Technology Of

Technology of War First World War Watch the 3 minute introduction to technology of war Collect your copy of the ‘Technology of War’ booklet and complete a cover page with an appropriate drawing of the Great War – this could be a trench scene, soldier, headstone, a weapon or something else from your imagination! To complete your booklet you will need to collect a Weaponry Fact-File – you need to choose 4 weapons from the 7 that are available and complete each section of your booklet for each of your chosen weapons To help you with your weapon sketch you can use some of the undernoted templates to colour in and stick in your booklet but of course you can choose to draw your own! The following video clips from Dan Snow’s WW1 Uncut series can be used to help you add some extra information to your booklet Gas Machine Gun Planes Rifle Tanks To finish your booklet you need to complete the last page with a statement saying which of your 4 weapons you think was the most effective with at least two supporting reasons Rifle

Easy to clean and An infantry The weapons that most repair soldier was British soldiers carried equipped in the trenches was the with 2 basic Lee-Enfield rifle weapons – rifle & bayonet Reloading was time consuming So accurate that it could kill a person almost The average soldier could fire 1400 metres away 15 rounds per minute

Light and easy to Bullets were slower carry around then German rifle Killed hundreds Machine Gun of thousands ‘Vickers Machine of men Could overheat Gun’ needed very easily between 4-6 men to move them From 1918 the new ‘Lewis Gun’ was much lighter Had to be and only needed a positioned on a crew of 2 flat surface Crucial for defending trenches No accuracy required & could fire up They had the fire Did not need to 600 rounds power of almost much time to per minute reload 100 guns Heavy Artillery To destroy enemy Battle of the Somme lasted a Craters troops, week & used 1 million shells created by guns & shells made trenches it difficult They weighed up to to cross No Could only be 900lb - took a lot of Mans Land effort to move used from a fixed position They needed 12 men to work them The urgency to produce shells Caused 60% of all resulted in casualties in the many being war faulty

Was used Howitzers could fire shells 3 types of shells: high before and huge distances - the “Paris explosive to destroy during an Gun” could reach targets 75 targets; shrapnel to kill attack miles away or gas shells Chlorine Gas Mustard Gas

Mustard gas introduced in The first war in which gas as used 1917 smelt like onions and took 12 hours to work Distinctive smell – a mixture of pepper and Unreliability - pineapple importance of wind direction Very effective for clearing large sections of land Only small amounts needed to be added to People only realised they shells to be effective were being gassed when Greenish/yellow and it remained active they started to have chest in colour for several weeks pains and a burning sensation in their throats Death from this gas was usually slow and very painful – they suffocated Made the skin blister,victim would start to vomit, internal Use of gas masks reduced bleeding of the lungs, could their effectiveness take 5 weeks to die Aircraft Planes started to be used for the first None carried parachutes even time to deliver though they were available bombs

The biggest fear Obvious targets for for pilots was enemy gunfire fire because they sat close to the engine and Scouting Planes: fuel tank flown over enemy lines to gather information When pilots on both sides fought each Fighter Planes were other in the air it was fast, manoeuvrable & called a dogfight fitted with machine guns Very little influence on battles The British plane called a Sopwith & German the Fokker During the Tanks Caterpillar tracks Battle of helped them cope Cambria 165 with the uneven out of 378 ground broke down or ran out of Many more built on fuel the British side than the German Could get stuck in the mud and were extremely hot and Large crew of men, noisy inside limited vision and fumes could kill The first tank was nicknamed ‘Little Invented by the British and first used Willie’ with a maximum during the Battle of the Somme 1916 speed of 3mph!!!

Troops would be able to Were armoured, bullet proof & get some protection by equipped with machine guns. They walking behind were used to crushing the barbed wire Flame Thrower

Dangerous – could Can of petrol which a explode and kill the soldier carried on his back soldier using it This was Only connected to a enough oil hose which he to burn squirted the 40 liquid towards the seconds enemy at a time

Hose had a sparking mechanism – petrol was Germans used this a lot - set on fire and went to clear out trenches through the air