Hello, and welcome to this unit on World War I.

In this unit, we'll be answering the inquiry question, how total was it for people across the British Empire? In the course of this unit, we'll be looking at lots of different things.

We'll be looking at how tension built up, why the war broke out, what it was like on the Western Front, but also across the British Empire, and how these events have impacted people in Britain and across the British Empire.

However, in this lesson, we're just going to be focusing on the Western Front.

For this lesson, you're going to need a pen and paper.

However, if you don't have it, that's absolutely fine.

Just pause the video, get everything you need, come back, and press play when you're ready to go.

Great, now you've got everything you need, we can get started.

As you can see on the slide, we've got a lesson outcome.

And by the end of this lesson, you can explain that the war on the Western Front was fought largely in trenches and by men from across the British Empire.

However, in order to reach this outcome, we're going to need some keywords.

For this lesson, we've got five keywords: conscription, war of attrition, trenches, Western Front, and stalemate.

Before we see these words in the context of the lesson, it'll be really helpful if we're able to get some definitions before we get started.

So conscription is the process of forcing people to join the armed forces, and you should know that this is usually people within a certain age bracket and they definitely have to be medically fit to fight.

A war of attrition is a conflict where each side tries to wear the other down by inflicting maximum casualties.

Trenches are long, narrow ditches which soldiers dug to protect themselves during the war against enemy attacks.

And the Western Front was a 400-mile-long strip of land through France and Belgium where some of the largest battles of World War I were fought.

And then lastly, a stalemate is a situation in which further progress by opposing sides seems impossible.

So in a stalemate, it often seems like neither side is going to win.

Now we've had a look at some definitions, we can get started on today's lesson.

Today's lesson will be broken down into three parts, and in the first part of our lesson, we're going to be looking at recruitment.

So as you know, in July 1914, a series of European nations declared war on each other, partly because of alliances they'd committed to from long before 1914.

However, Britain was the last of them to join on the 4th of August declaring war on Germany.

Now, a man called Lord Kitchener, who was Secretary of State for Britain, knew from as early as August 1914 that this would be a long and drawn-out war and they would need many, many soldiers.

At the same time, many other European leaders still thought that the war would be over by the Christmas of 1914.

They thought that although this war included many European powers, it would be won quickly in battles in the west and battles in the east and that the soldiers who they'd recruited to fight would be home by Christmas.

However, like I said, Lord Kitchener expected a long and drawn-out war, and he was one of the few who was right to do so.

At this time, Britain had 700,000 men in their standing army.

That meant 700,000 men prepared to fight in August 1914.

Now, Lord Kitchener knew that this just wouldn't be enough.

So as we can see from this poster on the slide, which is just one example of many recruitment posters in the beginning of the war and throughout the war until it ended in 1918, that Lord Kitchener was prepared to use whatever means to recruit as many men as possible.

There were many of these posters around that were very clearly saying to young men in Britain that their country needed them.

They were using the idea of war being an adventure to recruit as many men as possible.

Now, to join the army, you technically had to be 18, but because of how much of an adventure Lord Kitchener made it look like, there were some boys as young as 13, so as young as boys in year nine today, who would've gone to join the war.

They lied about their age so that they too could join the adventure.

And it seemed to work, because by the end of 1914, 1 million people had volunteered to join the British Army.

So it seemed that Lord Kitchener's plan had worked.

However, he still knew that these 1 million soldiers just wouldn't be enough.

So by 1916, even though more men had signed up to join the war, Lord Kitchener introduced something called conscription.

And as we know from our keywords, conscription is when people are forced to join the war.

And like I said earlier, this normally has an age bracket on it and requires you to be medically fit.

In this case, Lord Kitchener conscripted all men in Britain between the ages of 18 and 41.

They had to be medically fit, and so long as they were, they were expected to go and join the war effort.

And this was whether they wanted to or not.

By the end of the war, it is estimated that 1/4 of all British men had supported the war effort.

However, not all these men fought as soldiers.

Some of them drove transport vehicles, some of them worked as doctors, some of them worked as mechanics.

There were lots of different roles to take up as part of the war effort.

But like I said, one in every four men, so 1/4 of all men in Britain, it is believed, served in World War I.

Before we move on to think about what it might have looked like to serve in World War I, we're going to have a quick question just to check our understanding.

Although you had to be 18 to join the army, many young boys lied about their age.

True or false? Pause the video, have a think, and press play when you've made a decision.

Excellent, well done.

The statement is true.

However, we have to think about why.

So now you're going to justify your answer.

Is this statement true because, A, many young boys lied about their age because they believe the war would be an exciting adventure or, B, many young boys were forced to lie about their age and join the army? Pause the video again, have a think, and then come back and press play when you've made a decision.

Excellent work.

The answer is A.

Many young boys lied about their age because they believed the war would be an exciting adventure.

Because of Lord Kitchener's propaganda, they were excited at the prospect of going to serve their country.

They truly believed that their country needed them.

Now before we find out how true that actually was, and whether this truly was an adventure, let's put all we've learned so far into practise.

I would like you to write a list of the steps Lord Kitchener took to recruit as many men as possible.

Try and remember what we've learned so far in chronological order.

Give yourself about five minutes to complete this task, pause the video, and then come back when you're done.

Excellent work.

Let's have a look at some of the things you may have included.

You might have included using recruiters and posters to encourage the men to join, like the one we saw on the previous slide.

You might have mentioned that he made the war seem like an exciting adventure, and that's how he got young boys, some as young as 13, to sign up to the war.

And also the introduction of conscription, which you'll remember was in 1916, and that's when you force someone to join the war effort.

And remember, in this case, it was all men aged 18 to 41 who were deemed medically fit.

Excellent work.

Let's move on to the next part of the lesson.

In this part of the lesson, we'll be looking at what the Western Front was really like.

Remember, the boys as young as 13 and the other young men who went to serve in the war believed they were taking part in an adventure and that they were going to serve their country.

Many of them also believed that they'd be home by Christmas 1914.

Let's have a look at what the reality actually was.

As you may already know, Germany had carried out a plan known as the Schlieffen Plan, and that plan involved them trying to quickly defeat France before defeating Russia.

In this plan, they marched through Belgium to attack France and that's how Britain got involved.

When the British troops crossed the English Channel to go and defend their French allies, they found that the Western Front was far from what they imagined.

As the Germans failed to quickly defeat the French, the war became a war of attrition.

And this war of attrition was fought in trenches, because as it became clear that this war would not quickly be over, the soldiers dug long, narrow ditches all along the Western Front, which stretched from the English Channel to Switzerland.

And in these trenches, the soldiers would live for the duration of the war.

From these trenches, they would go on to fight battles, hoping that eventually one side would come out victorious.

Now, life in these trenches was far from the adventure that many of these British troops imagined.

Because the German forces had set their trenches on slightly higher ground, they tended to be drier.

However, as English and French troops dug their trenches in lower ground, their trenches quickly filled with rainwater and mud.

There were huge rats and there was lots of them.

They were especially attracted by the growing diseases as a result of the muddy water that they had to live, sleep, and walk through.

The bodies that were taken back into the trenches often then attracted more diseases and more rats.

The conditions in the trenches were awful, and the food they were given was often stale.

The life that many British troops found in the trenches was far worse than anything they could have ever imagined.

And the situation only got worse with the Second Battle of Ypres, and that was because in April 1915, the German Army used chlorine gas for the first time.

The British and French troops were entirely unprepared for this attack, and many of them died a slow and painful death.

That's because the nature of chlorine gas means that it attacks the lung tissue if it's breathed in.

So these soldiers that were completely unprepared for battle and believed they'd be home by Christmas was still in the trenches nearly a year later, watching many of their friends suffer a horrible fate.

And to make matters worse, the soldiers did not get gas masks until July 1915.

That meant between April and July, they had to improvise and find a solution to protect them from these deadly German gas attacks.

The way that they did this was by using urine-soaked cotton pads to protect them from the attacks.

That was the only way they could find to neutralise the poison.

This experience was horrific.

These soldiers who had thought they'd be home by December 1914 was still fighting on well into the summer of 1915.

And by the time these gas masks arrived, over 1,000 soldiers had already died from chlorine poisoning.

And if the situation couldn't get any worse, these soldiers were still in the trenches by 1916.

Many of them had probably lost count of the amount of friends that they'd lost, the battles that they'd seen, and the wounds they'd had to care for.

But the stalemate continued on.

And by 1916, two years into this brutal military experience, there were a few British commanders who believed that they'd found the solution to break the stalemate on the Western Front.

Their plan was simple.

They believed that if they used new, larger guns and continuously fired at a specific target, that could weaken their German enemy.

If you remember, a stalemate is a point in a conflict where it seems like neither side has the strength to win.

So you can see at this point, they thought that sheer military force might break the stalemate.

So in July 1916, a British commander called Douglas Haig believed that this idea should be put into action.

So he sent what was known as the British Expeditionary Force over the front line to carry out his grand plan.

Unfortunately, his plan was a horrific failure.

The German defences were not broken down by these larger guns and greater gunfire.

As the British and French troops went over the top of the trenches, they were gunned down in the tens of thousands.

And after four months, by November 1916, the British and French troops had only advanced six miles and 300,000 lives had been lost.

So there was a huge loss of life for very little ground gained.

For many soldiers, this was a hugely demoralising experience.

And for many people, the Battle of the Somme is an important moment in World War I as many people in Britain suffered a great loss.

Before we have a think about who else was on the Western Front and who else was impacted by this war, let's just take a minute and look at a couple of questions to check our understanding of what we've learned so far.

In which battle did the German Army first use chemical warfare? I've referred to this so far as chlorine gas.

Is it, A, the Battle of Mons, B, the Battle of the Somme, or, C, the Battle of Ypres? Pause the video, have a think, and when you've made a decision, come back and press play.

Excellent work! We know that the German Army first used chemical warfare at the Second Battle of Ypres.

And unfortunately, we know that it would then take a further three months before they were able to receive proper gases.

In that time period, they had to improvise.

And as we learned, that was a terrible experience.

Let's have a look at a second question.

True or false? The war on the Western Front was a war of attrition.

Remember, this is one of our keywords.

So this will really test your understanding of not just what we've learned but also some keywords so far.

Pause the video, have a think, come back when you've decided.

Excellent.

The answer is true.

The war on the Western Front was a war of attrition.

But we need to think about why.

Justify your answer.

Is this statement true because this meant that each side tried to keep their troops as safe as possible by building strong defences? Or is it, B, attrition meant each side tried to wear the other side down by inflicting maximum casualties? Pause the video, have a think.

And when you've made a decision, come back and press play.

Excellent work.

It's B.

The war on the Western Front was a war of attrition because this meant that each side tried to wear the other side down by inflicting maximum casualties.

We know this especially from the Battle of the Somme when Commander Douglas Haig sent hundreds of thousands of British and French troops over the top of the trenches to inflict huge casualties on the Germans.

Unfortunately, this plan failed, and it was 300,000 British and French troops who would lose their lives for very, very little land gained.

Now let's put this into practise.

I would like you to write a short account of what happened in the Battle of the Somme, including the following details in your answer.

War of attrition, which you remember is one of our keywords, and that is when one side of a conflict tries to wear the other down by inflicting maximum casualties, new tactic, stalemate, remember that's another one of our keywords, a stalemate was what had set in between the British and French and the German troops where it seemed impossible for either side to win, and also the human cost of the war.

So think about what the Battle of the Somme cost the British and French armies in terms of human life.

Pause the video, have a think, and then come back when you're done.

Brilliant work.

You've worked really, really well so far.

Let's have a look at what your answer might have included.

"In 1916, the war of attrition on the Western Front did not seem to be coming to an end soon.

British and French military leaders decided to use a new tactic to break the stalemate.

They planned to use larger guns and more bullets to overwhelm the German troops.

In July 1916, British and French troops went into battle and the plan failed horribly.

The Battle of the Somme continued until December 1916.

The human cost of the war was huge, 300,000 died and only six miles of land was gained.

In 1916, the war of attrition on the Western Front did not seem to be coming to an end soon.

The British and French military leaders decided to use a new tactic to break the stalemate.

They planned to use larger guns and more bullets to overwhelm the German troops.

In July 1916, British and French troops went into battle and the plan failed horribly.

The Battle of the Somme continued until 1916.

The human cost of the war was huge, 300,000 died and only six miles of land was gained." You've done excellent work so far.

Let's move on to the third and final part of today's lesson.

In this third and final part of our lesson, we're going to be looking at the colonial soldiers that fought on the Western Front.

From the outset of the war, Britain and France were far from alone in fighting for the Triple Entente on the Western Front.

When Britain declared war on Germany in August 1914, that announcement was shared in British India, what is now modern-day India but at the time was a colony in the British Empire.

Of all of Britain's colonies, British India had the largest standing army, that's the number of men who were prepared to go to war at any given time.

British India had a standing army of 1.

5 million soldiers.

That was larger than Britain's standing army, which, as you'll remember from the beginning of the lesson, only had 700,000 men.

These 1.

5 million men would go on to serve and fight for Britain in World War I.

In the first few weeks of fighting, the 150,000 men that Britain had sent to France to support the French Army had suffered huge defeats.

Many of them had died in the fighting.

The Indian Army would now be used to reinforce that army.

At the time, many British military leaders realised that without the support of the British Indian Army, it was likely that they would face defeat, and so the Indian Army was quickly mobilised and sent across from India to the Western Front.

These men who sailed from British India over to the Western Front, like the British troops, were unprepared for what lay ahead of them.

On the 26th of September, 1914, the first 28,500 troops arrived in Marseilles, France.

Many of these troops arrived prepared for an Indian summer, not the cold European winter that lay ahead of them.

They were the first of the 1.

5 million Indian troops who would fight for Britain, arriving on the Western Front less than two months since war had been declared.

Of the 1.

5 million who would go on to serve for Britain, 130,000 of them served on the Western Front.

So just from that number alone, we can start to infer that they made huge contributions to the British effort on the Western Front.

They fought in huge numbers at the Battle of Ypres.

They fought in huge numbers at the Battle of the Somme that we just learned about, where 300,000 men lost their lives, many of them were British Indian troops.

We know that 74,000 Indian troops lost their lives fighting on the Western Front from 1914 to 1918, and there were 13,000 of them who were awarded with different medals for their bravery.

Now, while the Western Front was in Western Europe and seemed to have been fought by largely European troops, we can now see that actually it was fought from people across the British Empire, because alongside these troops from India, there were also troops from the Caribbean and other colonies.

But there were also troops from places like New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa that was part of what was known as the British Commonwealth, as these places had formally been British colonies.

Now that we've had a look at how men were recruited, what it was like on the Western Front, but also who was there on the Western Front, let's look at a few questions just to check our understanding so far.

Which of the following statements is true? Is it, A, European troops made the largest contribution of all of Britain's colonial armies, with 1.

5 million fighting for Britain, B, Indian troops made the only contribution of all of Britain's colonial armies, with 1.

5 million fighting for Britain, or, C, Indian troops made the smallest contribution of all of Britain's colonial armies, with 130,000 fighting for Britain? Have a think, pause the vide, and press play when you've made a decision.

Excellent work.

The answer is indeed A.

Indian troops made the largest contribution of all of Britain's colonial armies, with 1.

5 million fighting for Britain.

We do know that they were not the only contribution, 'cause like we just learned, there were also soldiers from the Caribbean, South Africa, Canada, New Zealand, as well as other British colonies and former colonies.

We do know that India definitely didn't make the smallest contribution of all of Britain's colonial armies, but 130,000 is the correct number of those 1.

5 million who fought on the Western Front.

Let's have a look at another question.

True or false? Although Indian troops fought in the war, they had little impact.

I want you to have a think about this question, pause the video, and press play when you've made a decision.

The answer is false.

But we need to think about why.

So I'd like you to justify your answer.

Is it, A, 130,000 Indian troops served on the Western Front and are considered crucial in the defeat of the Germans, or, B, 10,000 Indian troops served on the Western Front and made huge contributions despite being a small force? Again, pause the video, have a think, and come back and press play when you're done.

Excellent work.

The answer is A.

So we know that it is false, that although Indian troops fought in the war, they had little impact.

We know that they had a significant impact because there was 130,000 Indian troops who fought on the Western Front and they're considered crucial in the defeat of the Germans, because as we've already mentioned, they fought in many huge battles on the Western Front.

And even before they arrived, that many military leaders believed that their presence and their support was crucial if Britain was to win the war.

Now let's put what we've learned into practise.

Which one of the following words would you use to describe the contributions of Indian troops on the Western Front? Crucial or helpful? Once you've made your decision, I would like you to justify your choice of word from the list.

Then use your knowledge to add details to explain your choice.

Pause the video, give yourself five to 10 minutes to first pick your word from the list, and then justify it using knowledge from the lesson to explain your choice.

When you're done, come back and press play and we'll have a look at what your answer could have included.

Excellent work.

Now let's have a look at what your answer could've looked like.

Out of the two words, you could have picked crucial.

You might have picked crucial because as we've discussed already, many of the military leaders at the time believed that they would not have won without the support of the Indian Army, but also because of the huge number of troops who would go on to fight in very significant battles on the Western Front.

Great work.

Now, the second part of the task was to justify your choice of word from the list and use your knowledge to add details that explain your choice.

Let's have a look at what this part of your answer might have looked like.

You must have said: "The contributions of Indian soldiers were crucial to the Western Front.

The 130,000 Indian troops that fought on the Western Front replaced the tens of thousands of troops in the British Expeditionary Force, BEF, who were lost in the first weeks of fighting.

They played an important role in the Second Battle of Ypres and this Battle of the Somme, and without them, it is unlikely that the British and French armies would've survived the war of attrition.

And this would've been great 'cause you've even included a keyword at the end.

You've done absolutely brilliant work this lesson.

So before we finish up for today, let's look at a summary of what we've covered.

First, Lord Kitchener believed that the initial British Army of 700,000 men would not be enough and made plans to recruit more.

When this wasn't enough, he then introduced conscription in 1916.

Remember, that's when you make people within a certain age bracket join the war effort whether they want to or not.

We also learned that life on the Western Front and in the trenches was incredibly difficult, far more difficult than many would have imagined.

The stalemate meant that the war became a war of attrition, lasting for far longer than the soldiers expected.

Remember, they thought they'd be home by Christmas, but found themselves fighting a war that felt impossible for either side to win.

And finally, the British and French troops fought alongside the British Indian Army on the Western Front.

The British Army made the largest contribution of all of Britain's colonies, with 1.

5 million soldiers fighting for Britain in the war, 130,000 of them on the Western Front.