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 be manually loaded but in 1916 Hugo Schmeisser designed the Maschinen Pistole 1918 Bergmann which was brought in during the last few months of the war. This had a catastrophic effect on the war as did the Maxim machine-gun, which is mentioned later. Thousands upon thousands of men were literally mown down when they went over the top of the trenches due to these machine-guns. Because the earlier versions of the gun such as the MP 18 had to use a heavy bolt and spring it was limited to firing about forty rounds a minute. Yet although compared with machine guns today this seems slow, it was the fastest firing weapon ever at the start of the war. These were thought to put an end to the war, but soon after, Gas was introduced so going over the top was not so necessary.
Gas was supposed to be another trench stalemate breaker. The idea was to send the gas over into the enemy trench and for the gas to either poison them or to make them have to come out from the trenches where they would be easy targets. The idea was perfect but like so many things, putting it into practice was not so easy. The Germans first used gas in the Battle of Ypres in April 1915, where they released the gas with the wind. French soldiers claimed to have seen yellowy green clouds floating towards them and so prepared for an attack that they thought the Germans were making through a smoke screen. The earliest method of gassing, that was simply to release the gas from pressurised containers, like the Germans did at Ypres. But then if the wind happened to change in direction like it did when the British used gas in September 1915 the gas would be blown right back in the faces of the advancing troops. This meant that the gas could only be used when the wind was blowing the correct way and the weather was always unpredictable. At least this was until gas shells were introduced so that the gas would only be released when it actually landed in or nearby the enemy trench.
Gases such as Tear Gas, Chlorine Gas, Mustard Gas and Phosgene (a lung irritant) were used during World War One each one being different. The Mustard Gas was probably the most lethal because not only did it intoxicate the victim but it also burned away the skin causing great agony. Yet these stalemate breakers again came to a halt when the Gas Mask was invented.
With all these new weapons being introduced it seemed like the war would soon be over, but then each side started designing ways and items to prevent the new weapons causing too much damage. But these in turn eventually caused the war to create more deaths because even though individually they saved lives, overall they killed more people as the war lasted longer. The most famous of these would obviously be the Gas Mask, which saved thousands of soldier’s lives in the short term.
Although the Gas Mask was the most important item introduced during the war, Trenches were the best defence system ever thought up at the time. Trenches were built where both sides had met and no one side had had a quick victory. The trenches often caused stalemate where neither side had a big advantage so they both sat out the long wait. They were built along very wide stretches of land and zigzagged across the landscape. This was so that if a bomb was dropped into the trench, then the explosion would only effect one small part of the trench. Trenches seemed to have stopped the war it surely would have finished with no side the victor if it hadn’t been for the new weapons and armoured vehicles that were brought in.
Even the new weapons didn’t make much of a difference because both armies would have the best equipment so no side could gain an advantage.
There are other aspects why the war was not over by Christmas, maybe because of the Generals.
Haig did experiment with different tactics like the creeping barrage, which made the final breakthrough and mining tunnels and rigging them with bombs, which was very effective. However, with some of the tactics like the tank and the mining were very effective but Haig did not send through men to take over the trenches that the tanks destroyed.
Von Moltke was probably the general to blame for all of the trench warfare as he went east around Paris so it collided with the retreating French army and the BEF so the French sent loads of reserve soldiers and with the BEF pushed Germany back 60km. Then they kept on trying to outflank each other but they found themselves next to the sea. Neither side could advance therefore each side had to dig trenches to stop its enemy from advancing. Just that one thing (going around Paris the eastern way) led to a very long stalemate of trench warfare so if that did not happen there would have been no stalemate. Therefore, if any one General were to blame it would be Von Moltke however all the Generals contributed to the war not finishing quickly.
None of the Generals made a good attempt at opening a front elsewhere. The attempts that they did make were feeble like the Gallipoli Campaign, which led to needless slaughter. If they actually broke open another front through Gallipoli and then it might other nearby countries join the allies, surround Austria-Hungary, and force them to surrender isolating Germany to make them get defeated easily. So if they opened another front it would have ended the war quickly. None of the battles was very well planned for example they should have easily seen that Paschendale was below sea level and will become marshy if heavily bombarded. Haig won one battle and then he thought hat he will win all the battles easily so he sent lots of men to ‘the sea of liquid mud.
If any one General were to blame, it would be either Von Moltke or Haig. Von Moltke because he ruined the whole Schlieffen plan and therefore can be blamed for the stalemate. He also did not make his plans properly, as he did not take essential ports allowing Britain to come. Haig could be blamed for not doing anything efficiently or right as he made massive gaps in the enemy trenches with tanks and with mines but he did it all too fast so there were no troops to follow up and fill in the gaps so the Germans counter attacked and got all their trenches back. He would have won the war in 1915 if he followed up the gaps and moved more slowly.