Modern Weaponry

Captured German trench mortar, automatic rifle, and German and Russian machine guns
Rifle, Short, Magazine, Lee Enfield, .303 inch, Mk 3

1914
A heavy shell bursting during the Battle of the Somme.

1916
A French gunner of the 53rd Infantry Regiment (Tenth Army) with his Chauchat machine gun in the Somme area, 25 August 1916.

1916-08-25
The Vickers .303 inch Class C was a commercially-available, water-cooled machine gun which was trialled by the British Army from 1910. Following a few changes, it was adopted by the British Army as the Vickers Mark 1 on 26th November 1912 and became the standard machine gun of the British and Commonwealth forces. It weighs about 28 lbs when empty of water and typically required a six to eight-man team to transport and operate them and their associated accessories and ammunition.
Members of No.1 Section, 131st Machine Gun Company, receiving training on the Vickers machine gun at Belton Park Camp, Grantham, Lincolnshire in 1915.

1915
Interior of a British shell factory during the First World War.
Munition workers in a shell warehouse at the National Shell Filling Factory, Chilwell, Nottinghamshire. This was one of the largest shell factories in the country. Around 21 August, 1917.

1917-08-21
A German flamethrower team in action in a front line trench.

1916
Ben Tillett (trade unionist and founding member of the Labour Party) examining Mills bombs (grenades) near Fricourt, Somme , Autumn, 1916.

1916
Battle of Guillemont 3-6 September 1916. British infantry waiting their turn to advance. A tank moving in distance. Guillemont, September 1916.

1916-09
Battle of Albert. A dump of 18 pounder shell cases used in the bomdardment of Fricourt. Extraordinary quantities of ammunition were used in successive bombardments.

1916-07
Soldiers of 'A' Company, 11th Battalion, the Cheshire Regiment, occupy a captured German trench at Ovillers-la-Boisselle on the Somme. In this photograph one man keeps sentry duty, looking over the parados and using an improvised fire step cut into the back slope of the trench, while his comrades rest.

1916-07
Aerial photograph of a British gas attack in progress between Carnoy and Montauban in June 1916, shortly before the Somme offensive. Montauban, then still in German hands, is at the top left of the picture and Carnoy, behind British lines, is at the bottom right.

1916-06
French trench mortar. (Dumezil) 58 mm.
The First World War: German artilleryman wearing his gas mask whilst in a battery position near Les Boeufs on the Somme.

1916-08
Guns captured in the Battles of the Somme, in the grounds of Querrieu Chateau, 4th Army H.Q.

1916
Gunners of the Royal Garrison Artillery carrying trench mortar ammunition to the trenches. Acheux, 28th June 1916.

1916-06-28
Camouflaging a shell dump, 29 July 1916

1916-07-29
British troops stacking salvaged Lee Enfield rifles at Aveluy, September 1916. These would be sent back to base, stripped and cleaned and reissued.

1916-09
British shells bursting on German trenches near Courcelette, taken South of Pozieres, 20th September 1916.

1916-09-20
Battle of Tansloy Ridges. A 60 pounder gun being moved forward with difficulty by troops of the Royal Field Artillery and horses near the village of Bazentin le Petit. October 1916.

1916-10
Battle of Flers-Courcelette. A Brigadier and his staff outside Tank 17 of D Company, which was used as his Headquarters. Near Flers, 21st September 1916.

1916-09-21
Battle of Albert. 12-inch howitzer named 'Lucky Jim' in action. 1st July 1916.

1916-07-01
A Lewis light machine gun in action in a front line trench near Ovillers. Possibly troops of the Worcestershire Regiment of the 48th Division.

1916-07
Howitzers of 135th Siege Battery on the Somme, 25 August 1916. The 8-inch howitzer had a range of about 12,300 yards (11.24 km), and fired a 200lb (90.8 kg) shell. Most heavy artillery weapons were used by units of the Royal Garrison Artillery, whereas the Royal Field Artillery tended to use lighter guns that were mobile.

1916
Over the top, amid bursting gas and tear shells, in a determined assault on the fortified Somme villages' Stereoscopic photograph

1916-01

8-inch Howitzer | With courtesy of the Imperial War Museum.

Artillery (Howitzers, Siege & Heavy Field Artillery)

Artillery was the most important for an army conducting land warfare to have. Various types included the heavy 15-inch, 8-inch, and 4.5-inch howitzer. Fired high explosives and shrapnel were used for material destruction such as trenches, communication lines, wire fencing, roads, and anything that helped the enemy move (including animals). The heavy howitzers were popular due to its pinpoint precision and intense concussive effect. Artillery was not new, but these weapons were undoubtedly improved, especially after the Second Boer War, which ended in 1902. For example, the British developed a new and improved 9.2-inch siege howitzer.

The lightest and more mobile guns like the 18-pounder guns and 4.5-inch howitzers fired small shrapnel or high-explosive shells out to approximately 6000 yards. The second kind included 60-pounder guns, 4.7-inch guns, and 6-inch guns firing high-explosive shells to about 10,000 yards. The heavy artillery pieces fired 100 to 1400 pound shells at a high-angle trajectory a distance between 5,000 and 11,000 yards. The main purpose of the 18-pounder gun was machine gun suppression and wire-cutting, as seen with the June preparatory barrages with the high number of shells fired.

Field guns were another type of weapon commonly employed. Although this was not a new weapon, it was enhanced with better techniques and reduced cannons' weight. In 1815, during the Napoleonic Wars weight of the cannon was about 1,650 pounds, while during WWI, it was around 800 pounds. This helped improve the gun with a more incredible muzzle velocity, a flatter trajectory, and an extended maximum range.

Although, it is important to note that artillery failed to destroy the barbed wire and sufficiently kill the enemies in the front-line trenches, as exemplified during the Battle of the Somme because of faulty shells. That being said, artillery was the most destructive weapon and caused the most casualties. The guns shot high explosive shells, shrapnel, and poison gas at the enemy, and heavy fire could destroy the trenches and other fortified positions.¹To get sense of the amount of artillery just the British possessed on the opening day on the Battle of the Somme, explore the pie chart below. The data comes World War I Battlefield Artillery Tactics.²

Vickers Machine Gun | With courtesy of the Imperial War Museum.

Machine Guns

One of the most influential technological advances pre-WWI was the invention of the machine gun by Hiram Maxim who developed an automatic weapon in 1883. T For the British Army their gun was the “Vickers-Maxim," named after the Vickers Company in England. This invention gave the infantry soldier domination over the defensive battlefield. The machine gun was an automatic weapon which had an inhuman lethality to it that was comparably different than an average rifle. The it was a weapon with qualities like functional efficiency, portability, and compactness. In regard to the British Army, they established the Machine Gun Corps to put well trained Machine Gunners in every battalion in order better prepare for future battle; around 12,000 guns in 1914 to 100,000 in a very short amount of time. Although, the Germans are most known for the use of this weapon during war. To get a sense of weapon, the Vickers machine-gun could fire over 600 rounds per minute and had a range of 4,500 yards. The weapon was capable of firing six to seven hundred rounds per minute. It provided the infantry with a very effective source of firepower with a low cost in manpower and resources. In previous offensive operations, the basis for success was numerical superiority and efficient use of cavalry.

Gas Attack | With courtesy of the Imperial War Museum.

Chemical Weapons

WWI also saw the introduction of chemical warfare in the early years of the war. The Germans first used gas, specifically chlorine gas. This type of gas is very corrosive. It is deadly to humans and animals as it kills them by destroying lung tissue. As the war progressed, all sides developed more lethal gases, including chlorine, phosgene, and mustard gas. Chemical weapons were shot from howitzers were shrapnel shells mixed with gas shells. Gas shells were used for last-minute counter-battery fire. Between the Battle of the Somme and May 1917, the British used mainly chlorine and phosgene gas in over 100 operations and employed nearly 40,000 cylinders. Chlorine gas attacks were easy to detect due to its strong smell and the visible green-yellow cloud. The infamous mustard gas did not come into play after the Battle of the Somme. After the war, chemical weapons were banned by the Geneva Convention in 1925. Gas was not universally deadly, as only 91,000 deaths ultimately were caused by gas despite 1.3 million casualties. ³

Tank 17 of D Company | With courtesy of the Imperial War Museum.

Tanks

For the Somme offensive, General Haig hoped to use a new weapon of war, the tank. General Haig believed this new piece of machinery could assist in breaking German lines. Until WWI, the use of tanks was non-existent. Although the tank was introduced during the Battle of Somme, no tanks were available until September. Tanks were employed for the first time on September 15th with some success, though they did not achieve a major breakthrough. As a result of the tank, the intensity of the battle continued. Tanks continued to be of great use, but there was a low quantity of them as there were less than 50 tanks on the Somme battlefields.⁴

Trench Mortar, Automatic Rifle, and Machine Guns | With courtesy of the Imperial War Museum.

Trench Mortars & Mines

Mortars used on the Western Front came in various sizes. Mortars could be fired from the trenches because of their size and mobility. They were effective at taking out an enemy machine gun and sniper posts. While mines (also known as Minenwerfer) were buried, tunnels were dug under ‘no-man’s land’ beneath enemy positions.

A German Flamethrower Team |
With courtesy of the Imperial War Museum

Handheld Weapons (Grenades, Flamethrowers, Rifles)

All those in combat commonly used rifles. For example, the Short Magazine Lee Enfield Rifle Mk III was a standard rifle, and infantry rifles were equipped with a bayonet. It had a maximum range of 2,280 meters but an effective killing range of 550. Additionally, the Lewis Gun was the British Army’s most widely used machine gun. Another weapon frequently carried by soldiers was grenades. Lastly, teams of soldiers used flamethrowers, but they were not considered artillery and were not commonly used by the British. However, they launched them on the Somme, called Livens Large Gallery Flame Projectors.

Notes

Dale Clark. World War I Battlefield Artillery Tactics. (Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2014).
The data behind the chart comes from Horne's World War I Battlefield Artillery Tactics.
Chang, Hasok and Catherine Jackson. "An Element of Controversy: The Life of Chlorine in Science, Medicine, Technology, and War.” Isis 101, no. 3. (September 1, 2010): 240.
David P. Cavaleri. Overcoming the Battlefield Stalemate: The Introduction of Armored Fighting Vehicles and Tactics in the British Army During the First World War. (University of Missouri-Columbia, May 1993).