Deadlock+-+Weapons

=WEAPONS AND NEW INVENTIONS=

The manufacture of weapons and the use of them on the Western Front contributed greatly to the deadlock. There was invention of new weapons and use of older methods, both of these attempts failed to break the deadlock.  Old methods such as cavalry charges with horses were used. This was a common tactic used by the commanders on the Western Front as many battles had been won before by cavalry charges and the commanders thought the tactic would be useful where ever. This was unsuccessful because most of the victorious battles fought with cavalry charges had been on dry and open land whereas the place that the cavalry would be charging at was muddy and churned up due to the machine guns making the extremely ineffective. There were cavalry forces of about 100000 on each side as both sides shared this belief. Even after it was proved not effective, the tactic was reused (again showing bad judgement on the commanders’ part). But even though this was the case, horses were still highly valued and had shown to be useful throughout the war as forms of transportation and doing difficult jobs.  Machine guns had first been used in the civil war, after that, they were used in the trench system. There were almost always machine gun posts in the front line trenches, this made most of the tactics used on the Western Front ineffective as cavalry and soldiers going over the top were gunned down as they crossed no man’s land. ** TANKS? ** Tanks were introduced first at the Battle of the Somme. Due to heavy machine gun fire, human charges were impossible so the idea for tanks developed. armoured vehicles on caterpillar tracks. This invention was ineffective as they were slow on the ground as there was churned up mud. It couldn’t play on the element of surprise give the speed at which it moved. They were also unreliable and broke down very constantly. Also, conditions in the tanks were horrible, there was low morale as the insides were too hot and extremely noisy, soldiers were often exhausted inside. The opposing side also eventually came up with anti-tank ditches and there wasn’t enough infantry, the surviving crew were exhausted and cavalry follow up was machine gunned.  Shells and artillery fire and flamethrowers were also utilized on the Western Front. Heavy bombardment was often used before an offensive to try and kill everyone in the opposing trench and to destroy the barbed wire; this failed because the bombardment gave away the element of surprise and didn’t destroy the barbed wire on the opposing trench. Shells often did cause shell shock though and this led to bad conditions in the trenches as well.  Gas became a favoured tactic on the Western Front; it was introduced in late 1915’s and was used from thereon. Different gases like tear gas and mustard gas were used, mustard gas was colourless which made it difficult for troops to determine if they were being attacked or not and they also formed large blisters on the skin. It wasn’t an extremely reliable plan of attack (canisters could leak, wind could blow in the other direction) but proved to be effective. However, gas became less effective when the gas mask was invented and chemical warfare was restricted as it was only responsible for 4% of the deaths at the front.  Overall, new weapons contributed greatly to the deadlock as some made it more difficult to break the deadlock and because weapons like the machine gun were too hard to get past and defeat, so more men were sent out to fight and more men died. Also, weapons like gas and tanks didn’t help to break the deadlock because they weren’t very effective. This is another thing that led to a longer deadlock. In conclusion, weapons were important in the carrying on of the deadlock but not as important as the commanders and their failed tactics. -what were the old methods of attack and how did they fail?
 * OLD TACTICS?**
 * MACHINE GUNS?**
 * SHELLS, ARTILLERY, FIRE?**
 * GAS WARFARE?**