There was also a lot of technological advancements of weapons during the war, before WW1 there were only basic rifles which took a long time to reload and weren’t very accurate. WW1 brought about the invention of the machine gun and the bolt action rifle. The machine gun was a revolution of its time, allowing a much higher rate of fire that any rifle before it, the old tactics of just charging at an enemy trench meant defending troops could just mow them down with ease. The bolt action rifles could fire about 15 rounds a minute, these rifles were upgraded throughout the war, they were also quite accurate and were the most used firearm amongst troops. These weapons drastically changed the warfare on the western front, new tactics had to be created and each side were trying to get better rifles than each other.
There was also a large step up with artillery, at the beginning of the war artillery was hard to move, very heavy and not very accurate. By the end 1918 artillery was a lot more mobile, it could fire further and it was more accurate. Also different types of shells were invented to allow different methods of attack, poison gas was used to bombard an enemy trench before an attack, this gave the attackers a brief advantage when attacking. A tactic called counter battery fire was invented which allowed the enemy to locate where artillery was firing at them from and fire back, sometimes even before the shell had hit and exploded. Also the creeping barrage was created where artillery fired just in front of the men as they advanced forward, this was quite risky as friendly fire was hard to avoid and the enemy could just fire behind where the attacker barrage was hitting.
Another weapon which was a major breakthrough was the tank, invented during WW1 they were designed to be able to cross over 8ft trenches. Although they were not perfected they changed warfare and tactics by providing troops cover as they crossed the battlefield. Although they were not that effective they scared the Germans which was a good help for the allies.
The trenches also became better as the war went on, the first trenches were just long lines as you would expect. As the war went on the ziz zag trenches were developed, this meant that if a grenade landed in the trenches it would only take out a small section. This advancement made war on the western front even more static as the trenches became safer. Also pillboxes were used to house machine guns and other things. Making strong and secure trenches like this meant that neither army really wanted to move out of their trenches.
The final area of advancement was in the air, the war started with very basic bi-planes with hardly any weapons on them. As the war progressed planes were created that could stay in the air far longer and that had guns mounted on the front of the plane so the pilot could fire. There became an arms race between the fighting countries with planes. This made attack by air a lot more effective and a lot more frequent.
In WW1 there was constant competition between each side to design something new to trump the enemy’s new tactic or equipment. Arms races in all different fields occurred and technology changed. By the end of the war the warfare had undergone a large transformation and was very different from warfare at the start. War always speeds up advancement, and with new technology and tactics new things become possible.
