The Germans recognized its military potential and had large numbers ready to use in 1914. They also developed air-cooled machine guns for airplanes and improved those used on the ground, making them lighter and easier to move.

World War I popularized the use of the machine gun—capable of bringing down row after row of soldiers from a distance on the battlefield. This weapon, along with barbed wire and mines, made movement across open land both difficult and dangerous. Thus trench warfare was born.

How did new military technology influence the fighting in World War I? It increased the number of casualties. Trench warfare did not develop on the Eastern Front.

Artillery – Large guns, called artillery, were improved during World War I including anti-aircraft guns to shoot down enemy planes. Some large artillery guns could launch shells nearly 80 miles. Machine gun – The machine gun was improved during the war. It was made much lighter and easier to move around.

12 Technological Advancements of World War I

• Tanks. In 1914, the “war of movement” expected by most European generals settled down into an unexpected, and seemingly unwinnable, war of trenches.
• Flamethrowers.
• Poison Gas.
• Tracer Bullets.
• Interrupter Gear.
• Air traffic control.
• Depth Charges.
• Hydrophones.

Heavy artillery, machine guns, tanks, motorized transport vehicles, high explosives, chemical weapons, airplanes, field radios and telephones, aerial reconnaissance cameras, and rapidly advancing medical technology and science were just a few of the areas that reshaped twentieth century warfare.

New Weapons The majority of the casualties in the war were inflicted using artillery. Some large artillery guns could launch shells nearly 80 miles. Machine gun – The machine gun was improved during the war. It was made much lighter and easier to move around.

The devastating firepower of modern weapons helped create the trench stalemate on the Western Front during the First World War. Armies were forced to adapt their tactics and pursue new technologies as a way of breaking the deadlock.

There were a meager 12,000 guns by the time the war broke out in 1914. That number, however, would explosively grow to become 100,000 guns in a very short time. By 1917, the Germans were reporting that the majority of their small arms ammunition, 90% to be exact, were going into the chambers of their machine guns. This was a sobering thought.

The British and American armies also created armored divisions, and they developed weapons for defense against mechanized attack, e.g., the antitank gun and the tank destroyer.

Technology of war in 1914 The planning and conduct of war in 1914 were crucially influenced by the invention of new weapons and the improvement of existing types since the Franco-German War of 1870–71. The chief developments of the intervening period had been the machine gun and the rapid-fire field artillery gun.

Chief among that latter was quick-firing artillery. This used recuperating mechanisms to absorb recoil and return the barrel to firing position after each shot. With no need to re-aim the gun between shots, the rate of fire was greatly increased.