Technological Advancement In World War 1

Technology greatly affected the way in which wars were fought, especially in World War I. The inventions of the repeating machine gun, the development of poison gas, and the introduction of the first tanks caused armies to fight using the bunkering method. This allowed men to huddle in trenches along what are called skirmish lines and throw, lob, and fire by other means weapons to cause damage while men were protected by about 4 to 5 feet deep earth. This caused men to fight in rear or echelon columns behind tanks can basically caused defensive fighting tactics resulting in drawn out protracted battles.

On the one hand, machine guns could be said to be significant because of the extra fire power they provided on a battlefield. It has been estimated that a machine gun creates the equivalent to anywhere between 60 to 100 rifles, depending on the source, in one weapon. This gave an army defending a position a huge advantage over the attacking side and almost certainly prolonged the stalemate as breaking enemy lines became so difficult as reaching the enemy trench was a near impossible thing to do with the machine gun firing at the advancing infantry. It has been estimated that around 20% of the casualties of world war 1 were caused by the machine gun. This figure is very high considering all the possible causes of death in the battlefields of WW1. What also made the machine gun of WW1 significant was how it affected the future. These early models were the basis of a weapon used in all areas of the world ever since these first guns were used in WW1.

The Civil War caused many new weapons to be built. There were even weapons and technology made for navy ships. These weapons ranged from small hand-held weapons to large field artillery.

World War I was one of the bloodiest wars causing more than three hundred thousand casualties and out of those, one hundred twenty thousand of them resulted in death. Medical techniques had hardly improved from the Civil War,

The crude masks protection came from the mask being dipped into gas resistant chemicals, the gas resistant chemicals were sodium hyposulphite, washing soda, glycerine and water. Though the mask was basic, it acted as sign to British troops that something was being done to prevent mass fatalities by poison gas. In 1916 the innovation of the small box respirator was introduced with an improved design. Numerous other innovations occurred for the good and the bad including sanitary napkins, aircraft communications and tanks.

The types of weapons employed in World War 1 included poison gas, that killed many. Chlorine gas was one of the gases first used by the Germans at the Second Battle of Ypres in April 1915, killing hundreds of French troops. The British also deployed chlorine gas, and later developments in the war included the deadlier phosgene and mustard gas, which blinded those it came in contact with. By 1917, poison gas could be delivered with greater accuracy by chemical shells, and there were an estimated one million gas casualties on all sides throughout World War I.

In World War I there was a lot of new weapon inventions. There were flamethrowers, machine guns, airplanes, tanks, poison gas, etc. The weapons in world war 1 was one of the main reasons we won the war. It helped us kill more enemies. It was a bad thing too. They could use the same weapons against you and kill just as much soldiers as your army does. In the future maybe 90 to a 100 years from now the weapons will get way better then what they are now.

New technologies of World War I impacted soldiers fighting on the front lines in many ways. These new technologies were very deadly compared to the older weapons and they were also bigger and stronger. Some new technologies were rifles, chemical weapons, and improved naval warfare. Automatic rifles was one of the most important improvements of World War I because now soldiers spent a lot less time reloading and much more of their time shooting. Another new technology was brought about by Germany and it was submarine warfare. Germany went on a rampage sinking the Allied forces’ ships and neutral ships such as passenger ships. This caused the Allied forces to set up protection for supply lines which carried merchant ships with valuable cargo.

A big change during World War 1 is the advancement of weapons. Each country fighting worked towards having the best weapons. During this war: chemicals were used against each other along with the airplanes. The Germans “unleashed lethal chemical warfare by using poisonous gas-filled shells” (18) on their enemies, while this tactic only lasted on battle, before the other countries fighting caught on and started “issuing gas masks to soldiers and then the deployment of chemical shells” (18) began being used by parties. This changed the way the war was fought because it was a quick way to cause a painful death. This war was also the first war to start using airplanes, at first only as “surveillance” because at the beginning of the war “airplanes

One of the heartbreaking truths about World War 1 was that millions of innocent men needlessly died because civilian and military leaders were slow in changing their war strategies and effectively employing new technologies. Thus, the war typified a fight between an inefficient nineteenth century warfare which witnessed lot of casualties on both sides, and a twentieth century technology-driven battle in which many decisive technologies were tested. As for America, the trend of industrialism and mass production of machineries and war equipments had begun fifty years prior to the onset of the war during the American Civil War. With President Woodrow Wilson deciding to take part in the war in April 2017 towards making the world a safe place

Rifles like the Lee-Enfield .303 were mainly used by British soldiers. The Lee-Enfield could hold 10 bullets and was well suited for harsh conditions. A trained soldier was said to be able to fire about 15 bullets a minute. The Germans also used rifles. The type of rifle they used was called the Gewehr 98. It was fast but not as useful in trench warfare as it was longer than the Lee-Enfield.

Over 17 million and 60 million people died in World War 1 and World War 2, respectively making them the two of the most deadly conflicts in modern history. Though these deaths must not be overlooked, the wars expedited many medical advances and technologies that saved many lives during and after the wars. The world saw many discoveries and innovations that would shape the scientific community forever. Without the two wars, access to blood products and blood transfusions, vaccines, and antibiotics would not exist as they are today.

World War I (WWI) was supposed to be the war to end all wars. It was also known as the Great War; the First War. World War I officially started on July 28, 1914, triggered by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary. The Archduke was assassinated by a Yugoslav Nationalist named Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. WWI saw the greatest advancement in technologies. Wars bring out the worse in humans, WWI was no exception. Only 15 years after man first took flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, Italy introduced airplanes for the first time in warfare. The Italians used them as reconnaissance platforms and as an instrument of death (Maclsaac, 2015). The Italians used airplanes to dropped bombs on ground troops. Submarines had been around for years, but during WWI, submarines began to fulfil their potential as a major threat. The German military is the first to effectively use submarines. Germany demonstrated to the world how deadly and effective submarines were under water. The German Navy dominated the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, unchallenged for years due to the used of submarines. Great Britain was the first introduced tanks to world. At first, tanks were unreliable, but the Germans refined, fixed, and upgraded their tanks and changed the course of warfare with it deadly capabilities. WWI also brought about the creation of chemical warfare, machine gun,

Both World War One and World War Two caused a massive amount of death and agony. This came from new and improved weapons and fighting tactics. In both wars every side came up with a new way to get that edge on the opposing side. In World War One, one of the biggest inventions was chemical warfare “the first chlorine gas attack on April 22, 1915… this chlorine attack killed more than 1,100 soldiers and injured many more” (Everts par.1&3). After this first attack it became a race to create these chemicals to kill more men. Even though chemical warfare was not a big cause of the fatalities in World War One it was a very good psychological scare tactic.” (Everts). With the improvement of weapons by World War Two, the tactic for offensive warfare between both the warring parties were to use aircraft, tanks, and trucks (Overy 210). Japan created a team of kamikazes, otherwise known as suicide planes, to use against American naval ships (Peck and Heilbrunn). On the other hand, “the German and

The threat from of deadly gasses was first used by, Nazi Germany back in the First World War. It was used at the battle of Ypres, the Germans released the gas so that the wind would take it towards the enemy. “The vapor clinging to the earth seeking out every hole and hollow and filling the trenches and shell holes as it came.”(Brown, Chemical Warfare, 1) And sense the battle fields were full of trenches it ended up doing a lot of damage to the allies it was estimated that nearly 1 million soldiers were affected from World War I was from these type of attacks. All though the casualty rating of this weapon did not deter the warring nations to hide this weapon away: