World War 1, also known as the Great War, was war fought between the Central Powers; the countries of Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire, and the Allied Powers, the countries of Great Britain, Russia, Italy, France and the United States. Sparked by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria by a Serbian organization called the Black Hand.
Featured in this image from the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., is a collection of images taken during the World War 1 Era. This war ranged from 1914-1918. This image showcases some of the weaponry that was newly developed and had not been used much during prior wars entitled “Various War Weapons of Deadly Effectiveness.” This image shows cannons, machine guns, but most importantly, it showcases the new war tactic of World War 1 termed trench warfare in about half of the images shown. The volume of images regarding trench warfare in comparison to all the other weapons shows just how important trench warfare was to this war. Trench warfare consisted of each opposing side digging trenches large enough for grown men to fit into, to shelter themselves from their opponent’s weaponry. While these images adequately show the relative size and layout of the trenches, a picture cannot depict what it was really like to have to live in these trenches. Soldiers often experienced illnesses that spread throughout the trench due to a lack of personal space. In addition to disease, the trenches also contained pests like insects and vermin that tend to live in dirty places.
There are many sources that can describe what life was like, to allow people to fully understand the images of the trenches more in “How To Tell the War? Trench Warfare and the Realist Paradigm in First World Narratives” written by Martin Loschnigg describes trench warfare “by the fragmentation of vision in the trenches… had a disruptive effect on perceptions of time and space” (Loschnigg)[1]. This is not something that could be directly understood simply from looking at an image. But after reading this, one could understand how it would be true, seeing the limited space and vision that these soldiers had to experience. In addition to troubles in vision and time perception, these trenches did not have sanitary conditions, which caused disease to run rampant. There were diseases such as trench foot that were brought about by exposure to damp and cold conditions. Since these soldiers couldn’t leave the trenches there was no escape from these conditions.
The weapons also played a large role in the destructiveness of this war. Some of the weapons featured in these images are machine guns and cannons. According to “Reinventing Warfare 1914-18: Novel Munitions and Tactics of Trench Warfare” written by Anthony Saunders says that “there is no question that warfare went through massive changes during the Great War” (Saunders 11)[2]. This includes both the weapons shown in these images as well as the trenches. Weapons had to be designed and upgraded in order to make their use efficient with the newly found trench warfare ideas. Previous weapons that may not have fired as quickly or as far would not have worked as well since the ammunition had to fire across a large area of unoccupied land in between the trenches. Additionally, these new weapons had been used due to stalemates caused by trench warfare. Because these soldiers were not as exposed as they used to be in previous wars, it made it difficult for their opponents to injure and ultimately kill them. Soldiers were protected by the ground as they had dug deep into the ground, they were only able to be accessed from above without the use of powerful weapons like tanks. Furthermore, in reading a source entitled “Weapons of World War 1”, written by John Hamilton, the various weapons were described in more detail. Featured in the image are machine guns and cannons. These were important because “artillery was used heavily in an attempt to break the stalemate” that was caused by trench warfare (Hamilton 14). [3]Traditional weaponry was not enough to cause a large enough impact during the war anymore, so the weapons had to evolve as the approach to war evolved.
[1] Martin Loschnigg, How to Tell the War? Trench Warfare and the Realist Paradigm in First World Narratives Anglica: An International Journal of English Studies
[2] Anthony Saunders, Reinventing Warfare 1914-1918: Novel Munitions and Tactics of Trench Warfare Bloomsbury studies in Military History
[3] John Hamilton, Weapons of World War 1