What innovations in military warfare occurred during World War I?
1 Answer
Some of the main innovations were heavy artillery , rapid fire machine guns, Airplanes, and tanks.
Explanation:
In the beginnings of World War I defensive weapons became dominate over offensive weapons.
The machine guns neutralized massive infantry attacks across open territory. The cost in lives charging an entrenchments became so high that the front on the Western Front became almost static.
The combination of trenches barb wire and machine guns made defensive weapons dominate over the offense.
Heavy artillery could pound the neutral area between the lines while an attack was in progress. The heavy artillery could fire from well behind the lines. The heavy long range artillery was a powerful innovation in world war I.
The airplane was able to make the artillery much more effective by aerial observation. Planes engaged in aerial combat to prevent aerial observation. Dogfights became a new form of warfare. Planes also dropped small bombs on the trenches and machine gunned infantry positions
The tanks finally equalized the offensive and defensive weapons.
the tanks could crush the barb wire and protect infantry as the infantry attacked the trenches. Large tanks could run right over the trenches. The use of large mobile formations of armored tanks would revolutionize warfare again in World War II.
