World War I interactive image

Life in the trenches

Project: WWI_Interactive Image - Andrea Rutz 8D

Video material

Personally, to understand certain topics, I prefer watching videos which recreate a scene of an important event such as the trenches. I recommend watching this video to get a better understanding of how a soldier's life was in the trenches by getting to know their perspective while fighting.

Important facts

The first trenches built for World War I were in the Western Front in late 1914. At the end on the war, the trenches in the Western Front were about 25,000 miles long. A typical trench was usually dug about 12 ft deep into the ground and were made in a zigzag pattern. These trenches would take approximately 450 men 6 hours to build about 250 meters of a trench system. The Germans were the ones who constructed the best trenches. It is estimated that about 8.5 to 12.0 million people were killed in the trenches.

French soldiers in a machine-gun position on the Western Front in the trenches during World War I.

Causes and effects

Though the trenches gave soldiers better protection, they resulted in slow progress and many types of injuries. The conditions in the trenches were terrible and soldiers were forced to live there to continue fighting. Because of this, many obtained illnesses and/or injuries such as: trench foot, gunshot wounds, skin affected by mustard gas, shell shock, skin affected by shrapnel bombs, and more. Many soldiers were left with psychological effects because of the experience of living so close to death. The fights in the trenches resulted in millions of deaths; for the survivors, it left them the memory of the horrors they had to go through.

Two French soldiers in a trench during World War I close to German tenches.

Andrea Rutz Tirado8D

Intention of this project

I believe that the intention is to know in full depht what occured in World War I by using the tool Genially. Propaganda from the war showed soldiers lifes in the trenches as a good experience, when in reality, soldiers where fighting for survival in terrible conditions. It is important to know the true conditions of fighting in the trenches to aknoladge the true horrors these people went through.

A soldier from Britan during World War I in a trench on the Western Front.

References

1.- World War I: Trench Warfare. (n.d.). https://www.ducksters.com/history/world_war_i/trench_warfare.php 2.- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2024, January 22). Trench warfare | Definition, History, & Facts. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/trench-warfare 3.- Casualties in the trenches. (n.d.). Spartacus Educational. https://spartacus-educational.com/FWWcasualtiesF.htm#:~:text=Estimates%20vary%20from%208.5%20to,Turkey%20accurate%20measurement%20becomes%20impossible. 4.- Trench Warfare. (n.d.). National WWI Museum and Memorial. https://www.theworldwar.org/learn/about-wwi/trench-warfare