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.