The standard German trench mortar guns were called minenwerfers bomb-throwers. They came in three sizes, this one being the smallest.
This gun required six men to move it. The huge 10in 26cm version needed 21 men. This gauge was used to lift or lower the barrel at different angles to allow the gunners to fire with more accuracy. The wheels could be removed for ease of transportation. With proper handling, it could sustain a rate of fire for hours. This was providing that a necessary supply of belted ammunition, spare barrels and cooling water was available.
When there was no water to hand, soldiers would urinate in the water jacket to keep the gun cool! It required a team of two gunners to operate it, one to fire and one to carry ammunition and reload.
As gunnery practice improved the British were able to use this light machine gun to give effective mobile support to their ground troops. Aircraft were a such a new technology during the First World War that no one recognised their potential as a weapon at first. Pilots would even wave at enemy planes when they passed each other on aerial reconnaissance duties! Initially aircraft carried out artillery spotting and photographic reconnaissance. This work gradually led pilots into aerial battles against enemies engaged in similar activities.
As the war progressed aircraft were fitted with machine guns and strafed enemy trenches and troop concentrations. As the speed and flying capabilities of aircraft improved they even bombed airfields, transportation networks and industrial facilities. Mortars of all sizes were used on the Western Front. Their size and mobility offered advantages over conventional artillery as they could be fired from within the safety of a trench.
They were also effective at taking out enemy machine gun and sniper posts. The Stokes mortar above was the most successful British mortar. It consisted of a metal tube fixed to an anti-recoil plate. When dropped into the tube, a bomb hit a firing pin at the bottom and launched. It could fire 20 bombs per minute and had a range of 1, metres. Tunnelling and mining operations were common on the Western Front.
Much of this work was done by special Royal Engineers units formed of Welsh and Durham miners. On 1 July , a few minutes before they attacked on the Somme, the British exploded several huge mines packed with explosives under the German position. Although many defenders were killed by the explosions. The delay in starting the advance meant that the Germans had time to scramble out of their dugouts, man their trenches and open a devastating machine-gun fire. One successful use of mines was on 7 June , when the British unleashed a series of huge mine explosions at Messines Ridge.
They killed around 10, Germans and totally disrupted their lines. Following the detonation of the mines, nine Allied infantry divisions attacked under a creeping artillery barrage, supported by tanks.
The devastating effect of the mines helped the men gain their initial objectives. They were also helped by the German reserves being positioned too far back to intervene. Rifles were by far the most commonly used weapon of the war.
It had a maximum range of 2, metres, but an effective killing range of A well-trained infantryman could fire 15 rounds a minute. In August , the Germans mistook the speed and precision of the British rifle fire for machine guns. A rifle fitted with a bayonet could prove unwieldy in a confined trench so many soldiers preferred to use improvised trench clubs instead.
But the bayonet was still a handy tool that soldiers also used for cooking and eating! The Germans first used gas against the French during the capture of Neuve Chapelle in October when they fired shells containing a chemical irritant that caused violent fits of sneezing.
In March they used a form of tear gas against the French at Nieuport. These early experiments were a small taste of things to come. As the war progressed all sides developed ever more lethal gases including chlorine, phosgene and mustard gas.
The introduction of gas warfare in created an urgent need for protective equipment to counter its effects. Rattles, horns and whistles were also soon adopted as means of warning troops and giving them time to put on protective equipment during gas attacks. The British Army soon developed a range of gas helmets based on fabric bags and hoods that had been treated with anti-gas chemicals.
These were later replaced by a small box filter respirator which provided greater protection. Not all actions on the Western Front were large scale battles.
Often soldiers were involved in trench raids, small surprise attacks to seize prisoners, enemy weapons or gain intelligence. This often involved close-quarters fighting in confined spaces so many experienced soldiers preferred to use improvised clubs, knives and knuckledusters rather than cumbersome rifles. Such weapons were also ideal for silent killing during raids. Reminiscent of medieval weapons, they were often fashioned from items found in the trenches, but were no less deadly and symbolised the primal, brutal nature of trench warfare.
Tanks were developed by the British Army as a mechanical solution to the trench warfare stalemate. They were first used on the Somme in September , but they were mechanically unreliable and too few in number to secure a victory. One of the few ways that tanks were effective during the war, was that they were capable of crossing barbed wire defences, although their tracks were still at risk of becoming entangled. As the war progressed, the army found better ways to use their new weapon and exploit the advantage it created.
At Cambrai in , the tank made its first significant breakthrough when it was used en masse. Technologically, the machines became more advanced. By tanks were being effectively used as part of an 'all arms' approach during the Allies' successful attacks.
The field guns were of smaller calibre, lighter, and easier to transport. The work-horse of the British and Canadian armies was the pounder.
This gun fired high explosive and shrapnel shells and, later in the war, smoke, incendiary, and gas shells. The artillery used different shells for different purposes. Shrapnel shells were timed to explode over enemy lines, sending down hundreds of tiny metal balls. This rain of metal, which exploded outward in a shotgun blast, caused terrible injuries to soldiers caught in the open. Trenches helped to protect against shrapnel, but even trenches were vulnerable to high explosive shells that burst like dynamite, leaving large craters in the ground and killing and maiming anyone caught in the blast.
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