Weapons & The First World War - An Update

Okay, so you may have realised that there hasn't been any updates on this blog for a while and the weapons & the first world war series suddenly came to an end. This was due to a suddenly very busy period in my life and I felt unable to spend the time needed to continue with the blog, so I took a break, just until I felt I could resume writing. I am now at the point that I feel I can start again, but of course, I am now very behind on my schedule. For those of you that don't know, I have all of my posts already scheduled in right up until Christmas so I have a lot of making up to do. Therefore I have decided to change the format of the current series slightly, whereby, on some posts there will be numerous weapons discussed, in order to try to catch up. There may also be the extra added post during the week so make sure you are following the blog to be notified when this happens. 

Enough from me, on to today's post...

So today we are talking about machine guns and in particular two of them. The first is the Hotchkiss machine gun, which was invented by Benjamin Hotchkiss. It was gas operated as well as being naturally air cooled, which consisted of five circular rings inside the gun barrel, that design of which helped prevent overheating. It could fire 8mm Lebel ammunition, with a firing rate of 450 rounders per minute. The Hotchkiss machine gun had a maximum firing range of 3800m and weighed in at 100 pounds, meaning that it wasn't a popular thing to have to move far. 

The Hotchkiss machine gun was first widely used by the French infantry in the later part of 1917, but was then also used by the American Expeditionary Force during the years of 1917 & 1918, when they arrived on the Western Front.

Moving on to the second machine gun and that is the Lewis gun. It was developed in America just before the outbreak of the first world war and was designed to be much lighter than any other guns in production at that time, weighing in at just 12KG. When war broke out in 1914, the Lewis gun was mainly used fitted onto armoured cars which could then be fired at German patrols. By 1915, it had been modified to be used both on land and in the air and was also bought in huge numbers by the British Army as their main infantry gun. The Mark IV tanks also carried the Lewis gun as their main weapon.

The Lewis gun was gas operated but the same as the Hotchkiss gun and also had a natural cooling process in the form of the aluminium barrel-shroud drawing in air and thus aiding the cooling process. It could fire at a rate of 500-600 rounds a minute and due to it being so lightweight, could be transported by just one soldier, freeing up men for other duties.

As you can see there were similarities between both guns. Make sure you check back next week to see what we are talking about next in our Weapons & The First World War series. 

Weapons & The First World War - Mauser Gewehr

Hello everyone and welcome back to our weapons and the first world war series where today we just wanted to touch on the Mauser Gewehr rifle. This rifle was and still is known as one of Germany's most notable bolt action rifle and one that was popular for a long time. It was designed by Peter Paul Mauser in response to the French Lebel M1888 and was used widely in German forces throughout the first world war. 

Weapons & The First World War - Smokeless Gun Powder

Hello everyone and welcome back to our weapons and the first world war series. For years, the military had been hampered with the problems gun powder produced. In particularly, the fact that the was more often than not no visibility due to a thick cloud of smoke on the battlefield. 

In 1886, Paul Vielle invented a substance known as Poudre B. When fired, this substance formed little, if any smoke. It was also deemed to be more powerful than gun powder and so whilst it was the French that first used it, other countries soon followed suit. 

Poudre B meant that visibility was slightly better on the first world war battlefields than that of previous battles when using standard gun powder. It also shaped the way our weapons our designed and made today and certainly helped us to go on to win the second world war.  

Weapons & The First World War - Big Bertha

Hello everyone and welcome back to our weapons & the first world war series where today we are talking all about Big Bertha. Big Bertha was a German mobile howitzer that was named after the inventor Alfred Krupp's wife. 

Big Bertha got it's name because it weighed in at a staggering 45 tonnes. She could fire a 2,200lb shell over 9 miles and so played a huge part in the German fight. Due to her size however, Big Betha had to be transported in sections by Daimler-Bentz tractors and then pieced back together again once in position. This usually took a crew of 200 men over 6 hours to re-assemble. 

When war broke out, two Big Betha's had been situated just outside the fortress of Liege in Belgium, where they played a huge part of securing the town and surrounding area. This was an area that was fought over many times, with Big Bertha being right at the centre. 

Weapons & The First World War - Military Motor Bus

Hello and welcome back to our weapons & the first world war series where today is all about the military motor bus. It started way back in 1908, when the British government put everyday busses through their paces in order to see if they could be used to transport soldiers in the event of war. The outcome was that they were deemed acceptable and it was decided if the event of war ever arose, they would be called upon. 

When the first world war broke in 1914, Winston Churchill asked the London General Omnibus Company to provide busses to transport Britain's soldiers to France. Volunteers were also needed from their crews, with 75 members coming forward. These men found themselves part of the Royal Marines. 

By September 1914, 75 crews, along with their Daimler busses had been shipped to France to help with the war effort. Although some were captured by the German's, the majority were still in use by the British at the end of the first world war. 

Weapons & The First World War - Gardner Machine Gun

Hello and welcome back to our Weapons & The First World War series, where today we are talking about the Gardner machine gun. Inspired by the Gatling gun design produced in 1861, the Gardner gun was first seen in public in 1879. 

The gun itself consisted of two barrels that would simultaneously fire their round. The gun also had a feeder line where boxes of cartridges could be slid onto and then removed again once empty. This enabled constant firing of the gun, much like the Gatling gun. 

During a public testing, the Gardner gun fired an impressive 10,000 rounds within 27 minutes. Just over a year later, the British Army subsequently put in an order for a large quantity of the guns, which were used in conflicts including the first world war. 

Weapons & The First World War - Bayonet

Welcome back to our Weapons & The First World War series. Today's topics is probably one of the ones that I always used to think of when I thought of the first world war but in actual fact, they weren't used all that much as a fully fledged weapon and that was the Bayonet. 

The Bayonet was designed so that it could be fitted onto the barrel of a gun in less than a minute. Although it had been used to great effect during previous conflicts, it was mainly used as a personal defensive weapon during the first world war. This was mainly because of the use of heavy artillery and machine guns. Despite this, every soldier in the British Army at infantry level was provided with one as part of their kit. 

Weapons & The First World War - Heavy Artillery

Welcome back to our Weapons & The First World War series where today we are thinking about heavy artillery. It is a term that is used often when describing wartime battles. It refers to the large calibre mounted firearms, which are typically in the form of a field gun. 

To be heavy artillery, they had to be movable as well as fire at long range. They were seen as a huge threat to not only infantrymen but tanks and other armoured vehicles as well. When you have the basic design of the field gun, you can then design the ammunition that can be placed inside. Heavy artillery was such a threat because you couldn't necessary see it before it fired at you. 

Weapons & The First World War - Armoured Cars

Welcome back to our Weapons & The First World War with today's topic being all about the armoured car. Now I know it may not sound like a piece of weaponry to some people however it was designed to not only protect its passengers but also to carry a gun when needed to. 

The armoured car mainly consisted of armour plating all around but it had an open top and so made it very easy for the enemy to shoot at the passengers. Although they were used on the Western Front, they found it difficult to manoeuvre on the un-level ground, which would then start the idea off of the tank. When tanks were introduced, the armoured car was used more by officers and for general travel. 

Weapons & The First World War - Machine Guns

Welcome back to our Weapons & The First World War series where today we are thinking all about machine guns. Now the idea behind the machine gun was to allow a steady stream of constant fire so that you could continually use it against the enemy without having to stop to reload it after each shot was fired. 

The main difference with a machine gun was the self powered coil that was built into the design so that you could concentrate on the firing and keeping clean of the gun rather than the mechanical side of constantly firing a weapon. Again there is different variations of the machine gun which we will look into as the series unfolds. 

Weapons & The First World War - Bolt Action Rifles

Welcome to our brand new series all about the weapons used during the first world war. Over the next few months, we will be exploring what weaponry was used to fight during the war and at the end of this series, hopefully you will have a better understanding of whether they were a good idea or not. 

For today's post, we are thinking all about bolt action rifles. These were the basic design from which there were many variations depending on the country of original. Bolt action rifles were at their most used point in their life during the first world war, with all sides using a variant of one. British soldiers were each issued with a bolt action rifle as part of their kit but we will get onto what it was like as this series unfolds.