How Machine Guns Influenced World War One (The Great War)
New technological developments impacted the course of The Great War.
There were many new technologies developed and used during the course of The Great War.
New weapons were developed. The the Germans used poison gas, next the United States came in with tanks.
However the technological development that had the greatest impact on the Great War by far was the machine gun. What made the machine gun so important was because it increased the death toll of the
Great War to millions by wiping clean enemy lines, prevented people from pushing forward in the war, impacted the environment since they had to create trenches, and was much more efficient.
To begin the machine gun was so important since without it millions less would have died during The Great War. It changed warfare because now people couldn’t just march in lines like how they did in the revolutionary war or any other wars before. It forced new tactics since generals had to use new strategies or else their whole entire line would get wiped out in seconds before their eyes. You couldn’t really make a push forward in either directions. All sides had to change their plans and couldn’t just rush in because before they knew it they could lose millions of soldiers and have a disadvantage during the war. Machine guns made people have to hide in deadly trenches two feet deep or else if they stuck their head out, they would face the risk of getting sprayed in the eye. As soon as you were outside the trench you were dead meat for the huns. Other new technologies could not even do these such as poison gas, which increased and caused abnormalities for soldiers, but wasn’t as efficient a killer, tanks were just armored cars with many technical difficulties, and they weren’t able to kill massive amounts of people. Imagine Germany was the only country with machine guns, they would have a huge advantage over every other country and with the right moves win the war.
Second of all, machine guns were much more easier to use and much more reliable. All you had to do was set up a spot, and sit there spraying enemies in different directions. It was pretty much like a video game. There wasn’t hundreds of problems that caused the machine guns to stop working like the tanks. The United States may have flexed their tanks against the Germans, but that’s because they weren’t sure what they were and it wasn’t like they would be able to wipe out the Germans with them anyways. You were pretty much done if your tank stopped working, especially if you were hiding behind it because you would only be able to withstand small fire for a little bit of time. They also didn’t just shut down or stop working. You wouldn’t have to hide behind an armored car or get shot, and you didn’t have to be stuck inside the hellhole which was pretty much the inside of a Great War tank. Machine guns did not risk getting you killed and were much more reliable than poison gas which was much harder to control. When it came to poison gas you had to watch out for the wind which could blow the invisible slow moving static gas clouds back in your direction.
In conclusion, this is how technological developments impacted the course of the war. Out of the many new technological developments the Machine gun was one of the most effective, productive, deadly, and reliable weapon they had. Far outmatching weapon such as poison gas, and tanks. It increased the death toll of the Great War to millions by wiping clean enemy lines, prevented people from pushing forward in the war, impacted the environment since they had to create trenches, and was much more efficient and deadly. It is hard to imagine The Great War without machine guns, or trenches. This is why the machine gun had the biggest impact on the course of The Great War.
