Military Technology During The First World War

In the beginning, thesituation was desperate. With2000 pieces of artillery and 1500 tanks, the Allies were outnumbered four to one.

In the early phases of ww1 (1914) the flamethrower brought extreme terror to the British and French troops. However other nations quickly caught onto it. The weapon wasn’t at all hard to make, but was very effective. The idea of a flamethrower was to throw burning fuel at the enemy. The Germans created two types of flamethrowers or models of flamethrowers. One large and one small, both developed by Richard Fiedler. The lighter and smaller flamethrower was designed for one man to be able to carry it. This flamethrower used pressurised air and nitrogen/carbon dioxide. A stream of burning gas and oil would be thrown up to 18 meters to hit. the enemy. The second and larger model was not appropriate for a single soldier. Its range could double the small flamethrower. This particular model could withstand flames for up to 40 seconds. However the only down side to this model is that it used a lot of fuel which was highly costly. These weapons were very effective in world war one when used at close range but there were disadvantages of them. Flamethrowers didn’t have the range of a rifle. If you operated a flamethrower you were in target of

The factors that made the Allied victory happen include the Germans beginning to effectively organize industrial production at the very least six months too late to give them a chance at victory. By the time they got the production to be swiftly working on weapons such as fighter planes, the Allies were in firm enough control of the air space. This meant that the Allied bombing prevented the German economy from reaching it’s full potential. Another flaw in the German production meant that tanks such as Tigers and Panthers, of which dominated tactical situations on the battlefield, had logistical and maintenance nightmares. If the Germans were to overcome their problems in production then it would have stood them in much greater stead, giving them an advantage over the Allies.

There is a sense that modern weapons during the 20th century proved to be the most technological advancements and thus created competition in which sprawled into a new stage of warfare enlightenment. At the brink of the war and the salient of forces perhaps the most technological tool used had been the trenches. The pursuit of territorial conquest would halt at the trench lines inventing a new progression in how war is envisioned today. The disadvantages often outnumber the benefits of war, however, war managed to create a boosted in advanced warfare starting as early as the Franco-Prussian War. As the war progressed during 1914, items such as uniforms called for change. The sense of pride in nationality struck in numbers and not in bright colors. For the sake of duty and country was the most powerful drive including those who sought ground in the western lines.

The machine gun is perhaps the signature weapon of trench warfare, with the image of ranks of advancing infantry being scythed down by the withering hail of bullets. The Germans embraced the machine gun from the outset - in 1904, every regiment was equipped with one machine gun - and the machine gun crews were the elite infantry units. After 1915, the MG 08/15 was the standard-issue German machine gun. Its number entered the German language as an idiomatic expression for "dead plain". At Gallipoli and in Palestine the Turks provided the infantry, but it was usually Germans who manned the machine guns.

The influence of various theories and concepts on the conduct World War I has generated a range of studies in an attempt to understand how and why World War I was fought. Specifically, Clausewitz’s theories on warfare have come under a considerable amount of scrutiny with regards to their influence on World War I. This scrutiny has led to the ascertation that the protracted and bloody stalemate of World War I was largely due to a stubborn reliance on Clausewitz’s theories. The question that this paper attempts to address is weather the cause of the bloody and protracted

Light machine guns and sub-machine guns were invented during World War I as small arms, but the larger machine guns were modernized as well. Flame throwers were used as an offensive attack against trench warfare.[ix],[x]

First, we will discuss ground vehicle advances. The Jeep was invented in World War Two. It was used as basic transportation for troops. After the war, the Jeep became more popular and was then used as a production vehicle for the public. Tanks of World War One were very primitive and very ineffective. In World War Two, the tank was one of the most important vehicles used. Leading up to World War Two, tanks were made more powerful, faster, lighter, and stronger. Tank warfare was very important in World War Two. All countries involved in the war were producing their own models of tanks. By the end of the war, the Allies had developed a new kind of tank. It had no big guns on it. It was a troop transportation vehicle that was heavily armored. Transportation vehicles were very important in the war. Without transportation, there is no efficient way to move troops. All of these vehicles were very important in the history of war.

Another important reason for the defeat of Germany is the effective integration of technologies which the Allies had employed by the end of the war. By the end of the war Allied (particularly British) command had improved technologies and had learnt to use them better than earlier in the war. Technologically, the Allies had a great advantage in 1918 onwards: Germany had some very high quality, but very few tanks and aircraft. By the war's end, Germany had 45 tanks whilst the Allies had almost 3,500, and even Germany's 45 tanks were mostly Allies tanks in disrepair or Germany's notoriously unreliable A7V. The Allies also had an air advantage: by late 1918

While the Germans had the upper hand in technology, this condition did have its drawbacks. This advanced weaponry was costly to manufacture, so the German Army could not afford to produce them in large quantities. On top of that, this new weaponry was also more difficult to repair and maintain, which reduced its efficiency even further (Stewart, 6).

Chemical warfare, while horrible, proved to be unwieldy and unpredictable, and relatively easy to counter. After some limited successes against unprepared opponents, the use of chemical gas had very little tactical benefit; the recognition of this limited utility is that after widespread use in 1915 - except for the short-lived effects of the introduction of mustard gas in 1917 - gas was abandoned by both sides as an effective tactic.

American army officer Omar Bradley once said,“If we continue to develop our technology without wisdom or prudence, our servant may prove to be our executioner.” The meaning of this quote lies in the destruction and devastation of humanity and geography during war. If we do not stop advancing in ways of killing and causing suffering, we will soon face the consequences of these technologies. Throughout World War I and World War II, there was a ginormous technological boom in which countries were competing to invent new weapons or vehicles used in warfare. Specifically, World War I could be blamed for the start of the creating of new technologies used in warfare even today. These technologies were often invented or created during World War I,

Technology played a key role in determining the outcome of World War II. The high military demand for more advanced technology acted as a catalyst for the development of technology in the interwar years of the 1920’s and 1930’s. Scientists and Engineers alike poured massive amounts of research and development time into supporting the war effort, and more advanced technology was developed at an alarmingly rapid rate. One notable fact about technology in World War II is that World War II is the first war in which many military attacks were designed

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The extent to which a country can establish and retain a state of ‘Total War’ inevitably leads to victory. In World War 1, the allied forces ability to achieve this resulted in their success. The production of munitions and American funding, resource allocation and the British Blockade, gave the allies a clear advantage on the home front. The utilization of the superior weaponry and manpower as well as improved tactics on the battlefront gave the allies an upper hand in this war of attrition. The final loss of German morale on both the home and battlefronts, directly influenced by allied propaganda, the arrival of the Americans and Germany’s political instability, led to the cessation of the war and thus, allied victory.