The attack of the greenish sea
Thesis
WWI. The Great War. This was the war that was suppose to end all wars for good. But in WWI there were a lot of scientific advancement from depth charges to aircraft carriers. Since this war was predicted as the "Great War" both sides advanced all their military equipment. They started making weapons that would help them win the war such as the tank, machine guns, and many more.Some were recently developed like poison gas and flame throwers.These inventions killed thousands maybe even millions. These were the great inventions of the century. Most of these inventions were upgraded and are still getting used today. So I like to consider this war as the birth of the modern weapons we have today.
A Gas attack in 1917
Gas attacks started way before WWI. But during 1911, four years before the war started, two German scientists managed to contain the gas in a steel can, it was about as large as three feet in height and about three fourths a foot across. They had long tubes so that the Germans could release it at any time without any risk of the poison making contact with their own skin.
To understand the topic better I did some Reasearch and found a man named Arthur Empey. He was an American/British soldier. He was living in New Jersey when WWI broke out but when the Americans didn't join the war right away, he decided to travel to Britain to join their army. Later he would realize that this was one of the biggest mistakes he'd ever made. The first time he saw gas was in 1917. It was his third year as a soldier. He was behind a machine gun staring into German lines. He could see their heads barely over the ground moving around. during this time, there were no shots being exchanged where they were. It was a very calm day, the sun was out and there was a slight breeze going through his hair. In the distance you could barely hear gunshots. He saw that his rifle hasn't been cleaned in a while so he decided to go and clean his rifle when a man came running, he stated that the man looked like he had been running for a while, there was sweat on his forehead and his face was cherry red. " There's a sort of greenish, yellow cloud rolling along the ground out in front, it's coming, and its coming fast" he said trying to catch his breath. Arthur grabbed his gun and an empty shell and ran down the trenches hitting the shell telling everyone there was gas coming. They only had 20 seconds or so to put on their gas masks. One of his men was too slow and when the thick fog rolled over the edge of their trench he started choking immediately and he fell to the ground with his hands around his throat then his eyes went up into his forehead and he lied there,dead. But the poison gas didn't only affect the soldiers but also the animals, the cattle, donkeys, rats, cats, dogs. He states that after his fellow crew member died and the fog passed and he found his crew members dog also died with its paws over its nose trying to block out the poison. But once as the gas cleared there were so many body's laying around including dogs and rats. But there was no time to commemorate the dead because then the Germans started flooding in killing the few that survived the gas attack. He was the only man to make it out alive by getting out of the trench and running to the one that laid only 500 or so meters away. He was very lucky unlike the other men that lost their lives at that battle.
Legacy of the weapons during WWI
This was probably the most painful way to die in combat in WWI. But this was not the only deadly weapon there was. There were also things like tanks, machine guns on planes, depth charges and many more. Depth charged would make holes in submarines and drown everyone on board and machine guns on planes would shoot down enemy planes and, or soldiers down below. These inventions were horrible and killed millions of people. These inventions were also genius. Later these inventions went on to be used in WWII and were evolved and upgraded and now these are probably some of the most commonly used weapons in wars today.
Thesis
WWI. The Great War. This was the war that was suppose to end all wars for good. But in WWI there were a lot of scientific advancement from depth charges to aircraft carriers. Since this war was predicted as the "Great War" both sides advanced all their military equipment. They started making weapons that would help them win the war such as the tank, machine guns, and many more.Some were recently developed like poison gas and flame throwers.These inventions killed thousands maybe even millions. These were the great inventions of the century. Most of these inventions were upgraded and are still getting used today. So I like to consider this war as the birth of the modern weapons we have today.
A Gas attack in 1917
Gas attacks started way before WWI. But during 1911, four years before the war started, two German scientists managed to contain the gas in a steel can, it was about as large as three feet in height and about three fourths a foot across. They had long tubes so that the Germans could release it at any time without any risk of the poison making contact with their own skin.
To understand the topic better I did some Reasearch and found a man named Arthur Empey. He was an American/British soldier. He was living in New Jersey when WWI broke out but when the Americans didn't join the war right away, he decided to travel to Britain to join their army. Later he would realize that this was one of the biggest mistakes he'd ever made. The first time he saw gas was in 1917. It was his third year as a soldier. He was behind a machine gun staring into German lines. He could see their heads barely over the ground moving around. during this time, there were no shots being exchanged where they were. It was a very calm day, the sun was out and there was a slight breeze going through his hair. In the distance you could barely hear gunshots. He saw that his rifle hasn't been cleaned in a while so he decided to go and clean his rifle when a man came running, he stated that the man looked like he had been running for a while, there was sweat on his forehead and his face was cherry red. " There's a sort of greenish, yellow cloud rolling along the ground out in front, it's coming, and its coming fast" he said trying to catch his breath. Arthur grabbed his gun and an empty shell and ran down the trenches hitting the shell telling everyone there was gas coming. They only had 20 seconds or so to put on their gas masks. One of his men was too slow and when the thick fog rolled over the edge of their trench he started choking immediately and he fell to the ground with his hands around his throat then his eyes went up into his forehead and he lied there,dead. But the poison gas didn't only affect the soldiers but also the animals, the cattle, donkeys, rats, cats, dogs. He states that after his fellow crew member died and the fog passed and he found his crew members dog also died with its paws over its nose trying to block out the poison. But once as the gas cleared there were so many body's laying around including dogs and rats. But there was no time to commemorate the dead because then the Germans started flooding in killing the few that survived the gas attack. He was the only man to make it out alive by getting out of the trench and running to the one that laid only 500 or so meters away. He was very lucky unlike the other men that lost their lives at that battle.
Legacy of the weapons during WWI
This was probably the most painful way to die in combat in WWI. But this was not the only deadly weapon there was. There were also things like tanks, machine guns on planes, depth charges and many more. Depth charged would make holes in submarines and drown everyone on board and machine guns on planes would shoot down enemy planes and, or soldiers down below. These inventions were horrible and killed millions of people. These inventions were also genius. Later these inventions went on to be used in WWII and were evolved and upgraded and now these are probably some of the most commonly used weapons in wars today.