development of War technology
...great effectiveness (Lewis 274). On the same level, both sides developed hand grenades which could be lobbed into defensive trenches by the attacking army. Flamethrowers were developed but weren’t very useful in their primitive state. Poison gas first developed by the Germans, then used by both sides, wreaked physical and psychological damage. And eventually the rise of the machine came to the front in 1917 with the advent of British tanks, which were mostly useful as cover for advancing troops, rather than a weapon in and of themselves. Above the trenches, air battles began to take place with the first use of attack planes. Machine guns were built into the plane and timed to fire between propellers, and planes were used to drop bombs on strategic targets (Merriman 1049). German U-boats made their first appearance in the war, but German Dreadnoughts, the most advanced battleships ever built at the time, did not leave port. Battles in the skies and small battles in the water had no effect on the frontlines, and therefore were not decisive in this war. The use of propaganda was evident in this war as a new tactic. Troops were told it would be a quick easy war going in, and once the war started each country told tall tales of heroism to up the morale of troops. Second-Lieutenant A.D. Gillespie of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders tells about his uncovering of the truth behind a propaganda filled newspaper story: “How three encountered fifty and prevailed…” The dauntless three belong to this regiment, but we were a little puzzled, because we have never been at La Bassee, where their exploit took place….(He then goes on to explain how he found out that they were the shoemaker sergeant and two second line transporters.)…. They are usually at least three miles from the trenches, and the whole story is a lie from beginning to end, without a shadow of truth in it (Lewis 268). Although great advances were made in technology in this war, the militaries of the two camps lacked new tactics to win the war and it eventually fizzled out. World War II was inevitable after the end of World War I because the allies used the Versailles Treaty to get revenge on their combatants. Even though President Wilson put forth his “Fourteen Points,” a list of things to be done to avoid future wars, the victorious European powers were too heated to give in to a set of ideals (lecture notes). The treaty paved the way for the rise of fascist dictatorships in Germany, Italy, Austria, and all of Eastern Europe with the exception of Czechoslovakia. The dictatorships gained support through nationalism. In Germany and Italy this meant reclaiming territory lost to the Versailles Treaty and expanding those empires even larger because they believed their country had the right due to their “superiority” as a nation. Alliances would in this war also create a complete European conflict, reaching from France and Great Britain all the way around the world to include all of Asia and even the United States. Leaders made the same assumptions that certain countries couldn’t ally with each other and underestimated the determination of others. Those assumptions again failed to prove true. In this war again, idealism mattered not as much as nationalism, and Germany took on a surprise alliance with the Soviet Union. At the very beginning of this war was a leap forward, this time in military tactics. The Nazi army’s “Blitzkrieg” tactic dominated the battlefield (Merriman 1240). It was a method of forming motorized columns of tanks to sweep in and surpass defenses, then eventually turn around and destroy them with the help of infantry which slowly pushed forward to clean up the leftovers (lecture notes). The “Blitzkrieg” would have them use all resources: planes, tanks, and soldiers, all at once against the current enemy, win the battle quickly, and recover to soon move on to another front. Germany had an advantage because in the last war most of its armaments were destroyed, so when it rearmed, it used the most current technology. Panzer tanks were very fast and cheap to build, so Germany built many and used its mechanized columns to quickly take over Poland, France, and then all of Eastern Europe and eastern Russia. During the war, Germany used U-boats with increasing effectiveness to destroy allied convoys and battleships without being seen. In response the British developed radar to detect stealthy submarines and drop depth-charges on top of them from destroyers. The same technology was also used against incoming bomber planes. Planes became even faster, more maneuverable, and more destructive; in this war the advent of dive bombers, super-fortress bombers, and eventually jet and rocket planes made domination of the skies vital to winning. They were used in total war against civilians by completely leveling entire cities and executing terror bombing runs. By the end of the war, long range rockets filled with explosives, the V-1 and V-2 were used to with massive damage to targets. Germany launched the first V-1 rocket from France across the channel to London in mid 1944, which did substantial damage (Merriman 1282). British and U.S. psychological divisions “waged radio and leaflet campaigns in an attempt to weaken the will of the enemy to continue fighting.” (1249) “Germany and Japan countered by employing two Americans…to broadcast messages to U.S. troops, trying to convince them that they could never win the war.” The Nazis also harnessed technology to accomplish frightening acts of genocide against European Jews. They used poison gas chambers to give the prisoners “showers” and then buried them in mass graves or burned the bodies in huge ...