Changes in the role of the people 1793 - 1918

• Reforming the Royal Navy (1790s)

  • Improved under Lord Howe, Rear Admiral Middleton, and Major-General Blomefield
  • Shipbuilding was maintained at wartime levels during peace
  • Introduction of coppering, enhancing ship performance
  • Royal Ordnance led by Blomefield improved naval guns, adopting flintlock firing mechanisms
  • Blomefield saw to it that every new naval gun had to be fired 30 times before it was installed on a ship
• The Carronade


  • Short cannon developed at Carron ironworks in the 1770s
  • Meant for merchant vessels, easier to use than conventional naval guns
  • Shorter barrel but a wider muzzle = Broader firing angle, quick reload, and devastating at short range
  • Could be fired from the deck and so would not impinge on the merchantman's carrying capacity
• The Carronade in Action

  • The first use of a carronade was in 1782 by the frigate, HMS Rainbow
  • It caused the surrender of the French ship Hebe after a short fight
  • In 1795, HMS Glatton a rare ship in that it was armed entirely with carronades, was overtaken by a squadron of French ships in the Indian Ocean
  • Thinking that it was easy prey, they came close to it in anticipation of a boarding manoeuvre
  • The fire from HMS Glatton was so devastating that each of the French ships had to withdraw due to being badly damaged
  • During the Battle of Trafalgar, the two 68-pounder carronades on HMS Victory were fired through the stern windows of the French battleship Bucentaure with such force that they cleared the top gun deck
• The Decline and Legacy of the Carronade


  • After the wars against France ended, naval tactics changed
  • As long-barrelled guns became more accurate and quicker, it became better for the British to conduct naval engagements at a distance where their superior gunnery would give them the upper hand
  • With emphasis being placed more on long-range gunnery, carronades, which were only effective at short range, began to be less fashionable
  • Carronades were phased out of Royal Navy service by 1851
  • Carronades showed the power of grapeshot
  • It was devastating against people
  • Development of high explosive shells fired by artillery both on land and at sea owed much to the effectiveness of the naval carronades
  • Shrapnel wounds from high explosive shells would come to be the most common form of wound during WW1
  • The other area that carronades drew attention to was windage
  • There is always a space between the cannonball and the inside of the barrel in order that the ball can be fired
  • Ideally, this gap should be as narrow as possible so that as much of the explosion of gunpowder is used to propel the ball rather than leaking around the sides of it
  • As carronades had a much shorter barrel, the windage could be much tighter, whereas in a longer barrelled gun the windage had to be wider to allow for wear and tear
  • As all carronades and all their ammunition were made by the same manufacturer in Falkirk, the ammunition would be made to be as tight as fit as possible
  • As engineering became more precise and shells with cases became used in rifled barrels, windage ceased to be such an issue
• Congreve's Rockets (1806)


  • The first successful use of rockets by the Royal Navy was part of an attack on Boulogne
  • In October 1806, 24 cutters fired 2,000 rockets at the city
  • The actual damage was limited, but the psychological effect on both the fire and the target was massive
  • The unpredictable flight path of the rocket, along with the smoke and noise and the extent of the damage, made the rocket a powerful weapon
  • The Navy then used the same method but added conventional weapons to bombard Copenhagen in 1807
  • The effect of a mixed barrage was much bigger than rockets alone
  • Rockets were also used during the war of 1812 against the USA
  • The most notable action was against Fort McHenry in 1814 during the Battle of Baltimore
  • The fierce bombardment lasted over 24 hours, though in this case did not achieve the surrender of the fort
  • The experience at Fort McHenry showed the problem with the rockets
  • They were loud and frightening, the inaccuracy of them meant that well-protected troops were unlikely to be physically affected by anything other than direct hits
  • The navy used rockets for ship-to-shore bombardment
  • Rocket rails, along which the rocket was launched, were easy to fix on board and ships were useful for carrying large numbers of rockets
  • Also, rockets had a greater range than conventional guns
  • Ships could then anchor outside gun range and still use rockets to attack onshore targets, like forts or harbours
  • Drawback was that their flightpath was erratic and they did not cause the same damage as canister or cannonballs
• Rockets in the Army

  • There was much opposition to the introduction of rockets into the army
  • Some veterans of the Indian campaigns, such as the Duke of Wellington, were reminded of their lack of accuracy and remembered how, in some cases, they could be as big a threat to the fires as to the target
  • Other generals were naturally conservative and regarded the new weapon as frivolous and unneeded
  • Used in Battle of Leipzig and Battle of Waterloo
• The end of the Congreve Rockets

  • They were used after 1815, just their inaccuracy problems were not solved
  • They were used as part of the naval bombardment of Algiers in 1816, which destroyed the pirate fleet anchored there and forced the city to surrender
  • Land forces were to use Congreve rockets during the First Burma War with some success
  • Their deployment was made difficult by the rough roads
  • It also became clear that the rockets did not store well; they lost potency and they reacted badly to extreme temperatures
  • The problems with Congreve rockets became more obvious as the wars in which the British were involved shifted focus from a European theatre to colonial conflicts
  • Once again, it was left to an individual to improve rocket design and in the 1840s, the British inventor William Hale patented a new rocket, which used spin to improve accuracy
  • The new rocket was quickly adopted by the US army and was adopted by the British army in the 1860s
  • Though still for use in very limited numbers
  • As the 19th century wore on, rockets were taken out of service due to the massive advances in steel artillery
• William Armstrong's New Artillery (1859-60)

  • Traditionally, firepower weapons had been loaded through the muzzle
  • This meant ramming the gunpowder down the barrel before the projectile was placed
  • Thus, re-arming a muzzle-loading weapon was a complex process
  • Having so much gunpowder igniting in the barrel also meant that the inside of the barrel would quickly become fouled and, thereby, less effective
  • The answer to this was to load through the breach, a hole or chamber closer to the fire
  • This meant that the weapon did not need to be moved so much and that the reloading process was much simpler
  • Breech-loading ammunition also needed to be self-contained in a single unit
  • This is so that the gunpowder and bullet would be loaded together rather than separately
  • The first breech-loading cannon in Britain was developed by the Armstrong Company at the Elswick works in Northumberland
  • Having originally contacted the War Office with their proposal for a new design in 1854, the first practical field gun was ready in 1858
• Armstrong's new cannon


  • Sir William Armstrong was an industrialist and inventor from the north-east of England
  • Armstrong set about designing a new cannon for the Royal Artillery because of the problems highlighted in the Crimean War
  • He was told that his 5-pounder gun was too small and so he set about making the 18-pounder
  • The design was meant to overcome the traditional problems faced by artillery: Slow loading time, barrel wear and poor accuracy
  • It was widely understood in Europe that the answers to these problems lay in the development of a reliable, robust, breech-loading cannon
  • Projectiles were now coated in a soft metal that expanded slightly when the gun was fired which would grip the rifling inside the barrel and put more spin on the shell and so it would not wear down the barrel as quickly
  • Thanks to these new shells devised by Armstrong, but based on the principle of the Minie ball, problems of barrel wear and accuracy were solved
• Armstrong's guns and the armed forces

  • The army adopted the 12-pounder breech loader in 1859 and a battery of these guns saw service in the New Zealand Wars in 1861
  • It was found that the guns required more maintenance and a higher level of crew training that the army were prepared for and the ammunition was more expensive than that required for muzzleloaders
  • The army reverted to muzzle-loaders, which were simpler and cheaper
  • Breech-loading artillery became the norm from the 1880s onwards
  • Initially the BL 12-pound was the main field gun with a lighter version used by the horse artillery
  • Both 12-pounders were used during the Boers Wars augmented by a field version of the navy's quick firing 12-pounder
  • By WW1, larger guns were being used in numbers on the Western Front, many of which were designed by the Armstrong Company
  • The Royal Navy also adopted Armstrong's 12-pounder, though with a slightly shorter barrel
  • The quick version of the 12-pounder was adopted in 1894 and became the main armament for naval destroyers in both world wars
  • Breech loaders also had a major impact on ship design as larger breech-loading guns needed to be mounted in revolving turrets rather than firing out of holes in the side
• The impact of the Armstrong cannon

  • The rise of the steel rifled breech-loading cannon caused significant changes in warfare on land and at sea
  • The rise of mass forces made the battlefield wider – the field at Waterloo in 1815 was 2 and a half miles wide whereas the Somme battlefield in 1916 was 25 miles, it was the improved range and reliability of weaponry that made them deeper
  • Armstrong's cannon had a big effect on the design of warships
  • Without breech loaders, the switch from broadside firing to turret-mounted guns would not have happened
  • The development of large, heavily armed battleships would not have progressed in the same way
  • The naval race between Britain and Germany in the years before WW1 owes much to the advances made in cannon design
  • On land, the killing power of artillery led to static warfare as men had to rely on trench systems to protect themselves from the cannons of the enemy
  • This meant that ground could only be gained by costly frontal assaults that led to far higher casualties
  • Servicemen in the wars of the 20th century were most likely to be harmed by artillery fire
  • Previously the biggest danger had been sickness
• The effect of breech-loading guns on tactics

  • Smoothbore muzzle-loading artillery had been a useful addition to infantry firepower in the 16th and 17th centuries
  • Guns had either been formed into small batteries or given to infantry brigades
  • Or it had been split into single gun units and given to individual battalions and termed "battalion guns"
  • Development of larger, quicker firing and more reliable cannons changed the way that armies fought battle
  • The most decisive change in the use of artillery was concerned with range
  • The new larger breech loaders were the first guns in history that could fire further than the gunners could see
  • This meant that the gun or battery commander was unable to see the effects of his fire
  • He then had to rely on another soldier, a spotter, to tell him if the fire was falling on the right spot and was effective
  • Signalling became very important and was developed through the use of signal flags, telephone and the radio
  • Early in WW1, aeroplanes were used for spotting artillery
  • Often, artillery would be aimed at points on maps, so it was also important that the army had up-to-date accurate maps
• The Vickers Machine Gun (1914-18)

  • The Maxim Gun used the energy of the recoil to expel the used cartridge and bring the next on in
  • The single barrel was surrounded by a sleeve that had water in it to stop overheating
  • It needed a crew to move, set up and service it
  • But it could be fired by one man on his own
  • Claimed that the Maxim gun could fire 600 rounds a minute
  • The Vickers Company acquired the Maxim Nordenfelt Company in 1897 and set about making an improved design of the Maxim gun
  • The principles remained the same, but the Vickers gun was lighter and was to prove more reliable
  • Parts were easier to mass produce and the standard version used the same ammunition as the infantry rifle
  • Like the Maxim, the Vickers needed a crew to operate it, but the gun itself and the tripod were far easier to use
  • At the start of WW1, machine guns were parcelled out to each infantry battalion and cavalry regiment
  • A section of two weapons were assigned to each
  • By 1915, tactical thinking had changed and a light machine gun, the Lewis gun, was being used by infantry battalions
  • Heavier machine guns like the Vickers were re-formed into the Machine Gun Corps and then larger machine units were assigned to divisions
  • Eventually each division had its own machine gun battalion to use as it saw fit
• The impact of the Vickers gun

  • The Vickers gun and other machine guns played a major role in the tactical changes that occurred in WW1
  • Prior to 1914, all warfare had been mobile, with two or more armies shadowing each other until they were both prepared to give battle
  • WW1 was the first conflict of static trench warfare, in which continuous fronts were held and each side tried to break through the front and force the enemy to fall back and give ground
  • The rate of fire of the Vickers gun was a big factor in the development of this warfare style
  • This is because men could no longer operate in open ground without being mown down
  • Machine guns meant that fewer men were needed to hold an area
  • As a single machine gun could deliver the same volume of fire of 40-50 rifle men, a small machine gun unit could fight on equal terms as a large platoon or small company
  • Added to this was the increase in population and the rise of conscript armies
  • This meant that actual numbers of soldiers increased dramatically
  • During the campaign in Belgium and northern France during WW1, both sides held a continuous front from the North Sea to Switzerland throughout most of the conflict
  • Training needed to be better when weapons became more advanced
  • Machine guns had a lot of moving parts that needed to be cleaned
  • Men in these units were specialists who needed training beyond that of the infantryman
• Development of the Tank (1915-18)


  The concept of 'tanks'
• Vickers gun


  • High rate of fire was a big factor in the development of warfare style
• Men could no longer operate in open ground without being mown down due to machine guns
• Machine guns


  Fewer men were needed to hold an area as a single machine gun could deliver the same volume of fire as 40-50 riflemen
• Increase in population and rise of conscript armies meant actual numbers of soldiers increased dramatically
• During WW1, both sides held a continuous front from the North Sea to Switzerland throughout most of the conflict
• Training needed to be better when weapons became more advanced
• Machine guns


  • Had a lot of moving parts that needed to be cleaned
  • Men in these units were specialists who needed training beyond that of the infantryman
• Development of the Tank (1915-18)


  1. Concept of 'tanks'

  2. Used to attack fixed defences

  3. Industrial revolution = vehicles self-powering due to steam and internal combustion engines

  4. Developments in tractors and cars led to consideration of a machine that could move itself

  5. In Britain, the "land ships" programme was supported initially by the Navy and pushed forward by Churchill
• Development of Mark I

  1. First working prototype was "Little Willie" developed in 1915

  2. Showed benefits of caterpillar tracks

  3. Eventual plan was to mount a single pom pom gun and six machine guns

  4. Inventors were not happy with Little Willie's performance

  5. They altered the design to create Big Willie, which was closer to the rhomboidal shaped tanks

  6. Big Willie was renamed Mother and was a combat-ready version called Mark I
• First tanks


  • Large and difficult to operate
  • Their weight made them need very large engines to drive each of the tracks
  • Top speed was a little over walking pace
  • Needed large crews as each individual track required a man to operate
  • No steering, direction determined by relative speed of each track
  • Noise meant communicating inside was by signal only and between tanks was mainly by runner, flag and pigeons
• The tank in action

  1. Debut in September 1916 during the Somme offensive

  2. Mechanical problems meant only 24 of 50 tanks actually worked

  3. Some took part in the attack and helped capture villages

  4. Further developed into Mark IV and Mark V that were used through 1917-18

  5. French and Germans also undertook their own tank programmes
• The most successful tank action of WW1 was at the Battle of Cambrai in November 1917
• Tanks in WW1


  • Only used for massed attacks against fixed positions
  • Used as infantry support weapon, deployed alongside infantry and in combined arm assaults
  • Used to cut pathways through barbed wire and provide mobile fire support
  • Their size and noise held an element of terror for exposed infantrymen
• Civilian involvement in war varies depending on the situation
• Dangers to civilians include physical threats, property damage, and theft by desperate soldiers
• Passing armies can strip the countryside of food, leading to starvation for the population
• Major war involvement was limited in Britain before the English Civil War in the 17th century
• Daily life was relatively normal in Britain until World War I in 1914
• Total war


  Involves the entire population and affects all aspects of daily life, shaping society to maximise the war effort
• Britain has only experienced two total wars in history: World War I and World War II
• Britain's population was primarily agrarian, living in the countryside until the mid-19th century when urbanisation began
• Industrialization led to the emergence of a new wealthy class that made money from industry rather than landowning
• The population of Britain expanded significantly during the 19th century, growing from around 10 million in 1800 to 40 million around 1900
• War had significant economic impacts, both positive and negative, on society
• During the First World War, the government directed people to work in essential industries, mitigating some of the individual economic impacts