Technological Advancement Ww1

Technological advancements and their effects on WW1

Contrary to the belief of the time, the new technological advancements did not bring the Great War to a quick victory, instead, they dragged World War 1 into an unprecedented global conflict, with millions of deaths in the aftermath of the slaughter. These inventions spread over a wide range of fields, with major inventions in the offensive department, including Poison Gas and Tanks, paramount innovations in the defensive branch such as the machine gun; and in the scouting department, with the mobilization of airplanes as scouting mechanisms. Not only did these contraptions help convert the war into the gruesome historical event we look back upon today, but they also forever changed the nature

Though first studied by the Germans, it was the French that introduced the concept of poison gas into the war, when “they fired tear-gas grenades (xylyl bromide) against the Germans.” (Duffy Michael. “Poison gas in WW1”). After seeing these gas grenades in action, and aware of their possibilities, the germans took to studying them, and developed various trials, some of which were successful, such as the sneezing gas in Neuve Chapelle, and some, which proved to be useless, like the liquid tear gas in Bolimov. After several experimentations and trials, the Germans finally achieved what they were searching for, fully functional and lethal poison gas. The debut of this lethal weapon was on the 22nd of April, 1915, at the second battle of Ypres. “[T]housands of French Algerian troops were smothered in a ghostly green cloud of chlorine[.] With no protection, many died from the agonies of suffocation.” (Pruszewicz, Marek. "How Deadly Was the Poison Gas of WW1?") Though unknown to them at the time, the germans had just unlocked a new chapter in warfare. These early poison gases were the foundation of other deadlier gases, such as phosgene and mustard gas. These gasses accounted for many casualties in the initial stages of the war, yet protection against these gases were developed, and soon it was a rare occurrence if someone died from the gas. “The number of gas casualties from May 1915” in the british forces “amounted to some 9 per cent of the total - but that of this total only around 3% were fatal.” In the initial stages of the gases, they left countries scrambling for protection, and caused them to be even more weary of artillery fire, as it may contain a hidden gas canister. This weariness led to the creation of gas masks, and later on, to the Geneva Protocol of 1925, which fought for “the prohibition of