WW1 activity 5: mapping the war

WW1 Resources Daily Mail war map opened up

Overview

Children develop a greater understanding of how the war progressed through comparing the Daily Mail war map from summer 1914 (Learn with Objects WW1 3) with trench maps on the Imperial War Museum website: https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205357915.

Children can also compare the map of the Western Front (Learn with Objects WW1 4)

Learning objectives - Curriculum links

Introduction

Questions to ask when investigating the Learn with Objects WW1 3: Daily Mail war map.

What does the map show?
Who do you think would buy a map like this?
Do you recognise any places?
Can you find the UK?
Where’s Folkestone?
What’s in the tables, top left and on the right?
What are Britain’s military strengths and weaknesses?
What did you have to buy to stick in the map and why?
How do you think people thought the war would be fought?
How long did they think it would last?

Questions to ask when investigating the Learn with Objects, WW1 4: Western Front map.

Can you find a date on this map?
How long had the war lasted by this stage?
What is the thin black wavy line running down the map? The trenches of the Western Front
Where does the line run from and to? From the English Channel to Switzerland
What are the hundreds of small coloured rectangles either side of it? Large groups of soldiers fighting on each side
Can you find the British soldiers?
Can you find the German, French, Belgian and American soldiers?
Are other nationalities mentioned? Italians and Portuguese. See table top right.
How many men do you think each small block represents? 10-15,000 men.
Why is this map significant? For the first time in 4 years of fighting, advances started to be made by the Allies that would lead to the end of the war in November 1918.
Who’s signed this map? When and why? Field Marshall Douglas Haig, commander of the British Army, to the people of Folkestone, after the war is over and as a commemoration if it.

Creative activity

Create a World War 1 map

Research and create a war or trench map of a small section of the Western Front, where the Buffs (East Kent Regiment), the Royal Canadian Dragoons, the Gurkhas or Middlesex Regiment fought. Or, alternatively, the Battle of the Piave River in Italy, where Walter Tull took his men on a daring raid behind enemy lines. Try to draw the maps accurately and to scale!

Learn with Objects links

Use Learn with Objects WW1 3: Daily Mail war map, WW1 4: Western Front map, WW1 13: Walter Tull, WW1 15: Gurkhas or WW1 18: Canadian soldiers for info and images.