1. New Technology of WWI

2. Trenches Trenches were stinking cesspools, and often had rats
Clothes would become infested with lice
Trench foot – swollen black feet, amputation
Seriously injured were left to die in “no man’s land”
Many survivors were left in “shell shock” – uncontrollable shaking
Trench Warfare:
Trench Warfare
Discovery TV documentary on trenches 3:19
Shell Shock:
The effects of brutal bombings
Trench Foot 

3. New Technology
1914 new weapons developed: machine guns, airplanes, armored tanks
Commanders failed to understand new technology and their applications
Therefore, their war strategy was the “War of Attrition”, each side repeatedly attacked the other until exhausted and unable to continue. Very ineffective strategy with this new technology

4. New Technology (cont.) Germany used dirigibles
Inflated airships for scouting and bombing missions
British also used dirigibles
Hindenburg burning

6. New Technology (cont.) Bigger field guns and cannon
Germany’s “Big bertha” artillery was capable of hitting targets 12 km away
These guns fired shells which weighed 820kg each, filled with explosives and fragmentation objects
Big bertha

7. “Big Bertha”

8. New Technology: Tanks Tanks
The British developed tanks to crush barbed wire and shelter
Soldiers followed wide line of tanks through “no mans land“
The first use of tanks on the battlefield was the use of 49 British Mark I tanks at the Battle of the Somme, September 1916, with mixed results; many broke down, but nearly a third succeeded in breaking through. only nine made it across "no man's land" to the German lines.
WWI Mark IV Tank

9. New Technology: Gas Poison Gas
Germany was the first to use poisonous gas in the Battle of Ypres 1915
Chlorine - burned skin and lungs
Phosgene gas – caused suffocation
Mustard gas – burn skin
Easier to kill more people
Later, Anti-gas respirators were developed

10. World War I, British soccer team with gas masks, 1916

11. New Technology: Planes
Fighter Planes
First, they were used to locate and photograph enemy positions
These photographs were then used to better attack enemy positions
Later, they were used for battle but they feared the machine guns would shoot their own propellers to pieces. Each side attempted to design and perfect an interrupter device to time the machine guns to fire between the propeller blades

12. Gotha G.V German bomber, 1917

13. Billy Bishop: the ultimate ace
Canada did not have own air force, so pilots had to join the British Royal Flying Corps
Billy Bishop was a famous Canadian ace
To become an ace a pilot had to prove that he had shot down at least five enemy aircraft
officially credited with 72 victories, making him the top Canadian ace in World War I.
During the Second World War, Bishop was instrumental in setting up and promoting the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan.
Billy Bishop1914

14. Bishop c.August 1917, in the cockpit of his Nieuport 17

15. Color Autochrome Lumière of a Nieuport Fighter in Aisne, France 1917

16. New Technology: Submarines
Although US and Britain were responsible for submarine development Germany used U-boats more often
U-boats (under-sea boats) were equipped with torpedoes
In 1915, a U-boat sank the Lusitania. Which was a British passenger liner killing about 1200 passengers.
Allies unable to retaliate at first, later developed a underwater listening device to locate and destroy U-boat
Not all ships were used for battles, merchant ships, would ferry munitions and supplies to Britain.

17. German submarine U9

18. Assignment
Review the description of technology and trench warfare from your notes and/or on line.
Think/Pair/Share: how would you explain the huge numbers of soldiers killed in World War I? How did the introduction of new technology in WWI change the nature of warfare? How do you think this impacted Canada?