The first "box barrage" in history was fired in the Battle of Neuve Chapelle in 1915 this was the use of a three- or four-sided curtain of shell-fire to prevent the movement of enemy infantry.Factors such as weather, air temperature, and barrel wear could for the first time be accurately measured and taken into account for indirect fire.Artillery sound ranging and flash spotting, for the location and eventual destruction of enemy batteries.Forward observers were used to direct artillery positioned out of direct line of sight from the targets, and sophisticated communications and fire plans were developed.Indirect counter-battery fire was developed for the first time.During the war, the following improvements were made: However, the necessarily stupendous muzzle velocity wore out a gun barrel after a few shots requiring a return to the factory for relining, so these weapons served more to frighten and anger urban people than to kill them or devastate their cities.Īt the beginning of the war, artillery was often sited in the front line to fire over open sights at enemy infantry. Germany developed the Paris guns of stupendous size and range. Foundries responded to the actual situation with more heavy products and fewer highly mobile pieces. The German army had already anticipated that a European war might require heavier artillery, hence had a more appropriate mix of sizes. Such weapons served well in the colonial wars of that century, and served Germany very well in the Franco-Prussian War, but trench warfare was more like a siege, and called for siege guns. In the 19th century, Britain and France exploited the rapid technical developments in artillery to serve a War of Movement. Often a steel plate was used with a "key hole", which had a rotating piece to cover the loophole when not in use. The British proved especially adept at these tactics, thanks to the skill of their tunnel-digging " sappers" and the sophistication of their listening devices.ĭuring the war, the immobility of trench warfare and a need for protection from snipers created a requirement for loopholes both for discharging firearms and for observation. Sensitive listening devices that could detect the sounds of digging were crucial for defense against these underground incursions. Once enemy positions were undermined, huge amounts of explosives would be planted and detonated to prepare for an overland charge. īecause attacking an entrenched enemy was so difficult, tunnel warfare became a major effort during the war. Pillboxes could be placed across a battlefield with interlocking fields of fire. Trench warfare led to the development of the concrete pill box, a small, hardened blockhouse that could be used to deliver machine gun fire. Probably the most important was the introduction of high explosive shells, which dramatically increased the lethality of artillery over the 19th-century equivalents. The hand grenade, long used in crude form, developed rapidly as an aid in attacking trenches. The application of infantry rifles, rifled artillery with hydraulic recoil mechanisms, barbed wire, zigzag trenches and machine guns made it difficult or nearly impossible to cross defended ground. The new metallurgical and chemical industries created new firepower that briefly simplified defense before novel approaches to attack evolved. Tactical reorganizations (such as shifting the focus of command from the 100+ man company to the 10+ man squad) went hand-in-hand with armoured cars, the first submachine guns, and automatic rifles that a single individual soldier could carry and use. On land, the quick descent into trench warfare came as a surprise, and only in the final year of the war did the major armies make effective steps in revolutionizing matters of command and control and tactics to adapt to the modern battlefield and start to harness the myriad new technologies to effective military purposes. The earlier years of the First World War could be characterized as a clash of 20th-century technology with 19th-century military science creating ineffective battles with huge numbers of casualties on both sides. Military technology of the time included important innovations in machine guns, grenades, and artillery, along with essentially new weapons such as submarines, poison gas, warplanes and tanks. World War I weapons included types standardised and improved over the preceding period, together with some newly developed types using innovative technology and a number of improvised weapons used in trench warfare. British improvised weapons in Fort Reuenthal
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |