The scope and nature of warfare at Ypres

Viewing Guide

During

Take notes about the new weapons and strategies that were developed during the fighting around Ypres in World War 1.
Key words: artillery, air warfare, creeping barrage, blockhouses, mining

Using a range of historical sources including images and diary accounts write a diary entry that includes a description of the creeping barrage strategy from the point of view of an Australian soldier fighting at Ypres on the Western Front.

Try to use historically appropriate language and think about the feelings, point of view and reactions of a soldier in this situation. Use information from the videos and maps to think about the site of Ypres and to describe the terrain.

Teaching notes

Weapons and strategies

You might like to supply students with information on the weapons and strategies used on the Western Front by 1917 before watching this video, or you could use it as a stimulus to have students research how weaponry and tactics changed over the course of the war.

Firsthand accounts

In order for students to complete this task you will need to supply them with images and diary entries from soldiers fighting at Ypres on the Western Front. Some suitable resources are linked below.

Encouraging empathy

Resources supporting teachers to use historical empathy as a teaching strategy.

Extension activities

Have students turn their firsthand account into a narrative podcast complete with sound effects or a short animated video that adds visual and audio elements to their evocation of the Western Front battlefields.

Syllabus outcomes

History outcomes

A student:

explains different contexts, perspectives and interpretations of the modern world and Australia (HT5-7)
applies a range of relevant historical terms and concepts when communicating an understanding of the past (HT5-9)
selects and uses appropriate oral, written, visual and digital forms to communicate effectively about the past for different audiences (HT5-10)

History content

The scope and nature of warfare

Students:

outline and sequence the changing scope and nature of warfare from trenches in World War I to the Holocaust and the use of the atomic bombs to end World War II

Significant events and the experiences of Australians at war

using sources, students investigate the following features of each war:
- a specific campaign, eg the Western Front 1916 and the New Guinea campaign 1942

Historical concepts

Empathetic understanding: the ability to understand another's point of view, way of life and decisions made in a different period of time or society, eg understanding the reasons why migrant groups made the decision to come to Australia and the difficulties they faced; understanding the viewpoints and actions of environmentalists in opposing developments such as the damming of Tasmania's Gordon River.

Historical skills