Weapons of WWI

Flamethrower

• invented by Germans

• shot a stream of gas/oil that ignited in the air

• used to chase men out of trenches

• very unstable

Flamethrower

Machine Guns• invented by Americans • shot a steady stream of

bullets• reason for building

trenches.• Early machine guns

needed 4-6 men to work them and had to be on a flat surface. They had the fire-power of 100 guns.

• Large field guns had a long range and could deliver devastating blows to the enemy but needed up to 12 men to work them. They fired shells which exploded on impact.

Poison Gas• invented by

Germans • used to harm a

large amount of men at once (gas masks)

• main gas used was mustard gas

• gas was unpredictable and unstable

• Chlorine gas causes a burning sensation in the throat and chest pains.

• Death is painful - you suffocate!

• The problem with chlorine gas is that the weather must be right. If the wind is in the wrong direction it could end up killing your own troops rather than the enemy.

• Mustard gas was the most deadly weapon used. It was fired into the trenches in shells.

• It is colourless and takes 12 hours to take effect.

• Effects include: blistering skin, vomiting, sore eyes, internal and external bleeding.

• Death can take up to 5 weeks

Soldier with Mustard Gas burns

Skin exposed to mustard gas…

Mortars• A mortar is essentially

a short, stumpy tube designed to fire a projectile at a steep angle (higher than 45 degrees) so that it falls straight down on the enemy.

• designed by the Chinese

• Lobbed shells into air to go directly into trenches.

Zeppelins• Zeppelins (blimps) were

first used to scout and bomb cities (London and E. England - did little damage but scared people)

• was used during the early part of the war in bombing raids by the Germans.

• They carried machine guns and bombs.

• They were abandoned because they were easy to shoot out of the sky.

Filled with hydrogen gas (easy to blow up)

Airplanes

• Planes were used to scout the enemy positions

• later were armed with machine guns and bombs

Tanks• Invented by the British • Used for the 1st time in WWI• huge metal platforms armed with canons and machine guns • used to attack trenches w/o endangering troops.

• The first tank was called 'Little Willie' and needed a crew of 3. Its maximum speed was 3mph and it could not cross trenches

• The more modern tank was not developed until just before the end of the war. It could carry 10 men, had a revolving turret and could reach 4mph.

Submarine Torpedoes• mainly used by Germans to attack Allied

shipping• The Germans used torpedoes to blow up ships

carrying supplies from America to Britain.

Trenches

Shell Shock• War can cause huge psychological damage to

any human being• Shell Shock was a term used during the WWI to

describe the psychological trauma suffered by men who had served on the war's battlefronts.

• Symptoms: unrelenting anxiety, muscle tics, muscle cramps, lost vision, terrifying nightmares, inability to sleep/eat, re-living the experience, not being able to distinguish what is real/unreal.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRv56gsqkzs• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_gj65okf6U