5 Weird & Creative Weapons From WW1

in many ways the First World War saw the death of the old world and the birth of the new without dated tactics such as cavalry and dress uniforms rapidly giving way to tanks camouflage and gas attacks the armies of the world looked very different by 1918 when compared to 1914 to cope with the horrors of trench warfare and modern weaponry the soldiers on the ground had to come up with new ingenious and often unusual weapons to eke out some advantage over their enemies here are five of the more unusual yet inventive weapons that saw action on the deadly battlefields of World War one number five aircraft sound detection when the Great War began the Wright brothers had only made the world's first powered flight a mere 10 years earlier and as such the use of aircraft in war was still very much in its infancy in the early days of the war aircraft were primarily seen as a useful tool for reconnaissance as they provided a previously unobtainable level of detail on enemy movements and numbers however they soon proved dangerous and effective as offensive weapons with bombs often being dropped by hand onto enemy positions and deadly Zeppelin bombing raids being carried out on London by the German air force with aircraft rapidly proving their worth it became clear that measures needed to be implemented to deal with and counter this new aerial threat various acoustic detection methods began to be used which relied on using often strange-looking devices to enhance the sound of approaching aircraft and determine its distance and direction thus giving an opportunity for defenders to scramble their own aircraft to intercept and shoot down the enemy as well as to train their anti-aircraft guns in the right direction such acoustic location devices could be found as far back as the 19th century professor Mayer's topper phone was created in 1879 and designed as a way for its wearer to pinpoint the source of any sound as aircraft engines were so noisy acoustic detection seemed like the perfect solution various types were produced all over the world some was small and portable were designed to be used by one person while others were giant and demand by a team they all tended to follow similar principles though consisting of oversized horns or microphones which were connected to the ears of the operator acting almost like a giant doctor's stethoscope detecting the sounds of enemy aircraft at the greatest distance possible would give more time to prepare a response and with aerial bombing of civilian populations now becoming an accepted tool of war such advanced warning might save lives the effectiveness of these devices seem to have varied greatly however rapid increases in the speed of aircraft meant that the amount of warning that they were able to provide grew smaller and smaller as higher speeds meant that by the time the engines were heard the plane would be nearly visible to the naked eye anyway the development of radar during the Second World War proved to be the final nail in the coffin for acoustic aircraft detection though and by the end of World War two they were rendered obsolete however relics can still be found dotted across the English landscape such as these concrete sound mirrors in Kent number four the drip rifle the First World War was littered with incredibly bloody battles that were often little more than stalemates which inflicted hundreds of thousands of casualties as desperate men carried out a war of attrition in the hell that was the trenches the 8 month long Gallipoli campaign of 1915 was no different and although its original objective was to capture Istanbul it quickly descended into a costly stalemate having suffered over a quarter of a million casualties for little to no gain the decision was made to evacuate all Allied forces from the area such a large-scale evacuation was fraught with danger retreating armies are especially vulnerable to attack as the enemy will rarely sit back and let you escape while your defenses are down and will usually use the opportunity to attack causing chaos and massive casualties initial British Army estimates put the likely casualty figure of any evacuation attempt at over 30,000 in an attempt to limit the danger posed by the evacuation an elaborate series of deceptions were used to try and mask the Allied withdrawal giving the impression that the trenches were still manned and defended and therefore warding off an ottoman attack fires were left burning dirt was shoveled so that it would appear new trenches were being dug dummy artillery pieces made from old cart wheels were deployed to hide the withdrawal of the real guns and dummies dressed in uniform were dotted throughout the ventures over the course of two weeks soldiers retreated in waves under cover of darkness their boots covered with sacks to muffle the sounds before finally a rearguard of just 2,000 men were left to the Ottoman soldiers in the opposing trenches it seemed as though nothing could change however the withdrawal of the last 2,000 men would surely be noticed as the sporadic exchange of gunfire which was a constant throughout the battle would cease as the soldiers fled to the beaches tipping off the Ottomans that a retreat was in progress lance corporal William scurry was an Australian soldier who came up with a simple yet ingenious way to bypass this problem he created the trip rifle which was a standard army rifle which was rigged to fire automatically without the need for a soldier to be present this would allow the rear guard to sneak away undetected and possibly save a huge number of lives a small hole would be pierced into a ration tin full of water which would then drip water into a second ration tin underneath the lower tin would be attached to the rifles trigger with a string and when it reached a certain weight the pull on the string would pull the trigger which would cause the rifle which was held in place by sandbags to fire depending on the size of the hole punched into the top tin it could take as little as twenty minutes up to over one hour for the rifle to fire in this way sporadic shots would continue to be fired even as the soldiers retreated leading the Ottoman forces to believe that troops still manned the trenches even after all of the soldiers had been evacuated miraculously the evacuation was completed without the loss of a single man to enemy fire with the simple yet ingenious drip gun playing a vital and life-saving role in the operation number three the mobile shield shields have been used for thousands of years as a way to protect soldiers from attack but in a war that is known for being one in which the old world gave way to the modern it might seem surprising that infantry shields of various types were actually developed and used in a desperate attempt to stem the terrible casualty rates inflicted by trench warfare faced with barbed wire treacherous terrain sniper fire and machine guns that could spit out hundreds of rounds per minute infantrymen were cut down in staggering numbers as they attempted to advance on enemy trenches armies looked back in history for a way to provide action for their vulnerable soldiers and a variety of mobile shields were developed and put into use the idea was not necessarily new during the russo-japanese war of 1904 to 1905 small infantry shells were used during sieges and since guns were first used on the battlefield soldiers have experimented with various types of body armor and shields in an effort to protect themselves from the immense killing power of the bullet this russian adjustable mobile shield was captured by the germans in 1914 and looks more like something from medieval siege warfare than world war 1 small slots allow the soldier to fire from behind cover and the giant steel shield is mounted on wheels however due to its incredible weight it was likely to have been pulled by horses rather than moved in battle by the men this problem with weight was one which prevented these types of shields from becoming widely used to stop high powered rifle rounds the steel blades had to be thick and was therefore heavy giving it limited mobility such giant shields would therefore prove too cumbersome to be relied upon especially given the terrible terrain which most battles were fought on where the land had become covered with shell craters and crossed with barbed wire with much of the grounds so muddy that it was more Marsh than field conditions in which such a heavy steel device would have simply sunk into the mud additionally such shields also failed to protect men from the other main killer on the battlefield shell fire could burst behind or overhead killing the man seeking refuge behind such shields further limiting their usefulness to counter these issues smaller shields were often tested these French one-man mobile shields were given limited use to protect men on wire cutting duties and the macadam shield shovel was a Canadian invention which turned a spade shovel into a portable shield the handle would be folded exposing a spike which would be driven into the ground the shovel would then provide some limited protection for its owner offering a hole to fire through and in theory deflecting at least some incoming fire 25,000 of these shovels were shipped to Europe but the steel plate failed to stop even small arms fire and due to its weight and the hole proved ineffective as a digging tool which prevented its wider adoption although these early and relatively low-tech shields failed they no doubt played a role in inspiring the first battlefield tanks which were essentially giant shields that were also mobile and would lead to trench warfare finally becoming redundant as they smashed through barbed wire and overran trenches providing a desperately needed path for the infantry to break through enemy lines number two the periscope rifle while life in the trenches also dangerous and miserable existence the deep tunnels and fortifications at least provided some protection from the seemingly endless enemy machine-gun fire and shelling however such defenses did not make soldiers immune as they would still have to stick their head above the trench to fire on the enemy or to simply see what was going on in no man's land throughout the war highly skilled snipers armed with telescopic sights would be present on the battlefield and were a deadly and terrifying foe they would often crawl out of their trenches and into no-man's land under cover of darkness using the terrain for cover and even infamously making use of fake trees there they would patiently wait biding their time until an enemy soldier raised the head above the parapet for many men taking a curious peek out of their trench this would be the last thing they did as the sniper trained his sights on to whatever part of their body was exposed and fired such deadly sniper fire kept the men suppressed and in a permanent state of fear damaging morale and making observing the enemy and defending your trench highly dangerous to counter this threat the soldiers began using ever more ingenious tools to see out onto no-man's land without the danger of being shot periscopes quickly became popular for observing the enemy and it was not long before rifles were rigged with these periscopes and built into elaborate contraptions that would allow the men to fire their rifles from the safety of the trench the shooter would lift his rifle over a trench and then look through the attached periscope using a string to fire at his target without exposing himself the weapon has become most famously associated with the Gallipoli campaign in Turkey in 1915 where Australian forces used it with great effectiveness at Gallipoli periscopes were commonly used to observe the Ottoman trenches who ins places were less than 50 yards away Sergeant William beech built his own version of the periscope rifle at Gallipoli which was quickly copied by other Anzac soldiers who were in desperate need of any advantage they could muster with a range of 300 yards the weapon was less accurate than a standard rifle but with enemy trenches just 50 yards away or less in some places such lower accuracy was not much of a problem number one the gauntlet Thakur at the outbreak of the Great War the only close-range weapon issued to the average infantryman was his bayonet the dawn of long-range rifles and machine guns had led many to believe that close-range combat was a thing of the past but with the unique conditions of trench warfare it soon became clear that rifles were inadequate in the cramped passageways of trench defenses a strange but brutal renaissance in earlier forms of warfare blossomed as a whole host of close quarter weapons not seen on the battlefield for many years began being constructed and used by soldiers in the trenches one of the most savage of these weapons was the gauntlet dagger which consisted of a crude but sharp blade attached to a protective gauntlet inside a cross bar would be gripped by the hand and vicious attacks on the enemy could be dealt with a punching motion hooks on either side of the gauntlet helped keep the dagger steady which would be used to deadly effect in savage up close and personal combat inside the trenches this brutal weapon perfectly sums up the paradox of First World War technology which in so many ways introduced the world to industrial scale modern killing machines however the same time crude weapons which had been used for thousands of years were still being put to lethal use including pickaxe handles hatchets knuckle dusters shovels with sharpened edges and the dreaded trench Club such quiet close quarter weapons were essential for carrying out what became referred to as raids which were quiet small-scale nighttime attacks on an enemy trench usually involving just a few dozen men where silence and the elements of surprise were vital they would often be launched with the intention of destroying or capturing enemy weapons mapping out the enemy trenches or simply killing small numbers of enemy soldiers while they slept spreading fear and terror amongst the rest of the men Trench clubs and other quiets but lethal close-quarter weapons were favored and the savage attacks would destroy enemy morale often keeping them in a sleepless state of terror sapping their energy and combat effectiveness the barbaric looking trench clubs were usually made from wood and often had metal objects placed at the end to maximize the damage inflicted and it soon became apparent that men who had some experience in hand-to-hand fighting tended to be the ones who returned alive from such raids which led to unarmed combat being taken far more seriously by the armies of the great powers so those are my choices for five of the weirdest and most inventive weapons of World War one I hope you enjoyed the video do let me know in the comments which weapons you would have included in the list and I'll see you again on the next video

Channel: Unknown5

Views: 2,239,883

Rating: 4.8508902 out of 5

Keywords: WW1, world war 1, first world war, the great war, battlefield 1, ww1 weapons, weapons, world war one weapons, weapons from the first world war, weird weapons, Gallipoli, anzac, unknown 5, unknown5, top 5, top 10, top 15, top 20, Aircraft Sound Detection, The Drip Rifle, The Mobile Shield, The Periscope Rifle, The Gauntlet Dagger, ww1 armour, armor, creative weapons, history, documentaries, documentary, battlefield one, trench war, trench warfare

Id: PYgIT1qnWwU

Length: 13min 59sec (839 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 21 2016