First World War Exam Quiz! Trivia

The First World War was, however, the bloodiest conflict known to man. It lasted four years, killing around 17 million and causing 20 million casualties.

Giving them the unmistakeable after taste of petroleum.

The first tanks were Fiats Tipos and could travel at 2mph. They were known as Little Willies, a jibe at the Kaiser's expense.

At 84 he was the oldest reigning Monarch in Europe and ruled 45,000,000 subjects. He had suffered some personal tragedies: his brother was executed, his son killed himself, and his wife was assassinated. Although he considered Sophie 'beneath' Franz Ferdinand he eventually alloweded them to marry but insisted on her being treated differently at court because of her lower standing.

In 1879 Germany and Austria-Hungary made an agreement to support one another in the event either were attacked. This was known as the Dual Alliance. This act between Franz Josef and Wilhelm was the first important step in the growth of the system of alliances. 

The winter of 1916-17 in particular was one of the coldest in the Twentieth Century.

At the start of 1914 Germany had an army of 4,500,000 soldiers. So too did Russia but with many more in reserve. By comparison the British under French had only 100,000 soldiers in the British Expeditionary Force which the German Kaiser describes as contemptible. The French under Joffre had 800,000 soldiers. Germany was seen as a 'land rat' and Britain a 'water rat'. 

By 1900 Britain and France had huge empires in many continents in order to provide raw materials to feed industrial growth. Just some of Britain's colonies in 1914 included India, Canada, Australia, Guyana, Malaysia, South and East Africa, Sierra Leone, New Guinea, and Nigeria. Britain was the elite Imperial power. 

Some people describe the Generals as ‘Chateaux Generals’ because they were in mansions many miles away from the front.

Standard tactics involved soldiers simply walking over No man's land following a period of shelling and having to face machine gun fire, barbed wire, and churned up terrain caused by shelling. When Haig asked the Canadian Corps Commander, Arthur Currie, to capture Passchendaele Ridge during the final month of the battle, Currie flatly replied "It's suicidal" and then did as he was told.

Many people use the word euphoria to describe the atmosphere in 1914.

This can be seen as provocative by Nicholas II and Sergey Sazanov. "The whole weight of responsibility lies solely on your shoulders", wrote Wilhelm to Nicholas in regard to this.

Alliances were designed to prevent war but ended up turning a small localised event in Sarajevo into a web of international conflict.

The biggest killer of all the weapons was the machine gun. The Vickers machine gun (as well as the lighter Lewis) was used by the British and the Maxim by the Germans.

The terrorist group were called The Black Hand.

It was invented in 1906 under Admiral George Callaghan.

Britain was a very nationalistic country - the King did this in 1882.

In this book Clark argued that he agreed with German First World War General Erich Ludendorff who reportedly stated: "The English Generals are wanting in strategy. We should have no chance if they possessed as much courage and bravery as their men. They are lions led by donkeys." This view of incompetent and foolish leaders in charge of brave young men became very popular and can be seen in the novel All Quiet on the Western Front (which later also became a movie) as well as in the TV comedy series Blackadder Goes Forth. Haig in particular was portrayed as a 'Chateau General', living in splendour miles behind the front line and totally indifferent to the lives (and deaths) of the young men under his command. In one scene in Blackadder Haig sweeps up model soldiers from a large map with a dustpan and brush, before tossing them over his shoulder. Today most school-students of the First World War believe this view - that Haig and his generals were donkeys.

In 1913 France had drawn up a strategy to invade Germany, known as Plan 17. This suggests people in France's army, such as Joffre, were expecting war. 

Lice was a never-ending problem. Clothes would be deloused but eggs could be hidden in seams and within hours body heat would cause the eggs to hatch. The lice then caused trench fever, a very painful disease. 

Novices, such as conscripted recruits in Britain's Kitchener's Army, sometimes peered over the parapet to see no-man's land and were killed by snipers. This was especially the case if soldiers were smoking cigarettes because the sniper would aim their scope above the smoke. More experienced soldiers used periscopes - in its simplest form just a stick with two angled pieces of mirror at the top and bottom. 

This was a list of territories Germany hoped to conquer in the war. The speed of this suggests Germany had planned the war as a war of expansion. 

The smell of the trenches would be terrible - a combination of rotting bodies (200,000 were killed on the Somme for example, many in shallow graves) would add to this.

Many in France, including Rene Viviani and especially Raymond Poincare, sought revanchist action - i.e. revenge. Some people spoke of 'war in perpetuity' and even today Germany Vs France football matches have an 'edge' to them! To prevent France from attacking the German Chancellor, Otto Von Bismarck, made an alliance with Austria-Hungary in 1879.

In attendance at the meeting were Admiral Von Tirpitz and General Von Moltke.

They were not professional soldiers like they had been in 1914.Many made simple errors and the 31st Division was nicknamed the ‘Thirty Worst’

50,000 soldiers and 6,000 civilians died in what became known as The Rape of Belgium. The German Chancellor Bethmann-Hollweg simply called the treaty a "scrap of paper".

18 pound shells could cause terrifying damage. Many British shells were however duds due to problems in munitions factories and even in the events where they were not they did little damage to enemy barbed wire which simply went up and came down again.

Medical Stations were set up but were often ill-prepared for the number and nature of casualties. Antibiotics had not yet been discovered. There were however some advances in medicine which came about during the war. These included the first X-Rays, the first blood transfusions, and also the first attempts at plastic surgery. 

By 1914 Britain had 29 Dreadnoughts with a total navy personnel of 209,000 under the charge of Callaghan (who was soon sacked and replaced by Jellicoe). Dreadnoughts could travel at 21 knots and were equipped with five 12 inch guns, twenty five 12 pde guns, and five 18 inch torpedo tubes. Moreover, the British navy had followed the Two Power Standard, meaning the navy had to be twice the size of its nearest competitors. This is an example of militarism.

There were many lines of German trenches on one side and many lines of Allied trenches on the other. The distance between trenches could vary from several hundreds of yards to just 30 yards (at Vimy Ridge). In the middle was no-man's land, so-called because it didn't belong to either army. Soldiers crossed no-man's land when they wanted to attack the other side. This was known as going 'over the top'.

He was a 19 year old suffering from tuberculosis (which will eventually kill in 1918) who believed in the concept of pan-Slavism. From a poor farming background, he lost six siblings in childhood, and had been expelled from school before joining the terrorist branch of a group called Young Bosnia. This branch is known as The Black Hand and its motto is "union or death." It was he who fired the shots that killed the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie Chotek on Franz Josef Street in Sarajevo. (Contrary to what many people might tell you - he was not eating a sandwich at the time). He had been angry at Austrian rule and hoped the assassination would cause Austria to leave Bosnia. After the assassination he swallowed cyanide which had expired because it was old and tried to shoot himself but the pistol was wrestled from his hand. Instead he was given a 20 year sentence in Theresienstadt prison. He weighed a little over 6 stone when he died, in 1918. He stated however "I regret nothing."

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This was formed in 1907.

He was in the third of four cars (a phaeton) in an overtop motorcade when the first bomb was launched. His driver then sped off and took a wrong turn, leaving Appel Quay, which is where 19 year old Gavrilo Princip shot him in the neck.  Ironically, he had been a leading voice for peace.

It can be argued they did this to start a war which would involve Russia and France. Germany had offered Austria its "full support" in a meeting at Potsdam as early as 5th July 1914. Why would they do this, knowing Serbia was allied to Russia, and in turn Russia to France and Britain?

As a future French leader would say "one thing is for certain, they will not say Belgium invaded Germany." This suggests the war was the fault of German aggression. Von Moltke's predecessor, Von Schlieffen, had already designed a plan for a European war back in 1905. This involved attacking France through neutral Belgium, defeating them in just six weeks, before turning the might of the German army against Russia in the east. 

This took place an hour before dawn each day.

Trench foot was a fungal foot infection caused by cold and wet conditions. Feet would become numb, turn red (erythema) or blue (cyanosis), swell, blister, and decay. They could turn gangrenous and result in amputation. To prevent this soldiers would be paired and each made responsible for the feet of the other. Whale oil was often used to keep feet dry and soldiers would wrap their legs up in bandages known as puttees to help prevent trench foot. 

This took place in Sarajevo in a part of the world known as The Balkans. This event triggered a combination of factors to bring about war.

Scott was appalled at the treatment Haig's reputation went through.

He pointed out in the interview that if he were not a friend he would have helped British enemies in the Boer War.

Patrols would be sent out into no-man's land to repair barbed wire or to spy on the enemy at listening posts. Those who met could not risk firing their weapons for fear of attracting machine gun fire. Instead they had to scuttle away quickly or engage in to-the-death hand to hand combat using brass knuckles, trench shovels, and bayonets. We can only imagine how horrendous these night time fights must have been. 

Germany and Wilhelm II became jealous of other European powers' Empires and wanted a 'place in the sun.' German possessions in places like Tanganyika and Namibia (since 1884) were not seen as nearly enough. Namibia for example was largely desert, whereas British interests included neighbouring South Africa, whose diamonds made it more profitable.

When the war ended Article 231 of the Treaty of Versailles, known as the War Guilt Clause, laid the blame for the war squarely at the feet of the defeated Germany. This was the traditional view. But in the 1920s and 1930s some people revised their opinions and argued that blame should be shared. This is the revisionist view. Then in 1961 a German historian called Fritz Fischer wrote a book which blamed Germany, again, arguing they sought a war of aggression. Another historian, Gerhard Ritter, argued the opposite and said Germany wanted only to maintain the status quo in Europe by supporting Austria. 

Chlorine gas was a real threat after it was first used by Germany in April 1915 at the second Battle of Ypres. It caused lung damage and could kill, although it could be unreliable if the wind changed direction as it could blow back and was quite visible. For this reason gas masks were introduced. Prior to this soldiers would urinate on a piece of cloth as the urea disabled the poison. Mustard gas however was less easy to detect. It would produce burns and could take out entire battalions.

Haig gave the final signature to the death warrants of British and Commonwealth soldiers who were sentenced to death by court martial. 346 were executed, 266 for desertion, 37 for murder, and 18 for cowardice. Haig had a reputation as a strict disciplinarian and those killed were regarded as 'worthless men.' Many were shot at dawn in the town of Poperinghe. At the time this was felt a necessary measure to ensure Britain won the war but as the years have passed many of these men have been pardoned. 

For this reason the First World War is commonly associated with trench warfare - there was stalemate between the two opposing sides.

Some soldiers deliberately inflicted wounds on themselves so they could leave the front line. These were referred to as 'Tommy wounds' and if somebody lost a thumb or was shot in the foot it was said they had 'copped a Tommy'. Can you imagine how terrible conditions must have been to make people do this? 

Soldiers would write letters home. The war meant it was actually faster to send a letter from France to London than it is today (!) and soldiers would sometimes be given green envelopes which meant they would not be censored (although the vast majority of letters home were censored for security reasons as well as national morale).