One hundred years after the end of the First World War will pass soon . And if in World War II Russia came out as the undisputed winner, then the results of the Imperialist are very controversial for her. On the one hand, it is among the winning countries, on the other, our country has lost almost everything in that war. Most of the army, navy, aviation. To everything else, huge debts to other countries have formed. And then everything is already known - the loss of territories, the forced signing of the Brest Peace Treaty and the collapse of the Russian army under the Bolsheviks, which criminally wrested power.
Readiness for war
And this is also a very controversial issue. The last ten years, our empire has significantly modernized. But, nevertheless, experienced an acute shortage of equipment, ammunition and new developments. Most of the spare parts for armored vehicles came from abroad. As for aviation, all engines had to be ordered from the Allies. Although the number of aircraft we took second place. The first was Germany with a slight superiority of fifteen aircraft. The same applies to the pilots themselves - they studied at special flight schools in the UK.
In almost every type of weapon, Germany overtook us, but literally by several units. This is comforting - we were one of two military giants of that time.
Nevertheless, the new weapons of World War I came out of the enemy’s assembly line.
New developments
The First World War launched the latest military developments of various countries of that time into its arena. These were the first tanks, advanced fighter aircraft, large-caliber guns. Small arms of the First World War had many varieties, including new models, previously unknown. Machine guns and the first semblance of anti-aircraft mounts stunned everything around with their bursts. And another new invention, the application of which distinguished itself during the First World War, is chemical weapons.
Tanks
It was at this time that the first tank came off the factory conveyor - Mark 1. Launched in the UK, he knew no equal. His crew included seven people. Its weight was 26 tons, which did not add good indicators of the speed of the tank. Mark 1 was armed with four machine guns and two guns. Subsequently, he received two varieties: male and female. The male had two powerful guns, and the female six heavy machine guns. The tanks worked in tandem, with the expectation that the male was doing the main sweep. The female is a little at a distance and covers.
But this is far from the only tank that launched the First World War. Weapons on the tracks were carefully developed by the Germans. Appreciating Mark 1, they set about developing their A7V tank, which was slightly reminiscent of its British counterpart. Only his crew consisted of eighteen people, and he weighed four tons more.
Each country tried to build its tank, which was pulled into itself by the First World War. This weapon, however, succeeded only in Great Britain and France. The Germans, if they released their model, were not able to organize its mass production (and in all they had no more than 20 tanks).
Aviation
If iron monsters of superpowers dominated the earth, then no less frightening steel eagles dominated them in the sky. Despite the deplorable economic condition, our Ilya Muromets was considered the best aircraft. The developers brought him to mind so that he became the best multi-engine bomber, the equal of which the First World War did not come up with a weapon until its completion. Our aircraft numbered about 250 aircraft, which was slightly smaller than that of German opponents.
Guns
At first, our army turned back entire regiments of the enemy, bringing down their deadly nuclei on them. "Scythe of death" - that’s what the Germans called our three-inch gun. But, unfortunately, the Russian army was not ready for such terms for which the First World War dragged on. The weapon on wheels, if it was normal, then the shells for it began to be sorely lacking. As a result, only one answered our three hundred German volleys.
The numerical advantage of artillery was among the Germans (more than seven thousand guns). The German gun “Berta” was especially distinguished at that time, which equalized the villages and small towns with the land.
Chemical weapon
But no matter how different types of weapons of the First World War differed, the use of chemical weapons became the most merciless and painful phenomenon . Thanks to this, the First World War also had a second name - “war of chemists”.
The war gained a positional character, which led to serious difficulties. In order to smoke the enemy from his trenches, a gas weapon was developed. The first to use it were the French, throwing their opponents with special grenades filled with tear gas. Then the Germans picked up the idea.
If the tear only caused irritation of the mucous membrane of the soldiers, then chlorine claimed the lives of people. Although it is believed that with a gas attack, mortality is 4% of the total, the rest are only subject to hospitalization, the losses caused by the use of gas were enormous.
A successful way for scientists to test all new toxic substances was the First World War. Chemical weapons were the number one danger for soldiers. However, subsequently, countermeasures for gas attacks began to be developed, which gradually negated its use.