World War 1

             World War 1 (WWI), more formerly called the Great war, was a major war centered on Europe that began in the summer of 1914 and lasted until November 1918.  It was a blood bath with over 9 million people killed, mainly because of great technological advances in firepower. It was the 6th deadliest war in history.
        The trigger of the war, was the assasination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, the heir to the throne of Austria-Hungary. Though it was not the only cause, it was what crossed the line.  
        On June 28th, 1914 a young Serbian boy named Gavrilo Princip assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The heir to the Austrian throne and his wife were shot and killed as they were riding through the streets in Sarajevo (The capital of Bosnia), in southern Europe.
        Another main cause was military threat. In the 19th century, the major European powers had struggled to maintain a balance of power throughout Europe. The result was, by 1900 the major powers were in a complex spider web of military alliances throughout the continent.
       When Austria declared war Serbia, Russian and Germany had to side and declared war.  Countries continued to side.  Next was France and Germany at war.  Followed by Japan and Germany at war because of Japan's alliance with Great Britain.  Turkey (Ottoman Empire) joined the Germans and aided 
them in a bombardment on Russia.  This caused Britain and France to join Russia against Turkey.

So far the teams

Next joined Italy, and then Romainia and about a year later the Americans, sided with the allies.  These 3 new countries increased the Allies power and the side became victorious.

Blood Bath

Explosion at Hawthorn Ridge Mine

         Explosion of the Hawthorn ridge mine July 1st, 1916 was one of the most humiliating days for the British Army. It was the worst one-day combat losses in its history, with nearly 60,000 casualties.  The "Battle of the Somme" was one of the largest battles in the first world war.

This battle, also known as the "Somme Offensive", situated between July 1st and November 18th 1916.  Though it didn't even last 5 months the death toll was around 1,500,000.  That means on average 10000 people died, everyday!


[Image]"Zero hour" (set to 7:30 am) was when many mines were scheduled to be collapsed. The war opened up with many mines being detonated 10 minutes prior to Zero hour the first one being Hawthorn Ridge Redoubt. By the time Zero hour had came, it was time for the infantry to advance.  This day turning out to be a horible loss for the British.

Planes

World war 1 was the first war where aircraft's were deployed on a large scale. Aeroplanes were mostly used for scouting before the world war then they came out with bomber planes, ground attack planes and the fighter planes. Many of the lessons from aircrafts in the world war helped prepare and learn what to do and what not to do in the future.

The Bristol Fighter was British plane that was a heavily armed, 2 seated fighter plane that could manouver very well. The Bristol was one of the most sucessful planes of the war. There was 3,101 Bristols made and it was armed with a Vicker machine gun and 2-3 Lewis machine guns. Also the Canadian ace Andrew McKeever achieved the highest amount of kills with the Bristol Fighter which was 31 kills!

Caproni Ca.40 heavy bomber prototype

The Caproni Ca.4 were designed to be effective in combat and also unleash a fury of bombs. The Ca.4 could deliver large payloads of bombs to distant targets and was also armed with up to 8 machine guns. It was used by Italy and a total of 32 Ca.4's were built.

Tanks

In 1914 when the war started Germans, British, Austrians, Russians and French all had armoured vehicles but they were not suited for rough terrain so they were not very effective. Eventually a new war-vehicle was made; it had caterpillar tracks, armour and two naval six-pound guns. The tank was called Mark I but the Mark I’s that were made had faults like some did not work and other broke down on their way to battle. The tank was very effective because of how much fear it put into the enemy because lots of soldiers had never seen or heard of it before. But the Mark I was proved disappointing in battle.

Mark A (Whippet)

Later the Mark A nicknamed the whippet was created in 1917 and used in battle. It was meant for exploiting any break in enemy lines. The tank was proved effective in Cambria in 1917 when nearly 400 whippets were used to crash through enemy lines. The whippet was responsible for more casualties than any other British tank in the war.

The Schwerer Kampfwagen A7V had sprung tracks and thicker armour which made it better than the British tanks but it was less successful at battle.  The A7V had concerns which were its mechanical reliability and that it had difficulty crossing enemy trenches. A new better design of the tank was made later but the war ended before it could reach the front lines.

Perks

Musket with Bayonet

The bayonet fit on the end of the barrel of the gun, it was used for silently taking out your enemy from close range so you don’t have to shoot them and give away your position.

Wireless communication was used in world war 1 in planes, submarines and some ground vehicles for communicating where the enemy is where the planes or boats need to go and what is going on. The wireless communication systems weighed 50 kg so they would not be able to be carried around by people.

Smokeless gunpowder helped keep you more hidden from the enemy. There would be no smoke coming out of the barrel but there is still the noise of the gun shooting that would give away you position.

Artillery

Artillery in the early 1900’s were mounted firearms that could shoot a distance of  up to 2 km and they could fire 4-6 pound ammunition which was classified as light artillery and the other ammunition was a 8-12 pound shot which was classified as heavy artillery.

Krupp produced a large artillery gun that could fire a 2100 lb shell that could go a distance of 16’000 yards. The gun weighed 175 tons and was transported in five sections to the firing site and assembled there. Because boats and trains could not get everywhere the gun concerned the Germans so they asked for it to be adapted to move on the road to places.  In 1914 the new gun made and was named after Krupp’s wife and was called the Big Bertha. The new gun weighed 43 tons and could fire a 2200 lb shell over 9 miles. It was transported by Daimler-Benz tractors and it took a 200 man crew 6 hours to assemble the weapon at the firing site.

Armoured Vehicles

Armoured cars were first used by the British Army. By the outbreak of First World War the allies in Europe were using armour-plated, open-topped vehicles with machine guns or other light guns or artillery pieces. The most popular British car was the Napier that was first produced in 1912.

The Commer lorry was a first aid vehicle that transported stretchers and medical stores to a first aid post. It was a great success and then they asked the company to produce a new vehicle that would carry injured horses.

The British army began thinking of ways to quickly transport soldiers to the war in the early 1900’s. In 1911 they decided they needed motor transport. When the world war started in 1914 the British army acquired 1200 Dennis lorries, By the end of the war 7000 Dennis Lorrie’s had been built and used. The Dennis lorry could reach up to a speed of 55 mph even when loaded with people and it weighed 3 tons.

Machine Guns

Hiram maxim invented the first portable automatic machine gun in 1884. The Maxim gun could fire 400-600 small calibre bullets per minute.

In 1912 the British army adopted the Vickers as its standard machine gun. Produced by the Vickers Company, it was a modified version of the Maxim Machine-Gun. The Vickers could fire over 600 rounds per minute and a distance of 4500 yards. When war was declared in August, 1914, Vickers was manufacturing 12 machine guns a week. Demand from the British Army was so high that Vickers had to find new ways of increasing production. By 1915 Vickers supplied the British armed forces with 2,405 guns.

John Moses Browning created the Browning machine gun. It was inspired by the maxim machine gun. Unlike Maxim Browning used propelling gas as a motive force. In 1895 the Browning machine-gun was purchased by the US Navy. In 1910 browning made a new 0.30 inch machine gun but it was not purchased by the US army until 1917 and over an 18 month span 57,000 were produced for soldiers fighting in the western front.

Bolt Action Rifles/ Pistol

Mauser Gewehr

Nearly all infantrymen in the First World War used bolt action rifles. It was invented by a Scottish immigrant that went to the United States. You had to manually reload the gun to fire again; it only took around 3 seconds to reload so it was very effective in combat.

Peter Paul Mauser is the creator of the Mauser Gewehr. This gun was the answer to the French gun the Lebel m1888. The Mauser Gewehr is said to be the most successful bolt action rifle ever.

All British officers in the army carried pistols and they tended to prefer the Webley MkIV. It was originally created in 1887 but it was improved in the early stages of the war. The Webley was a strong heavy-calibre weapon. It is estimated that over 300,000 Webley pistols were distributed to the British officers during the war.

Winning side

Conclusion of the war:


- Surrender of Germany and the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, which ordered Germany had to pay Allied forces in Europe for war damages, give up control of the Rhineland (picture below), a limit on the soldiers they could have in their armed forces, and a ban placed on them manufacturing weapons
-This caused great political and economic instability in Germany in the 1920s and 1930s which gave Hitler the opportunity to come to power and that lead to World War II.  Hitler promised to bring Germany back on top. He was a good public speaker so the people in Germany wanted him to become the leader. They didn't know that he was a Crack head.