Another Battlefield 1 Trailer was released last week and since a lot of you were keen
on learning about the history behind the first trailer, we will analyse this trailer too.
N ow, some of the gear that was shown in the first trailer was pretty experimental and
rare, so we didn’t know about it.
If you spot anything that we missed or got something wrong, just write to us in the comments,
it’s always cool for us to learn something new.
The first 20 seconds of the trailer show a possibly broken British Mark IV tank surrounded
by German soldiers in various gear.
The surrounding area looks like the outskirts of a battlefield.
It’s hard to make out individual equipment and weaponry.
The soldier in front is wearing a holstered Mauser C96 or Luger 08 with the stock on his
chest.
Both handguns were very famous and were produced till long after the war.
In combination with the stock, they could be used as a Carbine and German stormtroopers
liked to use them for trench assaults.
You might ask yourself why the Germans are not simply blowing up the tank?
After the introduction of British tanks on the Western Front in September 1916, the Germans
actually capture some of these to study and even used them in battle.
Germany only produced 20 of their A7V tanks due to the lack of resources and problems
with manufacturing.
We can see the interior of the tank and what might be protagonists of the story mode of
the game.
Two things are interesting to see here: First of all, the tank might seem pretty spacious
to you and the crew might be pretty big.
But a Mark IV was actually operated by a crew of 8.
The A7V I mentioned even had 18 crewmen in various roles like arming the secondary weapons
on the sides or observing and controlling the engine.
Then there is a pigeon flying out of the tank.
Pigeons were extremely important means of communications during the war.
And yes, even the tanks used them for signalling or messaging the HQ.
Some pigeons were even awarded medals for delivering important messages under fire.
If you want to learn more about communications in WW1, check out our episode about that by
clicking the i in the right corner of this video.
The gun fired in close up is definitely the C96 - might look to familiar to you because
it was the inspiration for Han Solo’s blaster in Star Wars.
The next 10 second scene is a combined assault of airplanes and tanks somewhere on the western
front.
We see windmills again which I guess makes this Northern France or Belgium.
There is a Mark IV tank and the crew running towards it.
And then we cut to the assault itself.
The Mark IV tank is the “male” version of the tank with two 6-pounder 57-mm guns
on the side The soldier on the right side seems to carry the Lewis Light Machine Gun
that was used throughout the war.
The plane flying above is likely a Sopwith Camel, a popular single-seat biplane fighter
airplane flown on the Western Front from 1917, and what Snoopy said his doghouse was when
he was pretending to be a World War One flying ace.
What seem to be multiple Sopwith Camels- it’s hard to make out due to the pace of the trailer
and the editing- are attacking a Zeppelin together.
A few things I want to say about this.
A lot of people asked us if the planes are too fast.
Well, a Sopwith Camel, for example, could reach 113 mph (182 km/h) and so could a Fokker
D.VII - now you have to say if that is too fast in this trailer, I don’t know.
Anyway, let’s talk about the combined assault of aircraft, infantry, and tanks.
This is something you would only see in the very late stages of World War 1 where a lot
of things were done and tested that really looked liked warfare as we got to know it
in World War 2.
In the stalemate of 1916 on the Western Front, this approach was not seen like this, but
again: The first tanks were used around that time, so you can see the development.
Finally, I want to talk about the Zeppelin WHICH IS FLYING TOO DAMN LOW.
To my knowledge, German Zeppelins were used for strategic bombing of cities and for scouting
and recon.
Not so much directly at the front line.
They were great for their roles in the early stages of the war because they could fly higher
than any fighter plane could fly or any artillery gun could shoot.
Now, after incendiary bullets were used and dedicated anti-aircraft guns were used, the
Zeppelins had a much harder time.
There would have been absolutely no reason for a Zep to fly that low and over an active
battlefield for that matter.
You can see Flak shells exploding in the sky too, and even though a Zeppelin was not as
easy to crack as you might think, this would have been a waste of resources which Germany
did not have.
Also, the fighter planes were not designed for these kind of attacks very close to the
ground maneuvering through obstacles.
But that of course doesn’t mean that skilled pilots couldn’t pull off incredible things
with them.
The next brief scene features some tanks on the ground again.
On the right side is a French Renault FT tank.
Probably the most important tank design of the whole war and pretty damn close to our
modern understanding of the tank.
Patton was a big fan of these in World War 1.
The green box on wheels you see in the middle is the German A7V tank I mentioned.
It was actually called Sturmpanzerwagen- something like armoured assault vehicle and that’s
much closer to its capabilities.
It could reach a top speed of 18 km/h (9mp/h) on roads and only half of that cross country.
Seems to be a bit fast in this scene.
The plane on the right could be a Gotha IV bomber but please correct me if I am wrong.
In the background you can see barrage balloons.
In our first analysis I thought these were observation balloons but actually they are
too close to the front for that.
Barrage balloons are basically obstacles that protect against enemy aircraft because they
make the approach more difficult.
I am bit puzzled from the weapon but it could be a Mexican Mondragon rifle, one of the first
semi-automatic rifles adopted by a military.
The German Army used a few thousand of these for their airmen observers which they could
use while in flight.
The next scene is shown from the perspective of someone carrying the Bergmann MP 18 which
was the first submachine gun widely used in combat.
It was introduced as the primary assault weapon of German stormtroopers in 1918.
At least 5000 were used during the Kaiserschlacht, the last big German offensive on the Western
Front.
He stabs the enemy soldier with a bayonet.
Haven’t seen an MP18 with a bayonet or spike like this and to my knowledge the original
design did not feature a bayonet mount.
Let me know if you have other information.
The soldier that gets stabbed is wearing the Gaede helmet again.
An experimental German helmet tested in the Vosges in 1915 because there were a lot of
issued with flying rocks and debris there.
The weight of the mask made it impractical which is why it was melted in after the testing.
We already saw this in the last trailer and I actually didn’t know it.
But we got a lot of tips from our fans including a great book about body armour in WW1 which
we will link to in the description.
The German soldier is wearing the regular German model 1915 greatcoat.
We’re in the desert again which we already saw in the first trailer.
You can see another Sopwith flying by.
And on the ground an armoured car is zooming through the sand.
This is a Rolls-Royce Armoured Car which was used in the Middle Eastern theatre and very
briefly in the early mobile stages of the Western Front.
They were used in squads and offered mobile protection against enemy aircraft and infantry.
Armoured Cars were also used on the Eastern Front for example by the Belgian Armoured
Car Division - something you should definitely look up if you don’t know the story.
The protagonist here seems to hold a Beretta OVP submachine gun which is an Italian design
based on an aircraft submachine gun called the Villar Perosa.
00:42 - 00:50 The next scene is a British assault on a village.
Generally this looks very much like a commando style assault.
Again, in the very late stages of the war, you had pretty much modern warfare and even
during the Battle of the Somme in 1916 there were villages that had to be taken from the
enemy.
But this kind of assault is not really representative of the entire war and in the context of this
trailer, I am especially missing the trenches here.
The villages in 1916 were entrenched fortifications which didn’t resemble a village in the classical
sense anymore.
By the way, the protagonist here is carrying a very rare Italian Cei-Rigotti – an early
automatic rifle created around 1900.
Really really rare.
The soldier on the very right seems to be an Australian or New Zealand Army Corps - ANZAC
- since he seems to wear a slouch hat in their typical fashion.
Gurkhas and the US troops also wore hats like this but in a different style.
It could be a German colonial Schutztruppe hat too but then again this soldier is advancing
with other British or ANZAC troops.
The ANZACS fought in the Middle East and on the Western Front and are mostly remembered
for the Battle of Gallipoli.
The same goes for the next scene.
House to house combat was not a standard situation in the war.
Squad and Platoons that would take autonomous decisions to reach an objective were something
new when the Germans implemented it for their stormtroopers.
And of course the Entente changed their infantry doctrine too but let’s not forget that WW1
and trench warfare are very much connected in the narrative for a reason.
The player is holding a Hotchkiss machine gun here which was a French LMG which was
also adopted by the British and American Army and it was fed by that recognisable 30-round
strip-magazine.
The field gun firing at the house looks like the updated 7.7 cm Feldkanone 96 used by the
German Army in WW1.
We can also briefly see a Winchester Model 1912 trench shotgun with some not so historical
attachments.
This is all going really fast now and even by pausing you don’t see all the details,
so be kind if I miss something.
The most prominent vehicle in the next scene is the military version of a Harley Davidson.
And yes, these were actually used in battle.
With mounted machine guns and side cars, they were used in squadrons.
They could also be equipped to transport wounded soldiers quickly.
The guy in the sidecar is holding the MP18 again.
Notably, the weather is also different in this scene which just reminded me what a big
role weather played in this war.
During the Battle of Paschendale, soldiers were drowning, and I mean really drowning
in mud, they would sink into the mud so deep that they couldn’t be pulled out anymore.
On the Eastern Front, winter made fighting only possible sporadically and in the spring,
the Russians and Germans would fight on little boats.
Whole armies froze to death in the mountains of the Carpathians, the Caucasus and the Dolomites.
Anyway, it looks really muddy here already but not Paschendale muddy.
We are on the Italian Front again inside a French Renault FT tank.
The Italians did develop some odd tank prototypes but these never saw action.
The Zeppelin is flying too damn low again.
With the hills and slopes, you could basically shoot this one out of the sky with a few field
guns.
We see a Fokker DR1 triplane flying by again.
That’s Dutchman Anthony F-O-K-K-E-R for you.
Unlike the last trailer, this one is painted blue.
Like I said, the planes of some German Squadrons were painted in a variety of patterns, not
just red.
And while the DR1 is really iconic, there are a few more German planes that were more
deadly.
Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron, also flew different variations of the Albatross
fighter with deadly precision.
Another detail here is the base in the background.
You notice that this is a very rocky area and the Italian and Austro-Hungarian troops
really had to blast their defenses into the rock.
You can still find whole caverns and redoubts up on the peaks till this day.
Now we’re in the cockpit of a fighter, not really sure which one.
Though the machine guns firing seem to be the German LMG 08 - the L here is for Luft
and means this is the aerial combat version of the German MG08.
The machine guns are firing through the rotating propeller which was still pretty new in 1916.
The Germans Air Force used synchronisation gear - again designed by Fokker - for the
first time in 1915 and that period was known as the Fokker Scourge because for the first
time pilots were able to use their plane and aim it in the direction they were shooting.
The plane is also shooting rockets at the Zeppelin.
Rockets in WW1?
Yes, these are Le Prieur rockets which were designed to take down balloons and airships.
The range was very limited though, so you had to get close to land a hit.
Now we are on the bridge of a zeppelin.
Anyway, it must feel great to fly one of those around which is my completely unhistorical
analysis of this scene.
Unless of course the thing explodes into a ball of fire like we see in the next scene.
To my knowledge Zeppelin crews did not carry parachutes.
So, when a Zep goes down, you could jump or be melted.
Tough choice.
The way the Zeppelin explodes here is pretty accurate as you can see the fire creeping
through the different compartments it had.
You might be wondering where the German Iron Cross marking is on the side of the Zeppelin,
but this is actually the German marking called Balkenkreuz which was established later in
the war.
The guy watching the Zeppelin go down is wearing the C96 Mauser with the stock I mentioned
before, though this one is actually the really rare Carbine version with a longer barrel
and all.
The more common version is actually the pistol with a stock attached.
We can see a soldier of the British Indian Army who is killing an enemy soldier with
a melee weapon.
Over 1 million Indian soldiers fought on all kinds of fronts of World War 1, most notably
in the Middle East and on the Western Front.
The German soldier that is getting killed is again wearing the extremely rare Gaede
helmet.
The next scene looks like a real WW1 battlefield again barely resembling nature anymore.
You can see another ANZAC soldier on the left.
A lot of air action, I am almost getting dizzy.
And a motorbike again.
Might be the Harley from earlier.
Could be an Indian Powerplus too.
We are back at the artillery scene we saw in the first trailer.
The first thing I noticed here: -Why is the guy loading the gun also wearing his marching
gear?
Let’s also talk about the mustache of his comrade.
Before the war, we pretty much had the golden age of the mustache and British soldiers were
actually required to grow one.
But it turned out that facial hair gets in the way of gas masks properly sealing which
led to clean shaving requirements for the soldiers.
We see three guns firing.
That is not even a drop in the ocean of artillery usage in World War 1.
By the time this battle of Verdun ended, it is estimated that as many as 65,000,000 shells
were used by the French and German armies, and that 75% of the over 700,000 casualties
were caused by artillery fire.
We can also see the shells flying through the air which just reminded me that the first
man made object that reached she stratosphere was the shells of the Paris Gun.
A giant piece of German artillery that covered such a great distance that the rotation of
the earth had to be accounted for aiming.
Interesting detail: The German soldier looking at the incoming fire is wearing a protective
face mask.
There is another scene after the logo which we also know from the first trailer.
The cavalry charge in the desert.
It now looks like the cavalry is attacking the armoured train.
This reminds me of the Arab Revolt which used more guerrilla style tactics against the Ottoman
Empire and was supported by the British through T.E. Lawrence- better known as Lawrence of
Arabia.
One of the riders is wearing a kind of body armour vest.
These were used and tested in the WW1 but I am not really sure how good these would
be for riding a horse.
The sabre looks like the Pattern 1796 light cavalry sabre.
Well, that was the trailer.
Again, let me know if we missed anything - it was really
Cool to learn about the experimental equipment from the community last time.
My general impression is that this is going to be a pretty fast paced game and that it
mostly took the very last parts of the war as a blueprint and spiced that up with some
over-the-top action.
You see a big focus on automatic or semi-automatic guns even though the reality of WW1 was more
focused on classic bolt action rifles and their carbine version.
If you are interested in all the handguns and their history, we will put some links
in the description for videos you should check out.
If you are curious to learn about the development of modern war and what happened before, drop
by our channel and check out our ongoing weekly series that follows World War 1 exactly 100
years later.
If you are especially interested in tactics and strategies, check out our episode about
stormtroopers.
Don’t forget to subscribe.
See you next time.