WW1 World War 1 Weapons
87A Group of German Soldiers in 1914
World War 1 Weapons
The German Army (The Axis)
In 1914 at the Outbreak of World War 1, the German Army was the strongest in Europe; Germany knew that war was immanent and had been preparing for many years before The Great War started.
At the outbreak of the war, Germany had 840,000 men in the army with over 3 million reservists at the ready for the call up to arms.
During the War Turkey and Bulgaria fought alongside Germany and Austria-Hungary.
German infantry were issued with the Mauser rifle. This rifle was designed in 1898 by Peter Paul Mauser. It was popular with those who were issued with it because of its reliability but it did suffer one weakness - its magazine only took five bullets.
A Group of British Soldiers 1914
The British Army (The Allies)
At the start of the war, the British army had 247,400 soldiers and only 218,000 reservists, during the war though many more men joined the army or were conscripted (forced to join).
The Allied armies of Britain, France and Russia were joined by Serbia, Montenegro, Belgium, Romania, Portugal, Greece, and in 1917 The United states joined in the war effort.
The basic British infantryman, like his French and German contemporaries, was issued with his uniform, webbing and a rifle with bayonet. Some infantrymen were trained to use the relatively new machine gun but the majority had to make do with his rifle. The British infantry man was issued with the Lee Enfield 0.303 rifle.
German Maxim MG'08 Machine Gun
Weapons of World War I
The Vickers Machine Gun
Big Bertha
British 6inch 26cwt WW1 Howitzer
WW1 Tank
German Stick Grenade
British Mills Bomb
Gas Attack
Victims of a Gas Attack
A German Club For Close Combat
Land Combat
World War One on the Western front brought a new kind of war, Trench warfare, where both sides slugged it out for most of the war years. With this new type of war, new weapons had to be developed and modified on either side for them to have any tactical advantage.
Machine Guns
Machine guns were first used during the American Civil War to devastating effect, but advances in technology made the machine guns even more effective during World War 1.
They could fire over 600 bullets in one minute and they were so effective that they were considered as "Weapons of mass Destruction.
The German Maxim machine gun was fed by a fabric or metal belt, making it a very effective automatic weapon, its relativley small size also made it difficult for the enemy to destroy.
On the opening day of the Somme offensive the British suffered a record number of single day casualties, 60,000, the great majority lost under withering machine gun fire.
The Vickers Gun,
closely modelled on the Maxim Gun, comprised the British Army's standard heavy machine gun at the start of the First World War, following its formal adoption in 1912.
Water cooled - via a jacket around the barrel which held approximately one gallon - the Vickers was loaded from a 250-round fabric belt mounted on a tripod. A rubber hose leading to a container condensed steam from the jacket as a means of minimising water wastage.
The gun used standard rifle 0.303-inch ammunition and weighed a little under 20kg; it was thus lighter than both the original Maxim Gun and the German Maschinengewehr 08. It fired some 450 rounds per minute; after some 10,000 rounds had been fired the gun barrel invariably required replacement.
Despite this the Vickers was still considered unwieldy as a battlefield infantry weapon, and could not be readily transported from site to site without great effort. The gun itself was usually operated by a team of six men.
Artillary
For four years the British used artillery and fired 170 million shells in that time. But Germany had a plan up their sleeve. For years, German scientists were developing the biggest artillery ever known. It was call the ‘Big Bertha'. Big Bertha was so powerful it could fire at the heart of Paris from 120 kilometres away. The cannons weren't the only things that had been improved. The shells were upgraded as well. Instead of ordinary shells, new High-explosive shells were developed. The Shells were thin casings and were filled with tiny lead pellets. This was so effective, that artillery fire killed hundreds and thousands of men.
Tanks
Tanks were introduced into battle for the first time in 1916 by the British, these proved to be unreliable though, A later model played a vital role during the allied advances of 1918, flattening barbed wire,crossing enemy trenches and acting as shields for the advancing troops.
Grenades
The Germans introduced the Hand Grenade better known as the Stick grenade into the battlefield, they worked in the same way as todays grenades, pull out the pin and throw it.
The Mills Bomb introduced into battle by the Brittish looks more like a hand grenade that would be used today.
Both of these bombs were designed to cause maximum damage in confined spaces.
Gas: The German's "secret" new weapon
Gas was available in three basic varieties:
Lachrymator (tearing agent)
Much like today's tear gas and mace, this gas caused temporary blindness and greatly inflamed the nose and throat of the victim. A gas mask offered very good protection from this type of gas. xylyl bromide was a popular tearing agent since it was easily brewed.
Asphyxiant
These are the poisonous gases. This class includes chlorine, phosgene and diphosgene. Chlorine inflicts damage by forming hydrochloric acid when coming in contact with moisture such as found in the lungs and eyes. It is lethal at a mix of 1:5000 (gas/air) whereas phosgene is deadly at 1:10,000 (gas/air) - twice as toxic! Diphosgene, first used by the Germans at Verdun on 22-Jun-1916, was deadlier still and could not be effectively filtered by standard issue gas masks.
Chlorine gas destroyed the respiratory organs of its victims and this led to a slow death by asphyxiation. One nurse described the death of one soldier who had been in the trenches during a chlorine gas attack. "He was sitting on the bed, fighting for breath, his lips plum coloured. He was a magnificent young Canadian past all hope in the asphyxia of chlorine. I shall never forget the look in his eyes as he turned to me and gasped: I can't die! Is it possible that nothing can be done for me?" It was a horrible death, but as hard as they tried, doctors were unable to find a way of successfully treating chlorine gas poisoning.
Blistering Agent (Mustard Gas)
Dichlorethylsulphide: the most dreaded of all chemical weapons in World War I - mustard gas. Unlike the other gases which attack the respiratory system, this gas acts on any exposed, moist skin. This includes, but is not limited to, the eyes, lungs, armpits and groin. A gas mask could offer very little protection. The oily agent would produce large burn-like blisters wherever it came in contact with skin. It also had a nasty way of hanging about in low areas for hours, even days, after being dispersed. A soldier jumping into a shell crater to seek cover could find himself blinded, with skin blistering and lungs bleeding.
Close Combat Weapons
Apart from Bayonettes attached to the soldiers rifles, soldiers also carried other weapons for hand to hand combat, during a raid a silent kill would keep the enemy unaware of your presence, allied soldiers would be armed with daggers and sometimes even swords.
German soldiers also had daggers for a silent kill and they also carried a wooden club with a spiked metal head similar to a medievil weapon.
Sopwith Camel
Fokker Triplane
Zeppelin
Aerial Combat
At the beginning of the war, aircraft were used for reconnaissance,flying above the enemy lines, helping to direct the artilliary bombardments or to detect and troop movements, it was soon realised though that bombs could be dropped from the planes onto the enemy causing as much damage as possible.
This led to the development of fighter planes, the Sopwith Camel was developed by the British and the Germans retaliated with the Fokker Triplane.
The most famous pilots of The Great War was a German pilot named Manfred Von Richthofen, better known as the Red Baron, He was responsible for shooting down over 80 Allied aircraft before he himself was killed when his aircraft, a Fokker Triplane, was shot down over France in 1918.
In 1915 the first German Airships or Zeppelin's appeared in the Sky over Britain, they were silent invaders that caused alot of panic amongst the people below, at any moment a hail of bombs could be dropped from the airship.
In the early years of the war Zeppelin's could fly much higher than airplanes and it would be almost impossible to shoot them down, this made them useful for bombing raids, although Zeppelins were rarely used and played little part in the war.
By 1917 airships were mainly restricted to Naval Reconnaissance because of the invention of incendary bullets and higher flying and faster airplanes.
HMS Dreadnought
WW1 German U-boat
Battle of Jutland (May 31-June 1, 1916)
Naval Combat
In 1906 Britain launched the Dreadnought Battle ship, which sparked off a naval building programme in other countries.
Britain being an Island relied on their fleet of Merchant ships to keep them supplied with food and equipment, built a fleet of battleships to protect the merchants and to prevent supplies from reaching Germany.
Although the German Navy did have a few Battleships they took the fight below the surface by building submarines or U-boats as they were better known.
The Battle of Jutland off the coast of Denmark in the North sea, was the only major sea battle of the whole war, the battle mainly took place under the sea, as German U-boats fought a damaging war against British merchant and troop ships.
Fourteen British and eleven German ships were sunk with great loss of life.
Both sides claimed victory. The British had lost more ships and many more sailors, and the British press criticised the Grand Fleet's actions, but the German plan of destroying Britains squadrons had also failed. The Germans continued to pose a threat that required the British to keep their battleships concentrated in the North Sea, but they never again contested control of the high seas. Instead, the German Navy turned its efforts and resources to unrestricted submarine warfare.
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Thanks Eileen, WW1 has always been of interest to me so I really enjoy carrying out the research for these hubs.....jimmy
What a great hub Jimmy. You brought the horror of war to the fore-front. Wasn't WWl the war that was going to end all wars? It somehow seems no matter how crude or sophisticated the weaponry is humanity can turn it on each other...
regards Zsuzsy
I really enjoy the information you've pulled together on WWI. It's a great set of hubs, quite thorough.
Good work - Very nice and informative hub. I have been interested in WWI, mostly because my father was a victim of mustard gas. Mustard gas didn't kill as many as it disabled - it was designed to disable as many as it could because of the servicing costs behind the lines.
My father coughed every night for the rest of his life - - but he did make 90 years of age. I was in WWII, but didn't get in harms way, thankfully.
The USA's entrance into WWI is an example of the USA government blundering in and screwing up an awful lot of human beings! I am convinced that the Lucitania incident was a set-up.
omg thank you so much. i had a history assignment and you helped me so much. thnx =D
I've been handed down an Aerial Bomb and can not find any info on it. Is there a place I could send a pic and info ,so IO could find out what I have?
The story of World War-I written by Britishers contains all details required for a history scholar. But one thing remains silent, for unknown reasons! The census of India was taken first in 1901. Every ten years, the census was retaken. The population in 1911 was 19 crores. In 1921, the population fell to 18 crores. The decline for population in 1921 census is due to participation of Indian soldiers on behalf of British Govt. No one seems to be concerned about this. They simply describe the war as "won by weapons." Please give some appreciation to those who handled "your weapons" and won the war for Britain. Even today, there are many memorials for World War I heroes in India. (Eg.: Chennai Beach Road, South India)
who cares about India!!!!!!! I think he did a good job.
this is very helpful thanks
wow....i felt like i been to world war one and watched soilders using these weapons...really really good information.thanx for posting such a nice hub.very nice.
Nice hub, give me more knowledge abot World War-I.
thankz! this helped me out in my social studies project.everythings here! :)
History seems so easy with this WW1 info thanks I will ace this test
how on earth did you find so much info and there is a cool donold duck cartoon about the WW
Wow! the germans had a lot of crazy weapons to fight with. The technology of German weapons has always been very cutting edge throughout history.
this is cool it is very interesting11111111111!!!!!!!11
really helpful thanks for the info (y)
I am currently preparing a power point presentation for my year 11 GCSE students on 'The Weapons of World War 1' and found the pictures on your site very helpful, thank you. I have also read the comments posted and would like to take this opportunity to reply to V. SIVAGNANAM PILLAI. As a teacher of History in Britain today, whenever we are studying either of the World Wars we never omit the courageous support that the allies had from the soldiers of the British Empire. Men from all over the empire fought with bravery and determination and this fact is always conveyed to the next generation. Let us not forget all of those that fought so that we may live in a free and democratic society.
Wow. I have to make some notes for my history exam, this was so helpful! Thank you!
i sayy its very its veryyy intrusting aand very perrttty
Thanks for helping me with my finial Project at school
this is so cool:-)
very halpful information for my school essay.
thankss!!
Cheers pal very detailed information you've helped me loads. Got me out of a crisis!
this is pretty good but it could use a lil more info
Thanks you really helped me a lot.
wow, thank you this will really help my history project. :D
I am doing a research paper,and i find this information very helpful!
thanks this has been great it has helped me with my history assessmnet on WW1
thanks for the info
great info , used it for a history project
Cheers mate, that's great.
Thanks for the info, it helped alot on my school project
thx!! lots of info, helped me finish my history project
very good stuff mate nice work as u u say say in america shiten. goog good
Wow thx alot man. used it on my WW1 project. dont think i coulda found this info easly anywhere els!!!!!
awesome-o!
Thanks the info is great lol
do u know anything about the averadge cost of artillery
Thanks a lot on this hub. Great insights. I thought I hate to learned my history subject. But I love to learn more on this action story.
I have a 303. WW1 and also used in WW2 how can i find out the background of the gun
It really helped me but more info
Good hub Jimmy. My grandmother witnessed a zeppelin being shot down over Hartlepool. I have documented it here. rgds Rob
thanks so much this is grrrrrreeeeeeeeaaaaaaaatttttttt :) :)
great info thanks alot
Thanks! I'm doing an essay on weaponry in WW1 and this helps so much! Thanks again!
this is awsome!!!
great info to do my homework L.O.L
thanks so much dude. i hav to do this project for history class about how technology evolved in WW1 and your info and pics have really helped me out! thanks man!
Thanks, this helped alot in English. I am doing a project in English were I have to get a talk prepared and this information was very helpfull, thank you.
Thanks for the great article, it was interesting and also saved me for my WWI assignment. This information is very useful and helped me answer my questions.
world war 1 is awsome
thanks guys this really helped me with my history project that im currently working on now! Thank you sooo much!!!!!
yo man this is very good stuff so keep it up and make another page to get more info
dang.............dang......dats great
hi,
I have published a HUB and linked a couple of yours on there. I hope you don't mind.
thank you for helpin me with my project x
Omg this is so helpful i need one of u in my life
this is good
Thanks for putting all this info together, good work.
Good job!
this info is top notch it helped me with this big ass history assignment that i have to do so thanks alot
So cool!!!!!!!!!!!
much help
thanks you heped with my project:)
thanks you helped alot with the info I needed to gather
people, how much did a mills bomb cost to make?? thats what i NEED to know. and yo, duffin tn, its not called the 'tripartite alliance'. germany, austria and italy where known as the triple alliance. britain, france and russia where known as the triple entente. they were the two main forces in 1914 - 1916
I DON'T GET THIS BUT JOLLY GOOD INFO :) :) :) :)
this helped me out with almost all of my history assignment i just need drawings thank you so much
I am doing an essay on weapons in World War One and this helped a lot!! Thanks!
Thank You so much!
I have a project on this and the info helped a lot. :)
very helpful, i needed information about weapons of ww1
thanks JIMMY!
Hi Jimmy,
I have been given a WW1 shell and am trying to find out if it is British or German, has PAR 1918 on it Can you help!
This has been very helpful for my history coursework! Thank you!
i know this hub thank jimmy it helped alot assesment in social studies
AWESOME!!!
thanks for the info for studys
thanks
This helped melots
tH@nK5 4da 1Nf0 Br0.
Thanks for the information! It helped a lot with my homework.
thank u so much it was very useful
you really helped me with my project thanks a bunch i really appreciate it you got me out of having a bad grade in that class
Hi thanks for the information REALLY HELPED WITH A ASSIGNMENT.
Thanks
thanks
very good info, helped alot with my assignment! thanks a lot
Wow, this is so informative. good work buddy.
this is very coo. I feel bad for the people that are in it.
i like the video that is from world war one. I am adding it to a project so i like it.
I have a shell from either WWI or WWII. It is approx. 5 inches long and 3/4 of an inch in diameter. It has a M on the bottom above the primer and a V M below the primer. I'd like to know what it is? Can you help?
this stuff is good for my history and i learned about a bunch of wepons
cool
this is cool
good info, but you don't have any on American infantry weapons that I saw. might want to add that. jus a tip.
Thanks, your really happened! but can someone help me? wat was life like before ww1
thanks this helped allot for my english project
cool
this a cool web site for my s.s project just a lital bit more info on the guns
helped with ww1 assignment thanx(;
This is all very interesting, and I did learn stuff from this article or hub or whatever you wanna call it. It was incredibly useful and helped me complete my history essay. I thank you very much for this. :)
good this helped me in solcial studies it a great find and good info
thanks, this helps alot. p.s when did the british first sight the germans?
good information for my project
thanks you helped alot in my socal studies homework
this is cool l know the true
Thank you so much, this is going to help me with my History assignment.
Awesome.It helped me a lot in EVS project.Thanks.
I love this! I just finished my History essay, and this was super helpful!!(:
Thank you so much. My Global HW got way more easier.
This is very helpful! I got away with 2 hours of researching just by looking at this website!!!!!
Ohhoi! This helped me alot :)
GD info! my homework is now dne! :p
This seems like a helpful website, but try to find weapons that start with Y. That's what I needed
Very educational and interesting!
Jimmy, I am using your article as a source for my research paper. May I have your last name and the date this article was written?
Hi Terence this article was written on 08/30/11 i dont give out my last name here but if you visit my profile page you will find a link to my facebook where you will find my name.
this was really helpful for my project for school.
This very good info.. thanks(;
thank for the stuff
nice
This extract helped me with my exam Thank You very much :)
I liked the info helped me a lot on my info report
Eileen Hughes Level 3 Commenter 4 years ago
You have just about everything there, very interesting.