The term "World War" was born out of a series of conflicts in which all the world powers of
that time were involved. For the first time, large armies of different powerful countries
were deployed against each other, invading and destroying everything in their path.
Since then, different countries have invested millions in the research and development of
armaments to defend themselves against future threats. From these efforts emerged effective
firearms and the so feared nuclear or biological weapons, but... what about their beginnings, those
strange experimental prototypes that were tested in the battlefield during the First World War?
Today we will learn about those weapons and gadgets used in this conflict,
either passing into oblivion for its failure or being the beginning of those we know today,
Welcome to Copernicus’s Galaxy.
Welcome to Hell, a walk through trench warfare.
After the German defeat during the battle of Marne by France and the United Kingdom,
both sides dug huge paths into the ground with the intention of keeping their position
under control. This was known as "trench warfare" which lasted for 4 long years.
Inside the trenches, the lives of the soldiers were a real torment.
Danger lurked at every corner. Having to remain crouched in the same position for hours,
days or even weeks, a little peek of the head would be a certain death sentence,
not to mention the enemy bombarding them with mustard gas and the terrible artillery.
They were exposed at all times to epidemics such as cholera,
influenza or typhus. During winter, the low temperatures combined with the humidity
caused considerable damage to the soldiers' feet and during summer the heat was unbearable.
In addition to this, trench warfare gave rise to the manufacture of weapons that would make
us feel as if we were in a medieval siege, especially those dedicated to close combat.
Among them was the "Glove Dagger" which was made of light steel plate. Inside there was
a crossbar that would serve as a handle and a simple sharp blade protruded from the fist.
Precisely because of the lack of equipment for the close quarter battles, the soldiers themselves in
the trenches began to create their own rudimentary weapons, of which the mallets stood out. For
example, the French introduced lead into a twisted wooden stick to make it heavier and equipped
one end with spikes. The Germans on the other hand could afford to create cast iron mallets,
while the British used wooden sticks to which they added a metal head made from empty grenades.
Moving on to soldier protection, the British Army never produced any kind of body armor,
so opportunists created their own and sold them to soldiers.
They looked more like light medieval armor made up of square pieces of metal bonded together,
which, while providing reasonable protection against shrapnel, could worsen wounds from fast,
small projectiles embedding the metal plates into the body...but it was better than nothing.
As with the vest, folding periscopes began to be produced commercially to allow soldiers to
see what was happening above the trench without having to expose themselves to enemy weapons,
by means of easily transportable mirrors.
The Australians did not lag behind in the creation of unusual weapons either.
Using water dipper mechanisms, they created an ingenious rifle that fired with a delay,
managing to deceive the enemy about their position and ambush them.
You've probably heard the term Carrier Pigeon.
Well, you may be surprised to learn that they were important members of the armies
during World War I. They even received awards and took photos of recognition for carrying messages.
Improvements in medical matters also made their presence felt by having field ambulances for the
rapid care and transfer of wounded soldiers and the installation of operating rooms
on warships. Blood transfusions were not as safe as they are today,
but were an exceptional advance in field medicine, while the large number of wounded men who lost a
limb on the battlefield prompted the development of more sophisticated prostheses to existing ones.
Deceiving the enemy was also an effective and widely used tactic.
The allied forces used inflatable tanks or tanks made of wood and canvas to mislead the enemy,
even if it only worked from a distance. And talking about distance,
during this period, hundreds of fake heads were manufactured with paper and cardboard
resembling a real one as best as possible, to deceive the snipers and reveal their location.
False trunks were also made to house snipers and lookouts right in front of the enemy's noses,
made mainly of canvas and wire, variants of these fake objects were the dead horses in the
middle of the battlefield, all works of art that tested the bravery of their occupants.
For reconnaissance, the transport of wounded soldiers and couriers,
companies of cycling soldiers were implemented, increasingly replacing the war horse
and allowing them to move hundreds of kilometers in a relatively short time.
Finally and possibly the most curious is a German gadget that amplified the sound
of enemy artillery to facilitate the identification of their position while
giving them an appearance similar to a certain famous Disney mouse.
How Gas Caused Terror in the Trenches
With the entrenchment of the armies, the war stagnated, neither side would budge,
so it became a battle of attrition. Meanwhile, in the laboratories, terrible weapons were being
developed with the ability to annihilate thousands of people without firing a single bullet.
The first of these chemical attacks took place in
April 1915 in Ypres by the German army launching poisonous clouds of chlorine.
This claimed numerous lives among the British and Canadian forces causing panic.
From this, both sides began to gas each other using chlorine,
mustard gas, bromine and phosgene by means of projectiles, causing casualties at best,
and at worst, the after-effects of these chemical weapons for those who survived.
Because of their effectiveness and the damage caused, anti-gas measures to
protect the soldiers began to be created, first with special helmets that looked
like a simple hood with holes for the eyes, which were soon replaced by filter masks.
During this hostile period, horses were still widely used for the transport of supplies,
so it was necessary to create some protection for these animals against the same gasses that
killed men. Gas masks were also created for horses, the only difference was the absence
of lenses that covered the eyes as they were not affected by some of the gasses, however between
the chemical weapons and fire, the British alone killed nearly a million of these noble animals.
To warn all those in the trenches of a possible gas attack,
gongs and bells were installed throughout these tunnels so that sentries could warn of
the slightest indication of the presence of these chemical weapons. With this, soldiers
could take their precautions, donning their gas masks and preventing as many deaths as possible.
Once the attack was over, the soldiers used special fans to dissipate the
remains of these deadly gasses that could be trapped in enclosed spaces
or holes and craters. They were invented by physicist Hertha Ayrton,
the first woman to be elected to the Institution of Electrical Engineers in 1899, after the first
waves of German gasses in 1915. More than 100,000 of them were manufactured for the British alone.
The First Air Combats in History.
Since the creation of aircrafts, military forces have had their eye
on them because of their potential to carry out reconnaissance and target destruction missions,
so a large-scale war was the ideal time to test their new toys.
Special cameras were developed and installed on the aircrafts to take images of the terrain.
The aircraft was loaded with large caliber firearms and bombs for
attack and defense for the destruction of key points. A Belgian city called Liege
was the first to be bombed on August 6, 1914 by a German Zeppelin.
These large balloons with turbines were capable of carrying a large amount of explosives
over long distances, which made them perfect to destroy important targets since they were so quiet
and out of reach of enemy anti-aircraft weapons. But, their disadvantages soon became notorious,
as natural issues such as weather and altitude could hinder the missions. The pilots were also
in constant danger due to the hydrogen used for the plane’s sustenance, which is flammable.
One of the most interesting weapons that were manufactured at this time
to equip aircrafts were the Flechette aerial darts used between 1914 and 1916.
They were made of cast metal with a pointed end and a tail made of bird feathers.
Small inflatable hangars were created to protect the airplanes from weather
conditions wherever they were while they were not flying. Flight simulators that helped the
pilots to prepare for air battle were also created. The first one was the "piloteur"
which used a similar system to that of mechanical bulls, recreating movements produced in flight.
In addition to the rudimentary cameras mounted on the sides of the aircraft,
photography advanced to such an extent that machine guns for photos were created.
The Hythe Gun Camera MK III of the Thornton Pickard company takes 16 images of 4.5 x 6
centimeters on a 120 roll film. It is made of heavy gauge brass and aluminum castings,
and by 1917 about 1.5 million aerial photographs were taken by the Russians alone.
In the beginning, light airplanes did not have any weapon with which to defend themselves against
enemy aircrafts, with transport, reconnaissance and bombing missions being their only uses,
so pilots began to devise ways to deal with their opponents, from bricks and
chains that they threw uselessly in mid-flight, to the homemade invention of a of machine gun
made up of 10 Mauser pistols joined together and designed to fire all at the same time,
which were the precursors of modern weaponry. These achieved 100 shots
in bursts of 10 but unfortunately were only effective at close range.
Human ingenuity is fascinating in every sense, whether for peace or for war. The
ideas brought to light by both professionals and ordinary people will continue to amaze
and are indispensable for the advancement of humanity. Whether it’s a new artificial
intelligence capable of showing emotions or a new laser weapon that pulverizes
everything in its path, we will be here to tell you about it, at Copernicus’s Galaxy.