Rifles:
These weapons were used mainly together with the pistol. It was not very heavy like the machine gun and could be taken with you easily it was accurate if you were well trained in it. It was only a single round gun so you couldn’t keep on shooting. For aiming it used an iron or optics (Sniper Rifles). The German main rifle was the “Mauser Gewehr 98”, it was called the the best rifle ever and was used by about 2.700.000 soldiers. The French used the “Berthier M1907-15 and The British Lee-Enfield
M1916” about 430.000 guns were made. The British of course also had rifles and mainly used the “Lee-Enfield”, 17 million weapons were produced but these were used by many countries including the United States.
Pistols:
This weapon was originally designed for the cavalry. The pistols were mainly used by Officers, Military Police, airmen and tank operators. Pistols were light and small so could be taken with you easily. The German used about 2.000.000 “Lugars” of course this was again the most famous pistol in this case of the war. When captured by allies it was held as a trophy. The British used the “Webley MK IV “Revolver. 300.000 of these were manufactured. The French Pistole Revolveur
This weapon wasn’t really accurate as it jumped when firing so the British officers preferred to use captured Lugars. The French also came with a revolver called the “Pistole Revolveur modele 1892”. This pistol was about the same as the revolver and also in this case they preferred the Lugar.
Gases:
The Germans again came with the new weapon, Chlorine gas. It was used for the first time in the battle of Ypres when they fired it to the French, they thought that it was smoke screen and it smelled like pepper with pineapple, they didn’t know that it was dangerous and got pain in their chest and their throats started burning… that lead to death. But it wasn’t really smart to use it because if the wind started to blow to your direction the gas would come back and that German Gas Attack
will lead to suicide. After that they started to use mustard gas which was the most devastating gas. This gas was put into artillery shells like the Chlorine gas and be fired to the enemy and would cause many things that lead to death again within 5 weeks. You couldn’t smell it and it would take effect after 12 hours. The effects of the gas were bleedings inside your body and on your body, your lungs would be affected badly, your eyes will start to irritate and hurt very badly and
Tanks:
These weren’t really used at the beginning but came in 1916. The first real tank vs. tank battle was in 1918 with Britain winning from Germany. The first tank was made by the Americans and called the “Little Wille” but this one failed. The best tank made was the French tank the “Renault FT”. About 4000 of The British Mark V
these were built and that was the most. The British made the “Mark” series and about 2200 of these were made. And the German “A7V” was only made 20 times so they were outnumbered badly and couldn’t compete with the countries in tanks.
Artillery:
These were the most important in the war and never there has been shot that many shells in one war. There were many different kinds of artillery weapons, some were heavy and some were light. The heavy ones could fire far and the damage would be more but the reloading took a very long time. The light guns were lighter so you could take them with you easily but they still were heavy, the shells would go far too as the heavy guns but the damage would Scheider Obusiers de 520 be less and the reloading went much faster and in big numbers you can do much damage. The biggest gun was made by the French called the “Schneider Obusiers de 520”, as seen on the picture. The smallest gun was also made by the French called the “French model 1897 75mm”. It could shoot about 12 shells per minute which is very fast in comparison with the Schneider. The most common gun was the Howitzer, all countries had their own version of it and it was very effective against buildings.
Conclusion:
Many weapons were used in the war, some were more effective than the other. But after all, all the countries had about the same weapons and there weren’t many differences. Especially artillery were used in the trenches as it was effective and could wipe out the enemy easily but the enemy used it also so it took longer than expected. Rifles were used the most if look at main hand weapons so weapons that were carries along with the soldiers again here there weren’t many differences but many though that the German rifle was the best. The tanks were the most different as the Germans only had 20 tanks available the French had about 4000 tanks available also the Brits had about 2000 tanks so that was the main difference. The gases started with the Germans, the British and French started to use them too but after some moments they found out that their own men were dying from it and the three countries stopped using them. The pistols had also some difference. The German had the Lugars and the British and French used Revolvers, but if they had the possibility they used found Lugars, because these were easier to handle so the Germans made the better weapon in this case again. So many weapons were used, mainly artillery, the countries had about the same weapon types so the weapons were a bit identical.
List of used sources:
Arjun xxxxxxx XXX History Assignment