Weapons of the trenches

A lot of new weaponry was introduced to world war one and the effects became more devastating as the weapons improved.

The basic weapon for a soldier was the:

Lee-Enfield Rifle: This was standard service rifle for all soldiers.  At first it had to be reloaded every time fired but soon a small magazine was made for it, which had about 8 bullets. The size of the calibre was about 7.7mm.

Machine guns: The machine gun was a very fast shooting weapon and caused a lot of damage especially to soldiers who went over the edge of the trenches into No-Man’s land. The Lewis gun was a light machine gun with an air-cooling system, it was gas operated and had a small rotating drum, which had between 47 to 97 rounds.

The Vickers, Mark 1 was the main heavy machine gun being able to fire at a rate of up to 500 rounds in one minute, it was fed from an ammunition belt, these immense rate of fire meant that it jammed a lot so it was cooled with a water system.

Artillery: Artillery were big heavy guns that could fire shells and big projectiles for a very long distance, they were usually used to destroy large edifices but could also be used to cause destruction among soldiers.

The Amiens gun was an artillery gun that reached a height of 41 feet and fired shells an incredible distance of up to 15 miles causing major havoc.

Shells: There were different shells used within the war that were to be fired by the artillery,

High explosive: These exploded with huge power, when they came in contact with anything.  The effects were disastrous and buildings were also affected a lot by this high explosives.

Shrapnel: This was a shell with devastating effects; it was packed up with round iron balls. When fired it was timed to go off above the enemy’s lines where the now red-hot pieces of iron would barrage down on the unsuspecting soldiers below. It tore at their skins with almost no chance of their living.

Armour piercing: They were thick metallic shells designed to explode after they had broken into toughened steel, first used on the sea against battleships. It was later adapted to attack tanks on land.

Chemical Warfare: Fighting the war with the use of chemicals was first introduced by the Germans, a lot of gases were being used - most of the time phosgene, mustard or chlorine gas.

Chlorine: Fritz Haber a Jewish scientist, created this gas. Chlorine gas was a green gas and was fired in cylinders. It was usually shot when a light wind would blow it towards the enemy camp and as it was heavier than air it would fill a trench within minutes.

When breathed in it formed an acidic compound in the fluids of the lungs, burning out the lungs and suffocating the now breathless soldiers. The skin colour changed to greenish black and yellow, and the soldier had spasms of green froth. The effects of this gas were gory.

Phosgene: this gas was derived from chlorine gas, but was more powerful than its former. Part of this was because it was invisible, which meant the soldiers couldn’t see it approaching.

Mustard gas: later in July 1917 Fritz Haber again developed this new gas. Mustard gas was a light golden colour and had an ongoing smell of onions. It had great outcomes when it made contact with any body fluids so it could burn out lungs. Also it reacted when it got into wet or sweaty parts of a man’s body producing blisters and burns on the skin. The wearing of the kilt was soon discouraged in the British army as it got under the kilt. When the wind direction was blowing the right way the gas could be shot behind enemy trenches to blow into the enemy lines from the rear. A specialised gas mask was needed for this gas.

Most gas deaths occurred in the Russian lines as they could not afford gas masks. Britain was able to copy samples of collected gases. Fritz Haber invented more gases and even one of these gases - Cyclon B - was used to kill millions of Jews. Haber evaded Hitler’s great genocide as he died in 1934.