WW1TECHNOLOGY By Jerry Chang, Ken Hampel and

Drew Knochenhauer

Background WW1 was a war that used trench warfare The technology invented during and

around the time of the war advanced it from using, what is considered, primitive weapons to more advanced weapons

This also led to an increase to deaths because even though the weapons advanced the armies didn’t make much change to their strategies.

Gas Warfare in the trenches

1) Poison Gas was used to bring movement back to the war-By 1918, both sides were prepared for any attack-Gas masks were used for protection against poison gas

2) Poison Gas caused painful suffering-intense burns and blisters where the gas touched the skin-as long as 14 hours before finally suffocating to death

Tanks in the War Tanks were invented by the British in 1915 They were armored machines that had

cannons and machine guns attached The armor protected them from machine gun

fire and, minimally, from some shells They were first used by the British in the

little know Battle of Flers Though the full potential of the tanks

wasn’t recognized until the battle of Cambriai

Tanks Cont. The first tank versus tank battle occurred

on April 24 the British used their heavy tank the Mark IV and the lighter faster whippet. Fought with French tanks called the Schneider Fought against the German’s heavily armored

and gunned AV7’s

Machine Guns in WW1 * The machine gun was originally created in the

1860’s. Its design was improved by many, including Sir Hiram Maxim.

* Maxim’s design was the first practical one. His machine gun was water-cooled with belt-fed ammunition. Its rate of fire was about 450 rounds per minute.

* He sold the Maxim Machine Gun to the British Army and eventually his company was acquired by Vickers Ltd.. The gun then became known as the Vickers-Maxim Machine Gun.

Machine Guns in WW1 cont.

* The machine gun with tripod and water jacket weighed 153.5 pounds. The improved version weighed 75.5 pounds.

* One machine gun was considered to be worth 80 rifles. The machine gun was considered to be the most devastating weapon of WWI.

* The armies of WWI were slow to adapt to the firepower of the machine gun as shown at the Battle of Somme. They continued to believe the most effective military action was a cavalry charge.

* Because of this, the British lost 60,000 soldiers in one day. They lost 420,000 soldiers in the entire battle.

Credits Drew – Power point, individual

paragraphs for writing, Picture of technology

Jerry – Formatting of the writing, individual paragraphs for writing, Picture of technology

Ken - individual paragraphs for writing, Picture of technology