...Trench Letter Dear mom I have been fighting for six months now, I think the date it’s August 16, 1916 and I don't know how much more death I can bear. I don't feel any pride in fighting or dying for my country; at least not here in Somme. All day long all I see is people dying and I keep think I am next? I keep wondering will I be alive tomorrow. I see people jump up out of the trenches into no man’s land alive and then two seconds later fall back down because their dead. Two weeks ago while sitting in the trenches someone started yelling GAS! GAS! In that instant I feared for my life. I grabbed a gas mask, hoping that I would get it on in time, but there weren’t enough gas masks for everyone so I had to watch my friends suffocate from inhaling the gas. I can't believe I am here and wake up every morning wondering if I will wake up tomorrow. I wish that my friend would have never pressured me into doing this, but now he’s dead because when some of us had to charge his trench foot prevented him from moving fast so the machine gun blew him apart. The good thing though is that we don’t have to worry about rats, lice, and flies for a while because of the gas. Lately I haven’t been wanting to do my job. I’m supposed to be climbing up on the fire step with my Springfield sniper rifle but I’ve been too tired to do it lately. This kid who just started died today too; he was cutting barb wire and stepped on a bouncing Betty by accident. We only found him in pieces, or at least we think...
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...The new airship is taking the same flight that was captured on camera just months after the battle occurred. The modern airship will have the ability to document areas featured in the original film in present day. World War One trenches stretched for thousands of miles. Sandbags lined the front wall of the trench, which averaged about ten feet tall. These sandbags continued about another three feet above ground level. The rear wall was also lined with these sandbags to protect the soldiers from an attack from the rear. The walls were also were also lined with logs and branches to reinforce the walls because rainfall and the constant bombardment of artillery shells would cause the walls to collapse. The trenches were dug in a zigzag manner, so that if the enemy was able to get inside he could not fire his weapon straight down the trench line. During the beginning days of World War One airplanes were seen as useless for war, so it was mainly used as a reconnaissance tactic. These reconnaissance aircraft would photograph enemy trench layout from a bird’s eye view as well as enemy troop movements. By the end of the war reconnaissance aircraft had developed into fighters and bombers that brought a new era of warfare. During the war more airmen were killed in training learning how to fly aircraft than were killed in action. If the engine stalled at takeoff the pilots would not be able to recover the plane before it crashed to the ground as they didn’t have the speed, or the ability...
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...died due to the spread of diseases. Diseases as small as a common cold was spread or diseases such as shell shock or trench foot infested the trenches. Many of these diseases were contracted due to harsh weather conditions. Men were buried where they were killed, they didn’t have time to provide a proper burial. The trenches were littered with food scraps and trash. This caused an infestation of rats in the trenches, a man recalled that he was woken up by the sound of rats gnawing on a severely damaged hand. Another health issue that had a significant impact on the men is the Trench Influenza. This influenza was caused by lice, this disease was said to have killed more people than the war itself. Trench influenza ran rampant in the trenches due to the men not being able to wash their clothes. This caused the men to scratch unceasingly. The clothes they would wear were covered in lice eggs. When they would put their clothes on it would open up the egg, as a result, the lice, being verily infectious and dangerous, caused the soldiers exorbitant pain....
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...what is trench warfare and why was so much of World War 1 dominated by this method of fighting? how did trench warfare affect the duration of the war? Trench Warfare is most commonly used in WWI and was not a war of velocity. It consisted of death because of infections from trench water: rain water that stayed in the trenches and often infected cuts. It was rat-infested do the soldiers never went hungry. Because of industrialization in the late 19th century or 1800s, new fancy war weapons came into style such as machine guns, generic tanks from Britain, and early dogfighting planes. Machine guns could mow down any amount of people in a matter of seconds because of its velocity and mass firing power. To avoid those bullets each side dug ditches or trenches to take cover. Each side thought that by doing so, they could eventually take over the enemy by planting in. Most Europeans of that time were stubborn and the Germans were known to be belligerent people and the French to save their hides and the war's cause had no option to just not budge. English helped as well. Also, Germany came up with the Schlieffen Plan which was to fight two fronts: one in the west and in the east. They were killing Russians without much trouble but the English and French offered trouble so they had to stay in the western front and continue trench warfare in order to weaken the primary fighters in WWI. The strategy was basically a war of attrition or to see who gives out first and then the visitor...
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...Trench warfare, during World War I, left a great impact on the soldiers, physically and mentally, that participated in this war. This kind of warfare left soldiers with physical and mental trauma. The conditions in the trenches and the battles played a large part in their physical trauma. In document 1, Sergeant A.Vine, a soldier from the trenches in WWI explained, “The stench of the dead bodies now is awful as they have been exposed to the sun for several days, many have swollen and burst. The trench is full of other occupants, things with lots of legs, also swarms of rats.” Soldiers lived with piles of dead bodies that likely could be holding their friends. These bodies were never just there for them to look at; they also had a smell and...
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...The trenches are horrific, disgusting, and extremely unhygienic, as always. Pests and rodents constantly roam around freely, especially giant rats. Oh, those disgusting excuses for living things; they are horrific! I have witnessed one with my own two eyes, it was the size of our cat, Mittens! And all these men…we do not wash ourselves because of the limited access to running water and we do not have the time to worry about hygiene. Toilets are these large buckets that are put in side trenches, but we don’t always use them because we are left vulnerable to enemy attack. So, many of us relieve ourselves right where we are, and it is gross, I know, but necessary. The trenches reek of the smell of unwashed humanity every day, and it makes me want...
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...the corpses of the dead soldiers. Soldiers began to bury the bodies and as Leonard Thompson describes it, “ We pushed them into the side of the trenches, but bits of them kept getting uncovered and sticking out… The bottom of the trench was springy like a mattress because of all the bodies underneath.”...
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...The Mariana Trench is located in the Pacific Ocean, just east of the 14 Mariana Islands (11"21' North latitude and 142" 12' East longitude ) near Japan. As you probably already know, it is the deepest part of the earth's oceans, and the deepest location of the earth itself. It was created by ocean-to-ocean subduction, a phenomena in which a plate topped by oceanic crust is subducted beneath another plate topped by oceanic crust. The deepest part of the Mariana Trench is the Challenger Deep, so named after the exploratory vessel HMS Challenger II; a fishing boat converted into a sea lab by Swiss scientist Jacques Piccard. On this site, you will find information on the main characteristics of the Mariana Trench, its exploration, and its ecosystem. The Biology section of the site covers the fish and various (organisms and microorganisms) of the deep, what makes these creatures unique, and the fascinating ways in which they live and survive. The Oceanography section explores the data pertaining to the Mariana Trench and other deep sea formations. The Exploration section relates some of the events pertaining to the first survey of the MT, and the history of deep sea exploration. We have also included a section on the Mariana Arc, from an article published by NOAA(National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) Magazine Online. In addition to this, we also added a nautical measurement conversion table. In closing we have added two supplemental sections...
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...Prior to the beginning of World War I the attitude toward war was extremely positive. People were excited about the war and they greeted it with enthusiasm. In Europe they were told it was going to over by Christmas so people weren’t expecting it to be long nor brutal for that matter. The press romanticized the war with various propaganda; so many men enlisted and were very proud to serve. They viewed it as they were going to be heroes and a victory was on its way; and no men wanted to miss the action. War made people, men and women, feel very nationalistic for their country, thus making them eager to contribute as much as they could to the war effort. Some men felt war was going to be a “great adventure” and gave “the war an ideal and almost romantic character”. All of Europe also helped romanticized the war and heroism because the people no experience with a long bloody war, they didn’t know what to expect. Contributions other than enlisting in the war were numerous. They men and women wanted to help out with the war effort for their country because it made them feel proud and integrated with the war. Some people contributed with food rations and where they donated food to the soldiers. Others planted victory gardens and some women took over the jobs the men did. Women also joined the Red Cross to help out in the war. The wealthier people donated money to the war effort so they could contribute in a way. In that early stage of the war they didn’t know how bad, long and bloody...
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...arms fire into the mist to their front, which made doubly sure of safety at dawn. Breakfast and Weapon Cleaning Following stand to the men would have their breakfast and clean their weapons. Breakfast would be brought up in containers from the field kitchens and the weapon cleaning would be done in shifts, with only a portion of the men cleaning their weapons at any one time. Inspection Breakfast would be followed by the daily inspection by the Platoon Officer and Sergeant. Weapons would be checked to ensure that they were clean and serviceable as would the men's clothing. Often this inspection would include a ‘foot inspection' looking for signs of ‘trench foot'. Trench Foot was a medical condition peculiar to trench life. It was a fungal infection of the feet caused by cold, wet and unsanitary trench conditions. It could turn gangrenous and result in amputation. Some 20,000 casualties...
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...Nicole Johnson 05 April 2012 Western Civilization 2 The Great War The war was supposed to be short, and be one of great movement like many other wars. However, it was characterized by its lack of movement instead. These standstill years were represented on the Western Front from October 1914 to March 1918. There was some movement on the Western front during these years though. The war began with movement by the Germans advancing throughout Belgium and France. Quickly though stalemate and trench warfare became the way of the war. Life in the trenches during the war varied between different fronts and sectors. But what was it really like for the men fighting in the trenches? Why were so many people unprepared for the outbreak of the war in 1914? The last time there had been such a huge conflict between nations dated back to the days of Napoleon. People did not expect one assassination to explode into a full-blown war. The conflicts between the initially involved nations had existed for many years, and it was assumed the assignation would merely lead to political, diplomatic negotiations. However, some argue that people were in fact prepared for the war. The only part that people didn’t expect was how the Germans attacked. When the Germans went through Belgium, this brought Great Britain into the war since they had ensured Belgium’s independence. Why did so many people expect a short war in 1914? Why wasn’t it short? Many world leaders felt the war would be...
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...remarkably unexplored. However, there is life and astounding variety of creatures that will blow your mind. You can explore the ocean until a certain point, but you can’t explore the deep ocean on your own. Scientists now have a variety of sophisticated technologies to explore this vast frontier. What they’re finding will amaze you. According to source #1 Oceans: Earth’s Final Frontier, there is a lot going on in the deep water. The ocean contains hot springs and chimneys that can spot acid. Such amazing things can be found at the hydrothermal vents and underwater volcanoes. In addition to its amazing features, the oceans have the longest mountain range in the world named Mid-Atlantic Ridge and the deepest valley on earth named Mariana Trench. Likewise, there are many creatures that live in the ocean. Some of these creatures live in deep water such as the frilled shark or the deepest ocean dweller recently discovered the fangtooth fish. According to source #2 Dive Technology, when depths are not too great or conditions are not too unsafe, divers can descend into the water to explore the ocean. Otherwise, divers have to make use of a few underwater technologies. This technology will help the diver to protect themselves underwater. For example, the SCUBA is an update of the Aqualung. This device allows the divers to breath under water. Another example of underwater technology is the Jim Suit. This suit protect divers from deadly water pressure and contains built in oxygen. The...
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...frontlines * The title suggests that there is a total lack of respect for generals or for people in positions of power/ authority. If this happens in war then there is a breakdown in the chain of command, therefore making it difficult to win the war itself. Glossary Compile a comprehensive list of words/ terms/ phrases/ places from the text and from the period in which the novel is set in. These words and terms should then feature in your coursework and text responses. * Trench warfare * Western Front * Alliance * Mother Country * Over the top * No mans land * Parapet * Sniper * Artillery * Shell Shock * Shrapnel * Minewerfer – mine throwing trench mortars * Parados – the wall of the trench * Blighty – England * Bosch/ Heine – derogatory term for a German * Estaminet – French café * Propaganda – exaggerating the truth * Lice/ louse – small parasitic insect * Funk-hole – a cavity carved out of the inside of the trench * Raid * Interrogation Quotes Choose at least 3 quotes per chapter and attach who said it and a page number. Chapter 1 - Recruits Major events and observations: * A final night of booze and sex with prostitutes before going to war * Anderson’s pleas to the men to stop misusing/ abusing their bodies * The 17 year old recruit vomiting * The euphoric fanfare of war * The narrator considering fleeing with the girl he has just met Quotes ...
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...everybody feared the brown rat. The brown rats were known to grow to the size of large cats, and they would gorge themselves on the dead and decaying bodies lying in the trench. Men were so scared and exasperated by the rats that they tried to kill the rats with guns, a bayonet or any weapon they could find. I myself tried to club rats to death every chance I could get. It was useless though, for every rat I killed, ten more would take it’s place....
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...I’ve been in the trenches of the battle of the Somme for a few weeks now, and I can safely say, the conditions have not improved since I’ve been stationed here. We have steadily, for two weeks been trying to push into no-mans land, without success. It seems every time one of our men pushes out of the trench, he falls back in without life. I’m worried one day that the soldier who falls back into the trench next will be myself. It is certainly not an easy life living in these trenches. We typically spend eight days in a frontline trench being shot at, then return to the reserve trench for four days, and after that we would have a short stay in a rest camp for another four days. By far the most relieving step in the trip was the return and stay at the rest camp. Although the Somme and the surrounding area are quite nice normally, in time of war it’s a hellhole. Non-stop shells going off, seeing the ones who you’ve become acquainted to fall, and on top of that, the extremely poor conditions of the trenches. Over these weeks I’ve had to endure the seemingly endless struggle of this great war. At this point I am almost regretting enlisting, however, I know once the war ends, it’ll be well worth it....
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