Changes in Warfare

Many modern films such as Saving Private Ryan, set during World War II, and Platoon, set during the Vietnam War, show that war is not a glorious experience, but most Europeans saw warfare differently during the first few months of World War I. “Everybody said, ‘It’ll be over by Christmas,’ ” a British soldier named Bill Haine recalled. The war began in June 1914. Hundreds of thousands of teenage boys enthusiastically enlisted in the military, dreaming of heroism. Wartime assemblies sounded more like high school pep rallies, in which speakers naively predicted swift and easy victories in battles against supposedly inferior enemies. Leaders of some of the socialist parties were among the few Europeans who spoke out against the war. Even socialists were divided on the issue, however, as many supported the war efforts of their nation.

At the time, few people actually understood how brutal 20th-century warfare could be. As the war dragged on, the world became aware of the horrific effects of new advances in war technology and tactics, such as trench warfare, poison gas, machine guns, submarines, airplanes, and tanks.

• The defining experience for most soldiers in this war was the time spent in the trenches, long ditches dug in the ground with the excavated earth banked in front in order to defend against enemy fire. Trench warfare was not a glorious way to fight a war. Combatant nations dug hundreds of miles of trenches facing one another, and soldiers slept, ate, and fought in the trenches for months at a time. Trenches were often cold, muddy, and rat-infested. Many soldiers died from diseases caused by unhygienic conditions. Erich Maria Remarque’s 1929 novel, All Quiet on the Western Front, and the 1930 film based on it give a vivid sense of a soldier’s life in the trenches. Remarque was a young German soldier during World War I.

• Poison gas was one of the most insidious weapons of the new style of warfare. Chlorine, phosgene, and mustard gas were used during World War I. Soldiers were soon equipped with gas masks, which were effective when used immediately. Although fatalities were limited, the effects of a gas attack could be extremely painful and long lasting. Many veterans suffered permanent damage to their lungs. After the war, international treaties outlawed the use of poison gas.

• Developed in the late 1800s, machine guns could fire more than 500 rounds of ammunition per minute, increasing the deadly impact of warfare. The weapon made it difficult for either side in a battle to gain new territory.

• Although primitive submarines had been used briefly in the American Civil War, they played a much larger part in World War I, wreaking havoc on the shipping lanes of the Atlantic Ocean.

• Airplanes in 1914 were still light, small, and unable to carry many weapons. Therefore, they did not present much of a threat to troops, vehicles, or ships. At first, airplanes were used mainly to carry on reconnaissance (observation) of enemy lines. By 1915 they were being fitted with machine guns and aerial combat began. Individual “air aces” would engage in “dog fights” with enemy aircraft.

• The British developed tanks to protect troops as they moved across vast areas of difficult terrain, even over trenches, with the ability to fire at the enemy. They were developed by the Royal Navy, and originally referred to as landships. They got their name from the fact that during their development, they were disguised as water tanks.

With both the Central Powers and the Allies using brutal weapons and tactics, neither side could defeat the other. The result was a bloody four-year stalemate in which the death toll and suffering rose ever higher.