Technology In Ww1

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“How significant were technological innovations during the First World War” Intro…… Aircraft Only eleven years after their invention planes took to the skies as reconnaissance vehicles in WW1. These aircraft would evolve in to fighter planes with Lewis machine-guns attached to the plane. Although the aircraft were hugely advanced for their time I think they were not a significant technology during the First World War. In some aspects, the aircraft proved to be a hugely effective reconnaissance tool in spotting artillery positions, enemy trenches and battle movements. The planes were firstly equipped with large cameras and would take photos of enemy positions, which proved important in pinpointing the enemy’s movements and location. This was showed at the battle of Mons in August 1914, when an allied aircraft spotted German troops attempting to flank and surround the British Expeditionary Force. The BEF managed to escape the manoeuvre thanks to the reconnaissance photographs taken from the aircraft. A new innovation during the war equipped the planes with light-weight radios so they could identify enemy artillery positions; this enabled the pilot to radio back to friendly artillery to target the enemy’s position. When the friendly artillery was firing they could…show more content…
Conventional bombers such as the German Gotha were practically useless and to start with the co-pilot would simply throw the bombs over the side of the plane. During the conflict bombers were not able to make any significant difference to the soldier’s or civilian’s lives as they were too crude and simple and bombing raids always had too few planes. Although many innovations were made on the bomber none were big enough to make the aircraft effective enough at bombing. It wasn’t until the Second World War that they were used effectively in the ‘Total War’ of bombing factories and
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