The Machine Gun
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.
The Flame Thrower
Even though the Machine Gun has claimed to have taken the most lives during World War One, survivors and documents say that the flame-thrower was the "most frightening weapon in the war." The flame-thrower consisted of a fuel container filled with oil (later with paraffin) and a cylinder containing a gas propellant that would shoot out a flame into the air. The first flame-throwers could only shoot about eight feet and sixteen feet for the larger ones which were mounted onto the tanks. Another drawback was the vast fuel consumption that the flame-thrower had. The smaller version, which could fit on a soldier´s back, would only have enough fuel for a ten-second solid stream. This was one of the many inventions that were to end the war yet it still took a long time to succeed in this. But it succeeded in its second intention: To scare and intimidate the enemy.
Gas
As with the flame-thrower, 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. Gas was first used in the Battle of Ypres in April 1915 by the Germans, 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 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 which is mentioned later.
Defense Mechanisms
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.
The Gas Mask was first used by American soldiers after it was invented by Morgan Garrett soon after the gas itself was introduced. Before the Gas Mask was invented, soldiers would use cotton pads soaked in urine to stop the fumes from getting into their lungs. Early versions of the mask were just a basic mask with a filter on the front which stopped most of the toxic vapours from getting through. However simple they sound they were very effective and even more so when they were improved later on. Before long the Gas Mask was part of the basic kit that a soldier would have and so unless people were caught unaware, gas could not prove much of a problem for the rest of the war.
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 and 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.
Here is an overhead view of the trenches:
As you can see both sides of the trenches were similar and this would have been the general style of all the trenches around Europe. To start off with the centre of the picture was No-Man´s-Land where no man set foot if they could possibly help it. This was the open ground (about 400 yards) which was constantly watched by the machine-gunners who would mow down anybody who put an inch above the top of the trench. To separate each line of the trench on each side, there were communication trenches which could have messages sent along them and also new ammunition passed along them. The trench was a very clever idea and was certainly the best defence tactic to have been made by both sides during the war.
One of the less well-known defence items was the Steel Helmet. In wars before World War One, soldiers had only a flimsy aluminium helmet which was really no protection against bullets. But then during World War One soldiers were given steel helmets which would stop a bullet in its tracks. These may have weighed down the soldiers a little but they were imperative to the ever-growing defence equipment worn by a soldier.
Inventors
World War One brought about many new weapons with many inventors who designed them. One of these was Hiram Maxim who invented the Maxim Machine-Gun. Born in Sangersville, Maine in 1840 he became a coachbuilder until 1881. Whilst in Paris visiting an exhibition he was told that he could make a lot of money if he invented something that would enable the Europeans to cut each other´s throats with ease. So he moved to London where he spent the next few years designing an effective machine-gun. In 1885 he demonstrated the world´s first automatic portable machine-gun (Maxim machine-gun) to the British Army. Trials showed that the machine-gun could fire 500 rounds per minute which could give the gun a firepower of 100 rifles. The British Army immediately took up the gun and set it up for mass production in 1889. These were one of the most important weapons which in turn went a long way to help Britain win the war. Even though people said that he was a great man at the time, since then he has been classed at an evil man who only created something that eventually killed millions of people. For example, at one battle soon after it was created fifty British soldiers fought off 5,000 warriors with just four Maxim guns.
But to counteract Maxim´s amazing invention, in 1900 Alfred Krupp´s armaments factory at Essen in Germany started designing a 350-mm Howitzer that was capable of firing an 800 pound shell over 10,000 yards. Even though this seemed amazing in 1908 the German Army asked Gustav Krupp to build an improved version which would be able to destroy the heaviest fortifications. By 1912 Krupp had produced a 420mm weapon that could fire a 2,100 pound shell over 16,000 yards. But this was not very useful, as it was so heavy that it could not be moved. But in 1914 a mobile Howitzer called Big Bertha (named after Krupp´s wife) was produced. This Howitzer weighed a staggering 43 tonnes and could fire a shell over nine miles. Krupp had saved Germany for the moment with this staggering piece of machinery but it could not hold out forever.
Here is a quote from Major Wesener, a German officer who worked on a Big Bertha at Liege on August 12th, 1914:
It was a memorable moment as the howitzer discharged the first shell on enemy soil at 1740 hours on August 12 against Fort Pontisse, on the
South-eastern side of Liege. A hundred-fold cheer accompanied the shell as
it howled and snorted along the high trajectory to its target. I was
gratified that everything had turned out well, and that the eagerly-awaited
opening of fire could be undertaken. Sixty seconds ticked by - the time
needed for the shell to traverse its 4,340 yard high trajectory - and
everyone listened in to the telephone report of our battery commander, who
had his observation post 1,625 yards from the bombarded fort, and could
watch at close range the column of smoke, earth and fire that climbed to
the heavens.
the Big Bertha Howitzer
World War One has been classed as one of the most memorable events to ever take place in History. Not only did it cause the most deaths ever recorded at the time, but it also went down in history for the vast amount of weapons and ideas that were invented during it. Some of these have been modernized for use in the 21st Century but the majority were just mindless killing machines. World War One changed history and if it had never taken place then it would be a wonder to know what kind of world we would be living in.