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Weapons of World War One – For Dummies

The Lee Enfield Rifle:
• It was developed in the 19th century and it was an improvement from the guns which came before it which would fire only one bullet and then would need reloaded. It was developed as a rifle which had a small a store of bullets which were stored in a magazine. This speeded up the reloading process, the standard Infantry Rifle of The First World War the Short Magazine Lee Enfield was one of these guns. It was more developed and had a magazine for 8 bullets and when in the hands of a well-drilled soldier, could produce a rate of fire of 15 rounds per minute.
Machine Guns:
• The machine gun came to dominate and in some way personify the battle fields of War World One and was a primitive device when war began in 1914.
• They were infinitely more deadly than the Lee Enfield Rifle.
• They were described as hideous and could fire up to 600 bullets per minute.
• Its design is based on the gattling gun from the American civil war.
• It had multiple barrels which rotated and fired causing a devastating effect as a gunner turned the handle.
• As it was mounted on cart wheels it was never going to be suitable to be used in fast offences.
• Hiram Stevens Martin who was the inventor of the 1884 maxim gun co-operated with Vickers – The British Arms Company – to produce the maxim vickers and the Vickers mark one which turned out to be the standard British heavy machine gun of the first world war.
• British generals ignore the fact that other armies would also have machine guns similar and at the beginning of the war had far to few of these vital weapons.
• The supply of machine guns though, was soon increased and a specific regiment called the machine gun regiment came about to provide machine support.
• In 1914 there were 287, in 1915 - 6102, in 1916 - 30,507, in 1917 – 79,746 and in 1918 – 120,846, and all together between 1914 and 1918 there were 240,506 machine guns owned by the British Generals.
• Along with the Vickers there was another standard machine gun called Lewis.
• The Vickers was an improvement to the earlier maxim, the gun had many features in order for it to keep cool but often after intense action it would overheat. There was no way that anyone could run with it as it was mounted on a tripod and weighed 30 kg. It was a machine which could literally cut men in two and reduce bodies to pulp.
• Trenches were essential to survive machine gun fire.
• The Lewis gun didn’t have features to keep it cool like the Vickers so was very prone to overheating. A plus side of the Lewis though was that it could be carried through attack.
Barbed Wire:
• Due to changes in iron and steel manufacturing in the 19th century technology made it possible for barbed wire to be produced.
• It was used on both sides to strengthen trench defences.
• In some places on the German sides the stretches were 20 metres wide.
• At night soldiers emerged to string the wire from steel pickets which were screwed to the ground through a cork screw action.
• Crossing barbed wire during battle armed with both machine gun and rifle was obviously difficult so much so that one method used was to chuck a corpse across the wire and use it as a bridge.
Aircraft In WW1:
• The first war in which aircraft was used on a large scale was WW1.
• Many people were sceptical about the use of aircraft.
• In August 1914 out of about 230 aircraft belonging to the German army, only 180 were in use.
• Britain was a late starter when it came to using aircraft and in the beginning, initially relied on France’s air craft supply, especially on their engine supply
• The average 1914 aircraft was only able to carry very small load of bombs as the bombs themselves and the bombs storage was very elementary.