• The More Things Change: Weapons of WWI

Weapons of World War One

Article by: Paul Cornish
Theme: The war machine
Published: 29 Jan 2014

Senior Curator Paul Cornish looks at the developments in weaponry technology and strategy
that led to the modern warfare of World War One, which was characterized by deadly new
weapons, trench deadlocks, and immense numbers of casualties.

1914 witnessed the clash of huge armies armed with deadly new weapons that had been developed
during the ‘second industrial revolution’ of the late 19th century. Chief among them was quick-firing
artillery, which could deluge soldiers with hails of deadly lead balls cascading from shrapnel shells.
Meanwhile the bullets fired by rifles and machine guns had gained in range and accuracy and could
cause horrible wounds. By the year’s end a million European soldiers lay dead. The armies were
forced to seek the relative safety of trenches and dugouts. A new type of warfare had been born.

Trench warfare
Old weapons were revived or re-invented to wage trench warfare effectively. Mortars, which offered
frontline troops a portable means of lobbing high explosive bombs into enemy trenches, began to
proliferate. Hand grenades offered similar firepower on a smaller scale to individual soldiers. To the
horror of many commanders, the grenade threatened to supplant the rifle as the infantryman’s chief
weapon. Finally, the most primitive weapons of all, clubs and knives, were used in the grisly business
of hand to hand combat during trench raids, or when ‘cleaning’ – to use the French Army’s
euphemism – a captured position of enemy survivors.

But the armies also sought to break out of the trench deadlock. Innovations such as poison gas –
initially released from cylinders, later delivered by shells – and the tank offered the fleeting hope of a
solution. But the gas was met by effective counter-measures and never became a major cause of
casualties. The early tanks lacked speed, range and reliability. Once committed to battle they were
essentially a ‘one-shot’ weapon. The best answer to the conundrum was found in the development of
artillery.

Once the war became trench-bound, high explosive shells superseded shrapnel as the preferred
munition. All sides strove to increase the number of heavy guns available to them, and risked the
dislocation of their entire economies to produce millions upon millions of shells for them to fire. New
techniques were developed to improve the efficiency of the guns. Air observation – both in the form of
photographic reconnaissance and in spotting for the gunners – was the key.

Breaking-in
By 1917 attacking troops supported by sufficient artillery could almost guarantee to break into enemy
defenses. The enemy’s guns would be neutralized as far as possible by ‘counter-battery’ fire and its
infantry pinned down by artillery and machine gun barrages. The infantry would advance behind a
‘creeping barrage’ that forced the defenders to keep their heads down. Smoke shells might be used
to cover the advance. New instantaneous fuses allowed high-explosive shells to cut paths through
barbed-wire entanglements. Ground-attack airplanes might be swooping overhead. Any counter-
attack would be met with ‘SOS’ barrages of artillery and machine gun fire.

Of course the infantry still needed to fight its way forward, and it too was aided by new weapons. In
1914 the infantryman had relied almost entirely upon his rifle and bayonet. By 1917 an infantry
platoon would include specialist sections of ‘bombers’ (armed with hand grenades), rifle-grenadiers,
and light machine gunners or automatic riflemen. The latter would pin the enemy down while the
bombers, supported by riflemen, worked themselves into a position from where they could launch the
decisive attack. These new tactics were made possible by the development of light automatic
weapons, which offered small infantry units a level of firepower unknown in 1914.

Breaking-out
But none of these innovations in weaponry alone could deliver the Holy Grail – a breakthrough and a
return to mobile warfare. When this form of warfare re-emerged in 1918 it was as a result of
refinements in the tactics, which maximized the effect of the weapons. Artillery no longer sought to
blast the enemy from its defenses, or even necessarily to kill his troops. Instead, short, but intense
barrages, mixing high explosive and gas, neutralized the enemy’s ability to resist – cutting his
communications, suppressing his artillery fire and disorientating the men. The Germans achieved
breakthroughs in the spring and summer of 1918 by using this sort of barrage and attacking with
highly-trained assault troops. But the latter were a finite commodity and the Allies were eventually
able to counterattack. They did so with grim efficiency. Artillery was still the key, but the French,
British and Americans were able to combine its power with large quantities of tanks (when
serviceable) and superior numbers of aircraft (weather permitting).

Thus the culmination of three years of innovation and tactical development finally led to the breaking
of the deadlock on the Western Front. But this came at a terrible cost. The tactical lessons of 1915–
17 had been learned only with great loss of life. And when mobile warfare returned it brought with it
casualties that rivalled the slaughter of 1914. This was the inescapable nature of a war fought with
modern weapons. In the words of French general Charles Mangin, ‘whatever you do, you lose a lot of
men’.

Source: https://www.bl.uk/world-war-one/articles/weapons-of-world-war-one

Additional Sources to use

This website contains information about all the weapons of WWI and the fighting tactics used.

Source: http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/harrachmemoir.htm
 • The More Things Change: Weapons of WWI

Theme: Transformation of Weapons and Tactics

Revolutionary War fighting tactics
Revolutionary War 1775-1783

British long rifle used Rifle of

in Revolutionary war Colonial Army Gatlin Gun- First machine gun, invented WWI fighting weapons and tactics 1914-1918
1862, Civil War

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September 7, 1776
first submarine Civil War: 1861-1865 Fighting Tactics

Annotation Date Explanation and Relationship to Theme

1775 American Revolution begins

Sept 7, 1776 The 1st submarine

 The More Things Change
Theme: Transformation of Weapons and Tactics
Continuities: Institutions, ideas, and/or problems that endured/did not change/persisted
Economic Social Political Environmental

Changes: What was altered? Were the characteristics of the changes?

Economic Social Political Environmental

Thesis/Claim

The __________________________led to changes in _________________ that helped/improved/increased ____________

However, little changed regarding ____________________________ and _________________________ continued.