Weapons
- Flamethrowers
- 2 models were tested and used by the German army.
- Kleinflammenwerfer (portable one man)
- Grossflammenwerfer (larger, operated by several people) shot flames further and longer
- First use was surprise against Britain and lost over 750 troops and 30 officers
- The canister for fuel would explode often
- British made large 2-ton models and abandoned them soon
- French made a superior version to the German one man version
- At the same time, Germany also improved on it
- Germany had 650 flamethrower attacks, Britain and France none
- Poison Gas
- First used by the French
- Germany used tear and sneezing grenades, eventually moving on to chlorine gas
- First poison gas was 22 April, 1915 against French and Algerian troops, leaving a 4-mile gap in allied lines
- Gave Germany a bad rep with neutral countries
- British responded with gas of their own
- At Loos, British lost more troops than German attackers from their own gas and wind
- Most countries lost troops from their own gas, and decided to put in artillery canisters
- German and allies used mixture of Phosgene and chlorine that had a delayed reaction
- Then Germany started using mustard gas, giving blisters internally and externally
- Mustard gas stuck in soil making trenches a bad idea
- Also used nerve gas, bromine and chloropicrin
- German use reached 68,000 tons; the French utilised 36,000 tons and the British 25,000
- after May 9 1915 very few casualties, only 9%, and only 3% of total were fatal
- Bayonets
- used more as a multi tool than a weapon
- toast bread, scrape mud off uniforms, opening cans, and helping prepare the latrines
- Germany had more designs than all other countries combined
- even took and used taken enemy bayonets
- one type had two rows of teeth on the back
- very few opportunities to use
- men with bayonets would protect grenadiers and *bombing parties
- safer in close combat because a bullet could pass through and hit a friend
- even when useful, experiences soldiers used other hand to hand weapons (clubs, blades, or knuckles)
- more physiological than anything
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