Introduction
The First World War mirrored a technological trend toward the use of mass production procedures to the use of weapons for warfare. This development started half a century before the First World War and persisted in various conflicts in which weapons were brought to test. The Civil War was heavily influenced by new advancements in technology, especially railroads and guns. However, when the First World War began, the United States discovered itself to lack military technology.
The earlier periods of World War I symbolized a clash of the twentieth era technology with the nineteenth era combat in the form of unsuccessful battles with a massive number of casualties. It was not during the final year of the Civil War that the key armies made operative steps in reforming matters of control and command and strategies to implement to the battlefield, and began to harness the countless new technologies to efficient military purposes. Strategic restructurings including changing the emphasis of command went alongside armoured cars, automatic rifles, and submachine guns.
The First World War began in 1914 and it entered the United States on April 1917. The war was rapidly settled down to a dugout warfare stalemate because of the existence of barbed wire and machine guns, and technology appeared to be the single way out. This paper presents some of the advanced weapons used during World War I and their impacts during the war. Poison gas and airplanes, submarines and tanks were created into beneficial weapons. The war led to wartime attempts to create technology for military purposes.
Weapons Used and Their Impacts
Technological advances had a massive effect on the weapons used during the First World War. It witnessed the earliest applications and development of new types of weapons in aviation, chemical warfare, and navy. The First World War likewise witnessed the widespread use of machine guns, armoured tank, and artillery.
A. Poison Gas
The terrifying gas warfare was not witnessed on the battlefield until the year 1915. The Germans invented the poison gas but English and French were not far behind. During the First World War, there were three primary forms of gas warfare namely the tearing agent, the poisonous gases, and the blistering agent. The tearing agent caused temporary blindness and massively inflamed the throat and the nose of the casualty. The poisonous gases included phosgene, chlorine, and diphosgene. These have deadly impacts and are highly toxic. The blistering agent is the highly feared chemical weapons in the First World War. An example of this blistering agent is the mustard gas. It acts on any moist or exposed skin and as soon as it comes into contact with the skin, it generates large blisters. Worse case is that it can spitefully associate in low sites for hours, days, and following its dispersal.
At the start of the war, the country that had the widely advanced chemical industry across the world is Germany. Chlorine gas was initially utilized on the battlefield in 1915. The gas looked like a basic smoke screen that was used to conceal attacking soldiers, and Allied groups were sent to the opposite trenches to prevent the anticipated attack. The gas killed various defenders as they failed to consider the wind and blew the poison gas back to them. Late, phosgene, mustard gas, and other form of gases were also utilized. France and Britain followed and invented their individual gas weapons. The first type of protections against gas were rags drenched in urine or water. Later, comparatively operative gas masks were developed and these gases greatly diminished the usefulness of gas as a defense in warfare. Even though it at times led to brief strategic benefits and possibly caused over a million of casualties, the gas appeared to have no massive impact on the First World War.
B. Air warfare
Warplanes started to appear during the 1914 and were utilized for examination of the movements of the enemy troop as well as that of artillery fire, or to get into close approximation with one another. Compared to other technological advancement, the aircraft had massive improvements during the First World War. While air spotters during the early times were unarmed, they started firing at one another through the use of handheld weapons. Soon after, an arms race started, rapidly resulting to agile planes that contained machine guns. A major innovation made by the Germans was the interrupter gear that enabled a machine gun to be put up at the back of the propeller so the pilot could hit directly ahead.
As the stalemate established their place, with both sides not able to gain advancement, planes became valued for their function in gathering intelligence into the place of the enemy and bombing their supplies at the back of the trench lines. Big planes with an observer and a pilot were utilized to examine the positions of the enemy. Germany became the leader in designing Zeppelins and utilized the airships to generate intermittent bombing attacks on military targets and some British cities without any massive impact.
During the late part of the war, Germany started attacking some English cities. With Zeppelin attacks, there was restricted strategic value of Germany’s bombing to England. Yet, it was depressing and displayed that the British were unable to be totally immune from the impacts of the war in their nation. By inhibiting the enemy's ability to move in secrecy, aerial reconnaissance over the front can be blamed to some degree for the stalemate of trench warfare.
C. Naval warfare
Naval ships were significant for some aspects of the war just as they were significant during the First World War which was fought while the soldiers were at sea. The primary characterization of conflicts was made by the attempts of Allied Powers to prevent Central Powers and by the effort of Central Powers to break it and develop an efficient blockade in France and the United Kingdom. The British invented battleships while the Germans focused on inventing Submarines.
D. Rifles and Pistols
Notwithstanding the many advances in mortar, machine gun, as well as grenade technology, all continued to be considerably cumbersome and unwieldy compared to the rifle which continued to be the most essential infantry weapon during the First World War. Pistols were simply provided to officers instead of regular soldiers.
E. Machine Guns
Machine guns were first utilized during the Civil War in America. Machine guns brought depressing impacts. However, they effectiveness extended in a frightening way during the First World War. America fired up over 600 bullets every minute thereby causing massive destruction.
F. Tanks
Even though the idea of the tank came in 1890, a small number of authorities displayed interest up until the stalemate of the First World War produced serious examination of unending battle and increasing number of casualties. Based on the internal combustion engine and caterpillar track, tanks used in the First World War were fitted with Lewis guns or Maxim form of guns, armour plating, and configured caterpillar tracks to enable an 8-foot wide trench. Early invented tanks were defective and often broke down. The use of tanks offered more opportunities for expansion than the successes of actual battle. It was likewise realized that the strategies had to be created to make full use of the tank. Regardless of their impacts during the First World War, the invention of tanks had been propelled and developed gradually in sophistication in the years following the skirmish.
Conclusion
Other than those mentioned in this paper, there were still advances in technology that had great impacts on the First World War. Germany and Britain and other English nations were among the pioneers of these weapons. Ultimately, the weapons produced caused millions of casualties and became the ultimate sources of defense among nations. Be it at sea, on air, or on land, the weapons created during World War I delivered massive destructions to places and humans.
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