Military Tactics Essay, Research Paper

There were many types of military tactics in World War 1 that were new to the war, some such tactics were trench warfare, new technology that helped to penetrate the defenses base such as the flame thrower, mustard gas, tunneling, and in some cases tanks.

The flame-thrower used pressurized air, carbon dioxide or nitrogen to force oil through a nozzle. Ignited by a small charge, the oil became a jet of flame. The Flame-thrower was first used in the western front in 1914. It was operated by two men, and was mainly used to clear enemy soldiers from front line-trenches. In the beginning they had a range of 25 meter s but later it increased to 40 meters, which meant they were only effective over narrow areas of no mans land. Another type of war tactic was Mustard Gas; first used by the German army in 1917. The most lethal of all the poisonous gases used during the war, it was odorless and took twelve hours to work.

The skin of the victims blistered, the eyes became very sore and they began to throw-up. It caused internal and external bleeding and attacked the bronchial tubes, stripping off the mucous membrane. This was extremely painful and most soldiers had to be strapped to their beds, which meant fewer soldiers for the opposing sides.

Another type of tactic was trench warfare. In the beginning of the war the British soldiers were given 10 ounces of meat and 8 ounces of vegetables a day. Later, the size of the army grew and the German blockade became more effective, the army could not maintain these rations and by 1916 this had been cut to 6 ounces of meat a day. Later troops not in the front-line only received meat on nine out of every thirty days. In the western front, the soldiers meals in the trenches were caned corned beef, bread and biscuits. By the winter of 1916 flour was in such short supply that bread was being made with dried ground turnips. The main food after supplies ran out were pea soup with a few lumps of horsemeat. Another problem was trench foot. This was an infection of the feet caused by cold, wet and terrible conditions. In the trenches men stood for hours on end in water filled trenches without being able to remove wet socks or boots. The feet would gradually go numb and the skin would turn red or blue and if untreated, it could turn bad and result in amputation.

Another key issue in military tactics were new and better equipped soldiers. They had machine guns that could fire 400-600 rounds of small-caliber ammunition per minute. Each gun had the firepower of about 100 rifles and could kill more people. Armored cars were first used by the British Army for patrolling distant areas. In the first part of the war, the allies were using armor-plated, open-topped vehicles with machine guns. The little willie was the first prototype tank with daimler engine, it had track frames almost 12 feet long, it weighed 14 tons and could carry a crew of three and go at speeds of just over three miles. The speed dropped to less than 2 mph over rough ground and unfortunately was unable to cross broad trenches.

In World War 1 there were many new inventions that cam out, although they were not perfect, they helped to build the future of new and better-designed tanks, artillery and tactics that we use today in modern warfare.