Weapons & Trench Warfare

World War One

Total War/Modern Warfare

Myth

Reality

Technological Advances from World War I

• The industrialization of society from the Industrial Revolution would generate many military applications of new technology

• In 1915 British Admiral Jacky Fisher wrote, “The war is going to be won by inventions.”

• Machine gun• Rapid fire artillery• Airplanes• Internal combustion

engine• Tanks• Zeppelins• Gas• Flamethrowers

New Technology & WWI• New technology had not broken the “stalemate” of WWI – in New technology had not broken the “stalemate” of WWI – in fact they helped create it – the only real impact of technology fact they helped create it – the only real impact of technology was the dramatic increase in war death/injury & the impact of was the dramatic increase in war death/injury & the impact of war on civilian populations – death tolls increased & civilian war on civilian populations – death tolls increased & civilian centers now became legitimate targetscenters now became legitimate targets

• Technological advancements surpassed military field strategy Technological advancements surpassed military field strategy of “frontal assault charges” which had existed for millennia – this of “frontal assault charges” which had existed for millennia – this only increased battlefield casualtiesonly increased battlefield casualties

• Some significant technological developments:Some significant technological developments:

• Tanks – originally designed to break the stalemate of the Tanks – originally designed to break the stalemate of the trenches – became the future of ground warfaretrenches – became the future of ground warfare

• Planes – war was taken to the skiesPlanes – war was taken to the skies

• Submarines – in existence since the American Revolution Submarines – in existence since the American Revolution – was now “perfected”– was now “perfected”

• Chemical Warfare – mustard gas & choking poisons were Chemical Warfare – mustard gas & choking poisons were used by all sidesused by all sides

• Land Mines – used to destroy tanksLand Mines – used to destroy tanks

• Telephone & Radio – communication & coordination Telephone & Radio – communication & coordination devicesdevices

• All-Steel Ships – increased size & gun capabilityAll-Steel Ships – increased size & gun capability

• Long-Range Artillery – used to “soften up” enemy Long-Range Artillery – used to “soften up” enemy positionspositions

• Machine Guns – ended the military tactic of the “frontal Machine Guns – ended the military tactic of the “frontal assault” (not until some 11 million were dead first)assault” (not until some 11 million were dead first)

The changes of war

• New weapons crippled the “frozen front”– Poison gas (mustard gas)– Hand grenades– Flame throwers– Tanks– Airplanes– Tanks– Subs

New weapons

• Poison gas, other new weapons response to massive deadlock• Two systems of trenches stretched hundreds of miles, western Europe• Millions of Allied and Central Powers soldiers in trenches of Western Front

Life in trenches

• Rainstorms produced deep puddles, mud• Lice, rats, bad sanitation constant problems• Removing dead bodies often impossible

Trench warfare

• Trench warfare not new idea• Soldiers had long hidden behind mounds of earth• Scale of 1914 Europe trench warfare never before experienced

The World War I Battlefield

Over the top

• Soldiers ordered out of trenches to attack enemy• Sprinting across area known as “no-man’s-land” a deadly game• Thousands on both sides died, cut down by enemy guns

More effective

• Other new weapons more effective than poison gas• Rapid-fire machine guns in wide use • Artillery and high-explosive shells, enormous destructive power

New weapons

• Neither side able to make significant advances on enemy’s trenches• Each side turned to new weapons like poison gas• Value limited, both sides developed gas masks

The World War I Battlefield

U-BoatsU-Boats

Submarines or U-Boats

German Submarine Warfare

U-Boats

• Germany suffered because of the British blockade, so it developed small submarines called U-boats to strike back at the British.

• U-boats are named after the German for “undersea boat.”

• In February 1915 the German government declared the waters around Great Britain a war zone, threatening to destroy all enemy ships.

• Germany warned the U.S. that neutral ships might be attacked.

• The German plan for unrestricted submarine warfare angered Americans, and Wilson believed it violated the laws of neutrality.

• Wilson held Germany accountable for American losses.

America’s Involvement

• In 1915, Germany sank a luxury passenger ship to Great Britain called the Lusitania, killing many, including 128 Americans

• Americans were outraged, and Wilson demanded an end to unrestricted submarine warfare.

• The Germans agreed to attack only supply ships but later sank the French passenger ship Sussex, killing 80 people.

• Wilson threatened Germany again, and Germany issued the Sussex pledge, promising not to sink merchant vessels “without warning and without saving human lives.”

Submarines

• On Feb 1, 1917, the Germans pursued unrestricted submarine warfare with the order “To all U-boats, sink on sight.”

• In 11 months, the Germans sank 2,966 Allied or neutral ships carrying food, munitions, or men

• 1 in 4 British ships were sunk• This led to the USA joining the war against the

Germans• British started to sail in convoys escorted by

warships and sea mines to break the German submarine control of the seas

Submarines

This photo shows some of the early experimental submarines that were developed during World War I. The submarine was part of the modern style of warfare that was introduced in World War I. 

The German navy had approximately 100 submarines in service during WWI. Initially the Germans used submarines to threaten the Allies' economic blockade. In 1917 the German Kaiser declared unrestricted U-boat warfare against the allies, including neutral ships in British waters. In response, the Allies established armed convoys to protect merchant ships and increased production of mines and depth charges.

The sinking of neutral ships, like the Lusitania in 1915, polarized public opinion (against the Germans) about the war, and was a major factor in the decision of the United States to join the Allied caused.

Photo: Courtesy Queen’s University Archives

Changing TechnologyChanging Technology

Allied Ships Sunk by U-Boats

Allied Ships Sunk by U-Boats

German Miscalculation

• Germany resumed unrestricted submarine warfare in early 1917– Notified US of decision Jan 31– Sunk several US ships in Feb

and Mar• US declared war on April 6, 1917

– At the same time Russia was withdrawing from the war (Remember from Lesson 11), the US was entering

• Germany failed to end war before the US entered it

The Caption Reads: Novel Coastwise Scenery: Since it was given out that the German barbarians were refusing to fire on cathedrals, England has worked out a jolly little plan for coast defense. (From Jugend, Munich.)

Machine Guns

A New Kind of Warfare

Word of Germany’s invasion of Belgium quickly spread to France and other European nations.

• French troops mobilized to meet approaching German divisions.– They looked much as French soldiers did over 40 years earlier, wearing bright

red coats and heavy brass helmets.– The German troops dressed in gray uniforms that worked as camouflage on

the battlefield.• French war strategy had not changed much since the 1800s.

– French soldiers marched row by row onto the battlefield, with bayonets mounted to their field rifles, preparing for close combat with the Germans.

– The Germans, however, had many machine guns, and mowed down some 15,000 French troops per day in early battle.

– A well-trained German machine-gun team could set up equipment in four seconds, and each machine gun matched the firepower of 50 to 100 French rifles.

• Many Europeans wrongly thought these technological advances would make the war short and that France would be defeated in two months.

Maxim Machine Gun• A gun that fires off a stream of bullets---about

10 bullets every second

• One machine gun was said to be worth 80 rifles

• Good for defending trenches

• Weights 62kg and needs to rest on a stand

• It gets hot very quickly and bullets can jam

• At the start of the war, the Germans had 12,000

• By the end of the war, they had 100,000

•They drove men into trenches and foxholes.•War, became a battle of inches (stalemate)

Super Killing Machines:

Machine Guns

• Could fire over 1000 cartridges per minute

• When the enemy would charge into the open, the machine guns would cut them down by the thousands

• Led to the development of trenches to escape the deadly gunfire

Rapid Firing Machine Guns

Machine Guns

The Machine Gun

Germans first to mass produce it– the British thought it was not “sporting”

Industrialization & the arms race created artillerythat fired with greater power and carried much farther than before.

Artillery

Poisonous Gas

• German military scientists experimented with gas as a weapon.

• Gas in battle was risky: Soldiers didn’t know how much to use, and wind changes could backfire the gas.

• Then Germans threw canisters of gas into the Allies’ trenches.

• Many regretted using gas, but British and French forces began using it too, to keep things even.

Tanks

• When soldiers began to carry gas masks, they still faced a stalemate.

• British forces soon developed armored tanks to move into no-man’s-land.

• These tanks had limited success because many got stuck in the mud.

• Germans soon found ways to destroy the tanks with artillery fire.

New Weapons of War

Airplanes

• Both sides used planes to map and to attack trenches from above.

• Planes first dropped brinks and heavy objects on enemy troops.

• Soon they mounted guns and bombs on planes.

• Skilled pilots sought in air battles called dogfights.

• The German Red Baron downed 80 Allied planes, until he was shot down.

CHEMICAL WARFARE

Types: Mustard, Chlorine, & Phosgene•Drifted in the wind—often affected their own troops

Gruesome Gases• Lacrymators: a type of tear gas that makes you go blind for a while.

Even a tiny amount makes your eyes sting.• Sternutators: gives you a headache and makes you sick. It arrives

in a high-explosive shell before the enemy can put on the gas masks.

• Suffocating: gases that are used to kill. Breathe in these gases, and your lungs fill up with liquid. You drown in your own body fluids.

• Phosgene: smells like rotten hay but doesn’t make your nose or your eyes itch, so you don’t know you have breathed it in until you start to choke to death

• Vesicant: British called it mustard gas. It has no smell, so the enemy don’t know they have been gassed until it is too late.

Poison Gas

Poison Gas• French army used tear-gas grenades, then the

Germans expanded on the poison gases• Chlorine Gas-destroyed the respiratory organs and

led to a slow death by asphyxiation• Phosgene Gas-caused the victim to violently cough

& choke; often a delayed reaction up to 48 hours• Mustard Gas-used later in the war in 1917; almost

odorless & took 12 hours to take into effect; caused serious blisters internally & externally; remained active in the soil for several weeks

• Germans used 68,000 tons of poison gas• France used almost 37,000 tons• Britain used more than 25,000 tons• 91,198 soldiers died due to poison gas attacks• 1.2 million were hospitalized due to poison gas

attacks

•The most lethal of all the poisonous chemicals used during the war, it The most lethal of all the poisonous chemicals used during the war, it was almost odorless and took twelve hours to take effect.was almost odorless and took twelve hours to take effect.• Yperite was so powerful that only small amounts had to be added to Yperite was so powerful that only small amounts had to be added to high explosive shells to be effective. high explosive shells to be effective. •Once in the soil, mustard gas remained active for several weeks.Once in the soil, mustard gas remained active for several weeks.•The skin of victims of mustard gas blistered, the eyes became very sore The skin of victims of mustard gas blistered, the eyes became very sore and they began to vomit.and they began to vomit.• Mustard gas caused internal and external bleeding and attacked the Mustard gas caused internal and external bleeding and attacked the bronchial tubes, stripping off the mucous membrane. bronchial tubes, stripping off the mucous membrane. •This was extremely painful and most soldiers had to be strapped to This was extremely painful and most soldiers had to be strapped to their beds. It usually took a person four or five weeks to die of mustard their beds. It usually took a person four or five weeks to die of mustard gas poisoninggas poisoning• One nurse, Vera Brittain, wroteOne nurse, Vera Brittain, wrote: "I wish those people who talk about : "I wish those people who talk about going on with this war whatever it costs could see the soldiers suffering going on with this war whatever it costs could see the soldiers suffering from mustard gas poisoning. Great mustard-coloured blisters, blind from mustard gas poisoning. Great mustard-coloured blisters, blind eyes, all sticky and stuck together, always fighting for breath, with eyes, all sticky and stuck together, always fighting for breath, with voices a mere whisper, saying that their throats are closing and they voices a mere whisper, saying that their throats are closing and they know they will choke."know they will choke."

Mustard Gas

“Death is everywhere”• Mustard gas

– Also known as yellow cross or Yperite

– Carried by the wind– Burned out soldier’s

lungs– Deadly in the trenches

where it would sit at the bottom

Poison Gas

• “It was our first experience with mustard gas. The men we took were covered in blisters. The size of your palm most of them. In any tender, warm place, under the arms, between the legs, and over the face and neck. All their eyes streaming, and hurting in a way that sin never hurts.”

Mustard Gas Wounds

•Burned body & lungs•caused blindness, asphyxiation, & death

•Chemical Warfare banned after World War I

Survivors of a Gas Attack

Poison Gas

If you are caught in a gas attack without a gas helmet, you were told to:

• Take out your handkerchief.

• Urinate into the materials till it is soaked.

• Tie it round your mouth and nose and breathe through it.

Poison Gas

Poetry from the First World War was written by soldiers who served at the

Western Front.

• They saw the horrors of War first hand.

• They wrote about what they really saw.

• Their poems were published just after thewar, so they were not censored. They are first hand and often unbiased sources.

“Bombed Last Night”-a Trench Song about Poison Gas

• Bombed last night, and bombed the night before.

Going to get bombed tonight if we never get bombed anymore.When we're bombed, we're scared as we can be.Can't stop the bombing from old Higher Germany.

• They're warning us, they're warning us.One shell hole for just the four of us.Thank your lucky stars there are no more of us.So one of us can fill it all alone.

“Bombed Last Night” Cont.

• Gassed last night, and gassed the night before. Going to get gassed tonight if we never get gassed anymore.When we're gassed, we're sick as we can be.For phosgene and mustard gas is much too much for me.

• They're killing us, they're killing us.One respirator for the four of us.Thank your lucky stars that we can all run fast.So one of us can take it all alone.

Poison Gas

WILFRED OWENWilfred Owen is one of the more famous War Poets.

He was born March 18th, 1893.

He joined the Army in 1915 as an Officer in the “Artists

Rifles”.

Wilfred Owen served in some of the worst conditions during

the following months.

DULCE ET DECORUM EST

By Wilfred Owen

Bent double like old beggars under sacks,

Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,

Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs

And towards our distant rest began to trudge.

Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots

But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;

Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots

Of gas shells dropping softly behind.

Gas! GAS!

Quick, Boys!

…An ecstasy of fumbling,

Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time;

But someone still was yelling out and stumbling,

And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime…

Dim, through the misty panes and thick green light,

As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams, before my helpless

sight,

He plunges at me, guttering, choking,

drowning.

If in some smothering dreams you too could pace

Behind the wagon that we flung him in,

And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,

His hanging face like a devil’s sick of sin;

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood

Come gargling from the froth corrupted lungs,

Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud

Of vile incurable sores on innocent tongues,

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest

To children ardent for some desperate glory,

The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est

Pro patria mori. (It is good and sweet to die for your country.)

November 4th, 1918:

Owen and his men went ‘over the top’. He was shot and killed by German machine guns on the

banks of the Sambre-Ouse Canal.

The War ended just a week later on November 11th.

Wilfred Owen was 25 years old.

Gas Shell Launchers

Loading Gas Shell Launchers

Gas Shells Exploding

Poison Gas Deaths: 1914-1918

Country Non-Fatal Deaths Total

British Empire 180,597 8,109 188,706

France 182,000 8,000 190,000

United States 71,345 1,462 72,807

Italy 55,373 4,627 60,000

Russia 419,340 56,000 475,340

Germany 191,000 9,000 200,000

Austria-Hungary 97,000 3,000 100,000

Others 9,000 1,000 10.000

Total 1,205,655 91,198 1,296,853

Chemical WarfareChemical WarfareThe horror and disgust at the wartime use of poison gases was so great that its use

was outlawed in 1925 - a ban that, at least in theory, is still in force today.

Photos: Courtesy Unites States Air Force Air War College Table Source: First World War.com

CountryCasualties from Gas Death

Austria-Hungary 100,000 3,000British Empire 188,706 8,109France 190,000 8,000Germany 200,000 9,000Italy 60,000 4,627Russia 419,340 56,000USA 72,807 1,462Others 10,000 1,000

Gas Masks

*

Poison Gas

Poison Gas

Machine Gun

Machine Gun

Attempts to Break the Stalemate: Gas

• Various efforts were made to break the stalemate

• The Germans first used gas against the Russians on Jan 13, 1915 with little effect

• They were more successful at Ypres on Aug 15 Even German dogs were

outfitted with gas masks

Soldiers would protect themselves using Gas Masks

Fighting in Trenches• William Pressey was gassed on 7th June 1917. He survived the attack and later

wrote about the experience of being gassed.

• I was awakened by a terrific crash. The roof came down on my chest and legs and I couldn't move anything but my head. I found I could hardly breathe. Then I heard voices. Other fellows with gas helmets on, looking very frightened in the half-light, were lifting timber off me and one was forcing a gas helmet on me. Even when you were all right, to wear a gas helmet was uncomfortable, your nose pinched, sucking air through a canister of chemicals.

I was put into an ambulance and taken to the base, where we were placed on the stretchers side by side on the floor of a marquee. I suppose I resembled a kind of fish with my mouth open gasping for air. It seemed as if my lugs were gradually shutting up and my heart pounded away in my ears like the beat of a drum. On looking at the chap next to me I felt sick, for green stuff was oozing from the side of his mouth.

To get air in my lungs was real agony. I dozed off for short periods but seemed to wake in a sort of panic. To ease the pain in my chest I may subconsciously have stopped breathing, until the pounding of my heart woke me up. I was always surprised when I found myself awake, for I felt sure that I would die in my sleep.

Surviving a gas attack

• Your gas mask irritates the skin on your face and itches or it makes you feel claustrophobic. What can you do without exposing yourself to the poisonous gas?

• The soldier next to you dies. What do you do with the body?

• Another soldier goes berserk and throws his gas mask out of the trench. What do you do?

'Gassed'. Painting by John Singer Sargent, 1918/1919.

On your Left Side:• After World War One, the world’s nations

outlawed the use of chemical weapons due to the horrors of poison gas.

• However, developments in biological and chemical weapons have continued to this day.

• Why has this continued? Explain your reasoning.

Flamethrowers

Flamethrowers

• Fired a stream of gasoline that was ignited at the muzzle

• The jet of flaming gasoline was fired onto the enemy in the trenches to kill or disable

• Germans first used this as a shock weapon in 1916 to shock the Allies out of their trenches

World War One also brought about new weapons of war as well as a new kind of warfare: Weapons such as flame throwers, poisonous gas, machine guns, tanks and air planes were employed

FLAME THROWERS

The German Army first began experimenting with flame-throwers in 1900 and they were issued to special battalions eleven years later. The flame-thrower used pressurized air, carbon dioxide or nitrogen to force oil through a nozzle. Ignited by a small charge, the oil became a jet of flame.

Flame-throwers were first used at the Western Front in October 1914. Operated by two men, they were mainly used to clear enemy soldiers from front-line trenches. At first they had a range of 25 meters but later this was increased to 40 meters. This meant they were only effective over narrow areas of No Man's Land. Another problem was that the flame-thrower was difficult to move around and only contained enough oil to burn 40 seconds at the time. Soldiers who operated flame-throwers had a short-life span because as soon as they used them they were the target of rifle and machine-gun fire.

World War I Flamethrower

French Flame Throwers

FlameThrowers

FlameThrowers

GrenadeLaunchersGrenade

Launchers

The World War I Battlefield

Tanks and Aircraft

• Tanks pioneered by British

– Could cross rough battlefield terrain

– Reliability was a problem

• Aircraft most useful

– At beginning of war, mostly for observation

– Soon had machine guns, bombs attached

– Faster airplanes useful in attacking cities, battlefields

Changing TechnologyChanging Technology

Tank warfare was first introduced by France and Britain in 1916. Its role in the war gradually increased as the war progressed.

Early heavy tanks proved to be ineffective and were soon replaced by lighter versions that soon revolutionized the war. By 1917 the British and French were using 1500 tanks each. Tanks became a regular feature in all offensives and were credited with Allied successes after 1916.

Photo:Courtesy Queen’s University Archives

Tanks

Tanks• Invented by the British in 1916 as a mobile armored

platform armed with machine guns & cannons• Designed so the English could attack enemy trenches &

break the trench lines with their own fire under the protection of the tank armor

• First tanks were very unpleasant & unreliable; a crew of 8 was crammed in and could not sit upright; the temperature rose to over 100’F; it was so noisy that they communicated by banging on the hull with a hammer; crew would get sick from the fumes

• Most of the early tanks broke down ex: at the Battle of Cambrai the English started with 476 tanks & by the end only 100 were operating

• But made enough of a difference to break the German lines

TanksBritish-first tanks

Early tank-Little Willie 1915

French Tank

German Tank – lagged behind Allies in tank development

Tanks

• Battle of Somme, Sept 1916– 36 of 60 tanks make it into battle– Scattered across 3 mile front

• Weighting main effort?

• Cambria, Nov 1917– Used in mass (300 tanks)– Opened 12x6 mile front

• Amiens, August 1918– 500 tanks, 13 infantry divisions, 2 cavalry

divisions, 2000 artillery pieces, 800 aircraft• First modern “combined-arms” battle.

French Tank

Tanks

Attempts to Break the Stalemate: Tanks

• The British began developing tanks in 1914 and used them in small numbers at the Somme on Sept 15, 1916– Achieved little in

this initial employment

• The Battle of Cambrai on Nov 20, 1917 marked the first large scale use of tanks with 474

British Mark I tank of the type used during the Battle of the Somme

Attempts to Break the Stalemate: Tanks

• At Cambrai, the British gained initial surprise and advanced three miles by the end of the first day– Deepest penetration into

German lines on the Western Front since the beginning of trench warfare

• On the second day, the British continued to advance but the Germans brought up four more divisions

• On the third day, the British began losing what ground they had gained

British Tank at YpresBritish Tank at Ypres

Tanks Versus Trenches

World War I Airplanes

Baron Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron, was credited

with 80 confirmed kills

148th American Aero Squadron Petite Sythe, France. (August 6,

1918)

Aviation

• Used initially for reconnaissance/spotting– Wireless communication critical

development in spotting.

• Arial combat originally a counter-reconnaissance function.– Troops on the ground don’t like the planes

overhead….

• By the end of the war, planes were being used to drop bombs on railways, intersections, factories, etc.– Next step in “Total War”.

Von Richtofen“Red Baron”

“Jenny” JN-4

Jaeger

War in the Air

The changes of war

• Airplanes– Dog fights in the air– Bombing inaccurate– Romanticized the

battlefields– Paris and London

bombed– Pilots fired pistols and

threw hand grenades

The first picture is of a German plane that was used during World War I. The plane was part of the modern style of warfare that evolved during World War I. Initially, the airplane was used primarily for reconnaissance purposes, to spy on the enemy. The airplane did develop into an offensive weapon by the end of World War I.

The Second picture is a painting of a British airplane that is engaged in air combat. This airplane has a machine gun mounted on its top wing.

In 1914 the Allies had 220 airplanes, the Central Powers 258. The Germans also used Zeppelins and by 1918 had over 100 of these airships capable of bombing missions. The German Folker aircraft was an early example of a successful fighter plane. At first pilots used rifles and pistols in air battles, although machine guns were soon introduced. 

By 1916 the Allied production of aircrafts equalled the Germans and air battles between "aces" like German Richthofen "The Red Baron" (80 victories) and Bishop the Canadian (72 victories) were becoming legendary.

Photo:Courtesy Queen’s University Archives

Changing Changing TechnologyTechnology

War in the Air

• Initially used planes for reconnaissance

• Then the pilots started to try to kill each other with handguns & shotguns

• Fokker developed a interrupt mechanism that allowed German pilots to fire machine guns between the blades of the propeller

• Germans also developed dogfight techniques using the loop

Fokker

Airplanes

Dog Fight

The AirplaneThe Airplane

“Squadron Over the Brenta”Max Edler von Poosch, 1917“Squadron Over the Brenta”Max Edler von Poosch, 1917

The Flying Aces of World War I

The Flying Aces of World War I

Eddie Rickenbacher,

US

FrancescoBarraco, It.

Rene PaukFonck, Fr.

Manfred vonRichtoffen, Ger.

[The “Red Baron”]

Willy Coppens de

Holthust, Belg.

Eddie “Mick”Mannoch, Br.

Life of a Pilot

• The average life of a new recruit was 17 hours• The average life of a combat pilot overall was 2

weeks• British pilots were not allowed parachutes• Constant psychological strain• Those who survived, were quite cocky and

became romantic war heroes; for example the Red Baron who had a total of 80 victories

World War I Zeppelin

• The Zeppelin, or blimp as it is also known, is an airship

• it was used during the early part of the war in bombing raids by the Germans.

• These airships weighed12 tonnes and contained over 400,000 cubic feet of hydrogen.

• They were propelled along by 2 Daimler engines, which enabled the craft to travel at speeds of up to 136mph and heights of 4250 metres!

• They usually carried machine guns and around 4,400lb of bombs!

• They carried out many raids and were eventually abandoned as they were easy targets for artillery.

Zeppelins• A gas-filled balloon with a motor

• Slow-moving and became easy target for an enemy fighter plane

• Jan 19, 1915, the Germans make the first Zeppelin airship raids to drop bombs on Britain along the east coast.

• On June 7, 1915, the first Zeppelin airship is shot down over Flanders in northern France.

• On Oct 14, 1915, five Zeppelins kill 71 people in London.

The Zeppelin

First Airship Raid

• The Germans used the Zeppelins to bomb Britain

• Would run air-raids on heavily populated business districts to kill many & cause extensive property damage in 1915 & 1916

• However, if the Zeppelins were fired upon, they would blow up due to the gas and burn fiercely.

The ZeppelinThe Zeppelin

Zeppelin Shot Down over London Report:

• “The crew numbered nineteen. One body was found in the field some way from the wreckage. He must have jumped from the doomed airship from a great height. So great was the force with which he struck the ground that I saw the print of his body clearly in the grass. There was a round hole for the head, then deep marks of the body, with outstretched arms, and finally legs wide apart. Life was in him when he was picked up, but the spark soon went out. He was, in fact, the commander of the airship.”