For this week's blog, visit this website.
Here you'll find a repository of first hand accounts of various World War One events.
Please choose ONE, read it carefully and write a 200 word summary explaining what you learned.
You cannot repeat someone else's choice. If you post on the same story after someone else already posted, you will not receive credit.
I chose the blog about the torpedo. In this blog it talks about how torpedoes were fired by subs that most the time you could not detect. The subs were very key things to sink enemy ships undetected. The subs were mainly detected when they were rising to the surface or after they launched a torpedo this was because of the bubbles it made and wake of the waves. Even though torpedos are hard to detect what made them so very deadly when they did detect them they still could not do anything really because of how fast they move and they are already combing at them. One story this link gave me was about an officer on on3 of the boats. He talks about how he and a buddy of his just finished their rounds and were last to go to breakfast. He goes on to describe how the saloon looked and what they were eating for breakfast. He said around that time a torpedo hit there ship they knew it was a torpedo by the sound of it and by the way they all were basically flat on there faces. He describes how he ran out of there because he knew his ship was going to go down soon. (211)
ReplyDeleteI chose the article on the gas attack in 1916. During WW1 new technology was designed to improve to kill enemies. For example the machine gun, the tank, the airplane, and the zeppelin were all created.Even tho all these inventions worked very well the new forms of gas was definitely the cruelest and most painful of them all. They would place gas cylinders in front of the enemy’s front lines at they killed anyone near the front lines. As technology advanced they created gas artillery shells to place behind enemy lines. Their were many different kinds of gasses for example Chlorine and phosgene gases which would rip up your lungs by smelling even the smallest amount could kill you. “Mustard gas attacked the skin - moist skin such as the eyes, armpits, and groin. It burned its way into its victim leaving searing blisters and unimaginable pain.” But no matter how the gas was released it could manifest chaos wherever it was released.Gas was first introduced in warfare by the German armed forces and was soon after adopted by all enemies. By the end of the war ¼ bullets had gas in them. The gas floated and moved with the wind killing everything in its path. (207)
ReplyDeleteDeath of an Air Ace, 1918
ReplyDeleteWorld War I fighter pilots like Raoul Lufbery had a special kind of courage. They flew without parachutes, so just strapping themselves into the seat of the plane was an act of bravery. Lufbery began his flying career in 1911 as a mechanic for a French pilot, Marc Pourpe. Pourpe died in 1914, and Lufbery decided to avenge his death by becoming a pilot. He joined other American pilots and made his first kill in 1916. “By the end of 1917, Lufbery was a leading ace with 17 official kills. In May, 1918, a German plane flew a low level reconnaissance mission over the airfield where Lufbery was a teacher. An American fighter took to the air to attack the German plane, but he quickly ran out of ammunition. In the meantime, Lufbery borrowed a battle-ready plane and took to the skies. He was not familiar with this plane’s guns or how they were mounted on the aircraft. He climbed into the sky with great speed and made his first attack. His gun jammed and he had to circle in the air while he cleared it. He came up behind the German plane, but then suddenly, Lufbery’s plane burst into flames, and the people below watched in horror as he jumped from the cockpit. “Lufbery had preferred a leap to certain death rather than endure the slow torture of burning to a crisp.” He had jumped with intentions of hitting water, but he fell from 200 feet at 120 mph. Not even water could save him. This was , however, a heroic attempt to save his own life. It was an ironic ending to the ace’s life, because he had previously commented that if you jump, you haven’t got a chance. He predicted that he would stay in his plane should that situation ever happen to him. (306)
I decided to do my blog on the Battle At Gallipolli in 1915, by this time the warfare had transitioned to the trenches, and that is the only place they would fight from. Leaders from the Allies tried to plan a surprise attack by attacking through air and sea, the attack however was poorly planned, and so it did not succeed, the Allies tried to force a ship up the Dardenelles and it did not make it through. They tried to use difficulty types of war machines to attack, for example they used amphibious type war machines but the communication systems on the machine were not that well. The attacks therefore did not succeed, they were met by Austrian troops and rained on by machine gun fire. Many of the troops didn’t make it out. For example, there were nearly 852,000 soldiers that died. 252,000 from the British and French troops, and 300,000 from the Ottoman Turks. The stalemate itself lasted from February of 1915 through the fall of 1915, when the British troops finally left the area. Henry Hanna said the the fire was “endless, and that it was very loud and scary.” This battle was mostly known to be a boring battle however. (205)
ReplyDeleteI chose the blog about Lawrence of Arabia. Lawrence of Arabia was a Oxford graduate archeologist who was unfit for military service and this was the perfect candiadate for the cairo intelligence service. At the time Britain was at war with the Ottoman Empire and gave weapons and Money to the Arabs to defeat the Turks. In 1916 this operations as dialing and Lawrence of Arabia was sent to keep it together. For two years Lawrence and his band of Arab irregulars attacked Turkish strongholds, severed communications, destroyed railways and supported the British regular army in the drive north to Damascus. One of the most memorable inceidents being in the following account where Lawrence describes one of the most controversial episodes of his experience in the Desert. On September 27, 1918 he and his Arab force were in hot pursuit of a retreating Turkish column numbering approximately 2,000 soldiers. Coming upon the village of Tafas south of the city of Damascus they were confronted with the horrifying aftermath of the Turk rampage through the village. Mutilated bodies of women and children lay among the smoking ruins. As the sickened Lawrence watched the scattered Turkish column disappear over the horizon he gave his order: "take no prisoners." They walked through the town filled with dead children and woman. In order to correctly explain what happened as a result of seeing that we can use his own explanation as previously mentioned.”It was a long ride down a gentle slope and across a hollow. We sat there like stone while he rushed forward, the drumming of his hoofs unnaturally loud in our ears, for we had stopped shooting, and the Turks had stopped. Both armies waited for him; and he rocked on in the
ReplyDeleteTalall El-Hareidhin of Tafahushed evening till only a few lengths from the enemy. Then he sat up in the saddle and cried his war cry, 'Tallal, Tallal,' twice in a tremendous shout. Instantly their rifles and machine-guns crashed out, and he and his mare riddled through and through with bullets, fell dead among the lance points.
Auda looked very cold and grim. 'God give him mercy; we will take his price.' He shook his rein and moved slowly after the enemy. We called up the peasants, now drunk with fear and blood, and sent them from this side and that against the retreating column. The old lion of battle waked in Auda's heart, and made him again our natural, inevitable leader. By a skilful turn he drove the Turks into bad ground and split their formation into three parts.
The third part, the smallest, was mostly made up of German and Austrian machine-gunners grouped round three motor cars and a handful of mounted officers or troopers. They fought magnificently and repulsed us time and again despite our hardiness. The Arabs were fighting like devils, the sweat blurring their eyes, dust parching their throats; while the flame of cruelty and revenge which was burning in their bodies so twisted them that their hands could hardly shoot. By my order we took no prisoners, for the only time in our war.'" I was really surprised to learn about this because a few years ago I was playing battlefield 1 where there was a mission in the Ottoman Empire with Lawrence of Arabia so it was really interesting to learn who he actually was. (564)
I read the article the “Red Baron”. A Red Baron was one of the most honorable combat pilots there was. His name was Manfred von Richthofen. He had shot down 80 victims in he died chasing what would have been the 81 kill but he was shot down and he died at the age of 25. He was considered the top scoring ace as a pilot. He fought and chased down the enemy everyday. He painted his plane Avery rich red this gave him and his plane the name Red Baron and it was one of the best fighter planes and he was one of the fighter pilots that there ever was. 80 kills amazing.
ReplyDelete