WWI Homework Packet
Name: ______________________ Per: ___ Due Date: ___________
a/b
France
Oct. 15, 1918.
Mr. Mcgregor Smith
Cookeville, Tenn.
A Letter from the Trenches
Dear "Greg":
I received a letter from you a few weeks ago but have not had time to answer for we have been exceedingly busy. We
are speedy[?] clearing France of the Huns* and making Europe safe for you kids to come over next spring. This will be
the most peaceable country in the world in about sixty days. You just think that you want to come over here we won’t
need you. I wanted to come over pretty badly and was happy as a lark the day we left New York but that will be nothing
to the state of my feeling when I start back to the states. If the Statue of Liberty ever sees me again it will have to about
face and come down south to find me after she sees me pass going into the harbor at New York on my way home. This
is the wettest muddiest country I ever saw, it has been raining steadily for seven weeks. I stepped in a mud hole the
other night and went up to my waist in mud and didn’t get to change clothes and in fact I haven't changed yet. I haven't
changed for over two month and haven’t even had my clothes off for that length of time. I have not had a bath for six
weeks and none in sight for I haven't the slightest idea of using what little drinking water I get in my canteen for bathing
purposes. I shave as often as possible for the beard on my face keeps my Gas mask from being effective and the
Germans use quite a bit of gas. Gas and machine gun is their only effective weapons. I have been on every front in
France. You can’t imagine how torn up this country really is. Everywhere there are wire entanglements and trenches
and dug outs. Even out of the war zone there are entanglements and dugouts to protect the civilians from air raids….
…Don't worry about coming over here stay in school that is your service to your country. I am in good health and ready
to come home after the war but not before, I will do my bit here. I was appointed for the officers, training camp this
month for the third time but refused it, I will go later on in the year I want to stay on the front as long as the war lasts.
Be good and study HARD have a good time and write often.
Love to all,
Albert.
Corp. Albert P. Smith
Hq. Co. 115 F.A. American Expedition. France. * “Huns” = negative name for German soldiers based on Attila the Hun
Questions:
1. Who wrote this letter? _____________________________________________________________________________
2. Albert is writing a letter to Greg. Who do you think Greg is? What evidence from the text supports your answer?
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3. Albert has been fighting in the trenches in France. How does Albert describe France? ___________________________
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4. How does Albert describe his living conditions? _________________________________________________________
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Weapons of World War I
DIRECTIONS: Read textbook p. 706-711. Answer the questions about the new weapons used in WWI.
Machine Gun
What is it?
How would it change the way war is fought?
U-Boat
What is it?
How would it change the way war is fought?
Biplanes
How were they used in war?
Poison Gas
How was it used in World War I?
Which of these weapons do you think caused the highest number of casualties (dead, missing, injured
soldiers) in World War I? Justify your answer by comparing it to one of the weapons you didn’t choose.
The weapon that would cause the most casualties was _______________________________ because ________________
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Although the ____________________________ was also important because ___________________________________
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The _________________________ is better because ______________________________________________________
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“Dulce Et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen
This poem, “Dulce Et Decorum Est” is Latin for “It is sweet and right,” a phrase that was used extensively during the
first days of World War I. The poem ends with the same phrase extended to include. “pro patria mori.” The full
translation implying that “It is sweet and right to die for your country,” or in other words, a great honor to fight and due
for your country.
Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of disappointed shells that dropped behind.
GAS! Gas! Quick, boys! An ecstasy of fumbling,
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And floundering like a man in fire or lime…
Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.
In all my dreams, before my helpless sight,
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.
If in some smothering dreams you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin;
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,-My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
Wilfred Owen was a British soldier who
fought on the frontlines in France in 1917.
He experienced shell shock and spent some
time recovering in a hospital. During his
recovery Owen wrote a collection of poems
and gave it to a friend to review.
When he was able, Owen returned to
fighting the next year. He earned a medal
of bravery in August of 1918. Three months
later, he was killed in action while leading
his men across a canal.
Owen’s poetry was published after his
death.
1. How does Own point out the human exhaustion experienced by soldiers in the first stanza of the poem? ____________
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2. How does Own relate the experience of being gassed? ____________________________________________________
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3. How does he interrupt for the reading of his poem, the death of a soldier who dies as a result of being gassed? _______
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4. What does Owen believe about the “sweetness and honor” of dying for one’s country? Use evidence from the poem to
support your answer.
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