Atlantic WW1

[John McGillivray]

Photo 36 is a Armoured Autocar of the of the Canadian Motor Machine Gun Brigade.

[Tony Wheeler]

Not sure HMS Furious qualifies as an aircraft carrier, and if we start including converted battleships, then there are pre-WW1 examples.

I guess you could say strategic bombing started in WW1, I hesitated on that one but thought I'd throw it in for good measure!

LMGs and sub MGs are just improvements on existing MGs, which date back to mid 19th c. There'd be lots of weapons like that, including improved swords and bayonets. Likewise flamethrowers date back to ancient times, not a new concept in WW1. Although you could probably argue they were new in that they were no longer manually pumped.

[r.morrison]

Hi Tony....in reference to your statement that modern warfare started in WW2 and not WW1, I beg to differ......without opening a can of worms! Define "modern warfare". If today were 1919, the world would consider WW1 "modern warfare" just based on a lot of the points made in this entry. And you can carry on over the decades as to what is "modern warfare". My 2 cents.....Robert

[Tony Wheeler]

Originally Posted by r.morrison

Define "modern warfare". If today were 1919, the world would consider WW1 "modern warfare"

Most definitely Robert, but the statement refers to what WE would consider consider modern warfare, not what the people of 1919 would consider modern warfare. If WE were to define modern warfare, the list would include radar, jet engines, helicopters, guided missiles, ICBMs, nuclear weapons, remote controlled unmanned aircraft - all of which debuted in WW2.

Personally I would also include aircraft carriers, strategic bombing, and rocketry. Sure, you can stick a few planks on a battleship and launch a flimsy biplane off it, but that doesn't make it an aircraft carrier. If I stick a heavy load in my car boot, does that make it a ute? The flattop aircraft carrier was designed in the 1920's and debuted in WW2. It quickly rendered the battleship obsolete and introduced modern naval warfare. And it had nothing to do with improved aircraft - it was a handful of obsolete biplanes that destroyed the Italian Fleet in 1940. That was the first all-aircraft ship to ship naval attack in history, and the template for Pearl Harbour a year later.

As for strategic bombing, there's simply no comparison between the puny intermittent raids conducted by a handful of biplanes and zeppelins in WW1, buffeted by weather and barely able to reach let alone find their targets, and the sustained, round the clock, long range, high altitude, precision bombing raids of WW2, which saw millions of tons of high explosive and incendiaries dropped over the course of 6 years, often by up to 1000 heavy bombers at a time, killing millions of people and diverting vast defence resources, and not only destroying entire industries vital to the enemy's ability to wage war, but ultimately defeating him in the air as well. The plain fact is that the means did not exist in WW1 to conduct strategic bombing campaigns in any meaningful sense.

Likewise for rockets, there's no comparison between the puny little signal rockets used in WW1, which were nothing more than fireworks displays, and the Laval rocket which propelled the V2 into space in WW2. Not only was it the world's first ICBM, it was the prototype which put a man on the moon two decades later and was soon launching missions to Mars and beyond.

Having now listed 10 major technologies which debuted in WW2, which not only define modern warfare today but have also revolutionized civil aviation and enabled mankind to leave Earth, I'm still waiting to hear of anything comparable out of WW1 beyond the tank. I rest my case!

[Tony Wheeler]

Originally Posted by Tony Wheeler

Having now listed 10 major technologies which debuted in WW2

Actually make that 12. I forgot to mention amphibious vehicles and landing craft. And by 'landing craft' I don't mean rowboats or steamers beached on rocks. Those are called 'death traps', and as the British discovered, they don't work in daylight.

Of course, we've only discussed military technologies so far, we haven't even mentioned military strategies or tactics. In addition to modern amphibious warfare which debuted in WWII, culminating in D-Day landings, WW2 introduced modern land warfare as we know it today. That is, highly mobile mechanized forces able to maneouver on multiple fronts and deploy over long distances. As opposed to the static trench warfare seen on the Western Front in WW1. That fact alone, more than all the technologies put together, marks WW1 as the absolute antithesis of modern warfare.