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World War One Words Starting With the Letter T
Tank - a tracked armoured fighting vehicle armed with machine guns and/or cannon. Early tanks were slow, unwieldy and required large crews to man them. Both sides fielded tank forces, but only the British developed successful models. In many cases the Germans relied on captured tanks for their forces. The name tank derives from the fact that when the machines were first shipped to the front, they were concealed in containers marked "water tank" to prevent enemy spies from realizing that the British were about to employ a new weapon on the Western Front. Tanks were particularly effective because their tracks allowed them to cross the shell-pocked landscape and ram through barbed wire emplacements; they contributed to the collapse of the German trench-based defences and hastened the end of the war. However tanks were usually employed in an infantry support role, and not in massed independent formations as in World War 2. Tanks were almost invulnerable to machine gun fire. However they were lightly armoured by today's standards and even the standards of world war 2, and they could be knocked out by artillery fire or flame throwers. The German infantry greatly feared the tanks and even had a word for it: Tankschrecken (Tank Fear)
Tin hat - Steel helmet.
Tommy or Tommy Atkins - Slang name for a British soldier.
Touch - To kill. The famous World War 1 soldier and hero Sgt. Alvin York wrote this in his diary: "There were thirty of them in continuous action, and all I could do was touch the Germans off as fast as I could ... In order to sight me or swing their machine gun on me, the Germans had to show their heads above the trench, and every time I saw a head I just touched it off."
Trench Foot - common infection among front line troops caused by living in unsanitary conditions with feet submerged in water that formed at the bottom of the trench.
Triage - A system employed by battlefield medics of selecting wounded soldiers into thirds. The first third, who could stand the journey, was sent back to the rear for treatment at a base hospital. The other third was deemed to require immediate medical attention and surgery and was treated as soon as possible near the front lines. The last third was deemed to be terminally injured and unlikely to benefit from medical treatment. They were left to die with little or no medical attention. In this way the medical corps allocated its limited resources to those who would actually benefit from its efforts. The system is still employed in today's hospital emergency rooms in which incoming patients are screened by a triage nurse and the most urgent cases (theoretically) made to see a doctor first.
Triple Alliance: - The alliance of Germany, Austria and Italy which existed before the war. Later Italy deserted the alliance and fought with the Allies against Austria.
Triple Entente - The alliance of Britain, France and Russia. Later the allies were joined by Italy and the United States.
Tracers - bullets that glow. Used to help aim or find the range.
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