Riley Thomas 1

Ben R. Thomas Mr. Lepage World History 20 March 2011 The Weapons Make the War I do not know with what weapons World War 3 will be fought, but World War 4 will be fought with sticks and stones.- Albert Einstein(I do not know with 6). As Albert Einstein puts it clearly, weapons will continue to become so daunting that mankinds progression in weaponry will soon be swept away entirely. The main progression of modern artillery ignited in the time of the World War I, 1914-1918, between the Central Powers of Europe and the Allied Powers of the world. In World War I, the creation of weapons like the machine gun, the flame thrower, grenades, poison gases, and tanks brought numerous victories, hundreds of defeats, and thousands of the deaths, which in turn, immensely affected the overall outcome of the war. When most people think of World War I and the weapons that were developed during that time period, they think of the creation of the machine gun. The machine gun in 1914 was far different from what we now think of as a machine gun, it was positioned on a flat tripod and required a gun crew of about 5 soldiers. The inventor of this magnificent weapon was a German that went by the name of Hiram Maxim. His first invention was the Gatling gun that was developed in around 1862. From then on Hiram Maxim created a killing machine, which was air cooled, shot up to 600 rounds per minute, and had a smokeless cartridge. By the time the late 1880s came around Hiram Maxim had nearly perfected his idea of the machine gun and offered his weapon to Great Britain as his first customer. To his surprise the British armies high commanders, saw no real use for the oil-cooled machine gun he had presented to them in 1885. This poor decision by the British army could have very well been the cause to thousands upon thousands of deaths. About 10 years later Hiram Maxim somewhere where he thought his killing machine could be put to immense use, Germany. The Germans quickly developed an intense liking for the machine guns on the battlefield. The weapon was quickly integrated into the German Military. The Germans created and set up several separate machine gun companies to support the infantry units. The 1914, the start of World War I, the German Military had around 100,000 machine guns at their finger tips. As the machine guns were strategically posted up along the German trenches they became a killing machine for the Germans. It is estimated that about 90% of all allied deaths were caused by the machine gun (Deaths by machine gun. 7). This was the main reason why the Germans were able to overcome the fact that they were incredibly outnumbered and it lead them to survive the war for as long as they did. It could be true that if the Germans did not have their machine guns in World War I they wouldnt have lasted seconds against the overpowering Allied nations, but the fact is that they did have them. Along with the deadly machine gun in World War I, there was the handheld grenade. (Machine Gun #1) Just like the machine gun did in World War I, the handheld grenade made it easier for a soldier to kill his enemy. The first grenade dates all the way back to the 15th century. The idea of

Riley Thomas 2 this type of explosive really came into consideration for many militaries during the RussoJapanese War of 1904-1905. After that war many countries like Germany and the United States of American began to posses and better the handheld grenade. After some perfection of the grenade took place in World War I, there were two types of detonation, impact detonated or detonated via timed fuse. The United States had developed their own type of grenade in which could only detonate on impact. This grenade was cylinder like and not extremely weather proof. On the other hand some of the other allied nations began to create a grenade that was easy to use and almost completely weather proof. Due to mere jealousy, the United States military quickly developed their own new and improved design. After only a short period of time The United States had put together something that they thought was better and put almost 68,000,000 of these grenades into production. The problem with this set of grenades was they were just too hard arm. The assembly of these grenades came to a stop in April of 1918 when there were numerous cases recorded of soldiers throwing these grenades at the enemy without finishing the arming process, the enemy would then simply finish arming the grenade and threw it right back at the United States soldiers. With this faulty grenade the British and Australians exchanged grenades with the German forces in one of the most famous grenade battles of all time. This battle occurred on the Pozieres Heights on the night of July 26, 1916. After the battle had finished and Great Britain and the Australians came out on the top the Allied powers had thrown 15,000 grenades during the night. By April of 1918, just before the war was over the United States had finally mastered the art of developing their best grenade yet. Not as small as the United States handheld grenade, the new and improved tank as much or maybe even more damage during World War I. (Grenades in WWI #8) The integration of the artillery tank played a huge role in the outcome of many battles in World War I. The tank was first developed in around 1899 by a man that went by the name of Frederick Simms. Frederick Sims was determined to build a motor-war-car as he called it. He used the idea of caterpillar tracks that mainly used on tractors by the Holt Company in 1885. Mr. Sims had designed a war machine with a complete bullet proof casing and was equipped with two integrated Hiram Maxim machine guns. Frederick Sims first offered this motor-war car to the British Military. After the demonstration by Mr. Sims, Lord Kitchener, Britains War Minister, saw it as a pretty mechanical toy. Lord Kitchener regarded this soon to be magnificent machine as merely a toy and not something that could have been useful on the battle field. The improvement of this machine continued to climb despite Lord Kitcheners sour opinion. In May, 1901 in Penobscot County, Maine the crawler tank with an engine was sold. The man responsible for this was a man by the name of Alvin O. Lombard. After a demonstration in 1914 the British were lead by Winston Churchill in the idea of implementing the possible Land Ship into the British arsenal. In 1916 the Tank was produced and made its first appearance in war on September 15, 1916. The Tanks most famous war was the battle of Cambrai in November-December of 1917 between the United Kingdom and the German Empire. There was said to be four hundred and seventy six tanks in favor of the British and none to the Germans. This was a magnificent advantage for the British and they also outnumbered the German soldiers 2 to one. In spite of the tanks at Cambrai having so much success for the British, the German artillery and infantry set up was just too much for the British and exposed the weaknesses of the tank. Due to the negative effect of the tanks on the war they were practically useless in combat after the first day of war. For the rest of the battle the British used the tanks as a way to get supplies to the soldiers on the front line. Even though the battle of Cambrai resulted in stalemate between Britain and Germany many say that the use of the tank

Riley Thomas 3 helped to keep many soldiers from dying during the battle. As the tank was eventually used for the second line behind the front there was a new weapon that used entirely for the front line. (Tanks #2) The flame thrower was the next best thing to the machine gun when dealing with hand to hand combat in World War I. The flame thrower brought many deaths to the French and British armys during the early years of World War I. Soon after the French and British lost so many live to this particularly new innovative weapon, they adapted the idea and made it their own for the later years of the war. The flamethrower is said to be the reason the German Military won so many wars where they were highly outnumbered in the earlier parts of World War I. The flame thrower was explained by many to be the scariest weapon of the war. As soldiers charged the opposing trenches with rifles and bayonets the enemy would shoot a wall of terrorizing flame in a defensive act. Many said that death by flamethrower was the worst possible way to go out of the numerous killing machines. Although the number of deaths that the flamethrower was directly responsible for was not as large as maybe the tank, it definitely struck the most fear in the enemies hearts. (Flamethrowers #5) Some people might have said that the weapons used in World War I could not improve any more, but as you can see now it was only the beginning of a revolution in the art of war. In conclusion it is easy to observe that weapons like the machine gun, the flame thrower, grenades, poison gases, and tanks brought numerous victories, hundreds of defeats, and thousands of the deaths, that greatly effected the overall outcome of the first World War.