Technology in World War I: First World War Weapons and Inventions

A world war is a war involving multiple nations getting united to participate in the favour of one of the two opposite unions formed. Due to the participation of a number of nations, such wars have always been very destructive. Also, the technological advancements in such wars play a very important role in the level of destruction and defence faced by the participating countries. 

World war I was also important from the technological aspect. Many technical revolutions also took place during the war. In the upcoming sections, we will see the technological features and weapons used in world war I. and also in the following article will provide details about the different weapons used in WW1.

Use of Tanks

In 1914, most of the European generals expected the war movement. However, it settled down into an unexpected and unwinnable war of trenches. The involvement of machine guns reinforcing massed rifle fire from the defending trenches, allowed them to mow down the attackers even before they could reach the other side of the no man’s land.

A solution to this was proposed in the form of an automobile, which consists of an internal combustion engine that operates with diesel or gas. The weapon being heavily armoured, made it possible to penetrate and advance in small arms fire. The addition of some serious guns and replacing the wheels with armoured treads gave it the ability to move on rough terrains and the deserts without any problems. This way, the tank was born.

The British Mark I was the first tank that was designed in 1915 and also it was the first saw combat at the Somme in September 1916. Soon, the suit was followed by the French with the Renault FT, which was the first model to establish the classical look of the tanks with the turret on top. Despite their expertise in tank combat in the Second World War, the Germans did not achieve mass production of tanks in World War I. Although 21 tanks were produced by them in the unwieldy A7V model.

The Flamethrowers

Although the weapons that hurled flaming materials were used in the medieval period by the Chinese and Byzantines, it was Richard Fiedler who developed the first design of the modern flamethrower for the German Army in 1901. An experimental detachment was held in 1911 by the Germans in which the devices were tested by them. Its true capabilities, however, were tested during the warfare. After large assaults on the enemy soldiers, they started countering this weapon by the use of bunkers and dugouts. The flamethrowers were capable of ‘neutralising’ the soldiers without causing much structural damage which wasn’t the case with the grenades. German troops were first to use the flamethrowers near Verdun in 1915.

Poison Gas

The use of poison gases was another used technology in world war 1. Both sides used this technology in the Great War. On January 31, 1915, the Germans used the poison xylyl bromide on large scales as a chemical weapon on Russian positions, during the battle of Bolimov. But the poison got frozen, hence became inactive, due to extremely low ambient temperature. After that, on April 22, 1915, Germans got first success in using chemical weapons near Ypres by spraying chlorine gas stored in large cylinders towards the trenches held by French colonial troops. 

This fled the defenders, but still, this didn’t prove to be the decisive step. As the gas evaporated, it allowed the restoration of the Allied defences. Of course, for a long time, the Allies used poisonous chemical weapons too. But since both sides soon became capable of handling the poison attack from their opponent, this technique did not bring significant change in the strategic situations.

Tracer Bullets

A lot of futile activities were involved during the Great War. However, fighting at night was proving to be unproductive for the reason that there was no way to know where one was shooting. To solve this problem, a British invention was brought to action. The principle was to develop a special type of bullets that left behind phosphorescent trails. This could give the idea of the trajectory followed by a bullet fired. The first attempt of 1915 was not much successful as the range of the trail was limited to 100 metres only and was erratic too. 

But the second tracer model was soon developed in 1916 and named ‘.303 SPG Mark VIIG’. It emitted a regular and bright greenish-white trail. It became much popular for one of its unexpected side benefits: the flammable agent which developed the bright trail was also useful to ignite hydrogen. This property was useful enough to make it ideal for ‘balloon busting’ of the German zeppelins and terrorising England.

Interrupter Gear

It was just one decade of the existence of Airplanes when the First World War started. Since they had an obvious capability for combat executions through an aerial platform for the machine guns, bombs etc. But there was a problem of firing the explosives towards the front direction as the propellers came in between and there still wasn’t a way to figure this out. Hence, in the first attempt by the U.S. Army, the guns were mounted to the planes pointing downwards at the ground. But this model was not suitable as it required two airmen. 

Another way was also taken by mounting the weapon well above the pilot so that the propellers don’t come in path. But this model had problems in aiming at the targets. In his design, the ‘synchronizer’ was centred on a cam that was attached to the propeller shaft. This allowed the weapon to fire between the spinning propeller blades. This design was adopted by the Germans in May 1915 and soon the Allies developed their own versions too.

Air Traffic Control

The aerial travel of an agent had a major drawback. Once he left the ground through a plane, he got completely isolated from the ground and hence cannot receive or send any information from or to the ground except some obvious signals indicated using flags and lamps. But the efforts of the U.S. Army succeeded in making communication possible between the person in a plane and those at the ground stations through the means of a two-way radiotelegraph for a distance of upto 140 miles. This development began in San Diego in 1915. Later in 1916, it became possible to transmit and receive human voice signals via radio too.

Depth Charges

Depth charge was a method to counter the German U-boat campaign against the Allies shipping which sank millions of tons of cargo and killed some tens of thousands of sailors and civilians. This was done by measuring the water pressure using a hydrostatic pistol. In 1913, this idea was sketched while the first practical depth charge; the Type D, was developed by the Royal Navy’s Torpedo and Mine School in January 1916. U-68 was the first German U boat sunk using depth charge on March 22, 1916.

Other Important Inventions

Various other technological experiments were performed and influenced the War in their own ways. Other than those discussed in the above sections few more important inventions were used in the First World War which are listed below:

• The development of hydrophones to locate the U boats under the water.

• The development of aircraft carriers for realizing the takeoff and landing of aeroplanes midway in the oceans.

• Pilotless drones (although it didn’t succeed at the time of War)

• Portable X-Ray Machines for diagnosing the injured warriors at remote locations.

• Sanitary Napkins especially for nurses and women who were serving in the War situation.

Did You Know?

The idea of pilotless drones was introduced back in 1916 and 1917 for the U.S. Navy by its inventors Elmer Sperry and Peter Hewitt. It was equipped with gyroscopes and a barometer for altitude and orientation control. Still, it was not usable due to its imprecise control and was discontinued after 1925.

Conclusion

The first world war weapons witnessed many technological innovations and evolutions. We have got to know about weapons used in world war I through this article. The major technologies that were introduced during the First World War include the usage of tanks, flamethrowers, poison gas, tracer bullets, interrupter gear technique for guns in airplanes, air traffic control for communication between airmen and ground stations, depth charges for destroying the U boats, hydrophones for locating U boats underwater, aircraft carriers, portable X-Ray machines, sanitary napkins etc.