WWI

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WWI "The Modern War"
New Technologies
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Single Shot Rifle

• Soldiers were issued a single shot rifle like the
  one you see below.
• The disadvantage to this rifle was its inability
  to shoot long distances.

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Machine Guns

• firepower equivalent of 60-100 rifles
• heavy, hard to move
• positioned on a flat tripod
• required a gun crew of four to six operators
• reality rapidly overheated and become
  inoperative without the aid of cooling mechanisms

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• fired in short rather than sustained bursts 
• cooling generally took one of two forms water
  cooled (one gallon water jackets) and air cooled
  (air vents)

• water cooled machine guns would still overheat
  relatively quickly (sometimes within two minutes)
  
• large supplies of water would need to be on hand
  in the heat of a battle or they urinated on them
• result machine guns would often be grouped
  together to maintain a constant defensive
  position.

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Trenches A response to machine guns
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Trench network in France
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• WWI began with sweeping advances by the Germans
  through Belgium and France towards Paris 
• Advances not restored until towards the close of
  the war
• Trench warfare began

• Trench warfare was essentially the warfare of
  stalemate- nobody really advanced
• Death was everywhere- by raid or attack, peeking
  over the edge, (many died in their first day),
  disease, etc.

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The Realities of Trench Life

• Cold
• Rain
• Snow
• Humidity
• Heat

• Mud
• Waste
• Rats
• Rotting feet
• Lice
• Disease

• Death

• Fear

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• Mud
• Sticky, smelly, wet
• Boots/ weapons got stuck
• Water did not drain

• Waste
• Latrine pits dug to a depth of 4-6 feet and
  usually approached by a short trench
• provided an all-pervading smell
• chemicals used to try to cover smell just as bad

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• Rats
• thrived literally in their millions
• a single rat couple could produce up to 900
  offspring in a year, spreading infection and
  contaminating food
• Empty food cans were piled in their thousands
  throughout No Mans Land, heaved over the top of
  the trenches on a daily basis
• rats ate rotting food in such cans or invade
  dug-outs in search of food and shelter
• crawled across the face of sleeping men
• the sound of rats constantly ferreting in No
  Man's Land kept men awake all night
• rats openly fed on the decaying remains of
  soldiers killed while advancing across No Man's
  Land

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• Rotting feet
• Trench foot- a fungal infection of the feet
  caused by cold, wet and unsanitary trench
  conditions
• could turn gangrenous and result in amputation
• 20,000 casualties resulting from trench foot
  suffered by the British Army alone during the
  close of 1914

• Lice
• Bred in the seams of filthy clothing and caused
  men to itch unceasingly
• when clothing was washed and deloused, lice eggs
  remained hidden in the seams
• within a few hours of the clothes being re-worn
  the body heat generated would cause the eggs to
  hatch.

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• Disease- Trench Fever
• Chief symptoms- headaches, skin rashes, inflamed
  eyes and leg pains

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Weather

• went from extreme heat to extreme cold
• lack of equipment and protection

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The Smell

• Cordite (an explosive powder)
• the lingering odor of poison gas
• rotting sandbags
• stagnant mud
• cigarette smoke
• cooking food

• rotting carcasses lay around in their thousands
• overflowing latrines
• no bathing- sweat, smelly feet, etc.
• creosol or chloride of lime, used to stave off
  the constant threat of disease and infection

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Barbed Wire
Set up in no mans land to discourage attacks
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Poison Gas

• Caused blindness and nausea
• Destroyed respiratory system
• Caused blisters, skin burns
• Caused death from choking

• Types used- chlorine, phosgene, mustard gas,
  nerve gas
• Gas masks were essential

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Casualties from Gas

• Austria-Hungary- 100,000 injured, 3,000 dead
• British Empire- 188,706 injured, 8,109 dead
• France- 190,000 injured, 8,000 dead
• Germany- 200,000 injured, 9,000 dead
• Italy- 60,000 injured, 4,627 dead
• Russia- 419,345 injured, 6,000 dead
• USA- 72,807 injured, 1,462 dead
• Others- 10,000 injured, 1,000 dead

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• Mortars

• a short, stumpy tube designed to fire a
  projectile at a steep angle (by definition higher
  than 45 degrees) so that it falls straight down
  on the enemy

• chief advantage - it could be fired from the
  (relative) safety of the trench, avoiding
  exposure of the mortar crews to the enemy

• lighter and more mobile than other, larger
  artillery pieces

• the mortar bomb fell almost straight down so
  that it would (with luck) land smack in the enemy
  trench.

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Flamethrowers

• The basic idea of a flamethrower is to spread
  fire by launching burning fuel
• Used mostly to clear forward defenders preceding
  the infantry
• Useful when used at short-range, but not for
  long-distance fighting
• When using, the cylinder carrying the fuel might
  unexpectedly explode then they were marked men
  (rifle fire was then centered on the
  flamethrowers)

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Tanks

• Armored vehicles used to support infantry attacks
• Named for their shape resembling a water tank
• Britain and France produced the most- 4,000-5,000
  per country
• Able to cut through barbed wire, approach and
  fire on a trench, engage in tank-to-tank combat

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Aircraft

• Used for observing enemy armies, shooting and
  bombing troops, and air-to-air combat
• Dyragables, balloons and airplanes were used
• When war broke out the number of aircraft on all
  sides and all fronts was very small
• France- less than 140 aircraft at the start of
  the war, by the end of the war- 4,500 aircraft 

• France produced no less than 68,000
  aircraft during the war but 52,000 of them were
  lost in battle- a loss rate of 77
• Not a primary weapon but became more useful as
  time went on

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• Terrorized merchant ships, passenger ships and
  military ships
• Totally undetectable until the end of the war-
  radar and sonar developed

• Developed by Germany but later used by the allied
  forces
• Aircraft were used to keep them underwater

Submarines- U-Boats
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Before and After
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The End Result
Each symbol represents 100,000 dead
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