Technology and Tactics WWI

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Technology and TacticsWWI
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Defensive War

• New technology made this a defensive war
• Machine guns made traditional attacks impossible
• Attempts to break stalemate failed so both sides
  turned to new technology

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Gas

• Chlorine gas used by Germans in 1915
• Mustard gas used by both sides
• Weakness wind could blow gas back towards your
  side

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Tanks

• Used by British at Battle of the Somme, 1916
• Very unreliable, broke down
• Huge morale boost
• Improved throughout the war

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At Sea

• New and more powerful ships (dreadnaughts)
  developed
• German submarines (U-Boats) posed great threat
• Convoy system introduced (traveled together)

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In the Air

• Planes used for scouting, dropping bombs by hand
• Later fixed machine guns dogfights
• German airships (dirigibles) called Zeppelins
  bombed London and other cities

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New Kind of Warfare

• Death and destruction on a scale never
  experienced before
• Each new technological development brought
  further destruction
• No one invention decisive but sides quickly
  copied each other