World War One brought about many new weapons and advancements in technology on both sides.

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World War One brought about many new weapons and advancements in technology on both sides. Both took huge steps towards modern technology and these carried on even after the war had begun. Yet these weapons could not be of much advantage to one side for very long, because the other side immediately researched every new weapon introduced when it was found out. So whilst one side would be developing something new the other would be playing catch up or possibly coming in from another angle.

These advancements were made on all sides of the war; the air, the ground, and the sea, although I shall mainly be looking at the changes on the ground. Apart from the new weapons, the new defence mechanisms that were introduced shall be looked at as well: The most profound being the Gas Mask, which was developed soon after the introduction of the gas itself in 1915. But also other less well known defence equipment such as the Steel helmet will be looked at also.

The weapons brought about during the time of World War One have completely changed war and fighting forever, but then the defence brought in as well has blocked some of the advancements from being used more readily today. The War changed technology drastically but the technology changed people’s lives even more.

By far the most important invention introduced during the Great War was the tank. Primitive tanks were introduced for the sole aim of having protected artillery that could break through the defence line but as the war progressed the Tank advanced, with larger guns and more armour. The brains behind it were the caterpillar style wheels, which could easily manage to move through the muddy, watery fields without getting stuck. A British man thought up the idea in 1916 and they were first used in battle at of the Somme where forty-nine tanks were driven into battle unsuccessfully due to the lack of numbers. Yet in November 1917, 450 tanks rampaged through the enemy line causing havoc near Cambrai. Soon after that the Germans brought out their first tank, the “Schwerer Kampfwagen A7V” and instantly the race had begun to improve them.

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These first tanks had only enough fuel to power them for 8-km due to the weight and bulk of them but since then they have been improved and now they can go for well over a hundred miles in one stretch.

The Machine Gun has claimed the most lives in World war One although this is only on hospital counts so the actual amount of people killed is not certain. However what is certain is that it was thought of as a massacre weapon and it certainly lived up to its name. Before the war, guns had to ...

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