Inventions of the Great War

des and Tr

efense that it was only by hand-to-hand fighting that a brave enemy could be defeated. Even the invention of gunpowder did not separate the combatants permanently, for although it was possible to hurl missiles at a great distance, cannon were so slow in their ac

yards and more. But when the Germans, after their retreat in the First Battle of the Marne, dug themselves in behind the Aisne, and the French and British too found it necessary to seek shelter from machine-gun and rifle fire by burrowing into the ground, it became apparent that while rifles and machine-guns could drive the fighting into the ground, they were of little value in continuing the fight after the opposing sides had buried themselves. The trenches were carried close to one another, in some instances being so close that the soldiers could

." No gun is pointed directly at a target, but above it, so as to allow for the pull of gravity. The faster the bullet travels, the flatter is this curve or trajectory, because there is less time for it to fall before it reaches its target. Modern rifles fire their missiles at so high a speed that the bullets have a ve

-ART

ll explosive missiles were invented which could be thrown by hand. These were originally known as "flying mortars." The missile was about the size of an orange or a pomegranate, and it was filled with powder and slugs. A small fuse, which was ignited just before the d

not been taken very seriously by the military powers of Europe, except Germany. Germany was always on the lookout for any device that might prove useful in war, and when the Germans dug themselves in after the First Battle of the

merely tin cans filled with bits of iron and a high explosive in which a fuse-cord was inserted. The cord was lighted by means of a cigarette and then the can with its spluttering fuse was thro

than the shell fired from a gun, and many grenades were so heavily charged with explosives that they would scatter death and destruction farther than they could be thrown by hand. The grenadier who cast one of these grenades had to duck under cover or hide under the walls of his trench, else the fragments scattered by the exploding missile might

h would produce a dense black screen behind which operations could be concealed from the enemy. Grenades were used in the same way that shrapnel was used to produce a barrage or curtain of fire, through which the enemy could not pass without facing almost certain death. Curtains of fire were used not only for defens

t be able to throw his grenade with perfect accuracy up to a distance of seventy yards, and to maintain an effective barrage. The grenadier carried his grenades

NCE GRENAD

enade fitted to th

he grenade was slung to a greater distance, in much the same way as a lacrosse ball is thrown. Later, grenades were fitted with light, flexible wooden handles and were thrown, handle and all, at the enemy. By this means they could be slung to a considerable distance. Such grenades were used in the recent war, p

dred yards. The grenade was fastened on a rod which was inserted in the barrel of the rifle and then it was fired out of the gun by the explosion of a blank cartri

ING A

on the end of a fuse. This was covered with waxed paper to protect it from the weather. The grenadier wore an armlet covered with a friction composition such as is used on a safety-match box. Before the grenade was thrown, the waxed paper was stripped off and th

ized in the hand so that the lever was held down. Then the safety-pin was removed and when the grenade was thrown, the lever would spring up under pull of the spring A. This would cause the pin B to strike the percussion cap C, which would light the fuse D. The burning fuse w

ls of the Mil

re many disadvantages. If too long a time-fuse were used, the enemy might catch the grenade, as you w

erman parac

which is unlocked by the rush of air against a set

percussion, but it was so easily exploded that the firing-mechanism was not released until after the grenade had been thrown. In the handle of this grenade there was a bit of cord about twenty feet long. One end of this was attached to a safety-needle, A, while the other end, formed into a loop, was held by the grenadier when he threw the grenade. Not until the missile had reached

fle, are shown in Fig. 6. The striker A is retained by a couple of bolts, B, which in turn are held in place by a sleeve, C. On the sleeve is a set of wind-vanes, D. As the grenade travels through the

sectional views of a di

rman hand grenade sh

to explode no matter on which tube it fell. The disk was thrown with the edge up, and it would roll through the air. Another type of grenade was known as the hai

URE AR

forts, and while the hand-artillery provided a means of attacking the defenders of a fort, it made no impression on the walls of the fort. It corresponded to shrapnel fire on a miniature scale, and something corresponding to high-explosive fire on a small scale was necessary if the opposing fortifications were to be destroyed. To meet this problem, men cast their thoughts back to the primitive artillery of the Romans, who used to hurl great rocks at the enemy with catapults. An

lustrati

s mortar and t

lustrati

ll into a 6-in

gave way to a more modern apparatus, fashioned after the old smooth-bore mortars. This was a miniature mortar, short and wide-mouthed. A rifled barrel was not

PEA-SH

ld be carried forward by the infantry in a charge. As the walls of a light barrel might be burst by the shock of exploding powder, compressed air was used instead. The shell was virtually blown out of the gun in the sam

"Scientifi

un Operated by the

"Scientifi

y broken away to show

il-spring D. The cartridge fed into the gun by wheel E, is extracted by F,

nder high pressure and this gas was sometimes used in place of compressed air. When the gas in the tank was exhausted the latter could be recharged with air by using a hand-pump. Two or three hundred strokes of the pump would give a pressure of one hundred and twenty to one hundre

TOKES

and so a thin-walled barrel could be used. The light Stokes mortar can easily be carried over the shoulder by one man. It has two legs and the barrel itself serves as a third leg, and the mor

h Stokes mortar showing a shell a

ench mortar shell fi

the form of rings, A, which are fitted on a stem, B. At the end of the stem are a detonating cap and a cartridge, to ignite the propellant, A. At the bottom of the mortar barrel, there is a steel point, E, known as the "anvil." When the

very substantial base. They were not so readily portable as the smaller ones and they could not be carried by one man; but compared with ordinary artillery of the same bore they were immea