Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Battle Feild Orders- WWI Weapons

In WWI there were many weapons deployed that had never been used before, these weapons changed war itself; how war came about and how it was fought.

One of them is the flamethrower or the German name(Flammenwerferapparate). It was not until 1911 that the German army accepted the flamethrower, creating a specialist regiment of twelve companies equipped with them. It was a fearsome and destructive weapon but it had its drawbacks; it was cumbersome and difficult to operate, and it was only effective at very close range, not common in the trenches in WWI. But it was still used throughout the war.

The Tank: in WWI the first tanks were used by the British, of the allies only the British used the tanks and the Germans created only 15 of them by the end of the war. there are many advantages to having a tank, you can cross all trenches no matter the defense. This affected how war is waged because it eliminated the need for trenches and trench warfare.

The Machine Gun: the machine was a terrible weapon, it could spray a field with bullets in seconds and earned a fearsome reputation. During the time of WWI many new inventions never seen before came about, for example; the machine gun mounted on an airplane (the airplane took on a new meaning and use after that), and many smaller lighter automatic weapons were also invented.

The Sub: the sub was an effective and deadly way to kill ships; the German subs (U-boats) at the beginning of the war destroyed multiple ships without warning and continued to do so until politic interfered, had the US not put pressure on Germany, Germany probably would have won the war due to the allies having no reinforcements and supplies. The sub changed the way of naval combat forever, due to their effectiveness they were by WWII being created in all major countries.

Three major roles were defined for aircraft during the First World War: reconnaissance, bombing and fighting. Airplanes were used first for aerial scouts—spying on the enemy from the air and learning their secrets. At first the scouts ignored their enemy numbers, then began shooting at them with rifles and eventually with machine guns. Soon they began dropping hand grenades from their planes. Promptly an aircraft was designed for each need: reconnaissance planes some armed for defense; fighter planes, exclusively designed for shooting down other planes; and bombers carried more immense loads of explosives. Much of what we know and learn today about war birds came from the fundamental experiences of the pilots of the First World War.

3" Mortar: the mortar gun was essentially a bomber, it was pointed at a 45 degree angle and could fire 22 rounds a minute, the bombs were extremely destructive and effective and so therefore they were widely used and many newer and better creations came from it changing warfare once again. Because they were so effective they were added onto tanks, planes, and put in trenches (lighter models).

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