World War I technologies that panicked eyewitnesses and loved steampunk fans

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

The First World War was accompanied by a bet on supernova technologies. Very often they looked so that, if they appeared in a steampunk film, where they belonged, they would be criticized by the audience: too bulky structures that are too easy to break up. But one of the main bets in the First World War was on the terror of the enemy, and new developments were in line with this task, as well as others, more practical.

Combat airships

It is difficult to imagine how these huge, slow, hulking monsters could be used in battle, and yet all sides tried to do it. Germany, among other things, used its zeppelins (rigid airships) because the sky, covered like clouds, slowly and menacingly crawling through the air artificial leviathans, looked very depressing.

They tried to conduct naval reconnaissance from airships, deliver important persons to the front line on them, throw bombs at night or shoot. However, those of the officers who could not be embarrassed by a psychological attack quickly found a way to deal with combat airships: they were perforated from machine guns installed on fortress walls, roofs of buildings or other hills. Later, special air defense weapons were also developed, but at first there were enough machine guns with their heads. True, the falling zeppelin also terrified the soldiers and civilians - but at least it could no longer be used by the enemy.

By the way, about machine guns

Machine guns began to penetrate the army even before the start of the First World War, but the war, of course, provoked their mass production and improvement. Their number in the French army, for example, has increased twenty-fold. The most popular euphemism for them was the "infernal machine" - they struck with a picture of corpses torn apart by bullets, which they left behind on the battlefield.

Mainly machine guns were used to hold the taken heights, but they were also turned against airships and aircraft. By the way, they were also put on airplanes. This made it necessary to solve peculiar technical problems. Firstly, it was necessary to make sure that the recoil did not knock the plane down from the trajectory and altitude, and secondly, so that the bullets did not fall into the rotating blades of the propellers, damage to which would lead to a fall. At first, the machine guns were placed so high that the bullets flew over the propellers - it was inconvenient to shoot this way, but it would look spectacular in a movie. Later, they found a way to synchronize the shots and the rotation of the blades, so that the bullets flew between them, and the machine gun could be lowered to a height convenient for the aviators.

Not only did the planes shoot

At the beginning of the war, they were used, rather, as an urgent means of communication or for espionage. Since it was not difficult to shoot down a light biplane with a shot from the ground, and the filming required the passenger to hang from one side with a bulky camera, aerial reconnaissance in fact looked like a pure gamble.

By the end of the war, aircraft became more complex and specialized (bombers, fighters, "couriers"), but the way to shoot them down was also improved by creating anti-aircraft guns.

The first Russian bomber, Ilya Muromets, was converted from a luxurious passenger plane, which even had a toilet and a bath. They were reinforced with armor, which made them clumsy and awkward, but during the first military attacks the Germans were pretty frightened by the new bombers - the Ilya Muromets seemed invulnerable to anti-aircraft guns.

Aircraft could not only bomb, shoot and transport someone (or something). At the suggestion of ace Nesterov, a special knife was developed on the fuselage, with which it was possible to rip open enemy combat airships. Just imagine the picture of this fight! Ready plot for the movie.

Gases and gas masks

A big stake in the war was made on poisonous substances, especially gases. Actually, by that time there was already an agreement not to use them on the battlefield, but … in the new world there was no morality, only technology.

One of the first attacks by German poison gases on Russian territories turned into an embarrassment. The winter day was too cold, the gases froze in the air and fell to the ground. This is how methylbenzyl bromide got embarrassed.

But the famous mustard gas attack in the Franco-German battle on the Ypres River sowed real panic in the ranks of the armies of the countries that fought with Prussia and Austria-Hungary. As soon as someone noticed a suspicious cloud during the attack, soldiers and officers fled from the battlefield in a race. An exception was the famous Russian "Attack of the Dead", when the second lieutenants Kotlinsky and Strzheminsky, struck by chlorine, deciding that they would have to die anyway, but they could take more enemies with them, also raised the poisoned soldiers in the attack. This attack turned out to be a real nightmare for the Germans - the Russian soldiers who went into a rage looked very frightening and killed everything around with unprecedented fury.

Kotlinsky died on the evening of the same day, Strzheminsky continued to fight, was crippled, after the hospital became a Suprematist artist. His wife, Ekaterina Kobro, whom they met at the hospital where she was a nurse, became a sculptor. Later they managed to survive the Second World War. Everyone agrees that Strzeminsky went to painting to cope with the trauma of the war. In this respect, the First World War was prolific. For example, Allan Milne wrote the famous book about Winnie the Pooh also because he was looking in creativity to get rid of the nightmares experienced at the front.

Photos of the First World War with people and horses in gas masks invariably cause a special sensation on the Internet: they look like a wild fantasy of a steampunk lover. And yet the photographs show real constructions.

Horses and dogs

Despite all the technology, animals were still very actively used in war. Horses both served in the train and were used in attacks (cavalry was still a popular branch of the army). In addition to horses, trained dogs served at the front - they transported light artillery pieces on carts, carried communications through the territories occupied by the enemy, delivered ligaments, found shell-shocked, but still alive after artillery attacks, stood on patrol with sentries together.

Dogs-orderlies, crawling looking for the wounded on a field full of corpses, had to silently take a small object from the found one and take it to the orderly as a signal. After that, the orderly followed the dog. In the most extreme case, when there was nothing to remove from the wounded, the dog had to emit a short howl without taking off the ground.

Airedale Jack, who served in the British army, is recognized as the real hero. He carried out many assignments as a signalman, and in his last mission, in which he was terribly wounded with no hope of survival, he saved an entire battalion. He was awarded the Victoria Cross posthumously.

Tanks

These bulky armored vehicles were developed as an analogue of battleships on land. Tanks, that is, cisterns, they were first called for camouflage. Later, the nickname stuck to the cars. The British divided the tanks into males and females: cannons were installed on males, machine guns on females.

From the first tanks sent to the front, the officers grabbed their heads: the command ordered them to figure out how to use them in battle, but these machines were in fact very, very slow and very, very clumsy, so cavalry easily slipped between them or even infantrymen ran through … Nevertheless, by the end of the war, tanks had become a formidable force - after a series of improvements.

Armored trains

Who would have the idea to equip a giant armored vehicle that can only move on rails into battle? However, armored trains showed their indispensability when it was necessary to break through the front line by rail (at the same time allowing the crew to destroy as many enemy people as possible). True, their use only led to the fact that they tried to destroy the railways in the occupied territories. They also used armored trains as mobile fortress walls, which could cover this or that object if rails passed in front of it. The armored trains sometimes looked very, very cinematic.

Submarines

The first battle on submarines took place precisely during the First World War, when a new type of ships began to be diligently developed. The surprise of the attack was an important part of the psychological pressure on the enemy, in addition to its practical benefits, so high hopes were pinned on submarines in this regard.

The first submarines were driven by two engines: diesel, above water, and electric, under water (for noiselessness). The electric was charged from the diesel while it was running. The first such submarine was the Russian Lamprey. Submarines very soon began to be afraid to hiccups both sailors and ordinary people impressed by the colorful stories of the press. Children dreamed of how enemy boats float in the river near the city and destroy all life on the streets.

Brass face prostheses

Many have noticed the prosthetic face of the villainous scientist in the movie Wonder Woman. This prosthesis is a sign of the times. In the last years of the First World War and immediately after, such prostheses were developed and manufactured by the artist Anna Ladd for soldiers and officers whose face was disfigured during the war. They were worn after a series of operations that were supposed to restore at least partial functionality to the muscles of the face. Often, the mouth opening on the prosthetic mask increased functionality - it served as a holder for a straw, making it possible to drink (including nutritious broths and soups with crushed ingredients) for those who no longer have lips.

Fighting women, beloved in steampunk, are also a sign of the times. 8 Legendary Women of the First World War: Feats of War and Post-War Fate.