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Machine Guns
By World War I, machine guns were fully automatic weapons that fired bullets rapidly, up to 450 to 600 rounds a minute. Hiram Maxim, an American inventor, delivered the first automatic, portable machine gun in 1884, providing the template for the weapon that devastated the British at the Somme. -
The search for a solution
British and French generals tried to solve the problem by novel uses of their infantry and artillery, but to no avail. Concentrating sufficient artillery and other forces to promise a breakthrough meant alerting the enemy to the imminent attack. This was especially so since the German positions in France lay along ridges of hills looking down on Allied forces in the flat plains below. -
Tanks
British heavy tanks were a series of related armored fighting vehicles developed by the UK during the First World War. The Mark I was the world's first tank, tracked and armed armored vehicle, to enter combat. -
Planes
At the start of the First World War, aircraft like the B.E.2 were primarily used for reconnaissance. Due to the static nature of trench warfare, aircraft were the only means of gathering information beyond enemy trenches, so they were essential for discovering where the enemy was based and what they were doing.
Tactical aerial bombing became an important part of the war. Bombing of both military targets and more strategic objectives were soon a common occurrence. -
Poison Gas
Poison gas was probably the most feared of all weapons in World War One. Poison gas was indiscriminate and could be used on the trenches even when no attack was going on. A poison gas attack meant soldiers having to put on crude gas masks and if these were unsuccessful, an attack could leave a victim in agony for days and weeks before he finally fails to resist to his injuries. -
Hungary declares war on Siberia
On July 28, 1914, one month to the day after Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife were killed by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo, Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia, effectively beginning the First World War battle. -
WWl
World War I (WWI or WW1), also known as the First World War, the Great War, or the War to End All Wars, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. More than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, were mobilized in one of the largest wars in history. -
U-boats
The U-boat proved its worth as a serious fighting machine right at the beginning of WWI when Otto Weddigen in his small U-9 sank 3 British cruisers in less than an hour on 22 Sep 1914. From then on the U-boats, although never committed fully until well into 1917, caused the Allies very serious problems and scored incredible victories while suffering their own losses as well. -
Women in Wartime
A disproportionately female population inhabited the home front everywhere, and this led to substantial changes in the work force. Most countries experienced a wave of unemployment followed by a surge in the need for labor. Young people, but especially women, entered the factories in large numbers. The world's most famous armaments plant, the Krupp works at Essen, Germany, employed 12,000 women in 1916; -
The war at sea
The naval war followed a vastly different rhythm from the war on land. A short spurt of violence at the start of the conflict was followed by a prolonged period in which the warring fleets merely skirmished. In stopand- go fashion, Germany used submarines to attack merchant vessels during the first two years of the conflict. But the conflict's naval climax came only in 1917, when the submarine, and the war against the submarine, dominated the picture. -
The Changing Expectations of African Americans
African Americans returned from the war with a range of new experiences. Many had found their contacts with the French people free from the racism of their own country. They returned with military training that made it possible to resist white violence, as in the Tulsa, Oklahoma, race riot of 1921 . Perhaps most important of all, many African Americans now expected better treatment in the United States as a result of their service for their country. -
Archduke Franz Ferdinand
On Sunday, 28 June 1914, at about 10:45 am, Franz Ferdinand and his wife were killed in Sarajevo, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian province of Bosnia and Herzegovina, by Gavrilo Princip, 19 at the time, a member of Young Bosnia and one of a group of assassins organized and armed by the Black Hand.[4] The event led to a chain of events that eventually triggered World War I.
