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Y315: The Changing Nature of Warfare 1792–1945

The impact of technological change: development of weaponry

  • 3 things to know
  • Unit group 3

Overview

Recall questions on development of weaponry including the rifle, artillery developments, machine gun, tanks, aeroplane.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started
Who and when

What effect did the magazine rifle and smokeless powder have by the 1890s?

Key term

Explain the significance of the quick-firing field gun introduced in the 1890s.

Key term

Define indirect fire and explain why it changed artillery's role.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What advantages did the Prussian needle gun show in 1866?

    Model answer

    As a breech-loader it could be reloaded quickly and from a prone position, giving Prussian infantry a much higher rate of fire than the Austrians' muzzle-loaders.

  2. 2

    What effect did the magazine rifle and smokeless powder have by the 1890s?

    Model answer

    Soldiers could deliver rapid aimed fire from concealed positions that no longer betrayed themselves with a cloud of smoke, so the battlefield appeared empty and attacking became far more dangerous.

  3. 3

    Explain the significance of the quick-firing field gun introduced in the 1890s.

    Model answer

    A hydraulic recoil system kept the barrel on target between rounds, so the gun could fire many shells a minute without being re-laid, hugely increasing the weight of fire an army could deliver.

  4. 4

    Define indirect fire and explain why it changed artillery's role.

    Model answer

    Indirect fire means shooting at a target the gunners cannot see, using map data and observers, which allowed batteries to stay hidden well behind the line and made artillery the greatest killer on the battlefield.

  5. 5

    What made the Maxim gun so much more formidable than earlier rapid-fire weapons?

    Model answer

    It used the recoil of each round to reload automatically, so a belt-fed, water-cooled Maxim delivered sustained fire from a two-man crew instead of needing to be cranked by hand.

  6. 6

    State when and where tanks were first used in battle, and with what result.

    Model answer

    They were first used on the Somme in September 1916, where the handful available caused alarm and took some ground but were too few, too slow and too unreliable to be decisive.

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