Read About the Many Inventions of World War I. Learn About Modern War from Primary Source Materials.
The combining of machine gun and motorcycle was an entirely Canadian concept that made an appearance early in the war. It is highly likely that the vehicles never got their baptism of fire:
an interesting adaptation of the motorcycle to military uses has been made by employing it as a light artillery vehicle…the accompanying photograph shows a machine gun mounted on a sidecar chassis.
History’s ancient example of camouflage, the Trojan horse, has a modern twist in this illustrated article. The journalist reported that at some undated point earlier in the war the French had a chance to set a mock horse-carcass between the opposing trenches and use it as an observation post.
Naval mines had been around for centuries, in one form or another – and this article pertains to the particular type of anti U-boat mines that were put in place along those well-traveled sea lanes known best by that kind of German warship.
Click here to read about one of the greatest innovations by 20th Century chemists: plastic.
A three page article concerning the development of tanks during the First World War. While they were being created on the drawing boards of Britain’s W. Foster Company, the code name for these land dreadnoughts was water tanks; hence the name.
The first armored battle cars, or tanks were a British invention developed from an American automobile tractor used for agricultural purposes on the Western prairies. They made their initial appearance at the battle of the Somme (Flers), September 15, 1916.
However, it should be known that they were first used to greatest effect in the Battle of Cambrai (November 20 through December 7, 1917).
Click here to see a diagram of the W.W. I French Renault tank.
Read about the Patton tank in Korea…
By the time the U.S. Army had joined the war in 1917, they were far behind in the study of camouflage, but they did their best to catch up quickly. The American generals assigned the task camouflage to the Signal Corps, which began to cruise the ranks for artists and sculptors because of their natural abilities understand paint and scale (one of the more well-known W.W. I Signal Corps camofleurs was the painter Grant Wood: click here to read about him).
The attached article displays an illustration that clearly shows that the American Army had torn a page out of that well-worn play book written by the British Camouflage School in order to deploy papier-mache dummies along the front lines. There is no evidence or written word to indicate that it was actually done.
The American press seemed a bit late in writing about the wartime innovations when they printed this piece:
Observation posts made of lumber and sheet metal to look like tree trunks are among the latest disguises employed on the battle front to deceive the enemy and enable watchers to occupy positions of advantage.
The steel tree-stump gag had been in effect since 1915.
A black and white photograph illustrating one of the many iron tree stumps used throughout the war which served as field observation posts. It was in the night, when work was done by both sides to preserve and refortify their respective trenches that objects such as these were erected.
The need for elevated artillery observation platforms is as old as the science of artillery itself. As this black and white image makes clear, the ones built during the Great War had to meet different needs: in order to evade detection from the air (as well as enemy artillery spotters) the more successful ones were built among the taller trees and draped in camouflage.
This article appears on this site by way of a special agreement with L’Illustration.
At the time, the war of 1914 – 1918 was unique in the sense that it was the first war in which more men were killed as a result of the projectiles rather than from disease; and it was artillery that did the lion’s share of the killing. This article appeared during the early months of the war when the world was shocked to learn of the astounding losses due to advancements in artillery. There is an illustration of an unidentified German howitzer (more than likely a 1911 model 210mm) and an account of the roll that German gunnery played during the siege of Liege and Fort Loncin in particular.
The one big surprise for the military experts thus far developed in the European war is the effectiveness of the heavy guns of the German field artillery. Never before have such terrible engines of annihilation been carried by an invading army as those used in the assault upon the forts at Liege.
Being the story of the second of the three splendid achievements of the United States Navy in the World War: the laying of the greatest submarine mine barrier in all history, which effectually prevented the Kaiser’s U-boats from leaving their secret bases for the steamer lanes of the Atlantic.
It was Lt. Commander Norman Wilkinson (1878 – 1971) of the Royal Navy who deduced that white (reflecting blue at night) was a suitable base color for naval camouflage. Wilkinson based his reasoning on the snow-capped iceberg that made such quick work of TITANIC, remembering all the while that seagulls are white, as are pelicans and the Antarctic Petrels. When the war broke out, his findings were presented to the Admiralty and it was concluded that elements of the North Atlantic fleet should be so painted. They added the black in order that the ships appear gray on the horizon.
A black and white mechanical drawing of a World War One French grenade with all parts labeled. In 1918, the New York Times wrote:
The pine-apple grenade, or as the French are wont to call it, the citron grenade (lemon) is charged with a powerful explosion called shedite, which when exploded on open ground is said to cause injuries at 250 yards. Primed with a sensitive detonator, the grenade is caused to explode when it strikes the ground. Very often the grenade is not thrown far enough, so the that the explosion is likely to cause casualties among one’s own troops. Apart from these disadvantages, the grenade is an excellent weapon for hand to hand fighting.
A black and white diagram depicting the interior and exterior of the German A7V heavy tank. Manufactured in the spring of 1918, only twenty were ever known to have existed. Although the illustration depicts only two men, it is said that the tank had a crew of 18 and measured 26 feet, three inches in length and 10.5 feet in width. The A7V had two heavy Maxim machine guns placed within it’s turret, while the tank’s primary weapon was a 57mm gun mounted at the very front (these guns were believed to have been of Russian or Belgian origin). The tank could travel an estimated fifty miles at the top speed of 6 mph; it weighed 32 tons and sported armor plating that was 30mm thick at the bow and 20mm thick all around. The tank’s two 150 horse-power, 4-cylinder water cooled engines were made by Daimler.
The attached is a photo from a 1918 issue of GREAT WAR MAGAZINE and pictures the Brandt Grenade-Thrower – designed in 1916 by the Frenchman Edgar William Brandt (1880 – 1960). A commonly used piece of trench artillery that was most often found in the French sectors, it is easily recognized by it’s highly pronounced barrel that narrowed at the muzzle. An air operated mortar of 75mm caliber, this piece was one of several compressed air projectors deployed by the French Army.
This remarkable aeroplane gun is the invention of Lieutenant-Colonel Isaac N. Lewis of the United States Army Coast Artillery Corps. Curiously enough, the gun was designed primarily for infantry and cavalry use.
Click here to read a 1918 article about the Lewis Gun.
During the spring of 1917 the Germans developed a squadron of large aircraft capable of dropping 660-pound bombs on London -and drop them they did, killing as many as 788 human beings between May of 1917 and May of 1918. The Giant Goltha Bombers conducted these raids primarily at night and utterly terrified the East End of London. Eventually, German losses escalated and the London raids were canceled in favor of Paris and various other French targets. In 1917 this image of a Goltha cockpit appeared in the French press.
Click here to read an article about the development of aerial reconnaissance during W.W. I.
– A well-illustrated article which sought to explain to American readers the workings of one of the most heinous inventions of the First World War:
This idea of projecting upon the adverse trenches and their occupants a rain of liquid fire was no sudden afterthought of the German mind. It was conceived, studied, and perfected for several years before the war, and its history may be traced in the German patent office.
The French made light Renault tank was first seen on the Western Front in 1918, it had a crew of two, measured 13 feet (4 meters) in length and weighed 6.5 tons. The tank’s 35 hp. engine moved it along at a top speed of 6 mph. The factory options were few: one turret was fashioned to accommodate a 37mm gun while the other was made for a machine gun. The American Army placed 227 of these tanks in the field; these Renaults were distinctly different from those commanded by their French allies: the American version sported an octagonal turret (the French used a circular one) and steel wheels (the French Army preferred wood).
If you wish to read about the only German tank of World War I, click here.
Read about the Patton tank in Korea…
