Weapons of World War I

Weapons of World War I — page 1
DEADLY NEW WEAPONS Most military leaders didn’t fully understand how the new weapons of World War I changed how modern wars were fought Millions of soldiers died before those lessons would be learned A British S E 5 biplane By the time World War I erupted in 1914 the world was quickly changing New machines were being invented at a dizzying pace That included weapons Not only did huge armies clash during the war so did old and new technologies Millions of horses galloped across Europe even as huge metal tanks rumbled over the bomb craters and barbed wire of no-man’s-land Sabers and single-shot rifles competed with machines guns that could kill or maim hundreds of soldiers every minute World War I is famous for introducing or improving several kinds of deadly weapons Tanks were invented to break through the stalemate of trench warfare Machine guns helped stop the massed attacks that had worked so well in previous wars Poison gas submarines huge battleships airplanes and improved artillery all added up to warfare that was more lethal than the world had ever seen