World War I

•Germany could move its armies to the Eastern Front (Russia)
–Belgians hold Germans off for 3 weeks allowing the British & French to mobilize - hope to defeat France quickly

above: German advancement on the Western Front.

Trench Warfare:

A series of trenches that served as protection from attacks, military headquarters, first aid stations and storage.

above: picture of a WWI trench.
New Weapons:
•Poison Gas -

First used by the Germans

caused death or injury to those who inhaled it

led to invention of the gas mask (see below)

•Armored Tanks -

First used by Allies

Crossed battle lines to fire on enemies at close range

This allowed troops to advance

•Airplanes -

•Allowed militaries to watch troop movement & bomb targets

–“Dog fights:” duels between airplanes with machine guns attached to the wings

below: British airplane from WWI.

•U-boats or Submarines -

•Germany used the 1st U- boat (unterseeboot)

–Prevented supplies/food from reaching Great Britain

Later U-boat attacks would threaten US ships

above: computer-generated image of a German U-boat.