostend in the direction of the Yser river. It became clear that the German Fourth
Army was to take the line from Nieuwpoort to Ypres.
Admiral Hood of the Royal Navy commanded three monitors, Severn, Humber and Mersey, which bombarded the German army in
Lombardsijde from the sea the following day.
On 18 October the German offensive started.
The use of poison gas in World War I was a major military innovation. The gases ranged from disabling chemicals, such as tear
gas and the severe mustard gas, to lethal agents like phosgene and chlorine. This chemical warfare was a major component of
the first global war and first total war of the 20th century. The killing capacity of gas was limited only 4% of combat deaths
were due to gas however, the proportion of non-fatal casualties was high, and gas remained one of the soldiers' greatest fears.
Because it was impossible to develop effective countermeasures against gas attacks, it was unlike most other weapons of the
period. In the later stages of the war, as the use of gas increased, its overall effectiveness diminished. This widespread
use of these agents of chemical warfare, and wartime advances in the composition of high explosives, gave rise to an occasionally
expressed view of World War I as "the chemists' war".
"It is a cowardly form of warfare which does not commend itself to me or other English soldiers.... We cannot win this
war unless we kill or incapacitate more of our enemies than they do of us, and if this can only be done by our copying the
enemy in his choice of weapons, we must not refuse to do so."
Caporetto in Italy, where the Allies(G.B., France, and the US) drove back German and Austrian armies; France in general,
largely the scene of the horrific trench warfare that has come to typify the struggle, eventually won by the Allies, but initially,
during the Frontiers of France campaign that began the war, a decided German advance checked by desperate reinforcement(some
French troops arriving to the front in Parisian cabs). Russia was also the scene of several major battles, and defeats against
the German army, specifically Tannenberg and Masurian Lakes. However, the Russians were not knocked out of the war until the
Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. A fourth and equally decisive campaign was that of the British and Arabs versus the Ottoman
Empire in the Middle East, the English victory presaging a long and difficult presence of Western power and influence in Muslim
nations for the benefit of internationmal oil cartels. Those important battles were Bagdad, Jersalem, and Gaza, all three
scenes of unrest to this very day.
Following the successful Allied attack and penetration of the German defences at Cambrai, Ludendorff and Hindenburg determined
that the only opportunity for German victory now lay in a decisive attack along the western front during the spring, before
American manpower became a significant presence. On 3 March 1918, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk was signed, and Russia withdrew
from the war. This would now have a dramatic effect on the conflict as 44 divisions were now released from Eastern Front for
deployment to the west. This would give them an advantage of 192 divisions to the Allied 173 divisions, which allowed Germany
to pull veteran units from the line and retrain them as sturmtruppen. In contrast, the Allies still lacked a unified command
and suffered from morale and manpower problems: the British and French armies were sorely depleted, and American troops had
not yet transitioned into a combat role.
Ludendorff's strategy would be to launch a massive offensive against the British and Commonwealth designed to separate
them from the French and her allies, then drive them back to the channel ports. The attack would combine the new storm troop
tactics with ground attack aircraft, tanks, and a carefully planned artillery barrage that would include gas attacks.
Final allied offensives
In July, Foch initiated an offensive against the Marne salient produced during the German attacks, eliminating the salient
by August. A second major offensive was launched two days after the first, ending at Amiens to the north. This attack included
Franco-British forces, and was spearheaded by Australian and Canadian troops, along with 600 tanks and supported by 800 aircraft.
The assault proved highly successful, leading Hindenburg to name 8 August as the "Black Day of the German Army".
The German army's manpower had been severely depleted after four years of war, and its economy and society were under
great internal strain. The Hundred Days Offensive beginning in August proved the final straw, and following this string of
military defeats, German troops began to surrender in large numbers. As the Allied forces broke the German lines at great
cost, the Chief QuarterMaster-General of the army, Ludendorff (who had wielded almost dictatorial power in , was forced to
step aside to allow peace feelers to be extended to the Allies. Fighting was still continuing, but the German armies were
in retreat when the German Revolution put a new government in power that quickly signed an armistice which stopped all fighting
on the Western Front on Armistice Day (11 November 1918). The German Imperial Monarchy collapsed as Ludendorff's successor
General Groener agreed, for fear of a revolution like that in Russia the previous year, to support the moderate Social Democratic
Government under Ebert rather than sustain the Hohenzollern Monarchy.
Woodrow Wilson and the American peace commissioners during the negotiations on the Treaty of Versailles.
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Historically, artillery (from French artillerie) refers to any engine used for the discharge of large projectiles in war.
The term also describes soldiers with the primary function of manning such weapons and is used organizationally for the arm
of a nation's land forces that operates the weapons. This term includes coastal artillery which traditionally defended coastal
areas against seaborne attack and controlled the passage of ships. With the advent of powered flight at the start of the 20th
century, artillery also included ground-based anti-aircraft batteries. In military terminology, a unit of artillery is commonly
referred to as a battery.
The Battle of Verdun began on 21 February 1916 after a nine-day delay due to snow and blizzards. After a massive eight-hour
artillery bombardment, the Germans did not expect much resistance as they slowly advanced on Verdun and its forts. However,
heavy French resistance was countered by the introduction of flamethrowers by the Germans. The French lost control of Fort
Douaumont. Nonetheless, French reinforcements halted the German advance by 28 February.
The Germans turned their focus to Le Mort Homme to the north from which the French were successfully shelling them. After
some of the most intense fighting of the campaign, the hill was taken by the Germans in late May. After a change in French
command at Verdun from the defensive-minded Philippe Pétain to the offensive-minded Robert Nivelle the French attempted to
re-capture Fort Douaumont on 22 May but were easily repulsed. The Germans captured Fort Vaux on 7 June and, with the aid of
the gas phosgene, came within 1,200 yards (1 km) of the last ridge over Verdun before stopping on 23 June.
Over the summer, the French slowly advanced. With the development of the rolling barrage, the French recaptured Fort Vaux
in November, and by December 1916 they had pushed the Germans back 1.3 miles (2 km) from Fort Douaumont, in the process rotating
42 divisions through the battle. The Battle of Verdun also known as the 'Mincing Machine of Verdun' or 'Meuse Mill'became
a symbol of French determination and sacrifice.
While World War I on the Western Front developed into trench warfare, the battle lines on the Eastern Front were much more
fluid and trenches never truly developed. This was because the greater length of the front ensured that the density of soldiers
in the line was lower so the line was easier to break. Once broken, the sparse communication networks made it difficult for
the defender to rush reinforcements to the rupture in the line to mount a rapid counteroffensive and seal off a breakthrough.
There was also the fact that the terrain in the Eastern European theatre was quite solid, often making it near impossible
to construct anything resembling the complicated trench systems on the Western Front, which tended to have muddier and much
more workable terrain. In short, on the Eastern front the side defending did not have the overwhelming advantages it had on
the Western front.
Because of this, front lines in the East kept on shifting throughout the conflict, and not just near the beginning and
end of the fighting, as was the case in the West. In fact the greatest advance of the whole war was made in the East by the
German Army in the summer of 1915.
Contents
The Battle of Albert began on September 25, 1914 as part of the Race to the Sea during World War I. It directly followed the
First Battle of the Marne and the First Battle of the Aisne as progress toward advancing the trench lines to the sea continued.
The French Tenth Army began to assemble at Amiens from mid-September and on September 25 began to push eastwards. De Castelnau,
under the command of Joffre, launched a frontal attack on the German lines near Albert after attempts to stretch the line
northward failed. De Castelnau was met with immediate resistance and counterattack as the German Sixth Army had reached Bapaume
on September 26 and advanced to Thiepval on the 27th, in the midst of what was to become the Somme battlefield of 1916. The
German aim was to drive westward to the English Channel, seizing the industrial and agricultural regions of Northern France,
cutting off the supply route of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) and isolating Belgium.
Neither side was able to make any decisive ground and the battle around Albert ended around September 29 as the fighting
moved northwards towards Arras and Lille and into West Flanders. This confrontation and those to follow were deemed draws
as the fighting settled into prolonged trench warfare.
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| Passchendaele |
The German army came within 43 miles (70 km) of Paris, but at the First Battle of the Marne (September 6), French and British
troops were able to force a German retreat by exploiting a gap which appeared between the 1st and 2nd Armies, ending the German
advance into France. The German army retreated north of the Aisne River and dug in there, establishing the beginnings of a
static western front that was to last for the next three years. Following this German setback, the opposing forces tried to
outflank each other in the Race for the Sea, and quickly extended their trench systems from the English Channel to the Swiss
frontier.
On the Entente side, the final lines were occupied by the armies of the allied countries, with each nation defending a
part of the front. From the coast in the north, the primary forces were from Belgium, the British Empire and France. Following
the Battle of the Yser in October, the Belgian forces controlled a 35 km length of Flanders territory along the coast, with
their front following the Yser river and the Yperlee canal, from Nieuport to Boesinghe. Stationed to the south was the sector
of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). Here, from 19 October until 22 November, the German forces made their final breakthrough
attempt of 1914 during the First Battle of Ypres. Heavy casualties were suffered on both sides but no breakthrough occurred.By
Christmas, the BEF guarded a continual line from the La Bassée Canal to south of St. Eloi in the Somme valley.The remainder
of the front, south to the border with Switzerland, was manned by French forces.
The Battle of the Somme, fought in the summer and autumn of 1916, was one of the largest battles of the First World War. With
more than one million casualties, it was also one of the bloodiest battles in human history. The Allied forces attempted to
break through the German lines along a 25-mile (40 km) front north and south of the River Somme in northern France. One purpose
of the battle was to draw German forces away from the Battle of Verdun; however, by its end the losses on the Somme had exceeded
those at Verdun.
Verdun would bite deep into the national consciousness of France for generations, and the Somme would have the same effect
on generations of Britons. The battle is best remembered for its first day, 1 July 1916, on which the British suffered 57,470
casualties, including 19,240 dead the bloodiest day in the history of the British Army. As terrible as the battle was for
the British Empire troops who suffered there, it naturally affected the other nationalities as well. One German officer (Captain
von Hentig) famously described it as "the muddy grave of the German field army". By the end of the battle, the British
had learned many lessons in modern warfare, while the Germans had suffered irreplaceable losses. British historian Sir James
Edmonds stated: "It is not too much to claim that the foundations of the final victory on the Western Front were laid
by the Somme offensive of 1916."
For the first time, the home front in the United Kingdom was exposed to the horrors of modern war with the release in
August of the propaganda film The Battle of the Somme, which used actual footage from the first days of the battle.
British offensives, American troops arrive
On 7 June a British offensive was launched on Messines ridge, south of Ypres, to retake the ground lost in the First and
Second Battles of Ypres in 1914. Since 1915 engineers had been digging tunnels under the ridge, and about 500 tons (roughly
500,000 kg) of explosives had been planted in 21 mines under the enemy lines. Following four days of heavy bombardment, the
explosives in 19 of these mines were set off resulting in the deaths of 10,000 Germans. The offensive that followed again
relied on heavy bombardment, but these failed to dislodge the Germans. The offensive, though initially stunningly successful,
faltered due to the flooded, muddy ground, and both sides suffered heavy casualties.
On 11 July 1917 during this battle, the Germans introduced a new weapon into the war when they fired gas shells delivered
by artillery. The limited size of an artillery shell required that a more potent gas be deployed, and so the Germans employed
mustard gas, a powerful blistering agent. The artillery deployment allowed heavy concentrations of the gas to be used on selected
targets. Mustard gas was also a persistent agent, which could linger for up to several days at a site, an additional demoralizing
factor for their opponents. Along with phosgene, gas would be used lavishly by both German and Allied forces in later battles,
as the Allies also began to increase production of gas for chemical warfare.
On 25 June the first U.S. troops began to arrive in France, forming the American Expeditionary Force. However, the American
units did not enter the trenches in divisional strength until October. The incoming troops required training and equipment
before they could join in the effort, and for several months American units were relegated to support efforts.In spite of
this, however, their presence provided a much-needed boost to Allied morale.
Beginning in late July and continuing into October the struggle around Ypres was renewed with the Battle of Passchendaele
(technically the Third Battle of Ypres, of which Passchendaele was the final phase). The battle had the original aim of pushing
through the German lines and threatening the submarine bases on the Belgian coast, but was later restricted to advancing the
British Army onto higher (and drier) ground around Ypres, no longer constantly under observation from German artillery. Canadian
veterans from the Battle of Vimy Ridge and the Battle of Hill 70 joined the depleted ANZAC and British forces and took the
village of Passchendaele on 30 October despite extremely heavy rain and casualties (suffering around 36,000[citation needed]
casualties). Again the offensive produced large numbers of casualties for relatively little gain, though the British made
small but inexorable gains during periods of drier weather. The ground was generally muddy and pocketed by shell craters,
making supply missions and further advancement very difficult.
Both sides lost a combined total of over a half million men during this offensive. The battle has become a byword for
bloody and futile slaughter among British historians, whilst the Germans called Passchendaele "the greatest martyrdom
of the War". It is one of the two battles (the other is the Battle of the Somme) which have done most to earn British
Commander in Chief Sir Douglas Haig his controversial reputation.
The fighting in World War I ended when an armistice took effect at 11:00 hours on November 11, 1918. In the aftermath
of World War I the political, cultural, and social order of the world was drastically changed in many places, even outside
the areas directly involved in the war. New countries were formed, old ones were abolished, international organizations were
established, and many new and old ideas took a firm hold in people's minds.
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