Atlantic WW1

[Mike K]

We dont have a WW1 category .

http://www.theatlantic.com/static/infocus/wwi/wwitech/

[Wayne McGee]

Thank-you very much for posting those truly unique photos, none of which I have ever seen before!

Cheers

Wayne

[Tony Wheeler]

"Nearly every aspect of what we would consider modern warfare debuted on World War I battlefields."

Well, except for radar, jet propulsion, aircraft carriers, guided missiles, strategic bombing, and most obviously - nuclear weapons. Plus rockets, poison gas, armoured cars, machine guns, etc., all of which debuted in earlier conflicts, some of them 1000 years earlier. In fact, apart from the tank, I'm struggling to think of any weapon that debuted in WW1, let alone tactic or strategy, which were straight out of medieval warfare.

Great photos, but what a ridiculous statement. Modern warfare debuted in WW2, not WW1.

[Mike K]

I recently found around 30 issues of WARTIME published by the AWM - an op shop find , $6 the lot .

Reading the articles, there are one or two relating to incompetent high ranking British officers of WW1 . These individuals were actually promoted , despite causing more than one debacle on the battlefields .

I also see a few articles written by a MLU forum member , including the enigma coding machine held by the AWM . Mike

[Tony Mathers]

Actually aircraft carriers (HMS Furious converted in 1917) and strategic bombing (zeppelins) are WWI ideas as well.

Originally Posted by Tony Wheeler

"Nearly every aspect of what we would consider modern warfare debuted on World War I battlefields."

Well, except for radar, jet propulsion, aircraft carriers, guided missiles, strategic bombing, and most obviously - nuclear weapons. Plus rockets, poison gas, armoured cars, machine guns, etc., all of which debuted in earlier conflicts, some of them 1000 years earlier. In fact, apart from the tank, I'm struggling to think of any weapon that debuted in WW1, let alone tactic or strategy, which were straight out of medieval warfare.

Great photos, but what a ridiculous statement. Modern warfare debuted in WW2, not WW1.

[Mike K]

Originally Posted by Tony Wheeler

In fact, apart from the tank, I'm struggling to think of any weapon that debuted in WW1, .

May be the LMG type of weapon AKA the Lewis gun . Or, the sub machine gun . Mike

[Private_collector]

What about the flame thrower? I have a DVD about military archeologists (? Spelling) digging to find the remains of one such weapon, which was hidden underground and the flame head was to pop up and spray from a fixed position. A ghastly weapon!

[John McGillivray]

Photo 36 is a Armoured Autocar of the of the Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigade.

[Tony Wheeler]

Not sure HMS Furious qualifies as an aircraft carrier, and if we start including converted battleships, then there are pre-WW1 examples.

I guess you could say strategic bombing started in WW1, I hesitated on that one but thought I'd throw it in for good measure!

LMGs and sub MGs are just improvements on existing MGs, which date back to mid 19th c. There'd be lots of weapons like that, including improved swords and bayonets. Likewise flamethrowers date back to ancient times, not a new concept in WW1. Although you could probably argue they were new in that they were no longer manually pumped.