1. By: Alyssa Dupuis
December 7, 2014
Delta College
HIS 112W Later Western Civilization Online
Professor: Laura Dull
2. World War I, also known as the Great War or the First World
War, began on July 28, 1914 and ended on November 11, 1918.
The Allies: Britain, France, Russia, Italy and the United States
fought against the Central Powers: Germany, Austria-Hungary,
the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria.
Word War I is known as the deadliest conflict in human history
with the total number of military and civilian casualties being
over 37 million. 16 million deaths and 21 million wounded.
Soldiers suffered from drastic climate elements, deaths of close
members, horrific wounds, amputations, disease, explosions,
and much more. Imagine living in these conditions day in and
day out, they change a person forever.
3. Soldiers and their families were
hugely impacted physically,
traumatically, and emotionally
during and after the war.
Severe injuries from physical battle
left soldiers with deformities,
amputations, and scars within.
Emotional shock developed from
the horrors men heard in the
trenches and in combat. Outcries of
men in agony and the sight of
bloodied and battered bodies
caused some men to fall apart
beyond recovery.
Source: http://experiencesonthewesternfront.weebly.com/impact-on-soldiers-and-their-families.html
4. Commonly known today as Post
Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) was
the nervous breakdown soldiers
exhibited from the horrific stress of
the war.
A multitude of symptoms are
trembling, headache, ringing in the
ears, dizziness, poor concentration,
confusion, memory loss, insomnia, or
delusions.
Neurasthenia was also a condition
soldiers expressed by having
uncontrollable shaking, weeping, and
lethargy of the body.
Shell Shock
Source: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-shock-of-war-55376701/?no-ist=&page=2
5. Most of the trenches became
waterlogged when it rained and the sides
began collapsing. Arnold Ridley said,
“The trenches were full of water and I
can remember getting out of the trench
and lying on the parapet with the bullets
flying around because sleep was such a
necessity and death only meant sleep.”
Men were soaked completely and
standing or sleeping in marsh that was
above their knees.
A soldier
trying to
get sleep
whenever
possible.
A French
soldier
standing
amongst
the
bodies of
fallen
German
soldiers.
Source: http://spartacus-educational.com/FWWtrench.htm
6. The French Army was the first to use
chemical warfare by using tear-gas
grenades on the Germans. The
German Army then used chlorine gas
cylinders against the French Army.
This chlorine gas targeted the
respiratory organs and led to death
by asphyxiation.
Phosgene was then found as a more
effective poison because it killed the
victim within 48 hours. Phosgene
was mixed with chlorine to create a
‘white star’ gas.
Mustard gas, first used by German
Army’s, was the deadliest gas because
it only took 12 hours to take effect.
Source: http://spartacus-educational.com/FWWgas.htm
7. Helplessness against heavy artillery bombardment was one of the
hardest for many to deal with.
To deal with the noise and dangers of casualty men would walk around,
only increasing the chance dying.
German soldiers developed ‘Dickfelligkeit’ or thick skin, the more time
they spent under fire.
The long stretches of waiting caused anxiety and boredom, to
counteract this soldiers were given busier routines and spent most time
repairing the trenches.
Life in the trenches,
"Months of boredom
punctuated by moments
of extreme terror."
Source: http://www.bl.uk/world-war-one/articles/how-did-
soldiers-cope-with-war
8. German soldiers in a trench with a
machine gun.
The British Army used dogs to pull
machine guns.
Dead German soldiers
outside their pill box.
British soldiers standing in
typical muddy conditions.
Source: http://www.theatlantic.com/static/in focus/wwi/westernfront1/
Canadian soldiers tend
to a fallen German.
9. Explosions near the trenches in France. Bodies of obliterated soldiers in
“No Man’s Land.”
The aftermath from a gigantic shell
in Belgium
A soldier looks
across the
battlefield from
his pill box in
West Flanders.
10. A reconstructive surgeries done by
Gillies, the father of plastic surgery.
Harold Gillies, a facial reconstructive plastic
surgeon, worked to patch shattered faces of
the men injured in battle as best as he could.
Gillies joined the Royal Army Medical Corps
and joined together with Charles Valadier,
dentist and specialist on skin and bone grafts,
to repair severe facial wounds.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/zxw42hv
11. Masks for Wounded
Soldiers
Francis Derwent Wood was the artist who
created metallic masks for flaws that plastic
surgery could not correct. Wood teamed with
Anne Coleman Ladd, a sculptor, to open the
Studio for Portrait Masks in Paris.
Wood stated that facial disfigurement was the
most traumatic of the dreadful damages the war
inflicted. The work of Wood and Ladd helped to
restore a patients personal appearance and self
worth.
Source:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/fac
es-of-war-145799854/?no-ist
12. World War I immensely impacted the lives of the men
who fought in battle. The anguish they went through on
the battle field serving their countries is unimaginable.
No one but the men themselves could understand the
full effects war brought upon them. Some men fell apart
psychologically due to the anguish they experienced that
left them with constant flashbacks and nightmares.
These men’s lives were changed forever and because of
that they deserve so much honor.
