Development of weaponry

• Developments in weaponry in WW1?

  • 1914- heavy artillery had a range of 20 miles, some exceeding 50 miles.
  • Recoilless cannon- automatically returned gun to original position instead of having to do it manually- increased rate of fire so by 1914 they could fire at an almost equivalent rate to a rifleman- allowing artillery to claim 60-70% of casualties
  • Fully automatic machine gun
  • Initially weaponry had little impact on nature but caused trench warfare as the soldiers needed to take cover from the powerful, long distance of fire from the artillery and machine guns
  • Greater fire power
• Developments in weaponry in WW1?

  • Greater accuracy/ range- ensured trench warfare- advantage to defenders eg numbers lost in the German attack on the French fortress of Verdun.
  • Trenches affected by firepower of weapons- zigzagged, trenches running back from the front line so more men could be brought up and provided better shelter, support and reinforcement trenches behind front to make a breakthrough from enemy harder
  • barbed wire- reinforced defensive nature of war, attacking armies had more problems as artillery attempts to destroy it ended in failure, turned no mans land into a quagmire
• Developments in weaponry in WW1?

  • Trench warfare = dev of specific trench weapons eg flamethrowers, gas or even argued tanks
  • weapons dev caused stalemate but also belief new devs would bring it to an end
  • gas warfare- Germans Ypres 1915- Germans had potential to dev this as had advanced chemical industry
  • gas- physical and psychological
  • 1917 mustard gas and phosgene delivered to enemy in shells
  • gas had little impact on nature- dependent on wind (Loos 1915)
  • dev of gas masks
• Developments in tanks WW1?

  • Tanks- poss of advance + protection form machine guns, only had decisive influence in WW2
  • Unreliable- broke down after days of use, slow- 2mph, weak armour- easy target for artillery (especially when Germans developed armour piercing bullets)
  • too widely dispersed on battlefield to have an impact
  • Somme- Brit first used tanks (just 49), Cambrai 350+ into field- breakthrough but couldn't be sustained as broke down or were destroyed
  • limited but had potential as seen by breakthrough in 1918
• Developments in weaponry WW1?

  • artillery 70% of casualties
  • perfect for static war- no longer had problem of having to move them
  • changes made of design from accommodating moving battles to stagnant ones- howitzers, mortars with looping trajectories inflicted greater damage while heavy artillery destroyed barbed wire- old flat firing trajectory of guns had done little damage to trenches
  • dev meant soldiers never safe- range and accuracy kept improving
  • initially little impact on nature/outcome-barrages associated with infantry attacks so troops left the front to safety for less loss of life
• Developments in weaponry WW1

  • Artillery failed to destroy barbed wire- added to soldiers problems after surviving no mans, crater holes and mud
  • artillery incorp into infantry's attack- became imp to outcome eg creeping barrage which moved ahead of advancing infantry, forced enemy to take cover so could adv without enemy fire
  • change in use of artillery rather than dev that had impact on nature/outcome
  • 'big bertha' gun by Krupp, initial success at Belgian fortress of Liege, less success at Verdun
  • devs- crew stand 300 yards away, fire electronically, mouth open and wadding in ears, eyes, nose
• Developments in weaponry WW1?

  • improvements = greater mobility + combined with new tactics resulted in 1918 breakthrough
  • lighter machine gun- Lewis gun, mortars made infantry more mobile + resulted in organisation of heavily armed, mobile platoons of just 40 men who seized key positions secured by a second wave of attackers
  • lighter machine gun used not only defensively but offensively too- success of this due to dev of creeping barrage, flamethrowers and bombers
• Developments in weaponry WW1?

  • success of july and aug 1918 not just bc of dev/improv in weapons but combination of factors including tanks, aircraft, armoured cars, machine guns mounted on motorcycles, lorries carrying troops
  • transport, weapons and greater coordination all had a role
• Developments in weaponry WW1?

  • aircraft significantly changed from reconnaissance purposes to being part of attacks on trenches, to stop infantry advances and disable gun and supply lines
  • initially armed with pistols and grenades but breakthrough in 1915 with dev of fixed, forward firing machine gun which was synced to fire through propeller blades.
  • helped break stalemate and breakthrough in 1918 as part of other factors
  • bombers influence limited and dev in WW2
  • air war decided by resources and mass production, Allies able to outproduce