For more information on ww1 weapons, get access to worksheets, study guides, infographs, and other useful material related to World War One by clicking here.
During World War One a variety of weapons were used. The tried-and-true small arms and artillery were prominent features of the battlefield, as they had been for the last three centuries. But in the early 20th century a number of technological innovations created entirely new classes of weapons. These WW1 weapons were responsible for the staggering scale of death from the Great War.
Fortified with unique abilities and gilled with the power to wield mighty weapons at their will this army rallied to stop the bloodshed and regain peace once more. They invaded the Blood Palace in what was to known as the Great Blood War. Here’s What You Need To Know About The Weapons Of War Used In Mass Shootings These rifles are designed to kill as efficiently as possible. Assault-style rifles are relatively cheap and easy to buy. These guns are already everywhere. There are estimated to be millions of assault-style rifles.
Rifle
The main weapon used by British soldiers in the trenches was the bolt-action rifle. 15 rounds could be fired in a minute and a person 1,400 meters away could be killed.
WW1 Weapons: Machine Gun
Machine guns needed 4-6 men to work them and had to be on a flat surface. They had the fire-power of 100 guns.
Large field guns had a long range and could deliver devastating blows to the enemy but needed up to 12 men to work them. They fired shells which exploded on impact.
Gas
The German army were the first to use chlorine gas at the battle of Ypres in 1915. Chlorine gas causes a burning sensation in the throat and chest pains. Death is painful – you suffocate! The problem with chlorine gas is that the weather must be right. If the wind is in the wrong direction it could end up killing your own troops rather than the enemy.
Mustard gas was the most deadly weapon used. It was fired into the trenches in shells. It is colourless and takes 12 hours to take effect. Effects include: blistering skin, vomiting, sore eyes, internal and external bleeding. Death can take up to 5 weeks.
WW1 Weapons: Zeppelin
The Zeppelin, also known as blimp, was an airship that was used during the early part of the war in bombing raids by the Germans. They carried machine guns and bombs. However, they were abandoned because they were easy to shoot out of the sky.
WW1 Weapons: Tank
Tanks were used for the first time in the First World War at the Battle of the Somme. They were developed to cope with the conditions on the Western Front. The first tank was called ‘Little Willie’ and needed a crew of 3. Its maximum speed was 3mph and it could not cross trenches.
The more modern tank was not developed until just before the end of the war. It could carry 10 men, had a revolving turret and could reach 4mph.
Planes
Planes were also used for the first time. At first they were used to deliver bombs and for spying work but became fighter aircraft armed with machine guns, bombs and some times cannons. Fights between two planes in the sky became known as ‘dogfights’
Torpedoes
Torpedoes were used by submarines. The Germans used torpedoes to blow up ships carrying supplies from America to Britain.
The Germans torpedoed the passenger liner Lusitania on May 1st 1915 which sank with a loss of 1,195 lives. Americans were outraged and joined the war in 1917 on the side of the allies.
This article is part of our extensive collection of articles on the Great War. Click here to see our comprehensive article on World War 1.
Cite This Article
'World War One – Weapons' History on the Net© 2000-2020, Salem Media.
January 13, 2020 <https://www.historyonthenet.com/world-war-one-weapons>
More Citation Information.
Depth charge
Depth charges were first developed by the Royal Navy during World War I to combat German submarines.Military aircraft
World War I was a crucible for military aircraft development. Between 1914 and 1918, planes advanced from barely airworthy craft to effective weapons platforms.Rifle
Infantry weapons underwent a massive change in the late 19th century, as repeating rifles entered widespread use. The World War I infantryman could produce a volume of fire that dwarfed that of his mid-19th-century predecessors.Zeppelin
German airships achieved moderate success in long-range bombing operations, as Zeppelins could attain higher altitudes than the airplanes of the era.Chemical weapons
Chemical weapons, such as diphosgene and mustard gas, were employed extensively on the Western Front.Artillery
Artillery literally shaped the battlefield in World War I. It ranged in size from the French 75-mm field gun to the massive 420-mm Big Bertha and the 210-mm Paris Gun.Cavalry
Despite the advances in technology, cavalry retained a significant role in World War I, and horses died by the millions in the conflict.Battleship
The age of the battleship reached its apotheosis in World War I, as even the Dreadnought, the archetypal 'big-gun' ship, found itself outgunned. Super dreadnoughts, such as the HMS Orion, ruled the waves; their reign was short, however, as developments in naval aviation would soon render such ships obsolete.Machine gun
Machine guns were an exceptionally lethal addition to the battlefield in World War I. Heavy guns, such as the Maxim and Hotchkiss, made “no man's land” a killing zone, and Isaac Newton Lewis's light machine gun saw widespread use at the squad level and as an aircraft armament.Tank
Tanks were used primarily in a supporting role. The armoured vehicle would not truly come into its own until the doctrines of J.F.C. Fuller and Basil Liddell Hart were more widely adopted in World War II.Unexploded ordnance
The French government estimates that millions of unexploded shells from World War I remain buried or undiscovered in the French countryside. Every year, bomb-clearing units remove more than 40 tons of unexploded munitions from the Verdun area alone.