War Thematic Unit

Standing as patiently


As if they were stretched outside


The Oval or Villa Park,


The crowns of hats, the sun


On moustached archaic faces


Grinning as if it were all


An August Bank Holiday lark;

Established names on the sunblinds,


The farthings and sovereigns,


And dark-clothed children at play


Called after kings and queens,


The tin advertisements


For cocoa and twist, and the pubs


Wide open all day—


The place names all hazed over


With flowering grasses, and fields


Shadowing Domesday lines


Under wheat's restless silence;


The differently-dressed servants


With tiny rooms in huge houses,


The dust behind limousines;

Never before or since,


As changed itself to past


Without a word--the men


Leaving the gardens tidy,


The thousands of marriages,


Lasting a little while longer:


Never such innocence again.

From November 15 until December 21, 1864, Union General William T. Sherman led some 60,000 soldiers on a 285-mile march from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia. The purpose of this “March to the Sea” was to frighten Georgia’s civilian population into abandoning the Confederate cause. Sherman’s soldiers did not destroy any of the towns in their path, but they stole food and livestock and burned the houses and barns of people who tried to fight back. The Yankees were “not only fighting hostile armies, but a hostile people,” Sherman explained; as a result, they needed to “make old and young, rich and poor, feel the hard hand of war.”

"...To form an administration of this scale and complexity is a serious undertaking in itself, but it must be remembered that we are in the preliminary stage of one of the greatest battles in history, that we are in action at many points in Norway an in Holland, that we have to be prepared in the Mediterranean, that the air battle is continuous and that many preparations have to made here at home. In this crisis I hope I may be pardoned if I do not address the House at any length today. I hope that any of my friends and colleagues, or former colleagues, who are affected by the political reconstruction, will make all allowance for any lack of ceremony with which it has been necessary to act. I would say to the House, as I said to those who have joined this government: "I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat."

We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many long months of struggle and of suffering. You ask, What is our policy? I will say; "It is to wage war, by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all the strength that God can give us: to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy." You ask, What is our aim? I can answer with one word: Victory - victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be; for without victory there is no survival."

to the House of Commons on May 13, 1940 in his first

address as the newly appointed Prime Minister.
" ...We shall not flag nor fail. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France and on the seas and oceans; we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island whatever the cost may be; we shall fight on beaches, landing grounds, in fields, in streets and on the hills. We shall never surrender and even if, which I do not for the moment believe, this island or a large part of it were subjugated and starving, then our empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, will carry on the struggle until in God's good time the New World with all its power and might, sets forth to the liberation and rescue of the Old."
The Retreat from Flanders

WE SHALL DEFEND OUR ISLAND WHATEVER THE COST

Before the House of Commons, June 4, 1940

"What General Weygand called the Battle of France is over. I expect that the Battle of Britain is about to begin. Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization. upon it depends our own British life and the long continuity of our institutions and our Empire. The whole fury and might of the enemy must very soon be turned on us now. Hitler knows that he will have to break us in this island or lose the war. If we can stand up to him, all Europe may be free and the life of the world may move forward into broad, sunlit uplands. But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age, made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will say, "This was their finest hour."

Lesson on “The Call” and “Who’s for the Game?”

By Jesse Pope
OBJECTIVES

1. 
   Students will be presented with a hypothetical situation in which there is an attack and will discuss the surge of emotion in such an event.
   

2. 
   Students will engage in a debate about the pros and cons of declaring war in our hypothetical situation.
   

3. 
   Students will discuss content, interpretation and application questions after reading the poems, “The Call” and “Who’s for the Game?”
   

4. 
   Students will prepare argumentative speeches for our hypothetical war introductory activity.
   

1. 
   Begin class by proposing a hypothetical question: North Korea has
   

1. 
   What are you initial emotions as you react to hearing this news?
   

2. 
   Do you feel more afraid, angry, proud, patriotism, sad, or sick? Make a list of your emotions on paper and number them according to which is strongest.
   

3. 
   What should South Korea do next – declare war or initiate negotiations?
   

2. 
   Break the class into two sides – those that vote for war and those that don’t.
   

1. 
   War group
   

1. What are the pros of declaring war?

2. Why is this the best or only option?

3. What would not declaring war mean for South Korea?

4. What’s motivating your decision to declare war?

2. 
   Peace group
   

1. 
   What are the cons to declaring war?
   
2. 
   Why is going to war a poor option?
   
3. 
   What’s your major motivation for not wanting to go to war?
   
4. 
   What if North Korea can’t be reasoned with?
   

19. Who’s the speaker in line 13, and who is being addressed?

Lesson on “The Rank Stench of Those Bodies Haunts Me Still”

By Siegfried Sassoon
OBJECTIVES

1. 
   Students will examine and discuss a series of photos depicting death in World War I.
   

2. 
   Students will read “MCMXIV” by Philip Larkin and discuss the elegy.
   

3. 
   Students will discuss content, interpretation and application questions after reading the poem, “The Rank Stench of those Bodies Haunts Me Still.”
   

4. 
   Students will work in groups of two and will do one of the two exercises:
   

A. Design a national monument for Koreans killed in the World Wars and find a poem to accompany it’s unveiling.

B. Find a national monument for Koreans killed in the World Wars and write a poem for it’s unveiling.

INTRODUCTORY ACTIVITY

1. 
   Begin class by showing students photos from the trenches of World War I.
   

4. 
   What do the soldier’s uniforms suggest about the world’s readiness for a global, modern war?
   

5. 
   What are some of the consequences of living in such close proximity to death?
   

6. 
   What effect did modernization and mass production have on the deaths of World War I?
   

2. 
   Pass out copies of “MCMXIV” and read it aloud to the class.
   

1. What’s the rhyme scheme in this poem?

19. What does the author do to signal the shift back to the speaker’s point

of view?
20. Describe the image the speaker ends the poem with.

INTERPRETATION QUESTIONS
1. How does the free verse help this poem?
2. How do the first two lines set the mood for the rest of the poem?
3. What is significant about the “brown lines” and the men inside?
4. Why does the speaker shift to describing the pastoral scene of the rear?
5. In which ways are the speaker’s senses reminded of the war?
6. Why would the speaker want the friends he has loved to be sent back to England with a gash?
7. Is our speaker a veteran of the war or new to it? How do we know?
8. What is the speaker actually talking about when mentioning the red sunset to the West?
9. Why is the image of the soldier reading the letter significant?
10. What does the speaker mean when he says “heedless of toiling feet that trod him down”?
11. What does the phrase “no doubt” tell us about the English and the Germans?
12. Does the speaker respect his enemy? Does he hate him? How do you know?
13. Why does the author switch the perspective of the battle to the German soldier?
14. Does the speaker feel proud of his victory over the Germans the night before?
15. How does the assonance of the u sound in the last lines support the content of the lines?


APPLICATION QUESTIONS

1. Which of the senses are strongest for the speaker?

successful advancement on the enemy. Why isn’t he happy?

B. Write a poem for an existing national monument.

2. Groups will need to present their projects to the class.
3. Groups that design their own monument will need to draw a picture, print out their poems and attach them to a poster board.
4. Groups that write their own poems will have to attach them to poster boards with a picture of the monument.
5. In addition to reading their poems, groups will be expected to give a brief description of their monuments.

Lesson on “D-Day Oral Histories”

By WWII Foundation
OBJECTIVES

1. 
   Students will watch the 9-minute scene of the D-Day landing from “Saving Private Ryan.”
   

2. 
   Students will discuss the emotion of fear and define the word “duty.”
   

3. 
   Students will discuss content, interpretation and application questions after reading, “D-Day Oral Histories” by the WWII Foundation.
   

4. 
   Students will write an informal, argumentative essay on one of the following topics:
   

A. People refer to the generation of WWII as “The Greatest Generation.” Why? Do you agree or disagree?

B. People say today’s kids don’t have the same sense of duty as their grandparents. Do you agree with this or no?

C. Are all veterans heroes? Are there any professions in the world that automatically qualifies a person as a hero?

1. 
   Begin class by showing students the 9-minute D-Day landing scene from “Saving Private Ryan.”
   

7. 
   What is the mood like before the soldiers landed on the beach?
   

8. 
   Why were some of the soldiers not moving up the beach?
   

9. 
   Was there anyone in this clip that you’d call a hero?
   

2. 
   Have the students get out a sheet of blank paper and have them write their answers to these questions down.
   

19. What happened with Heisler and the German soldier in the

hedgerows after he landed?
20. What’s a hedgerow?
21. Did the French like having the Americans and British invading their country?
22. Where was McCall when he heard America had declared war and how did he find out?
23. Did the American people want to go to war with after Pearl Harbor? What was the mood of the time?
24. What did the people at home do to support the war effort?
25. How do the veterans of the battle react to being called a hero?

INTERPRETATION QUESTIONS
1. Why would the World War II Foundation put Rommel’s quote first?
2. Why did Rommel think Eisenhower’s strategy was so daring?
3. What does Corvese’s quote tell us about his sense of duty?
4. What happened to the boat he arrived on and what effect did it have on him?
5. Why did the person who transcribed his interview make two paragraphs out of three sentences of text?
6. How did Corvese know what an 88 was before he landed in the combat zone?
7. Is Fazzio proud of his role during the invasion?
8. Why was being in the fifth boat of the first wave “hitting the lottery?”
9. What does the line about the soldiers not wanting to get wet tell us about them?
10. Besides being scared, how did the French feel about the Allies bombardment and invasion of Normandy?
11. Why would O’Connell – a machine gunner – describe his fear as mere butterflies, when Delasanta – a truck driver – assumed everyone else was as scared as he was?
12. Why would the military send 19, 20 and 21 year old “kids” to the front line of the invasion?
13. What was the role of the paratroopers in the invasion?
14. How does time pass in Heisler’s story?
15. What’s the mood of the last paragraph of his quote?
16. Did the Pearl Harbor bombing disenfranchise or unite the American public?
17. Why was the embedded journalist such a pivotal role of the war effort?
18. What was a bigger motivator for the soldiers invading France: heroism or duty? Explain.

APPLICATION QUESTIONS
1. According to the first quote, the general of the German forces was away and the weather was terrible the morning of the invasion. How did these circumstances affect a) Eisenhower’s decision to go ahead with the invasion, and b) the outcome of the battle?
2. Corvese’s story focuses on three unique soldiers during the invasion and makes a point to tell us a little about them – the engineer carries explosives, the navy men having blue stripes, etc. Since medics don’t carry weapons into battle, is it ok to target them like the medic was in his story?
3. How is Fazzio’s account affected by religion? Do you think he believes in God?
4. Why would the French townspeople hide during the invasion instead of picking up a weapon and helping out?
5. How are some of the ways fear can be a good thing in a situation like this?
6. How does fear bond soldiers?

7. Heroux mentions the ages of the soldiers at Normandy and adds that none of them even knew what war was before D-Day. What age is too young for a person to be sent to war?

B. The generation of people my age – the generation that invaded Afghanistan and Iraq – is referred to as Generation Kill. People say Generation Kill is too influenced by video games, the internet and technology, and that today’s kids don’t have the same understanding of the concept of duty. Do you agree or disagree with this?

C. What makes a hero and how, if at all, does fear factor into determining a hero? D-Day soldiers are often called heroes even though they don’t agree with it. What professions, if any at all, automatically qualify a person a hero?

Lesson on “Give Us This Day”

By Sidney Stewart
OBJECTIVES

1. 
   Students will be given supplemental material on the concept of total war and will discuss the topic.
   

2. 
   Students will debate the rules of war and the civil liabilities of wartime practices.
   

3. 
   Students will discuss content, interpretation and application questions after reading pages 71 – 81 of “Give Us This Day” by Sidney Stewart.
   

4. 
   Students will work in groups of two to complete one of the following assignments related to the Geneva Convention:
   

A. Pick one article from the Geneva Convention and write a paper explaining what it means, why it’s a law, what must have happened to make it law, and whether you agree as to whether this should be followed in war?

B. Pick one article from the Geneva Convention and explain who it’s designed to protect – civilians, combatants, etc. – and scour the article for a loophole. How would you defend yourself if charged with violating this article?

C. Find a real-world example of people who were tried and convicted of war crimes. Write a brief bio, what article he violated, how, and the punishment.

1. 
   Begin class by giving students the supplemental material on Sherman’s March to the Sea and the concept of total war.
   

10. 
    What instances would you feel it’s ok to declare total war?
    

11. 
    Can you think of any instances where total war was used in the past?
    

12. 
    Is it ethical to declare total war?
    

2. 
   Take a poll of hands to collect student consensus on the following topics and ask them at random to elaborate on their positions.
   

19. How do the Filipino people try to help the prisoners?

3. Inhumanity is the state of living below human standards. What are some of the ways the Japanese treat the Americans inhumanely?

B. Pick one article from the Geneva Convention and copy the law at the top of your essay. Explain who it’s designed to protect – civilians, combatants, etc. – and scour the article for a loophole. How would you defend yourself if charged with violating this article?

C. Find a real-world example of people who were tried and convicted of war crimes. Write a brief bio of the person telling us where they are from, what war they committed the crime in, what the violation was and what the penalty was.

Lesson on “Flags of Our Fathers”

By James Bradley
OBJECTIVES

1. 
   Students will listen to audio clips of three Churchill wartime speeches and discuss rhetoric techniques.
   

2. 
   Students will view the Iwo Jima flag raising and discuss the effect it had on Americans.
   

3. 
   Students will discuss content, interpretation and application questions after reading pages 215 – 225 and 281 – 296 of “Flags of Our Fathers” by James Bradley.
   

4. 
   Students will write a fictional short story about victory in a workshop-styled class.
   

1. 
   Start class by playing the Churchill speeches and handing students the supplemental material.
   

13. 
    What are some the rhetoric techniques Churchill uses in the speeches?
    

14. 
    Are his speeches effective at delivering the intended message?
    

15. 
    How does Churchill use the concept of victory to inspire and incite the British?
    

2. 
   Show students the picture of the Iwo Jima flagraising.
   

18. Was that a lot of money then?

19. Briefly explain what a war bond tour is.
20. What did the AP do with the photo rights?
21. What happened on the same day that Germany surrendered?
22. How are the flagraisers treated on the tour?
23. How did the flagraisers act when the press depicted them heroically?
24. How does Ira react to the limelight?
25. Who is Pauline and why does she appear on the tour?
26. How does Ira react to seeing Ms. Strank?
27. Were the flagraisers living well by the time the statue was unveiled in New York?
28. How does John Bradley word himself when selling bonds?
29. What’s Ira’s condition during the flagraising event at Soldier Field in Chicago?
30. Why does he say he’s going back to the front?
31. Does Ira fit in to the rank and file again after he leaves the tour?
32. Was a mainland invasion of Japan going to be an easy victory? What were the loss projections?
33. Did the bond tour achieve its goal?

INTERPRETATION QUESTIONS
1. Why were the Japanese killing themselves after the Marines took the mountain?
2. What does the voyage of the film tell us about the state of the world at that time?
3. What were some of the revolutions in mass communication taking place at the time?

4. Why were Americans focused on Iwo Jima instead of the victory taking place in Europe?

22. How did the casualty predictions of a mainland offensive shape the outcome of the war?

B. Stories must follow the A, B, D, C, E plot diagram

C. Some quick story ideas:

1. Depict a Starcraft battle as a real event.

2. Tell me about a victory in a forensics competition.

3. People love underdogs. Tell me a David and Goliath story.

4. Sports games.

5. OR, for a real twist – depict victory from the defeated point of view.

To introduce students to the world of war and the texts we’re covering in the unit, I plan on showing students Thomas Lea’s famous WWII painting, “The 2000 Yard Stare” that was featured in TIME magazine in 1944. Besides discussing the students’ initial impression of the painting, I plan on using this picture to broaden a their overall view of war by introducing them to the concept of the “thousand yard stare,” emotional detachment and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Besides looking at the picture and discussing it in class, I want to include the photographer’s description of the subject in the painting, which reads:

I plan on further asking the students what is on this subject’s mind in the painting? What could have happened to turn this man into the zombie we see in the picture? Will he ever be the same person as he was before the war?

To bring the unit to a close, I want the students to take a firm stance in their personal thoughts, feelings, emotions and decisions in their relationship to war. Some people believe that no matter what, war should never exist as an option for settling disputes; while other people actively seek to engage in war. The culminating event will force students to define their beliefs and will engage their ability to pick a stance and defend their position. For the boys in the class – as they are forced into military service by conscription – this is a moot point but their options are still valued.

I will divide the class by a show of hands and allow the pro war and the anti war sides to discuss their views and points on the issue. What are the three factors that determine their position on the topic more than any other? After the groups are done talking amongst themselves, I will ask the groups to voice some of the most reoccurring points that came up around their circles. After each point, I will ask the other circle to counteract that. Students will be allowed to switch sides if compelled and everyone should be taking notes of what their opponents are saying.

The assignment after that will be that each student will write a formal, argumentative essay declaring their position. Essays must be structured:

A. Intro stating the position

B. Argument 1

C. Opponents counterpoint to argument 1

D. Your reaction to opponent counterpoint