Alban Lekaj World War I was an era of great warfare and infantry. As time has surpassed, the creation of weapons & inventions has evolved subsequently and many things are more advanced due to the upgrades in technology. A couple of major improvements that have taken place are the improvements in firearms; the machine gun in particular. Also how industrial war vehicles have changed, and how the destructivity of our modern weapons has dramatically enhanced since World War I. The evolution of weapons will continue to ameliorate and gradually change throughout history. The machine gun evolved into one of the most formidable battlefield element by the time of World War 1. It was able to mount onto all sorts of vehicles and objects for example, aircraft, naval warships, and also a mounted-ground defense system. Entering the Second World War, Germans created a portable machine gun (MG42). It was one of the most destructible weapons of that era (Writer, Machine guns). Crude machine guns had first been used in the American Civil War (1861 to 1865). However, tactics from this war to 1914 had not changed to fit in with this new weapon. Machine guns could shoot hundreds of rounds of ammunition a minute and the standard military tactic of World War One was the infantry charge. Casualties were huge. Many soldiers barely got out of their trench before they were cut down. At the start of the war, senior British army officers were less than sure about the effectiveness of the machine gun. Therefore most battalions were only issued with two. This was a lot less than the Germans who were much more sure as to the effectiveness of the machine gun. The Germans placed their machine guns slightly in front of their lines to ensure than the machine gun crews were given a full view of the battlefield. (Truman, machine guns). Today the main role of all MGs is to provide sustained firepower for troops
