A | B |
armistice | the end of fighting under agreed terms |
army corps | military grouping made up of a number of divisions |
artillery | big guns and howitzers |
barrage | concentration of heavy artillery fire in front of advancing or reteating troops |
no-man's land | land between the opposing front line trenches |
attrition | tactic of wearing down the opposition through heavy casualities - repeated attack and counter attack |
C.E.W. Bean | Australia's official war historian |
billet | house |
Blighty | England: as a reference to home |
bombers | expert fighters with hand grenades |
bully beef | tinned |
dixie | large |
dogfight | fight between two small groups of aircraft |
duckboard | wooden slats used for walking tracks to keep feet above the water in the trenches |
dugout | shelter from shell fire; made by digging into the side of the trench wall or down from the floor |
emplacement | site for one or more guns |
enfilade | bombard a trench from end to end either with shells or bullets |
fascines | large bundles of sticks placed in shell holes or trenches so tanks etc could pass |
fatigue | light duties including kitchen work |
firestep | raised step on the side of a trench facing the enemy - used to watch or to fire at the enemy |
flare | small signal light |
funk-hole | small dugout |
Hindenburg Line | complex trench system built by the Germans in front of Cambrai - used in their withdrawal of 1917 |
Jerry | used by front line troops to refer to the Germans |
mustard gas | yellow gas that blistered eyes and skin and caused the body's systems to collapse |
offensive | large scale attack |
parapet | side of the fire trench - topped with sandbags |
pillbox | fortified concrete structure to house machine guns - built by the Germans |
platoon | part of a company - had four sections of 16 men |
puttee | cloth wound around the calf of the leg to give support when marching over distances |
revetment | strengthening the sides of trenches using sandbags |
salient | narrow bulge that jutted out into German held territory - Ypres Salient formed in 1914 |
schrapnel | shell fragments |
snipers | sharp shooters placed in concealed positions to fire on the enemy |
tactics | controlled battlefield manoeuvres aimed to achieved a set objective |
tanks | armoured fighting vehicles |
sap | lines of communication within the trench system |
trench foot | frostbite of the foot in the trenches |
whizz-bang | light shell fired from small gun |
Vickers | a large |
Lewis | a small machine gun |
Alfred von Schlieffen | his plan formed basis of Germany's 1914 war strategy |
Erich von Ludendorff | German leader responsible for the militarisation of the German economy and use of unrestricted submarine warfare |
Sir Douglas Haig | British General criticised for Somme |
Sir John Monash | Commander of Australian Corps on Western Front from May 1918; broke Hindenburg Line |
Sir John French | British commander who blamed Kitchener for shell shortage 1915; replaced after Loos |
Crown Prince Rupprecht | German leader who favoured an early peace |
Helmuth von Moltke | German commander who failed to control right wing armies; lost his nerve under pressure; lost the 1st Battle of Marne |
Paul von Hindenburg | ended the war of attrition at Verdun; withdrew to the Hindenburg Line; launched March offensive 1918 |
Joseph Joffre | French CIC 1914 -1916; belief in superiority of offensive; halted Germans at Marne |
Robert Nivelle | (French) distinguished at Marne; counter attacks at Verdun; 1917 failure of Spring offensive led to troop mutinies |
Henri Philippe Petain | (French) skillful defence of Verdun; restored morale after troop mutinies; policy of defence in depth 1918 |
Ferdinand Foch | (French) energetic leadership; dedicated to offensive; flexible approach to stalemate; coordinated allied armies 1918 |
von Falkenhayn | (German) launched attack on Verdun |