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World War I was called the Great War because so many countries were involved, and advanced weaponry was developed. The British and the Germans were the ranking pioneers in weapons development. The weapons that determined the outcome of World War I were tanks, airplanes, and very large guns called heavy artillery; the Germans ruled this area. The World War I fighters and bombers were not the greatest of planes, but they got the job done.
The German C. I. airplane was used for reconnaissance and unarmed scouting. Later in the war, according to Jack Douglas They mounted a forward-firing Spandau machine-gun on the left side of the forward fuselage that was used by the pilot. (Pamphlet) The British Gotha planes were a major threat to the Central Powers. The Gotha IV and V were both equipped with two Maxim Machine-guns, a pre determined weight of bombs, and a prayer. The Gotha V carried more bombs than the IV and was a slower target.
The Gotha IV carried less bombs, but it was faster and hard to shoot down. The British Royal Navy pilots loved the Sopwith Triplane. Although it had minimal offensive capabilities (one Maxim machine-gun on the side) they had five squadrons by the time one year had passed. Although the Germans trained the best pilots in the Great War, the British wound up having made some of the best planes throughout that time period.
German artillery ranged from a twenty-millimeter assault rifle to a four hundred and twenty-millimeter long-range heavy howitzer. The two most popular were the 105 mm and the 420 mm (Big Bertha). Big Bertha was a giant mobile siege gun produced at the Krupp armaments factory in Essen, Germany. Its official name was the Krupp 420 mm heavy howitzer, but became universally known as Big Bertha. (World Book Encyclopedia 798) This gun needed a crew of over one thousand men to fire it.
It was capable of firing ten nine hundred and thirty-kilogram shells fifteen and one half miles in the air over a distance of seventy-six miles every hour. The one hundred and five millimeter heavy howitzer was a World War I relic and a mainstay of the German army. It was quite effective in its role. (World Book Encyclopedia 799) To minimize the weight of the 105 mm they made it recoilless and used it as a surface to air gun also. The gun had an open back so that the gasses that would cause a normal gun to recoil would escape. The last role of the 105 mm was being shipped piece by piece into the mountains for surprise attacks. Although the 420 mm packed a bigger punch the 105 mm was put to greater use throughout World War I.
Upon the arrival of the I. C. E. (internal combustion engine) in 1885, patented by Gottlieb Daimler, people started dreaming about cars, tractors and other things we take for granted today. One man was not dreaming; he built his dream. It was a bulletproof car with a Maxim machine-gun mounted upon a revolving turret on each side of the massive metal machine. In 1889, Frederick Simms took this motor-war car to the British War Office and they rejected it. (Keegan Face 183) In 1914, the War Office decides that British aircraft needed to be protected from the ground.
They used Fredericks motor-war car. The Germans defended against this motor-war car by digging trenches across all the roads and land. (Keegan Face 255) The first armored vehicles were just cars converted into soft tanks by putting steel armor around the frame and mounting light artillery on them. In 1915 a man named Wolseley developed a 30 -cwt which was made with a Lorry chassis and armored sides. That baby was packing a revolving turret with a Vickers-Maxim machine-gun. Richard Hornsby and his sons manufactured the Killen-Strait armored tractor. The Killen-Strait was the first tank to have tread, metal bars linked together with pins, and was tested in front of Winston Churchill and David Lloyd George.
It cut through barbed-wire entanglements and went right over the tops of trenches. (Keegan Warfare 321) This armored tractor had a major influence on future tank designs. Little Willie, the first full-fledged tank, was made from Hornsby and sons tread and armor designs. Next came W. G. Wilsons tank, Mother. Mothers weaponry consisted of four Vickers water-cooled machine-guns on the sides and a Hotchkiss machine-gun right in front.
Wilson went on making a series of tanks called the Mark I, Mark II, Mark III, and Mark IV, all of which failed. The Mark V on the other hand was great because it had a six-cylinder engine; this bumped its speed up to 4. 6 miles per hour. It had six men inside two frontal gunners, two side gunners one back gunner, and one man driving. Tanks have steadily improved over time. The development of heavy artillery, tanks, and airplanes decidedly affected the outcome of the Great War. Over the years, the element of destruction and loss of life has grown as weaponry has evolved into an amalgam of death.
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