World War I. Weapons of superpowers

It will soon be over a hundred years since the end of the First World War. And if in World War II Russia emerged an unquestionable winner, the results of the Imperialist for it are very controversial. On the one hand, it is among the winning countries, on the other, our country has lost almost everything in that war. Most of the army, navy, aviation. In addition, there were huge debts to other countries. And then everything is already known - the loss of territories, the compulsory signing of the Brest Peace and the collapse of the Russian army under the Bolsheviks, which the regime snatched out of power.

Willingness to war

And this is also a very controversial issue. For the last ten years, our empire has been significantly modernized. But, nevertheless, experienced an acute shortage of technology, ammunition and new developments. Most of the spare parts for armored vehicles came from abroad. As for aviation, all the engines had to be ordered from the Allies. Although the number of aircraft, we took second place. On the first was Germany with a slight advantage of fifteen aircraft. The same goes for the pilots themselves - they were trained in special flying schools in Great Britain.

Almost in every kind of armament, Germany overtook us, but just a few units. This is comforting - we were one of the two military giants of that time.

Nevertheless, the new weapons of the First World War came from the enemy's conveyor belt.

New developments

The First World War released on its arena the latest military developments of various countries of the time. These were the first tanks, advanced fighter planes, large-caliber cannons. The small arms of the First World War had many varieties, including new models unknown before. Machine guns and the first semblance of anti-aircraft installations stunned everything around their lines. And one more new invention, the application of which distinguished the First World War - chemical weapons.

Tanks

It was at this time that the first tank, Mark 1, descended from the factory conveyor. Released in the UK, he did not know equals. His crew consisted of seven people. Its weight was 26 tons, which did not add good speed indicators of the tank. Armed with Mark 1 four machine guns and two guns. Later he received two varieties: male and female. The male had two powerful guns, and the female six large-caliber machine guns. The tanks worked in pairs, with the expectation that the male was doing the basic sweep. The female is a little further away and covers.

But this is not the only tank that the First World War released on its field. Weapons on the caterpillars were carefully developed by the Germans. Appreciating Mark 1, they began to develop their A7V tank, which was slightly reminiscent of their British counterpart. Only his crew included eighteen people, and he weighed four tons more.

Each country, which the First World War pulled into itself, tried to build its tank. The weapon, however, was succeeded only by Britain and France. The Germans if they released their model, they could not organize its mass production (and all the tanks they had no more than 20).

Aviation

If the earth was dominated by iron monsters of superpowers, then in the sky were their no less intimidating steel eagles. Despite the deplorable economic condition, our "Ilya Muromets" was considered the best aircraft. The developers brought it to mind in such a way that it became the best multi-engine bomber, equal to which the First World War weapons did not come up until its completion. Our aviation numbered about 250 cars, which was slightly smaller than that of German opponents.

Cannon

At first our army deployed entire regiments of the enemy back, bringing down their deadly cores on them. "The Scythe of Death" - that's what the Germans called our "three-inch gun". But, unfortunately, the Russian army was not ready for such terms as the First World War dragged on. Weapons on wheels, if it was normal, then the shells to it became catastrophically not enough. As a result, there were only one response for three hundred German volleys on our side.

The German artillery had a numerical advantage (more than seven thousand guns). Particularly distinguished at that time was the German gun "Bertha", equal to the land of villages and small towns.

Chemical weapon

But no matter how different types of weapons of the First World War differed, the use of chemical weapons became the most ruthless and painful phenomenon . Due to this, the First World War also had a second name - the "war of chemists".

The war was positional, which led to serious difficulties. In order to smoke an enemy from his trenches, a gas weapon was developed . The French used it first, casting their opponents with special grenades filled with tear gas. Then the idea was picked up by the Germans.

If the tear only caused the fighters irritation mucous, then chlorine took away the lives of people. Although it is commonly believed that with a gas attack, the mortality rate is 4% of the total, the rest are only hospitalized, the losses caused by the use of gas were colossal.

A successful way for scientists to try out all the new toxic substances was the First World War. Chemical weapons were the number one danger for soldiers. However, later, countermeasures for gas attacks began to be developed, which gradually brought to naught its use.