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A lot of artillery  was used to clear trenches from a long distance. These were giant bullets fired from giant guns with a-lot of force. The artillery were a feared weapon by the enemy most don’t  see the bombs coming.

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Tanks were introduced in 1916 by the British army. These tanks were bulky and heavy and not very useful. The Germans followed suit with their plan of a tank adding a rotating barrel to take out the enemy without having to turn the tank

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These guns shot out bullets unlike any other gun at the time. Nations feared this treat so dug up trenches to take cover from this treat but often this lead to a stalemate that no side could escape without mass causality.

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Many problems came with having tanks. Nations were finding way to get rid of tanks. Germany build an anti tank gun as a result of the failed experiment the K bullet. This huge gun was devastating for both attacked and attacker. The Germans found success with this experiment it went on to be feared by tank operators.

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The AA gun or ( Anti Aircraft gun) was used to get take out planes from the ground. With the rise of airplanes, many found solutions to deal with this new threat. Tho many couldn't get a plane in the skies by the time the plane reached their trench. AA guns were the most effective weapon to counter aircraft.

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Many nations adapted the bolt action rifle. This made it so the rifle can fire multiple rounds before needing to be reloaded. These rifles had a small compartment where ammo is stored and the bolt brings the bullet to the chamber to be fired.

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The SMG was used later in the war by many nations the first few successful guns are the: MP18(Germany) a gun with a side drum magazine. The BERETTA1918(Italy) witch was a top-loading machine gun, and finally the Ablirator(US) which was an early version of the Thomson SMG.

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A tank is an armored fighting vehicle intended as a primary offensive weapon in front-line ground combat. Tank designs are a balance of heavy firepower, strong armor, and good battlefield mobility provided by tracks and a powerful engine; usually their main armament is mounted in a turret

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A trench is a type of excavation or depression in the ground that is generally deeper than it is wide, and narrow compared with its length.

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BBC's Origins World War 1 Rap Battle CLEAN!

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Shell shock was a term that is used on those men who had panic attacks and other metal issues caused by the war. Around this time mental health wasn't very researched as we do now so when these men expressed realistic mental emotions. This was a sign of cowardliness which lead to many men to be executed due to this affect.

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The spark that set off World War I came on June 28, 1914, when a young Serbian patriot shot and killed Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungaria

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How did WW1 Start? | Causes of the First World War

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trenches where literally disgusting, very badly but soldiers had no other choice than to deal with it , ignore it , not only that but being into a trench was really boring basically just waiting for a war to begin

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reflected a trend toward industrialism and the application of mass-production methods to weaponsand to the technology of warfare in general. This trend began at least fifty years prior to World War Iduring the American Civil War of 1861–1865,[1] and continued through many smaller conflicts in which soldiers and strategists tested new weapons.

Tanks. The Allies began developing these armoured 'landships' in 1915, but the first tanks didn't make their way into battle until the Somme offensive the following year.

At the beginning of the war, Germany had the most advanced chemical industry in the world, accounting for more than 80% of the world's dye and chemical production. Although the use of poison gas had been banned by the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, Germany turned to this industry for what it hoped would be a decisive weapon to break the deadlock of trench warfare. Chlorine gas was first used on the battlefield in April 1915 at the Second Battle of Ypres in Belgium. The unknown gas appeared to be a simple smoke screen, used to hide attacking soldiers, and Allied troops were ordered to the front trenches to repel the expected attack. The gas had a devastating effect, killing many defenders or when the wind direction changed and blew the gas back, many attackers. Because the gas killed the attackers, depending on the wind, a more reliable way had to be made to transmit the gas. It began being delivered in artillery shells.

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After the invention of the plane by the Wright brothers in 1903 planes started to be used in the war as recon. , but later in the war nations mounted machine guns on the planes to counter these planes. Not only machine guns were mounted on planes, bombs were also used to be dropped and place fear into the those on the ground. Those on the ground will be shocked at the sight of these battles. These battles were also nicknamed Dogfights.

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Life in the Trenches WW1 | Trench Warfare Explained

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How did WW1 Start? | Causes of the First World War

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Tanks, Flamethrowers & Gas (Weapons of World War 1)

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History >>World War I

Aviation and Aircraft of WWI

World War I was the first major war where airplanes were used as a significant part of the military. The airplane was invented by the Wright Brothers in 1903, just 11 years before the start of World War I. When the war first began, aircraft played a small role in warfare, but, by the end of the war, the air force had become an important branch of the armed forces.

German Albatros by a German official photographer
German fighter planes lined up for takeoff

Reconnaissance

The first use of airplanes in World War I was for reconnaissance. The airplanes would fly above the battlefield and determine the enemy's movements and position. One of the first major contributions of airplanes in the war was at the First Battle of the Marne where Allied reconnaissance planes spotted a gap in the German lines. The Allies attacked this gap and were able to split the German armies and drive them back.

Bombings

As the war progressed, both sides began to use aircraft to drop bombs on strategic enemy locations. The first planes used for bombings could only carry small bombs and were very vulnerable to attack from the ground. By the end of the war, faster long-range bombers were built that could carry a much larger weight of bombs.

Machine Guns and Dogfights

With more planes taking to the skies, enemy pilots began to fight each other in the air. At first, they tried throwing grenades at each other or shooting with rifles and pistols. This didn't work very well.

Pilots soon found that the best way to shoot down an enemy plane was with a mounted machine gun. However, if the machine gun was mounted at the front of the plane, the propeller would get in the way of the bullets. An invention called an "interrupter" was invented by the Germans that allowed the machine gun to be synchronized with the propeller. Soon all fighter planes used this invention.

With mounted machine guns, pilots often fought enemy pilots in the air. These fights in the air were called dogfights. The best of the pilots became famous and were nicknamed "aces."

The British Sopwith Camel fighter plane

Types of WWI Aircraft

Each side used a number of different airplanes throughout the war. Constant improvements were made in the design of the planes as the war progressed.

Bristol Type 22 - British two-seater fighter plane.

Fokker Eindecker - Single-seat German fighter plane. The Fokker was perhaps the most famous fighter plane during WWI as it introduced the synchronized machine gun and provided Germany with air superiority for a period of time during the war.

Siemens-Schuckert - Single-seat German fighter plane.

Sopwith Camel - Single-seat British fighter plane.

Handley Page 0/400 - Long range British bomber.

Gotha G V - Long range German bomber.

WWI Airplane Markings

When the war first started, the planes were just regular planes without any military markings. Unfortunately, ground troops would try to shoot down any plane they saw and sometimes shot down their own plane. Eventually, countries began to mark their planes under the wing so that they could be identified from the ground. Here are some of the markings used during the war.

Airships

Floating airships were also used during World War I for both reconnaissance and bombings. Germany, France, and Italy all used airships. The Germans made the most use of airships, using them extensively in bombing campaigns over Britain. Airships were often used in naval battles as well.

Famous WWI Fighter Pilots

The best fighter pilots in World War I were called "aces." Every time a fighter pilot shot down another plane, he claimed a "victory." Aces kept track of their victories and became heroes in their respective countries. Here are a few of the most decorated and famous fighter pilots.

Manfred von Richthofen: German, 80 victories. Also known as the Red Baron.

Ernst Udet: German, 62 victories. Famous for using a parachute to survive getting shot down.

Werner Voss: German, 48 victories.

Edward Mannock: British, 73 victories. The most victories of any British ace.

William A. Bishop: Canadian, 72 victories.

Rene Fonck: French, 75 victories. The most victories of any Allied ace.

Georges Guynemer: French, 53 victories.

Eddie Rickenbacker: American, 26 victories. The most victories of any American ace.

Interesting Facts about the Aviation and Aircraft of WWI

The Fokker Eindecker airplane became known as the Fokker Scourge when it was first used against the Allies by the Germans.

The Germans called their airships Zeppelin's after their builder Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin.

The first aircraft carriers were constructed during World War I. The first time a carrier-based airplane attacked a land target was in July of 1918 near the end of the war.

The planes used in WWI were much slower than the planes used today. Top speeds were usually just over 100 miles per hour. The Handley Page bomber topped out at about 97 miles per hour.

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History >>World War I

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Learn about aviation and aircraft of World War I. Airplanes were first used in WW1 for reconnaissance and bombings. Famous fighter pilots called aces fought each other in the sky.

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by A. Torrey McLean
Reprinted with permission from Tar Heel Junior Historian, Spring 1993.
Tar Heel Junior Historian Association, NC Museum of History

See also: WWI: Life on the Western Front

One of the saddest facts about World War I is that millions died needlessly because military and civilian leaders were slow to adapt their old-fashioned strategies and tactics to the new weapons of 1914. New technology made war more horrible and more complex than ever before. The United States and other countries felt the effects of the war for years afterwards.

The popular image of World War I is soldiers in muddy trenches and dugouts, living miserably until the next attack. This is basically correct. Technological developments in engineering, metallurgy, chemistry, and optics had produced weapons deadlier than anything known before. The power of defensive weapons made winning the war on the western front all but impossible for either side.

When attacks were ordered, Allied soldiers went "over the top," climbing out of their trenches and crossing no-man's-land to reach enemy trenches. They had to cut through belts of barbed wire before they could use rifles, bayonets, pistols, and hand grenades to capture enemy positions. A victory usually meant they had seized only a few hundred yards of shell-torn earth at a terrible cost in lives. Wounded men often lay helpless in the open until they died. Those lucky enough to be rescued still faced horrible sanitary conditions before they could be taken to proper medical facilities. Between attacks,the snipers, artillery, and poison gas caused misery and death.

Airplanes, products of the new technology, were primarily made of canvas, wood, and wire. At first they were used only to observe enemy troops. As their effectiveness became apparent, both sides shot planes down with artillery from the ground and with rifles, pistols, and machine guns from other planes. In 1916, the Germans armed planes with machine guns that could fire forward without shooting off the fighters' propellers. The Allies soon armed their airplanes the same way, and war in the air became a deadly business. These light, highly maneuverable fighter planes attacked each other in wild air battles called dogfights. Pilots who were shot down often remained trapped in their falling, burning planes, for they had no parachutes. Airmen at the front did not often live long. Germany also used its fleet of huge dirigibles, or zeppelins, and large bomber planes to drop bombs on British and French cities. Britain retaliated by bombing German cities.

Back on the ground, the tank proved to be the answer to stalemate in the trenches. This British invention used American-designed caterpillar tracks to move the armored vehicle equipped with machine guns and sometimes light cannon. Tanks worked effectively on firm, dry ground, in spite of their slow speed, mechanical problems, and vulnerability to artillery. Able to crush barbed wire and cross trenches, tanks moved forward through machine gun fire and often terrified German soldiers with their unstoppable approach.

Chemical warfare first appeared when the Germans used poison gas during a surprise attack in Flanders, Belgium, in 1915. At first, gas was just released from large cylinders and carried by the wind into nearby enemy lines. Later, phosgene and other gases were loaded into artillery shells and shot into enemy trenches. The Germans used this weapon the most, realizing that enemy soldiers wearing gas masks did not fight as well. All sides used gas frequently by 1918. Its use was a frightening development that caused its victims a great deal of suffering, if not death.

Both sides used a variety of big guns on the western front, ranging from huge naval guns mounted on railroad cars to short-range trench mortars. The result was a war in which soldiers near the front were seldom safe from artillery bombardment. The Germans used super-long-range artillery to shell Paris from almost eighty miles away. Artillery shell blasts created vast, cratered, moonlike landscapes where beautiful fields and woods had once stood.

Perhaps the most significant technological advance during World War I was the improvement of the machine gun, a weapon originally developed by an American, Hiram Maxim. The Germans recognized its military potential and had large numbers ready to use in 1914. They also developed air-cooled machine guns for airplanes and improved those used on the ground, making them lighter and easier to move. The weapon's full potential was demonstrated on the Somme battlefield in July 1916 when German machine guns killed or wounded almost 60,000 British soldiers in only one day.

At sea, submarines attacked ships far from port. In order to locate and sink German U-boats, British scientists developed underwater listening devices and underwater explosives called depth charges. Warships became faster and more powerful than ever before and used newly invented radios to communicate effectively. The British naval blockade of Germany, which was made possible by developments in naval technology, brought a total war to civilians. The blockade caused a famine that finally brought about the collapse of Germany and its allies in late 1918. Starvation and malnutrition continued to take the lives of German adults and children for years after the war.

The firing stopped on November 11, 1918, but modern war technology had changed the course of civilization. Millions had been killed, gassed, maimed, or starved. Famine and disease continued to rage through central Europe, taking countless lives. Because of rapid technological advances in every area, the nature of warfare had changed forever, affecting soldiers, airmen, sailors, and civilians alike.
A. Torrey McLean, a former United States Army officer who served in Vietnam, studied World War I for more than thirty years, personally interviewing a number of World War I veterans.

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by A. Torrey McLean Reprinted with permission from Tar Heel Junior Historian, Spring 1993. Tar Heel Junior Historian Association, NC Museum of History See also: WWI: Life on the Western Front One of the saddest facts about World War I is that millions died needlessly because military and civilian leaders were slow to adapt their old-fashioned strategies and tactics to the new weapons of 1914.

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German Submarine Warfare in World War 1 I THE GREAT WAR Special

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World War One (ALL PARTS) (2021 Re-edit)

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12 Technological Advancements of World War I

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Erik Sass has been covering the events leading up to World War I exactly 100 years after they happened. But today he’s here to discuss some inventions of The Great War.

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This big balloon was used by the Germans to put fear into the enemy. This monster was also used on civilians terrifying them one October night in 1915. These huge machines also experienced many problems like : exploding, and being a big target during dogfights

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World War One
Starvation

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What It Was Like To Be a Trench Soldier in WWI

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What life was like for World War I soldiers in the trenches

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World War I was a war of trenches.

After the early war of movement in the late summer of 1914, artillery and machine guns forced the armies on the Western Front to dig trenches to protect themselves. Fighting ground to a stalemate. Over the next four years, both sides would launch attacks against the enemy's trench lines, attacks that resulted in horrific casualties.

Inside a trench, all that is visible is just a few feet on either side, ending at the trench walls in front and back, with a patch of leaden sky visible above. Trenches in WWI were constructed with sandbags, wooden planks, woven sticks, tangled barbed wire or even just stinking mud.

Despite the use of wooden plank 'duckboards' and sandbags to keep out the water, soldiers on the front lines lived mired in mud. "The mud in Belgium varies in consistency from water to about the thickness of dough ready for the oven," one British infantry soldier wrote. The constant damp often led to a condition known as 'trenchfoot,' which if left untreated, could require amputation to stave off severe infection or even death.

Trenches became trash dumps of the detritus of war: broken ammunition boxes, empty cartridges, torn uniforms, shattered helmets, soiled bandages, shrapnel balls, bone fragments. Trenches were also places of despair, becoming long graves when they collapsed from the weight of the war.

'No-man's land,' was an ancient term that gained terrible new meaning during WWI. The constant bombardment of modern artillery and rapid firing of machine guns created a nightmarish wasteland between the enemies' lines, littered with tree stumps and snarls of barbed wire. In battle, soldiers had to charge out of the trenches and across no-man's land into a hail of bullets and shrapnel and poison gas. They were easy targets and casualties were enormously high. By the end of 1914, after just five months of fighting, the number of dead and wounded exceeded four million men.

The trench systems on the Western Front were roughly 475 miles long, stretching from the English Channel to the Swiss Alps, although not in a continuous line. Though trenches offered some protection, they were still incredibly dangerous, as soldiers easily became trapped or killed because of direct hits from artillery fire.

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World War I was a war of trenches. After the early war of movement in the late summer of 1914, artillery and machine guns forced the armies on the Western Front to dig trenches to protect themselves. Fighting ground to a stalemate.

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WWI Christmas in the Trenches - December 25th 1914