Ww1 Weapons

Wars, Weapons & Wonders

Much of the improvements to the primitive technology in weapons occurred during World War 1. The World War I (1914-1918), which occurred as a consequence after the assassination of the heir to the Austrian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, by a Serbian nationalist, was one of the two world wars that happened in the 20th century. Following the assassination, Austria-Hungarian Empire invaded Siberia and later the German began to conquer the neighboring states like Luxembourg, Belgium, and France thus beginning the World War I. It was a bloody four year conflict between the Central Powers (Germany, Ottoman Empire, and Austria-Hungary) and Allies (France, Britain, and Russia). With that well known assassination as the cause, the imperialistic foreign policies of major powers of Europe too contributed to the start. To Europeans, it was expected to last less than a year when the war had begun, but it ended up becoming four years of nightmare. One of the significance of this war was the innovations and modifications of weapons from flamethrowers to machine guns to tanks. The innovations and advancements of certain weapons had a crucial impact on the outcome of WWI in the way this destructive technology led to the military and civilian casualties of over 35,000.

Machine guns were common and one of the main killers during this war. There were unlimited amount of machine guns used during the war and just to name a few, some of these destructive guns were German Maxim MG08/15, Italian Fiat-Revelli 6.5mm MOD .14, French Hotchkiss Mle 1914, and the last goes on and on. These tools dominated in the battlefields and produced over 10x as much firepower as a bolt-action rifle, but they weren’t portable and required around 5-6 people to operate. The water-cooled machine gun consisted of water jacket- that held around one gallon of liquid- and air vents for the latter. However they tended to rapidly overheat and fail to work without cooling...