Essay about WWI weaponry

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WWI New Weaponry

Some people define war as a time of death and horror, but others sometimes define war as a time where many new technologies are being created. During the World War I, countries that were fighting each other starts to find if there is any new ways the war can be fought. From the concept of trench warfare to the new ways of convincing people to join the war using simple propagandas. The new weapons used in the WWI greatly changed the way battles were fought on trenches, sea, and land. Poison gas were used to physically damage hordes of people while killing off the lucky ones, submarines (U-boats) were able to destroy ship in stealth, and heavy armoured tanks were used to easily destroy anything coming at its way. To start, battles in trenches before the use of poison gas were brutal and long lasting. Many soldiers would die from diseases and infections and artillery shells. Poison gas was first used by the French using xylyl bromide against the Germans in late 1914. Many German soldiers suffered under the xylyl bromide, tear gas. After that battle, Germans then started to put major studies in poison gas useage in the war. The first few battle where the Germans used poison gas were unsuccessful. Mainly because that the wind was blowing the wrong direction. However, in april 22, 1915, at the Second Battle of Ypres, Germans had a successful run using the chlorine gas to attack the French(A). Once the effectiveness of the poison gas was known to the public, everyone started using poison gases in the war including trench battles. British was the second to respond to the useage of poison gas. At the Battle of the Loos, around 400 chlorine gas emplacements were established among the British front line around Loos. The gas was released by turning a cock on each cylinder(A). From that battle, French, British, and Germany all suffered from the poisonous gas due to the wide range of the poison and the undetermined wind direction. From the consequence, experiments were undertaken to allow poison gas to be released by artillery shells; this provided the additional benefits of increasing the target range as well as the variety of gases released(A). The use of the poison gas rarely kills soldiers. Most soldiers who faced the poison gas would be injured. Therefore, during WWI it is a requirement to carry around gas masks during a trench battle(A). Additionally, the use of submarines during the World War I completely changed the way battles were fought on sea. However, the first “modern” submarines were not invented during the WWI; it was made by a U.S Naval engineer, John Holland, in the 1880’s. Its goal was to blasts compressed air under water to sink ships. During The Great War however submarines were able to shoot torpedoes, and attack ships on the surface of the sea with the attached machine guns. Prior to WWI, submarines played only a small role in the plans of fleet commanders, serving primarily only as coastal defense units. Commanders believed that the submarine was only a plaything, something for the younger officers to sharpen their teeth on (C). However, the belief was proven wrong when the German U-boats led by Otto Weddigen sunk 3 British armored cruisers in the North Sea. Once the news of U-boats attacking cruisers was out, the rest of the world panicked and started to take strong notice of submarines. However, it was a little too late. Germans by April of 1916, had already destroyed 849,000 tons of shipping owned by the British ships were lost. One out of every four British merchant ships that left port had never returned. The German U-boats totally dominated the sea battles and took control of all the shipping trades around the Mediterranean sea. With the lack of trading ships, Britain only got about 3 weeks of grain supply before they went into submission. In February 1917, in an attempt to starve Britain into submission, Germany ordered the resumption of unrestricted submarine
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