THE WEAPONS WORLD WAR ONE



THE WEAPONS WORLD WAR ONE

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|TECHNOLOGY |ADVANTAGES/DISADVANTAGES |INTERESTING FACTS |

|Airplanes |Many did not believe that the airplane would be very useful as a |a fight between two planes was called a “dog fight” |

| |military weapon; therefore they were first used for reconnaissance|life expectancy of a pilot was only 3 weeks! |

| |(gathering information). Pilots started to bring a pistol/rifle, |an ace was a pilot that shot down five or more planes |

| |chains, and bricks to defend themselves. |Canada’s greatest flying ace was Billy Bishop who shot down 72 planes|

| |The first machine guns mounted on the front of the plane would |(he was from Owen Sound, Ontario) |

| |often shoot off the pilot’s own propeller. The German invention |Germany’s greatest flying ace was Manfred von Richthofen (The Red |

| |of the ‘interrupter’ gear enabled the pilot to fire the gun |Baron) who shot down over 80 planes |

| |through the aircraft's propeller blades by interrupting the |The Red Baron was eventually shot down by a Canadian, named Roy Brown|

| |machine gun. | |

|Artillery, |Long range guns that fired shells at angles to drop onto targets. |the 106 fuse exploded on contact with barbed wire, which helped clear|

|Trench Mortars & |Trench mortars were smaller versions of the big guns and were far |paths through no man’s land useful before an attack |

|Grenades |more mobile usually deployed in the trench and used to fire into |the grenade was only useful when they were close enough to the enemy |

|(bombs, shells) |an enemy trench |to throw it into their trenches often used during night raids |

| |Grenades a small explosive that can be thrown and are only |the mortar cause a large number of deaths and the seeming randomness |

| |effective at close range |of death caused distress |

| |When exploded pellets and the casing of the grenade would become |a barrage is a coordinated firing of artillery to support troops or |

| |shrapnel (flying pieces of hot steel) that would lodge themselves |check an enemy |

| |into the enemy. | |

|Cavalry |Mounted soldiers with swords or revolvers held in reserve to |the German trench system was so sophisticated that they even had |

|(soldiers on horseback) |exploit a weak point in enemy lines |stables to house their horses properly |

| |Useless in trench warfare facing machine guns horses could not |the only cavalry charge of WWI was a massacre. |

| |function in the mud |Horses were used to move supplies |

|Chlorine Gas |When gas vapour came into contact with moisture (eyes, nose and |used first by the Germans on April 22, 1915 at the 2nd Battle of |

| |lungs) a chemical reaction would occur that would ‘burn’ the |Ypres |

| |victim. This led to the invention of the gas mask, which would |before gas masks were developed and issued during WW1, soldiers |

| |prevent the gas from coming into contact with moist areas of the |could protect themselves by urinating on a cloth and covering their |

| |body and filter the gas from air. By the end of the war both sides|faces |

| |would use gas but, dependent on wind direction - if the wind | |

| |shifted and blew in the opposite direction, it was easy to kill | |

| |your own soldiers | |

|Dreadnought |The great weapon of the sea, however WWI was a land war. They |usually travelled in convoys (groups of ships) |

|(Battleship) |served a useful purpose escorting supply ships. Very large and |the dreadnoughts were often surrounded by other battleships for |

| |not really fast and therefore an easy target for U-boats |protection |

| |(submarines) | |

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|TECHNOLOGY |ADVANTAGES/DISADVANTAGES |INTERESTING FACTS |

|Flame Thrower |Initially developed by the Germans the Allies also developed | first used by the Germans |

| |flame-throwers. The basic idea of a flame-thrower is to spread | |

| |fire by launching burning fuel. The flame-thrower was used to | |

| |clear enemy trenches to lead off an offensive. | |

|Machine Gun | The machine gun (MG) required a gun crew of four to six | fired hundreds of rounds of ammunition without stopping |

| |operators. MG’s could fire 400-600 rounds per minute. A MG |they were too heavy to pick up and carry, so they were placed on |

| |allowed a few soldiers to combat a larger number of enemy |stands |

| |soldiers. The MG proved a fearsome defensive weapon. Enemy | |

| |infantry assaults upon MG positions proved costly. | |

|Tank |The British navy developed the tank. At first the tank was barely|The tank was first used at the Battle of the Somme the sudden |

| |more than an armoured vehicle with thick steel to protect it from |appearance of the new weapon stunned their German opponents and they |

| |enemy fire with mounted MG’s. Was generally useless as it was |retreated at the sight of it. |

| |slow and often got stuck in the mud; there were insufficient | |

| |numbers produced to impact the war. | |

|Breech loading Rifle | The common war weapon was the breech-loading rifle. Rifles fired| Canadian soldiers first used the Ross Rifle, which was excellent for|

| |a single shot and were re-loaded by working a bolt-action. The |sharp shooting, but jammed easily with mud and became useless in |

| |rifle could fire as fast as the operator could work the action. |trench warfare |

| |All sides used the bayonet- a blade attached to the barrel of a |Canadians began taking the Lee Enfield Rifle from dead British |

| |rifle. |soldiers because it did not jam as easily, eventually the Lee Enfield|

| |very hard to re-load in the trenches due to the mud, which would |replaced the Ross |

| |cause the rifle to jam | |

|Submarine |The submarine was first developed by the British but was quickly |Later in the war Germany attempted to ‘starve out’ the British, which|

|(Unterseabouton) |adopted by the Germans. U-boats would travel undetected |led to a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare |

| |underwater and sink enemy Naval or cargo ships. U-boats were hard|Sinking American ships was a major cause bringing the USA into WWI |

| |to detect and destroy. The Germans used the U-boat very | |

| |effectively in WWI. | |

War tactics

The frontal assault was the primary ground tactic used by both sides during the war. The goal of the frontal assault is to dislodge the enemy from their position. Once this is accomplished troops would rush through the opening in order to surround the opposing army. Trenches and No Man’s Land made this task very difficult however military leaders believed that increasing the number of infantrymen charging the trenches could overwhelm the enemy and force them out of their trench. The break through on the Western Front was finally achieved in 1918 but several cemeteries would be created prior to this.

Both sides used naval blockades during the war. A naval blockade is a tactic that attempts to prevent an enemy country from receiving supplies. Geographically the Allies had the advantage and could prevent Germany and Austria-Hungary from receiving supplies.

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