James

= The Weaponry of World War One =

How important were tanks?
'Tanks' were first designed by Winston Churchill's Landship Committee in 1915 although Leonardo Da Vinci had designs for a tank like machine as early as 1485. The first series of tanks, the British made 'Mark I', were created in 1916. They were manned by a crew of 8, and were equipped with two 6-pound guns (the 6 pounds was the weight of the shell fired), and 4 machine guns. They first apperead at the battle of the Somme. They terrified the German defenders at Flers-Courcelette, and after three days of fighting, the British were able to capture 2 kilometers of German held territory. However, some tanks broke down in the mud, the tanks were not sent out in 'en masse' and the larger offensive was a failure. Even so, the tanks brought a boost of morale to the British front, and were a major asset in clearing out trenches and destroying machine-gun and artillery positions. Tank designs continued to be uprgraded during the war, with different versions of the Mark I being improved upon. All sides in the war began to realise the power of the tank and began to develop their own. Because of their use in WWI, tanks would later come to be a major asset in WWII.

What were the common infantry weapons used by the countries at war?
All sides in the war used bolt-action rifles. While officers, airmen, and tank crews were equipped with pistols, the bolt action rifle was the mainstay of the infantry. Airmen and tank crews used pistols because of the limited amount of space inside their vehciles.

The bolt action rifle was used because light weight, hand held, portable machine guns did not exist. The bolt-action rifles were slower to fire then machine guns, but were fairly easy to operate. The gun operated by pulling back the bolt and placing a clip of bullets into the rifle. You then pushed the bolt back into position. Then, as you fired the gun, you pulled back the bolt, which allowed the shell casing of the fired bullet to fling out of the gun so that the next bullet could be fired. By attaching a scope to the rifle, one could use the gun as a sniper rifle. The bolt action rifle design was used by all sides in the war and was mass produced. The following is a description of the main rifles used:

The Germans used the Mauser Gewher 98. This gun, while dependable and accurate, was not a rapid fire weapon because of the positioning of the bolt mechanism. It could fire up to 5 shots before reloading. It was a good sniper rifle.

The UK used the British Lee Enfield Rifle. This gun could hold up to ten bullets at a time, and because of the positioning of the bolt, could be rapidly fired. A well trained soldier could shoot off around twelve bullets a minute.

   The French used the Fusil d'Infanterie Modele 1907, which held only three bullets in a clip. The clip capacity was increased during the war years, and the rifle itself was fairly good, and quite popular.

The USA used the U.S. Springfield. It held 5 rounds in a clip and was reliable in the field. However, it was not produced in large amounts, so around 1/2 of the American forces were equiped with the British Enfield. Bolt action rifles continued to be used even into WWII, although better rifles and portable machine guns were used, and they began to take the place of the bolt action as the main weapon of the infantry. Bolt action rifles can still be found as sniper rifles in some modern armies.

Which gases were used and what were their effects?
Poison gases were first used by the French in 1914, who used tear gas against the German advance. The Germans realized the potential of using gases in warfare, and began to use tear gas too. In 1915, at the Second battle of Ypres, the Germans succesfully used chlorine gas against a French-Algerian line, creating a four mile gap in the Allied line, although they (the Germans) failed to take the area. The Germans attempted to use chlorine gas against the Russians in the East, but the bitter cold meant that the gas could not properly work. At the Battle of the Somme, the Germans used a new gas, 'phosgene'. In 1917, the Germans invented mustard gas, which they used quite effectivley on the Eastern Front against the Russians. Although the allies used chlorine gas, the Germans remained at the forfront of this deadly new technology. However, gases were not the war winning weapons that they had been predicted to be. Each country soon devloped gas masks and respirators to allow their troops to survive gas attacks, and as the war went along, deaths from gas would become rare. The use of gas weapons in war was outlawed after WWI, although the Nazis would go on to use poison gases against Jews in the concentration camps..

Effects of the gases:


 * Chlorine gas**: This gas affected the respritory system, and made the victim cough and choke. It was a yellow-green color.


 * Phosgene**: This gas did not cause the victim to cough and choke. Instead, it had a delayed posing effect. It could take up to 48 hours to reach its full effect, and during those 48 hours, a soldier could appear to be normally healthy even though he was being slowly poisoned. It had a white color.


 * Mustard Gas**: Deadlier than either chlorine or phosgene, mustard gas caused blisters both outside and inside the body. It also poisned the ground, making trenches 'infected' for weeks. It was odorless.

Russia suffered the most deaths from gas attacks (56,000 died from gas attacks), while the United States suffered the least (1,462 deaths from gas attacks). The British Empire lost 8,109 from gas, France lost 8,000, and Germany lost 9,000.

Three Useful Weblinks

 * [|www.firstworldwar.com] ---__**extremley useful**__ because it contains lots of good general information about WWI. I used this site to get my information about the rifles and gases.
 * http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/FWWflers.htm---this had a good summary of information about tanks and thier use in the battle of Flers-Courcelette.
 * http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/launch_ani_mark_one_tank.shtml ---some good information about the Mark I tank.