How it all began…
The First World War took the lives of over 16 million people. It was a
war that changed the whole idea of war.
It began in Europe in 1914. The scene was tense, and already set for
some kind of blow-up. There were declining natural resources, and
many countries were keen to expand their Empires, build up their
armies, and prove their dominance and power.
The assassination of Franz Ferdinand, the Archduke of the AustroHungarian Empire , as he visited Serbia was the spark that lit the fuse,
setting off a war between Austria and Serbia.
Other countries were brought into it because of a tangled web of
agreements and treaties between nations, which meant that if one
country was attacked their friends would come to help.
In the end two sides would be created: The Allies vs. the Central
Powers.
The War Action Review
Let’s have a look at what happened out there: so Franz Ferdinand was
shot in Serbia. Even though the man who shot the Duke was acting
independently, Austria issued Serbia with an ultimatum, designed to be
impossible for Serbia to agree to.
Out of Austria’s ten demands, Serbia agreed to eight.
Not good enough, said Austria, and declared war on Serbia.
Russia got involved to defend Serbia.
Germany saw Russia moving their troops around and demanded that
they stop; when they didn’t, Germany declared war on Russia.
France agreed to join in alongside Russia. Germany attacked France
through neutral Belgium, who was just trying to stay out of the way.
This pulled Britain, who had a pact with Belgium, into the war, which
surprised the Germans.
Britain brought the children of her Empire with her, including New
Zealand, Australia, Canada, India and South Africa.
Later, Japan, Italy and the United States would enter on the side of the
Allies.
The Central Powers were made up of only four countries: Germany,
Austria-Hungary, Turkey and Bulgaria.
For the most of the war, New Zealanders were in Europe.
Welcome to the Front
Some men volunteered to fight, while many others were conscripted
and just sent off to war. Those who refused to fight were called
conscientious objectors, and given the choice of either being tortured
and imprisoned or becoming stretcher bearers.
Objectors were often handed white feathers by members of the public
as a symbol that they were seen as cowards.
Many women left at home took up the jobs of men going off to war,
keeping the country running while also raising their children.
From New Zealand it was a six week journey by boat to join the war.
The New Zealand troops were sent to Egypt for training, alongside the
Australian group. They became known as the ANZACs.
Then they were sent to the front, where a lot of men expected to find
heroism, bravery and the honour of battle., but the reality was very,
very different.
Once they arrived at the frontline, they found appalling conditions,
overwhelming fear and constant danger, and the terrible smell of mud,
human waste, disease and dead men.
Any idea of the honour of battle was replaced by confusion and chaos.
And death, when it came, was not heroic or brave, but so random it
could come from any angle, at any time.
Soldiers on the frontline were constantly on edge.
And for those landing at Gallipoli, the first major operation New
Zealanders were involved with, it was possibly a worse welcome to the
war...
Gallipoli—the Beginning
The Allies landed on the beaches of Gallipoli on April 25 1915. The date
of the landing is known as ANZAC Day, the main commemoration of
New Zealand’s part in the Great War.
The campaign was fought by British and ANZAC forces against the
Turkish and the German armies.
It was supposed to be a quick and precise invasion, but the plan went
wrong from the start.
The British landed on a narrow beach facing sheer cliffs and came under heavy fire from Turkish machine guns, who held the higher ground.
The ANZACs were put ashore in the wrong spot, under fire from enemy
snipers and facing a steep, thin cliff known as the Razor’s Edge.
Some men drowned under the weight of their packs as they came off
the boats into the water.
Guns became jammed with sand or too wet to work.
Some boats caught fire.
Many ANZACS threw off their packs and ran forward, trying to get as far
as they could before digging into the sand for cover as their comrades
fell all around them.
Unable to advance, the Allies dug in, which was the opposite of what
Allied Commanders wanted to happen, causing a stalemate between
the two enemies.
Over 3000 soldiers landed that day and by evening one in five of them
had been killed or wounded.
Gallipoli & the ANZAC Legacy…
The New Zealanders and the Australians learned to value and depend
on each other.
There were thousands of men all on a piece of land that was only a few
kilometres long.
Gallipoli was very hot, 40 degrees in the summer.
There was not enough water to drink, let alone keep clean, and soon a
lot of disease spread around, particularly dysentery.
The Allies were supposed to capture a hill called Achi Baba, which they
were told had a view of the Turkish guns defending the Dardenelles
Strait.
The hill actually had no view of the strait at all.
The Allies fought for almost nine months and never got any further than
a few kilometres inland, and never reached Achi Baba.
On January 9, 1916, having achieved nothing at all, the Allies withdrew
from Gallipoli.
In the end, more than eight and a half thousand New Zealanders served
at Gallipoli. 30 percent of them were killed and over half were wounded.
People back home were proud of how well their ‘brave boys” did under
such hellish conditions, and the reputation of ANZAC troops was
established.
Gallipoli is often seen as the birth of the New Zealand national identity,
where we began to see ourselves as separate and different from Mother
England.
After Gallipoli, most ANZAC troops were sent to the Western Front.
Life in the Trenches
The trenches along the Western Front were built in a zig-zag, and
usually each battalion had four lines of trenches:
—the frontline, closest to the enemy, where most of the fighting took
place,
—then a support line behind that,
—a reserve line with more soldiers ready to join a battle in if needed,
—and finally a section for soldiers out at rest.
The typical trench was about eight feet deep, and three or four feet
wide.
No-Man’s Land was the name for the land between the opposing
trenches. It was strung with lines of barbed wire and varied in size
between half a kilometre and a few metres. In some places the enemy
could call out to each other.
The biggest problem in the trenches was the millions of rats who lived
there and ate the dead. They grew to the size of cats, and men often
woke to find rats running over their faces.
Days were spent trying to rest, or digging toliets, repairing trenches,
carrying up rations and supplies, patrolling the area and so on.
Trench life was described as “99 percent boredom, one percent sheer
terror”.
Technology in War
During World War One new technology was introduced that forever
changed the way war was fought, and nothing would change things as
much as the machine gun.
In 1915, the fastest a rifle could shoot was 15 rounds a minute—the
machine gun could fire 600 rounds a minute.
Generals did not always account for this when sending troops over the
top of the trenches.
One new machine that would have an enormous impact on how the war
was the aeroplane. For the first time in a war, planes were able to fly
over enemy territory and report back what was happening.
The element of surprise was lost for both sides. Armies began “digging
in” to secure their position, and trench warfare was born.
Another vehicle used for the first time was the “Land Ship” which came
to be known as the Tank, because the Allies were trying to disguise
them as water tanks.
Though they were unreliable, often breaking down, they at least allowed
armies to move around.
The final major new weapon was poisonous gas. This was outlawed,
even in a war, but both armies used it to try to break the stalemate of
the trenches.
Gas was the first ever weapon of mass destruction. It was seen as
inhumane, sneaky and underhand.
It demoralised soldiers, and for many the memories of being gassed
were the worst memories of the war.
Disease
In the Trenches of World War 1 it was almost impossible to keep clean.
Disease spread very easily. More soldiers died from disease than died
fighting.
The trenches where they spent their time were wet and muddy, littered
with food scraps and dead bodies.
Many soldiers got Trench foot, from standing for a long time in puddles
of rain and sewerage in the trench. Their feet would become numb and
swell up to two or three times their normal size
The millions of rats in the trenches helped spread disease, and there
was also trench flu, caused by lice who laid eggs on the dirty clothing of
the soldiers.
The lice caused the soldiers to itch constantly, and also infected them
with high fever.
There were nurses and doctors in the trenches to help sick and hurt
soldiers—over 500 nurses came from New Zealand alone.
But there were many more patients than there were people to help them,
and doctors and nurses often worked all day and all night to keep up.
Some wounded men received no help at all. Soldiers fallen in No Man’s
Land were often not able to be retrieved for two or three days.
But not all stories of the war are terrible.
Live and Let Live
The friendship between soldiers kept them all going, and they came to
rely on each other in life or death situations.
Letters from families and loved ones were also very important, with up
to 12 million letters arriving at the front line every week.
The regular army biscuits were so hard soldiers would stew them to
make porridge, so families back home sent their own biscuits by ship
made of ingredients that would last the journey. They became known
as ANZAC biscuits.
In some places, especially in the beginning of the war, there was an
unofficial “live and let live” policy between the enemy sides.
On Christmas Day, 1914, the guns stopped on the Western Front, and
both sides started singing Christmas Carols and lighting candles.
One German calling out “Don’t shoot, we don’t want to fight today—we
will send you some beer,” and soldiers from each side climbed into No
Man’s Land to meet.
They swapped food and drink, and in a few places along the front line a
football was produced and the two enemy sides played a game against
each other.
Afterwards, such truces were outlawed by the high command of both
sides.
General Incompetence
World War One was a war of modern weapons and old fashioned
tactics.
The Battle of the Somme is a good example of this.
The Allies had spent 5 days and nights bombing the German line.
Afterwards, Allied soldiers were ordered to advance at walking pace
toward the enemy line. The Commanders told them all the Germans
would be dead, and they’d even be able to smoke a pipe as they
went— that’s how safe they’d be.
However, the Germans dug outs were well protected, and were up to 40
feet deep. They were so well organised some had electricity.
Some were even wallpapered.
The Allies were cut to pieces as they walked toward the enemy machine guns. German soldiers noted that “they didn’t even have to aim.”
Allied Command, two or three miles behind the front line, saw that the
first wave of their troops were being slaughtered, so sent another wave
of men over the top.
And then another.
Soldiers who refused to go so were shot by their own leaders.
For many, the Battle of the Somme came to represent the stupidity of
war.
Almost 20,000 Allied soldiers were killed in a day, most of those in the
first 30 minutes of the attack.
The Allies only gained a few yards of bombed out land.
Armistice & the Lasting Impact of War
The end of the First World War came in 1918.
The German army was in retreat and quickly running out of supplies,
and collapse began.
An Armistice or peace treaty was called for. It was agreed that all
fighting would stop on November the 11th, 1918, at 11 am.
In the last hours before the ceasefire, both sides continued fighting—
some to use up ammunition, some for a last shot at glory, many because they could barely think of doing anything else.
And then, it was all over.
Around the world people were celebrating, dancing in the streets and
drinking champagne.
But on the Front there were no celebrations, only silence and emptiness
after four exhausting years of fighting.
Many were shell-shocked, traumatised, or chronically injured.
Those on the battle field—and those at home—all lost people they
loved—brothers, friends, sons, husbands, and fathers.
A lot of men carried with them the horrors of what they’d seen, and also
of what they’d done, for the rest of their lives.
The Last Post was played at the end of the day to show that the
sentries were on duty and everyone else could go to sleep.
In memoriam, the Last Post is played as a farewell to those who had
fallen, to represent the end of their duty, so that they know they may
now rest.
Lest we forget.