WWI Military Technology

Modern Military Technology

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The enormous casualties suffered on the Western Front were due in part to the destructive power of modern weapons. Two significant weapons were the rapid-fire machine gun and the long-range artillery gun. Machine guns mowed down waves of soldiers. Artillery allowed troops to shell the enemy from more than 10 miles away. The shrapnel, or flying debris from artillery shells, killed or wounded even more soldiers than the guns.

Multiple Choice

How far away could artillery weapons hit their enemies?

• 1 mile

• 5 miles

• 10 miles

• 20 miles

​Analyze this image. How does it make you feel? What emotions come to mind?

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What feelings/emotions do you feel when looking at the previous image? How do you think those soldiers felt?

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Poison Gas

Efforts to overcome the stalemate of trench warfare led to the use of poison gas. Early on, the French used tear gas grenades, but by 1915, the Germans began employing poison gas on a large scale. Even though the Allies condemned the use of poison gas, both sides developed and used different kinds of poison gases. Poison gas blinded or choked its victims or caused agonizing burns and blisters. It could be fatal. Though soldiers were eventually given gas masks, poison gas remained one of the most dreaded hazards of the war.

Poison gas was an uncertain weapon. Shifting winds could blow the gas back on the soldiers who launched it. As both sides invented masks to protect against gas attacks, it became less useful. After the war, disgust and horror with the use of poison gas led to its ban in 1925, which is still in effect today.

Multiple Choice

Both the Central Powers and Allies used poison gas

• True

• False

Multiple Choice

Poison Gas was banned after WWI

• True

• False

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Tanks, Airplanes, and Submarines

During World War I, advances in technology, such as the gasoline-powered engine, led the opposing forces to use tanks, airplanes, and submarines against each other. In 1916, Britain introduced the first armored tank. Mounted with machine guns, the tanks were designed to move across no man’s land. Still, the first tanks broke down often. They failed to break the stalemate.

Multiple Choice

Which country introduced the first armored tank?

• Britain

• Russia

• Germany

• France

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Both sides also used aircraft. At first, planes were utilized simply to observe enemy troop movements. In 1915, Germany used zeppelins (zep uh linz), large gas-filled balloons, to bomb the English coast. Later, both sides equipped airplanes with machine guns. Pilots known as “flying aces” confronted each other in the skies. These “dogfights” were spectacular, but had little effect on the course of the war on the ground.

Multiple Choice

Which country used zeppelins?

• France

• Austria

• Britain

• Germany

Multiple Choice

What is it called when planes battle in the air?

• Kamikaze

• Air raids

• Dog fighs

• Dog farts

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Submarines proved much more important. German U-boats, nicknamed from the German word for submarine, Unterseeboot, did tremendous damage to the Allied side, sinking merchant ships carrying vital supplies to Britain. To defend against the submarines, the Allies organized convoys, or groups of merchant ships protected by warships.

Multiple Choice

What was the importance of U-Boats on the war?

• Sank merchant ships carrying supplies to the Allied forces in Britain

• Had undersea battles with Allied submarines

• Spied on Allied warships from under the sea?

• Torpedoed Allies on the beach from the ocean