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Weaponry

Predictions of a fast and very mobile war in Europe were quickly wiped out as the two sides settled into stalemated slaughter in trench warfare along the fronts. The trenches were, initially, supposed to be temporary, but during the cold and wet winter and spring of 1915, both sides simply dug further in and trench living—with its cramped and tense conditions, its rats and lice, its utter lack of mobility or progress—became a staple of the war.

The realities of trench warfare gave rise to a number of technological advancements (one hesitates to call them advancements) in the field of close-range killing. All of these “advancements” not only Horse Gas A soldier outfits his horse with a gas mask. Photo courtesy of Great War Primary Document Archive, www.gwpda.org/photos.) imperiled the soldiers in action, but they served to make the war look all the more gruesome to those both in the war and outside of it.

Poison gas. Gas attacks, employed by both German and Allied forces, did not lead to an overwhelming number of casualties in World War I—gas masks were useful in limiting the effect of the attacks—but they did provide bone-chilling evidence that this war was especially vicious. It wasn’t until late April 1915 that the Germans introduced gas attacks to the Western front, at the Second Battle of Ypres. Here’s how a correspondent for the Daily Chronicle described that attack: “On the evening of the 22nd, the French soldiers who manned the first line trenches saw rising from the German trenches, a short distance away, a number of white fuses, evidently intended as signals. Almost at once all along the German trenches a thick curtain of yellow smoke arose and was blown gently toward the French trenches by a northeast wind. … Some got away in time; but many, alas, not understanding the new danger, were not so fortunate and were overcome by the fumes and died poisoned. Among those who escaped, nearly all cough and spit blood, the chlorine attacking the mucous membrane. The dead were turned black at once.”

Tanks. No weapon better summed up the mechanization of war during World War I than the tank—a big, lumbering (most moved at about 3 or 4 mph) machine possessed of no evidence of humanity from the outside. Armored cars were used in the early part of the war, but they could not handle the terrain of no man’s land, which was uneven and pocked with craters left by artillery shells. The British introduced tanks, also known as “Willies,” to the war at the Somme in September 1916. It didn’t go well. Of the six tanks sent out in that battle, three got Machine Guns French machine gunners working in a trench. Photo courtesy of Great War Primary Document Archive, www.gwpda.org/photos.) stuck in mud and one broke down. It wasn’t until late 1917, at the Battle of Cambrai, that tanks were used in a large group to break enemy lines. The Germans, too, developed tanks, but also had limited success. Though they were great and frightening symbols for what modern warfare had become, tanks were not crucial to either side’s war effort.

Barbed wire. Invented for agricultural purposes in the late 1800s, barbed wire had made appearances in past wars, but it became a fixture in the no man’s land between Allied and German trenches. The armies would put out layers of barbed wire within a few hundred yards of their trenches to help staunch the approach of the enemy. Working mostly at night, “wiring teams” would slip out of the trenches to erect new lines of barbed wire or repair old lines. It was effective—barbed wire would often even stand up in the face of artillery bombardment.

Flamethrowers. The Germans introduced the Flammenwerfer—flamethrower—early in the war, and like many of the war’s weapons, the flamethrower was more frightening than it was effective. The portable German models could reach only 20 yards. The French and British developed flamethrowers, too, though their effect was also limited.

Machine guns. Rapid-fire guns, like the Gatling gun, had been used in combat before, but when World War I broke out, Germany began using the automatic machine gun invented by American Hiram Maxim in 1882. They were valuable, but came with drawbacks. They were heavy and difficult to move. They frequently overheated and required cooling by either water or air. The cartridges frequently malfunctioned. But they were especially useful and became a fixture of trench warfare, in which there was not much movement anyway. To open the war, the Germans had about 12,000 machine guns and would continue to produce thousands more throughout the war—the Allies started with only a few hundred.

Trench mortars. Enemy trenches were usually not far apart—as much as a mile, or as little as 50 yards. That meant the armies required small, light weapons that could be fired from the safety of the trench high into the air, so that they could drop into the enemy trenches from above. This is where trench mortars—as well as hand grenades—were especially effective. A mortar is basically just a hollow tube, from which a shell, containing something like shrapnel, gas or high explosives, could be fired. Initially, few recognized that mortars, perceived as an out-of-date weapon in favor of bigger guns, would be effective in this war. But the Germans were well-stocked with mortars, and as both sides settled into trench warfare, the French and British began using mortars, too.

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