A History Teacher Reacts "World War 1: 1916" by Epic History TV

[Music] youtube welcome back to another history teach reacts video mr terry as i continue my search for historical knowledge found here on youtube all right we're heading back to the epic history tv world war one series so what they've done here is done a video on each year of the war thus far so we did 1914 we did 1915 and today we're looking at 1916 so we're kind of right in will end up being the middle of the war in some of the most brutal times so i'm excited to get back into that if you wanted to see it um the 1915 1914 check those out you can come back and join us here the original video link is down below make sure you support epic history tv or awesome kind and do awesome content right there all right and with that let's go ahead and get started world war one was supposed to have been a short and glorious war people thought that by 1916 a new kind of industrialized warfare had seen the death toll soar into the millions with no end in sight and remember this is the first conflict anywhere near this size of the post-second industrial revolution which means mechanization factory output all that stuff can now be weaponized which uh was able to arm people and may make weapons more destructive and again uh importantly mass produced which is why yeah this uh war ends up being so deadly and also a reason it was so long as well because so many countries were industrialized by now naval blockades were beginning to cause shortages of food and fuel across europe while thousands of women had entered the workforce replacing the men sent to fight in their millions there's a term called total war that they talked about earlier in the series where the entire entire nation's resources are mobilized i guess you could say to to the war effort and and uh you see in a total war more civilians have to get involved because of how big the war effort actually is and in this case in a lot of countries with so many men going to you know fighting the war or start training uh women were the ones like they see like you see in here um making artillery learning how to do heavy machinery type jobs things that weren't really lady like you know customarily before that that's all changing all sides were preparing for a long war or attrition just kill kill we're down there the war has raged for a year and a half as the allies continue to battle the central powers recently joined by bulgaria at sea the british maintain their naval blockade of germany preventing the import of food and other vital raw materials germany has retaliated with the u-boat blockade of britain but has to limit its attacks to avoid provoking the neutral usa whose citizens have already been caught in the crossfire that's already so difficult for the if you think of the germans how they have to handle that because they obviously don't want britain getting supplies especially war supplies or really any economic sports but especially war supplies and stuff from somewhere like the united states which was doing that making a fortune off of selling this stuff so it was hard germany was put in tough position because like what do you do it's like you don't want brittany to get the stuff you don't want to provoke the americans so what what do you do [Music] on the western front french british and belgium troops are dug in opposite the germans both sides trapped in the bloody stalemate of trench warfare on the eastern front the russians have ended their long retreat and stabilized the line but their army has suffered think how demoralizing it would be [Music] to be somebody if you were fortunate to live this long like you had started in the war 1914 it's 1916 and you've been doing this trench warfare and it's it's again a full year and a half two years and you've made virtually no progress i mean the pessimism must have been just huge and you think you'd get to the point where you really don't care about winning you just you want to be done you just want to go home because you don't see anything positive that can happen from this i mean that was the sentiment you can read journals and stuff where i ain't care anymore it's like we just want to be done this war is never going to end on the italian imagine italian troops have launched a series of costly unsuccessful attacks against strong austro-hungarian defenses wearing an italian shirt today while on the balkan front the central powers have overrun serbia whose army is forced to make a bitter retreat through the albanian mountains they they talked about in earlier videos how serbia did really well at the beginning of the war especially when it was only austria that had um attacked them they were able to hold off at least most of their country but then once you had like yeah like bulgaria or the ottoman empire coming and surrounded them little serbia was it was a little a little bit too much for them at that time [Music] but now and the fifth of july austro-hungarian troops attack montenegro they are delayed at the battle of mykovats but three weeks later montenegro is forced to surrender [Music] on the caucasus front the russians launch a surprise winter offensive against ottoman turkish forces six weeks later russian troops occupy the city of versailles in april they capture the black sea port of trebizond remember the ottoman empire and russia have been rivals for now a good couple centuries especially over black sea territory caspian sea territory and during the industrial revolution too and this this era when oil becomes important these regions became especially important for that meanwhile the british transport two motor boats to lake tanganyika in africa they finally arrive after a 10 000 mile trip by sea and land cheese and help the british seize control of the strategic lake from local german folks a long way to go for a battle the same month in german cameroon german troops besieged on maura mountain for 18 months finally surrender to the allies it marks the end of the cameroon campaign [Music] they shall not pass we're done [Music] defensive on the western front the germans unleash a devastating assault on the french fortress town of verdan german general erich von falkenheim knows france will defend this symbolic town to the last man his plan in his own words is to bleed france white in its defense it is the strategy of attrition verdun becomes one of the most terrifying battles of the war a mincing machine yeah war of attrition is really just kill as many people as possible it is because there's in to war there's there's more there's usually more to it than that just not just kill there's there's there's um more timing and more like uh like like uh geography involved and places you have to take more strategy and that kind of thing orbitration again is winning equals killing more than the other people which isn't always the case in a war just because you kill more people or die more doesn't mean you're going to win or lose there's more to it but war of attrition yeah that's specifically what that is just bleed them dry because you think you know on both sides of the war they're the point where it's like how can these nations still have reserves coming in and in right like you have to run out eventually where infantry divisions are destroyed almost as fast as they can be fed into the line in britain one million men have already volunteered for military service but the government realizes it won't be enough britain becomes the last major power to introduce conscription yeah most everybody did conscription right away meaning it's a the draft and um interesting how the british waited so long and i'd like to know more about that if they just thought it wasn't necessary or it would be unpopular you know what i mean i'd like to get some more resource on that because like the united states declared war and like very quickly um went right to the draft and germany had been drafting in france and those countries might seem a little more desperate you know but yeah britain um yeah going so waiting so long really interesting i need to look more into that that spring on the western front british troops are the last to be issued with steel helmets the nature of trench warfare produces a high proportion of head wounds the german style helm the french adrian helmet and the british mark 1 steel helmet is that just because your head is near the trench like the trench line and that's why it's you know so much more i guess that makes sense for limited protection from shell splinters and shrapnel deck is constantly held portugal has been cooperating with the british which seems to offer the best chance of holding on to her african colony portuguese angola on the 9th of march germany retaliates by declaring war on portugal who's been out right here on the eastern front russia launches an attack near lake narrow to relieve pressure on the french at verdun but it's a disaster there are one hundred thousand russian casualties and the attack fails to divert any german troops from the fighting at verdun five to one in dublin irish republicans launch an armed revolt against british rule it becomes known as the easter rising and is put down after six days of street fighting definitely hard something the the you know the british government would have to try to control is this sort of thing while trying to fight now they like you where do you allocate things like that so arabic t lawrence in the middle east after a five-month siege british forces it could surrender something you gotta understand is the arab distrust and dislike of being ruled by the ottoman empire they they don't like that and you would think um maybe they that wouldn't be that harsh but it was they didn't like that they um wanted to be independent so i know they'll probably set this up but the british were very aware of that and the allies are very aware of that that not everybody in the empire is necessarily supportive of the ottoman government so smart thing to do find people within a nation that you are fighting um that and and help them to revolt and help them to you know uh kind of create fighting from within uh but yeah there's a long history of that the arab world especially this time i mean the ottoman empire is not what it used to be it's not even close to what it used to be it's a shell of its former self he used to go you know over there uh and west into britain it was east um more into um persian territory and stuff actually not as much into where persia would be but more yeah a lot of control more control in the mesopotamian area but yeah through the arabian peninsula but had been losing some of that general townsend leads 9 000 british and indian soldiers into captivity about half later die from starvation or disease britain wants arab support in its fight against the ottoman empire so it's promised arab leaders an independent arab state after the war spoiler doesn't happen it doesn't happen and they feel betrayed but now britain and france secretly sign the sykes pico agreement planning after the war to divide the middle east into british and french zones of control that's going to be a steam i don't want to talk too much about it but that is going to be an absolute mess for middle eastern politics from the end of the war to the current day it's a mess hussein bin ali sharif of mecca leads the arabs in revolt against turkish ottoman rule in the battle of mecca his forces seize control of the holy city austro-hungarian forces launch a surprise attack at asiago italian defenses give way austro-hungarian troops are poised to break through into northern italy that month in the north sea the german high seas fleet clashes with the british grand fleet at the battle of jetland in the only major naval battle of the war the british suffer heavier losses but claim victory as the german fleet withdraws and does not re-emerge from its base for the rest of the war [Music] someone's going to make a push i mean you're in end of 1916 you don't see it in sight you got to make a push but again how do you do that you know when when things have been so unsuccessful and then you push yeah any pushes you had before usually just lead to a lot of lives with very little ground so you know um yeah what do you do it's like at this point you're just seeking an armistice i mean we know that's a ways away or yeah do you still have the support of the morale of the troops to do pushes like this for the summer of 1916 the allies have planned major simultaneous offensives against the central powers from east and west now they are needed more than ever to relieve pressure on the french at verdun and the italians at asiago it looks like a good thing right you got like three fronts basically happening here let's launch their attack beginning at the end on the eastern front general alexei bruce brucilov has carefully maintained the element of surprise his troops break through the enemy lines in some places advancing 60 miles and taking 200 000 prisoners this brilliant though costly russian attack achieves its aim as the central powers are forced to redeploy troops from other fronts to shore up the line so i remember they they talked about this in the earlier two as people underestimate how large this front is i mean the western front is tiny compared to this eastern front and the amount of troops you need um and coordination to actually do an offensive i mean you're going through a a whole continent you know what i mean uh far as north to south goes it's it's way harder to push over there [Music] you'd have to flank i mean it's only when you see british cruiser hms hampshire on route to russia hits a mine and sinks off orkney among the 650 dead is britain's iconic secretary of state for war lord kitchener three days later in the adriatic italian troop ship principe umberto is sunk by a german submarine it's the deadliest sinking of the war with 1 900 lives lost on the western front britain and france launched their major summer offensive the battle of the sun their hopes are high for a breakthrough but the first day is a disaster a long allied artillery bombardment fails to knock out german defenses remember they've now had two full years of of defending they have they are entrenched both sides this would have been needed a lot earlier in the war but now you have two years of fortifications that's possible and waves of british infantry are cut down by machine gun fire as they advance into no man's land in the space of a few hours the british suffer 57 000 casualties a third of them killed it's the worst day in the history of the british army i mean that is a morale killer get amped up you you know those those generals and and any kind of leaders had to prop up these soldiers who already are in terrible morale who can barely hold on let alone like mount an offensive and then you get them to do it they've got they they're they're they've bought in right and are probably promised a lot then you do this offensive and it's a massive failure think of how morale would go even further you would naturally lose respect for those that are in charge and think they're all crazy and have bad information and don't care about you this is bad this is why it's a long the longer the war goes on the more morale is gonna hurt and you're going to get more deserters and less faith by not just the military but also the public but more attacks are ordered and the battle will rage for another five months another late edition you'd wonder at this time how anyone could even stay out of this especially when you're in europe i mean it's everywhere how could you stay out bridged by the russian advance romania joins the allies that's very despite an initially successful advance into transylvania romania quickly faces a counter-offensive gotta fight the empires bulgaria the vampire army hungarian forces the allied force at salonica tries to support romania by launching their own offensive towards monastery with serbian troops in the lead there are small gains but dogged bulgarian resistance prevents a breakthrough on the western front general von falkenheim finally calls off the attack at verdun the french army has assured their commander general nivelle's promise you'll never own power they shall not pass but victory comes at a terrible price 365 000 casualties the germans lose almost as many look at that you have like seven over seven hundred thousand one of the bloodiest battles in human history for nothing for nothing right for his defeat at verdun falcon hein is sacked and germany's heroes of the eastern front von hindenburg and ludendorff take command in the west yeah i mean how could you not with a with a failure like that and that many death how could you not you'd have to replace that leader because there'd be no confidence in them no confidence in them meanwhile the battle of the song continues near the village of flair the british introduce a new weapon they hope can break the deadlock of the pictures it is called the tank oh look how crappy they are though don't get too excited if you know about tank history world war one tanks suck they are not what world war ii tanks were look at that monstrosity it's big it's slow it eats up gas remember mass-produced automobile technology is also in its infancy right just like planes we were talking about yeah unfortunately i mean they'll talk about it but yeah look at that doesn't look like the tanks you imagine in world war two which were quicker and actually had some more offensive capabilities but you gotta remember it's it's solving one of these issues which every new technology wasn't worth one was how can i do one of two things how can i get out of my trench safely and how can i get the enemy out of their trench that's what all these technologies are about right because machine guns started the whole thing of i can't move so gas that's a technology to try to get them out of your trench right or out of their trench and then a tank is how can i get out of my trench be able to get through no man's land which also has barbed wire which is another thing you can't cross and you're getting just scoped out by you got snipers you've got um of course the machine gun so there you go but uh interesting new entry a new technology armored vehicles but despite some small successes the first tanks are too few in number and too prone to mechanical failure to make any real impact imagine getting stuck in no man's land with that you're sitting in a confront russia's brusilov offensive comes to an end casualty estimates vary wildly but it's clear both sides have suffered catastrophic losses neither the russian nor the austro-hungarian army ever fully recovers one point four and one on the italian front heavy fighting rages throughout the autumn as italian forces make repeated costly assaults against austro-hungarian positions along the assanso river the battle of the somme comes to an end amid autumn rain and mud the allies have advanced 10 miles at the cost of 600 000 casualties what's that stat again 10 miles at the cost of 600 000 six hundred thousand over half a million for ten miles which is not even close to make any significant progress in this war you think it with after verdun after um the psalm and then out east with austria hungary and russia just piling up very sim somewhat similar numbers to each other you'd think maybe at this moment as 1916 is coming to a close that you might be cool heads might prevail although there are cool heads probably at this time of uh it's maybe it's time to make peace right get the armistice go on reevaluate what the whole point of all this was but it looks like it kind of it never happens right you think this would be the moment where it's like things obviously stalemate german losses are about 450 000 the allies reassure themselves that this is a winning strategy because at this rate germany will run out of men first now you can make a war of attrition disaster engulfs romania as the country is overrun by the central powers remaining targets suffer a quarter of a million casualties that's hard because romania's i don't know if you want to say they've had time to prepare because they were such a late entry that they would be getting put out this quickly um with you'd think of having a lot of time to prepare but the remnants of its army take position alongside the russians on the eastern front that winter france joseph austria since 1848. he is succeeded by his son carl would have been who franz ferdinand in britain prime minister herbert asquith is forced from office and succeeded by david lloyd george wow all the original leaders are gone french commander-in-chief by general neville who promises victory through bold aggressive action amid the comings and go how could you promise us president woodrow wilson's attempts to mediate a peace settlement come to nothing nobody wants to listen to americans willing to make concessions epic history tv relies on the support of fellow history lovers so if you like what we do please consider pledging anything from one dollar per video at the channel's patreon page such a great narrator well awesome yeah join their patreon if you have a choice between my patreon and their patreon go to theirs um what a great episode again this seems to be the most devastating year of the war when you look at these battles the famous one psalm verdun um and again you'd think at this time maybe you would start listening to talks of peace but it's the problem is it's like nobody within the conflict is wanting to talk about peace it's outside the conflict like you have president wilson who'd love to be an intermediary between this and will be um a major media at least he feels he is at the end of the war but that role changed of course for america because the year after this um well year after that even the united states is gonna officially get involved but yeah you'd think with this the amount of death happening here with no progress that you'd start to get ideas of of people you think in these governments right but you're still dealing with monarchies and things that have still have a lot of power but um that you would have more calls for trying to get peace and that kind of thing it shows you how committed i guess these these nations still are in the face of bloodshed that none of these countries have ever seen before and without anything to give them any kind of indication that this war is coming to an end right um and you have new people in charge now because obviously the people that have been a charge up this first two years should probably be fired because none of the things they've done have worked and all the promises they've made don't pan out and the morale i mean i know i know 1917 is a big year for morale hits you know and you can see how that's brewing here in 1916. you're running out of your army you're starting to have to draft again more and more you have to start drafting people younger and younger which is always an issue you never want to have to draft you don't have to because a drafted soldier is not going to have as much training and things as a professional soldier and like they're saying too they understood that these countries it's it's almost like it just comes down to yeah it is a war of attrition meaning who can make it so literally these other nations don't have anyone to replenish dead troops right and that's such a scary and dark thing to kind of think about right where it's just kill kill kill kill kill and that's the only way you can win pretty crazy so depressing time here in 1916 but yeah we saw the introduction of the tank which was good saw a lot more happening uh said more still more happening in africa and then in europe and you still see at this time like russia's hanging in there you know um and actually done some decent things there although it looked like in the end here they were starting to really mount up those casualties you could see their front is so spread out but 1917 as we know is a big year because you're gonna get revolutions going on in russia and you see the morale really starting to finally affect the war three years into it on on all sides but you're gonna especially see that of course with russia considering the russian revolutions in 1917 so anyway i'm excited to keep on we're past i guess the midway point now so look out for the 1917 episode which i'm assuming they have and we'll try to get to that um hopefully pretty soon so i'm learning a town i hope you're learning a ton i was able to add some some context to you that's what i try to do here is not just react to how i think about things but try to add something as well try to make uh yeah make it more make it valuable that way what i do okay all right with that we'll go ahead and start wrapping up links to stuff down below if you want to join the patreon and vote on the the videos they get onto this channel um there's some cool history merch that um we've got being sold um history themed stuff you're going down the teespring store join our discord community we've got 7 000 people over there like to talk about stuff if you're a gamer check out my gaming channel um i play games and a lot of history kind of themed games over there too and love to see around and have you be a regular all right again links down below make sure that to the original video make sure you give that the views and all the support over there okay and we'll see you next time bye

Channel: Mr. Terry History

Views: 30,529

Keywords: react, history, world war 1

Id: oNkqkqd76Fk

Length: 29min 24sec (1764 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 30 2020