Weaponary

• Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic

  Slow improvements

  2 main weapons = The Musket (with bayonet) and Artillery

  French Gribeauval reforms gave French Artillery the edge

  Smooth bore muskets = accurate range of 100 yards. (very small numbers of rifled muskets)
• Crimea

  Significant changes in weapons: new Enfield Rifled Musket

  The Russians still used smooth bore weapons

  The British = Percussion caps which stopped issues from damp and wind and Minie bullets which improved the speed of loading

  The accurate range was now x5 (600yards)

  The British converted some artillery to breech loading and rifled which were dramatic in the Siege of Sevastopol BATTLE
• American Civil War

  1863 Musket Rifles could kill at 1000 yards – accurate up to 600 yards

  At the start the smooth bore muskets were the norm though

  
  

  Tactics now favoured the defender – 90% wounds caused by bullets. Large numbers could be killed before they got to bayonet range

  
  

  So huge casualties (97,000 casualties at Gettysburg)

  Cavalry could not charge the massed infantry either so they became just scouts or raiders OR dismounted and fought as infantry.
• Small Wars

  FRANCO - AUSTRIAN WAR

  The French = Napoleon Canon that outranged Austrian canon by 1500 yards

  The Austrians used Slav conscripts (unmotivated) and therefore through away their own advantage of superior rifles

  AUSTRO – PRUSSIAN WAR

  The Prussian Dreyse Needle gun =Breech loading = 4/5 BATTLE of Sadowa

  FRANCO – PRUSSIAN WAR

  The French = Breech loading Chassepot rifle and the Mitrailleuse (200 rounds a minute) – but poor training. Prussians used their organisation and their Krupps artillery guns to decisively beat the French (BATTLES of Metz and Sedan)
• WW1

  CH: BATTLE Ypres to disable 4 miles GB line = psych weapon

  TA: 1-2mph and 9/49 across NML at BATTLE Somme but 476 BATTLE Cambrai

  AR: Good for creeping barrage, GR Big Bertha used against fortress at BATTLE Verdun, used from trenches

  Overall: new tactics made, more mobility, machine guns were useful, bombings damaged morale
• WW2

  AIR: Dive bombers (Stuka) , Strategic Bombing (Dresden & A bombs)

  TA: reliable, quicker, BATTLE Kursk 10,000 used

  AR: BATTLE El Alamein 900 pieces