Weapons Technology greatly affected the way in which wars were fought, especially in World War
One. The inventions of the machine gun, the development of poison gas, and the introduction of the first tanks caused armies to fight using the bunkering method. This allowed men to huddle in trenches along what are called skirmish lines and throw, lob, and fire by other means weapons to cause damage while men were protected by about 4 to 5 feet deep earth. Firstly, the machine gun was not so easy to transport but had its own benefits. The machine guns were the main reasons why trenches were built. The gun provided long distance range and power of over 100 guns.
During the war the machine gun was usually positioned on a flat tripod, and would require a gun crew of four to six operators. In theory they could fire 400­600 rounds per minute. Although the power of the machine gun was great these early machine guns would overheat rapidly and become inoperative without the aid of cooling mechanisms. The machine gun proved to be one of the deadliest weapons used as the extreme blows it could deliver resulted in many causalities.1
Secondly, the horrors of gas warfare had never been seen on a battlefield until 1915. The
Germans had invented them but French and English were not far behind. Chlorine and mustard gas were the most common. Chlorine gas made for a painful death, once exposed it caused burning in the chest and throat. Mustard gas was similar in that it caused the persons exposed to have internal and external bleeding, vomiting, itching, and blistering skin. The effects of gas were not immediate but could take up to twelve hours to kick in. Gas required great caution in its use because if the wind were to turn in the wrong direction it could result in gassing all of your own men rather than the enemies. These poison gases were either released from canisters that the

1

Weapons of World War 1, Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weapons_of_World_War_I (accessed on November
15th, 2014)
World War One Weapons, History on the Net http://www.historyonthenet.com/ww1/weapons.htm (accessed on
November 15th, 2014)

wind penetrated into the trenches of the enemy, or they were fired into trenches in shells. A badly
gassed