The Most Important Technologies Produced In World War I

World War I began in 1914 after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and lasted until 1918. During the conflict, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire (the Central Powers) fought against Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Japan and the United States (the Allied Powers). Thanks to new military technologies and the horrors of trench warfare, World War I saw remarkable levels of death and destruction. Advances in ammunition and military technology caused tactical changes as each side tried to gain an advantage over the other. The introduction of aircraft into war left soldiers and civilians vulnerable to attacks from above for the first time.” Major innovations were also made in manufacturing, chemistry, and communications. Medical advances made the First World War, the first major conflict in which British deaths in battle outnumbered deaths caused by disease”. Although some say that the most important technology produced during World War I was chemical warfare, I feel tanks, machine guns, warplanes, and submarines were by far more important. According to Scientific American, “The First World War”, by Daniel C. Schlenoff, tanks were first used in battle in September 1916 in the Battle of Flers-Courcelette on the Western Front. There was some question as to whether the tanks should be used since the earliest ones were slow and unreliable. “Only 36 tanks reached the starting point of their attack, but once in battle, they caused enough damage.” A few of these tanks were successful in attacking the German trenches. It showed that this invention could break the trench warfare standoff. Few military or civilians knew what these machines looked like. The new weapons were not even yet called “tanks”. The tanks could move forward over trenches and through the mud (although they did often break down). The soldier’s used these machines stand behind as if it were bulletproof armor.

Armed with machine guns and 6-pound guns (like you find on naval ships), they could rapidly destroy the enemy trenches. The tank was also used to intimidate the enemy. It would often strike fear into the enemy forces. It wasn’t a surprise that the countries involved in the quickly began creating their own tanks. By the end of the war, tanks had become more reliable and often worked together with aircraft and troops to break through the enemy's trenches. Tanks were a necessary invention created to end trench warfare and allow troops to move on foot once again. Another important creation was the airplane. It had only been around for approximately the past ten years, but it proved to play a vital part in the war. The author Paul S. Boyer, who wrote “Weaponry, Nonnuclear” in the Oxford Companion to United States History Journal, states “As the war progressed, the armed fighter plane is often seen over the battlefield, where air superiority translated into the ability to control the flow of information to military commanders. The first air express delivery in the United States took place in November 1910, when a department store in Columbus, Ohio, flew a bolt of silk to Dayton, Ohio. Single-passenger airline operations, obviously, were not economically viable”. Airplanes had a limited weight capacity and unreliable engines, they were used to carry lightweight, important cargo. The role of the aircraft was to gather information behind enemy trenches. This was an essential technology for discovering where the enemy was based and to figure out what the enemy was doing. The machine gun also proved to be a major invention. In a World War I Letter from the Front, “The Battle of Amiens, France” August 8, 1918, Bertie was a soldier in the war writing to his siblings the details about his experiences; one specific detail he talked about were the machine guns. “Every gunshot together and the thing was off. I never heard anything like it in my life, neither has anyone else, as it was about the biggest show that has ever been staged on the western front. Several times I could not hear my own gunfire, and for half of the series, I laid and fired the gun myself. After three hours, I was partially deaf. We fired our first shot at 4:20 AM at 800 yards and in three hours, the enemy was out of range.” Starting in 1916, soldiers had the advantage of sitting behind barbed wire in trenches while firing machine guns at attacking troops.

Previously, the standard method of attacking the other sides’ defenses was with artillery shelling followed by soldiers attacking the enemy on foot. The machine gun changed this practice. It caused the end of horse cavalry units and changed the idea of combat. No longer was it practical to charge forward on foot, because the machine gun was able to shoot soldiers down in a matter of minutes. The machine gun was a technological advancement that is still used in combat today. According to the textbook, Created Equal A History of the United States 1865 by Jacquline Jones, Germans used a new submarine which was first used on the battlefield, just as airplanes or E-boats against superior British surface ships pulled Americans into the war.” Submarines were extremely vulnerable when not submerged, but when they were below water, U-boats were invisible and quiet. Unlike the noisy machine guns and airplanes, the submarine was able to sneak up on the enemy without their knowledge. “Submarines were the key element in the German campaign to weaken the economy.” Also according to “The Submarine in Naval Warfare 1901- 2001” by Karl Lautenschlager, “The main roles for the submarines were coast defense, naval attrition, and commerce warfare.” They were difficult to find when they were not launching torpedo or missiles, or using active sonars, for example, radar or pinning sonar and became vulnerable once they disclosed their presence by attacking. Submarines had passive sonars which were capable of detecting and locating a target. Due to this ability, there was a high demand for them during the war. The ability to destroy the enemy with a single torpedo or missile allowed the submarine to be successful without getting close to the enemy. The development of the submarine was in high demand during and after the war. Some may say that the foremost technology to come out of World War I was chemical warfare, but in my opinion, I believe chemical warfare was not the most important technology used in the war. According to “First-Hand Accounts of the First Chlorine Gas Attack” by Sarah Everts, “As this great green grey cloud was forming in front of us. They couldn’t possibly see what they were shooting at?” Due to this soldiers could not see what they were shooting and it was very hard to fight. “When we got to the French lines the trenches were empty but in a half-mile, the bodies of French soldiers were everywhere. It was unbelievable. Then we saw there were some English. You could see where men had clawed at their faces, and throats, trying to get a breath. Poison gas reacts with water in the lungs to form hydrochloric acid, which can lead to death. At lower levels, it can cause coughing, vomiting, and irritation in the eyes. Others, gasping, stumbling with faces contorted, hands wildly gesticulating, and uttering hoarse cries of pain, fled madly through the villages and farms and through Ypres itself, carrying panic to the remnants of the civilian population and filling the roads with fugitives of both sexes and all ages.” People were fighting in the war and they could not breathe. Nowadays, in wars, we cannot use chemical weapons. We stopped using them after World War I. Unlike machine guns, airplanes, submarines, and tanks which we all still use in war today. Overall, I feel tanks, machine guns, warplanes, and submarines were by far the most important technology produced in World War I compared to chemical warfare which have been banned. Tanks, machine guns, warplanes, and submarines have come a long way since World War I and continue to be an essential part of our military. Our military would not be as strong as it is without them.

Bibliography

1. Cox, Gunner Bert. The Battle of Amiens, France. 1918. Everts, Sarah, et al. “First-Hand Accounts of the First Chlorine Gas Attack.” 100 Years of Chemical Weapons, 22 Feb. 2015, chemicalweapons.cenmag.org/first-hand-accounts-of-the-first-chlorine-gas-attack/.
2. Staff, IWM. “5 Things You Need To Know About The First World War.” Imperial War Museums, www.iwm.org.uk/history/5-things-you-need-to-know-about-the-first-world-war.
3. Jones, Jacqueline “A History of the United States Volume II. Revel Edition Lautenschlager, Karl. “The Submarine in Naval Warfare, 1901-2001.” International Security, vol. 11, no. 3, 1986, p. 94., doi:10.2307/2538886.
4. Schlenoff, Daniel C. “The First World War.” Scientific American, 1 July 2014, www.scientificamerican.com/article/great-war-centennial-the-first-world-war/.