Weapons of World War I

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Gas

Gassed by John Singer

Sargeant

GasThis was used for the first time in WWI

The first reported use of gas was by the Germans on the eastern front on 3-Jan-1915. It was a tearing agent dispersed by artillery shell. The first use on the western front came several months later on 22-Apr-1915 at the village of Langemarck near Ypres. At 1700 hours the Germans released a 5 mile wide cloud of chlorine gas from some 520 cylinders (168 tons of the chemical). The greenish-yellow cloud drifted over and into the French and Algerian trenches where it caused wide spread panic and death. The age of chemical warfare had begun.

Gas was invented (and very successfully used) as a terror weapon meant to instill confusion and panic among the enemy prior to an offensive. It was a sort of physiological weapon with the non-lethal tearing agents inflicting as much panic as the dreaded mustard gas.

Purpose

Lachrymator (tearing agent) Much like today's tear gas and mace, this gas caused temporary blindness and greatly inflamed the nose and throat of the victim. A gas mask offered very good protection from this type of gas. xylyl bromide was a popular tearing agent since it was easily brewed.

Asphyxiant These are the poisonous gases. This class includes chlorine, phosgene and diphosgene .Chlorine inflicts damage by forming hydrochloric acid when coming in contact with moisture such as found in the lungs and eyes. It is lethal at a mix of 1:5000 (gas/air) whereas phosgene is deadly at 1:10,000 (gas/air) - twice as toxic! Diphosgene , first used by the Germans at Verdun on 22-Jun-1916, was deadlier still and could not be effectively filtered by standard issue gas masks.

3 BasicTypes

Blistering Agent Dichlorethylsulphide : the most dreaded of all chemical weapons in World War I - mustard gas. Unlike the other gases which attack the respiratory system, this gas acts on any exposed, moist skin. This includes, but is not limited to, the eyes, lungs, armpits and groin. A gas mask could offer very little protection. The oily agent would produce large burn-like blisters wherever it came in contact with skin. It also had a nasty way of hanging about in low areas for hours, even days, after being dispersed. A soldier jumping into a shell crater to seek cover could find himself blinded, with skin blistering and lungs bleeding.

The first army issue gas masks were little more than gauze bandages with ties. These would be moistened with water to improve their effectiveness in filtering out the gas.

The cannister gas mask was developed to protect the soldier from the use of chlorine gas and tearing agents such as xylyl bromide. This type of mask was not effective in filtering out the more deadly phosgene and diphosgene gases. There was no mask that could offer protection from the blistering mustard gas which attacks all exposed flesh.

An aerial view of the beginning of a gas attack. Large gas cylinders were brought up to the front where the gas would be released under favorable wind conditions. On more than one occasion the wind would change direction and blow the gas back into the attacker's trenches.

British gas casualties near Bois de l'Abbe France, May 1918. The eye bandages indicate that a blistering agent such as mustard gas was used. This gas was named for it's similarity in both faint smell and color to mustard.

A makeshift German gas laboratory near the front. The gas concentrate is stored in bottles for placement near enemy trenches. Sniper fire would then be used to break the bottle and release the gas.

The real problem that gas caused was that it made it very difficult to carry on the usual business of fighting.

In the great carnage of 1916-17 there were approximately 17,700 gas casualties counting the Somme, Chemin des Dames, and Passchendaele alone. These numbers would grow considerably higher due to the large number of deaths after the war that would be directly attributed to gas exposure. Despite this high casualty count for both sides, the use of gas continued to grow. By 1918, one in every four artillery shells fired contained gas of one type or another.

Machine Guns

Water cooled British Vickers machine gun. Approx 500 rounds per minute. The gun could be broken down into two pieces for transport.

British motorized machine gun battery near the Somme.

Water cooled German Maxim machine gun. Same rpm as Vickers. This weapon accounted for 90% of the British casualties on the opening day of the Somme Offensive, 1-Jul-1916.

German Machineengewehr 08 (Maxim). Designed by American Hiram Maxim and manufactured in Spandau, Germany. The Germans had 12,500 of these killers in 1914 as compared to the several hundred Vickers of the British army. The Germans would produce over 100,000 Maxims during the war.

Type RPMs Feed Weight (lbs) CoolingGerman Maxim

Mg 087.9mkm

600 Belt MG 41/Sledmount 83 WATER

British Vickers Mk I

.303 inches600 Belt MG 35/Tripod

52 WATER

French Hotchkiss8 mm 600 Strip MG 52/Tripod

65 AIR

Austrian Schwarzlose

8 mm400 Belt MG 44/ Tripod

44 WATER

Russian Maxim Sokolov 7.62 mm 500-600 Belt MG 41/ Mount

121 WATER

American Colt.30 inches 400-500 Belt MG 36/ Tripod

56 AIR

American Browning

.30 inches450-600 Belt MG 33/ Tripod

53 WATER

TYPE RPMs Feed Weight (lbs) Cooling

Madesen(8mm) 450 magazine 20 NA

German Bergmann(7.92 mm)

600 magazine 30 NA

German MG 08/18

(7.92 mm)600 belt 32 NA

Lewis(.303 in) 500-600 drum 25 NA

French Chauchat(8 mm)

250 magazine 20 NA

American BAR M1918(.30 in)

500 magazine 19.5 NA

Numbers and Statistics

The End