The Great War - History Book Chapter Page 11
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26The New Weapons of War
Poison Gas
Soldiers wore masks like those shown at left
to protect themselves from poison gas. Gas
was introduced by the Germans but used by
both sides. Some gases caused blindness or
severe blisters, others death by choking.
Machine Gun
The machine gun, which fires ammunition
automatically, was much improved by the
time of World War I. The gun, shown to the
left, could wipe out waves of attackers and
thus made it difficult for forces to advance.
Tank
The tank, shown to the left, was an armored
combat vehicle that moved on chain tracks—
and thus could cross many types of terrain. It
was introduced by the British in 1916 at the
Battle of the Somme.
Submarine
In 1914, the Germans introduced the
submarine as an effective warship. The
submarine’s primary weapon against ships
was the torpedo, an underwater missile.
Military strategists were at a loss. New tools of war—machine guns, poison
gas, armored tanks, larger artillery—had not delivered the fast-moving war they
had expected. All this new technology did was kill greater numbers of people
more effectively.
The slaughter reached a peak in 1916. In February, the Germans launched a
massive attack against the French near Verdun. Each side lost more than 300,000
men. In July, the British army tried to relieve the pressure on the French. British
forces attacked the Germans northwest of Verdun, in the valley of the Somme
River. In the first day of battle alone, more than 20,000 British soldiers were killed.
By the time the Battle of the Somme ended in November, each side had suffered
Vocabulary
more than half a million casualties.
In war, a casualty
is anyone killed,
What did the warring sides gain? Near Verdun, the Germans advanced about
injured, captured,
four miles. In the Somme valley, the British gained about five miles.
or considered
missing in action.
The Battle on the Eastern Front
Even as the war on the Western Front claimed thousands of lives, both sides were
Eastern Front
sending millions more men to fight on the
. This area was a stretch
of battlefield along the German and Russian border. Here, Russians and Serbs bat-
tled Germans and Austro-Hungarians. The war in the east was a more mobile war
than that in the west. Here too, however, slaughter and stalemate were common.
Early Fighting
At the beginning of the war, Russian forces had launched an attack
into both Austria and Germany. At the end of August, Germany counterattacked
near the town of Tannenberg. During the four-day battle, the Germans crushed the
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Chapter 29
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