What new invention had the most impact during WWI and why?

Answer 1

The inability of Germany's allies to do their own fighting which required Germany to do the fighting for them. This meant that since the allies didn't do their own work they eventually lost the war and had to suffer the consequences.

Please note neither the machine gun, a mid-19th century weapon, nor the printing press, a 15th century invention, would be considered new at the time.

Answer 2

Poison gas sounds like a good choice, but when you look at the actual casualty rate from gas, its to low to say it had the most impact, and occasionally with a shifting wind, it would get their own troops.

The Airplane did make huge breakthroughs in the ability to see the movements of the enemy troops, but since armies adapted to moving by night, that would not be the biggest.

The tank might have been able to make a huge impact, but it was decisive in to few of its battles, mainly because the commanders did not understand how best to use them, not to mention they were mechanically very unreliable.

The telephone was used for the first time ( instead of telegraph lines in Civil war) and that made huge differences for communication for the commanders. But you did have the problem of the wires being destroyed often, actually causing more logistic problems than before the telephone.

The Dreadnought class battleship is another good choice. With Germany choosing to commit to a strong navy and virtually matching Britain ship to ship in the super battleship class, they were able to effectively neutralize the Grand Fleet, out of fear of loses, thus taking away the strength of England.

The Machine gun would be my choice, seeing that the question is the most impact. The classic vision we have of WW1 is a bogged down war in the trenches, which was mainly caused by the inability to advance troops against the well placed rapid firing machine guns.

Answer 3

This is kind of subjective, but possible answers are the machine gun, the tank, and the airplane as a tool of war. Personally, I don't think the tank had much impact; it came along too late and was too unwieldy, but the case can be made for it helping to break up the trench deadlock. Likewise, the aircraft was useful for scouting, but was not very impactful on the ground. My personal opinion is that the machine gun was perhaps the most impactful, if only by the tremendous carnage it wrought. Hope that helps...

Answer 4

Hard to say. Some very important changes happened, most of which were not inventions, per se.

Some firsts:

• Aerial bombing of civilian populations

• Use of poison gas

• First war where machine guns were widely used

• First war where airplanes were used, but this had more of an impact later—not during the war

• First war where tanks were widely used

• First war where submarines were widely used

I would have to say that the use of poison gas had the most impact during the course of the war.

Answer 5

Hmmm. Tanks. Tanks were the newest invention and best during the war. They helped break the deadlock of the trenches in 1918 by smashing through barbed wire like nobodies business

Answer 6

New Inventions In Ww1

Answer 7

According to T E Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) it was the printing press. The quote from the man himself:

"The printing press is the greatest weapon in the armoury of the modern commander."

Answer 8

the machine gun - now the strategy had to change, just lining up the soldiers like the olden days, and all get mowed down.
Other possibilities - Airplanes, nerve gas.

Answer 9

Barbed wire. It made defences impregnable to infantry

Answer 10

l guess chemical toxic gases, first used at ypres against french troups by germans. or tanks. or airpane giuded artilery fire.