History of Europe

With new weapons to victory?

For Germany, the First World War had come to a military impasse after just a few months. France could not be defeated in a few weeks as planned. The war of movement came to a standstill after the Battle of the Marne. Years of trench warfare followed in the west. New military technologies should force a decision.

By Andreas Flocken , NDR Info

For Germany, the First World War quickly became a dead end.

On the western front, the defensive dominated. Assault operations had little chance of success. This was mainly due to one weapon:the machine gun. It proved to be the most effective infantry weapon in trench warfare. The historian Bernd Wegner from the Helmut Schmidt University in Hamburg explains:"It was a revolution in warfare. The transition from using a carbine to a machine gun that fired 400 rounds a minute meant - and you have to call it that - an industrialization of the killing process."

Artillery and tanks against frozen fronts

The military on both sides tried to get the war moving again, to break through the frozen fronts. The breakthrough was to be forced, among other things, by massive artillery fire, as in the Battle of Verdun. A French veteran who survived the artillery barrage at the time recalled:"People were dying every second. Our defenses were completely destroyed. Shell after shell fell. Thousands of shells all over the battlefield."

The trench warfare was to be overcome with tanks.

When trying to overcome the trench warfare, the British first relied on creeping, heavy steel colossuses - tanks appeared on the western front:"What was important to achieve a breakthrough was the combination of firepower and movement. The tank brought movement in the attack and was therefore so indispensable," said Wegner. The tank was able to overcome the wire entanglement with its chain drive and at the same time defied the continuous fire of the machine guns.

From aerial reconnaissance to strategic air warfare

Germany initially relied on airplanes.

In Germany, the Supreme Army Command was initially skeptical about the use of tanks. Rather, they relied on another device:the airplane. This became more and more important for military operations during the course of the war:"Its task was first and foremost reconnaissance. You could see a lot from the air. Very early on, the airplane also developed into a support weapon for the infantry Air battles, where people tried to shoot down planes with single-seater fighters before they could take effect on the ground. The most significant effect was the beginning of strategic air warfare, i.e. planes advanced into the enemy's rear to drop bombs there," explains Wegner.

Poison gas also kills own soldiers

To force a decision, the military leaders on both sides also used poison gas. But first the Germans. This should support breakthrough operations. However, the use was risky, according to military historian Wegner:"The use of this poison gas entailed the risk that the attacking troops would also suffer from the gas. That was difficult to calculate and was certainly one of the major disadvantages of the use of poison gas. Man therefore switched to firing poison gas as artillery. Towards the end of the 1917/18 war, about 30 percent of all ammunition was poison gas ammunition."

Ultimately, none of the new weapons brought a decision. It only fell after years of trench warfare and the additional entry of the USA into the war due to the sheer exhaustion of the German side.