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Gas To
begin with, the gases were mostly lung irritants such as chlorine or
phosgene. The idea of these lung irritants was to make them gasp for air
while the other side attacked. Later on, gas shells were introduced.
Other gases attacked the nervous system or caused various degrees of
paralysis. These were much more lethal. In 1917, the most lethal gas of
all was introduced. This was the "mustard gas". This was more
like an acid and the idea of it was to burn the skin and cause blisters.
It also formed a foam in the lungs which could be very fatal. The normal
British gas masks were absolutely useless against it. Gas
did not really cause as many deaths as what had been expected. Around
90,000 people died with it and over a million were injured or blinded. Artillery The
artillery was the large-calibre mounted fire arms. There were two groups
of artillery: light and heavy. At the start of WW1, the main support
weapon for the British Army was the long-barrelled field gun. There was
also the quick-fire field gun. This was really quite a handy gun as it
had a recoiling system that bounced the barrel back into the firing
position. Many
guns at the beginning could fire over 30 kilometres. Artillery was often
over shadowed by the well known machine gun but artillery was the real
killer. Machine
Guns After
a slow start with guns only firing one shot at a time, the magazine
rifle was invented and could hold eight bullets in one magazine. This
was not really an attacking gun as soldiers usually preferred to use it
as a defence weapon. Machine guns were soon on the scene and could fire up to 600 bullets a minute. That's 10 bullets a second! There were two types of machine guns. The Lewis and the Maxim.
Trench
Mortars This
caused the most number of casualties and was probably the most hated of
all. These were very effective. They were very effective as they could
easily be dropped into the trenches and caused huge devastation. Snipers These
were tricky little characters that had a very beady eye. Their aim was
to stay very still just popping their heads above the parapet looking
for any sudden movements. They were stationed at intervals along the
front line trenches. One
idea that they had was to disguise themselves as trees. Well what they
did was make artificial trees and hide inside them. I would have hated the fighting with all these weapons. The more you read into the weapons, the more you start to feel for those poor soldiers who fought for their country, in the front line trenches.
Conclusion After
reading my report, I hope I have shown you how trench warfare
contributed to the casualty and death toll of World War one. You
may think that the figures are wrong but I can assure you that they are
correct. As I outlined before, it was the tactics which were used
by both sides that contributed the most to the death and casualty toll.
I feel that "The War of Attrition" was one of the most stupid
mistakes in the history of fighting. Also, what was "over the
top" all about. The Generals must have had death wishes for them to
do this. Of
course though, it wasn't just the tactics, it was the weapons used as
well. People had no chance running straight towards machine gun fire.
Why they were given orders to run at a gun that fires 600 bullets a
minute bewilders me. It would have taken a miracle to avoid these. I hope I have been able to answer the question I was set and let us hope that we never experience what happened in the two world wars.
Bibliography
Here
is a list of all the resources that I used to construct my investigation: Britain
At War 1914-1918 by Craig Mair Investigation Booklet provided by Teacher The
Great War 1914-18 by
Ronald Cameron Web Sites: www.harris-academy.com www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk |
