The Science of War

The War on Land - Artillery Artillery guns could be hugely destructive in World War One. The idea was to pulverise your enemy's positions so that your infantry could move forward without major problems. Battle of the Somme = 1,300 heavy guns fired 1,730,000 artillery shells over 7 days. 10,400 shells fired every 60 minutes. The sound could be heard many miles away. During the war, different types of artillery guns were developed varying in size and power. Most of the shells fired by artillery guns were high explosive shells which could throw shrapnel over a wide distance in the trenches.

The Human Cost

War on Land - Gas The technology and development of poison gas had been around for decades. However, until 1915, it had not been used against a major European nation. That changed during the 2nd Battle of Ypres. (Chlorine gas) The early types of gas (Chlorine) were rarely lethal (c. 3% of casualties) it was extremely effective at incapacitating the enemy so they could not defend themselves. The early counter measures though were simple and easy to develop. After the war, the major nations of Europe agreed to avoid the use of gas in future conflicts. During the Second World War, this was the one weapon the Nazis did not try to use. Hitler, having been a victim of a gas attack, was extremely fearful of it and ordered his military never to use it.

Myth and Reality While the death rates were relatively low compared to other weapons, they had a legacy for those injured by them. The British army (including the British Empire) had 188,000 gas casualties but only 8,100 fatalities amongst them. This figure, however, does not take into account the number of men who died from poison gas related injuries years after the end of the war; nor does it take into account the number of men who survived but were so badly injured by poison gas that they could not work once they were released by the army.

War on Land – The “Tank” The idea of a landship or “tank” had been toyed with by the British and French prior to the war, but nothing was really developed until Stumped for a way to cross through artillery and machine gun swept no man’s land, the Triple Alliance turned to the tank as a possible solution. The first tanks were used in late 1916 with mixed success. They scared the Germans, but were not mechanically reliable. The Germans were late to develop a tank and only built a few by the end of the war. The tank did impress a number of young German officers who saw the potential of the tank. These people were to later develop the armoured forces for Hitler 20 years later. The tank was a slow unreliable machine that crews suffered in. The tanks would get hot, smelly and smoky. The crews had to yell to hear each other over the sound of the motor. The fumes would often leak into the cabin chocking the crew. The limited view and the terrain often meant that tanks would often fall into shell holes or trenches and become stuck.

The War in the Air Airplanes were a new invention and no one really knew what role they would have in the war. Initially they were used to spot the enemy and report it. Later as scouts from both sides encountered each other they fired their revolvers at each other. The age of the fighter plane was born.

By the end of the first year of the war, both the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance had armed their planes with machine guns. However, fighter pilots had to be careful as they needed to avoid shooting off pieces of their own plane in the process of attacking the enemy. In 1916 the Germans perfected a gear that allowed them to fire through the propeller without shooting it off and the Entente suffered until they did the same.

Flying was hazardous and glamorous. The pilots flew in open cockpit planes constructed of wood and canvas. They had no parachutes. To those in the trenches it seemed an almost carefree way to fight. Chivalric rules developed between the combatants which lasted almost to the end of the war. It was not uncommon for the pilot shoot down and captured to be treated to dinner and drinks at the mess hall of his captures. As glamorous at it may have seen, a fighter pilots life was often measure in weeks. Veterans could be as old as twenty or twenty one years old. The highest ace of the war Baron Richtoffen “The Red Baron” with 80 planes shot down was 26 when he died. Canada had the second most successful pilot, Billy Bishop with 72 planes shot down.

The War at Sea – U Boats British war effort relied on supplies received from Canada and its colonies as well as the US. The Germans needed to disrupt this maritime trade as much as possible or they would be eventually overwhelmed with the material superiority of the Entente. Even though the Germans had a modern navy, the Kaiser did not want to risk its destruction and so remained in harbour for most of the war. Instead the Germans put their hopes on the submarine. The submarine had been around for almost 50 years but was more of a toy than a real weapon. The Germans developed a fleet of undersea boats – U Boot which would travel under water and attack while either submerged of on the surface. Initially ships going to Britain travelled alone making them easy victims. It was not until the last years of the war that the British developed the convoy system. Merchant ships would be collected together and escorted across the Atlantic by the navy. This system dramatically reduced the threat from submarines.

Initially the Germans took the time to identify neutral (American) ships. By 1917, the Germans announced that it would sink any ship approaching Great Britain. Within months of this policy, the Germans had sunk the American passenger ship the Lusitania (illegally carrying ammunition). In the first part of 1917, one ship in four leaving Great Britain did not return. This meant a monthly decline of 5% in shipping every month. The Germans were literally starving the British into submission. The United States declaration of war in April 1917 immediately brought the might of the U.S. against the sub menace and it declined until the end of the war nineteen months later.