30 October 2018

Rupert Williams, World War One service. New Zealand




World War One was not the only conflict that Rupert had been part of. When Rupert joined as a soldier for the Boar War he was only 19. His age has been disputed as he could really have been 14 or 15 when he left for South Africa if his age was 54 when he died in 1941.[1] He had been part of the 10th Contingent in April 1902 when the ship, Drayton Grange left on the 19th of the same month. Even though they arrived on the 27th of May the war ended on the 31st of May that same year. They sailed home in July 1902. They had not actually seen conflict, but they did get a medal regardless.[2]


By the time World War One arrived, Rupert was 28 years old and his occupation was that of Bushman where he lived in Hukerenui north of Whangarei. Rupert joined the military on the 13th of February 1915 at Trentham and would be part of the Auckland Mounted Rifles. The records state he was inoculated for typhoid on the 13th of March and again on the 21st of March 1915. Rupert’s service records state he was 5 ft 8 inches and weight of 168 lb. The Next of kin was Lewis Williams, his father living in Parua Bay. He was on one of three ships that left for Europe and the Middle East. He arrived in Egypt on the 13th of June 1915. Said he was on transport 25 arriving 12 June 1915[3]  Around the time Rupert Williams was arriving in Egypt the Auckland Mounted Rifles were fighting within the Gallipoli locality according to the unit diary. Places like Walker’s Ridge and Reserve Gully were mentioned in June 1915.[4]

On the 3rd of October the unit diary mentions the arrival of officers and men from Egypt to be included within the unit. The number totalled 219 that had arrived at Sarpi Mudros camp. The camp was located on the island of Lemnos near Gallipoli.[5] In the days that followed there was mentioned training including with the rifles. It was written that they were inoculated. On the 7th a Captain A.G Mahan was accidentally shot in the leg with a revolver while in his tent. A board of inquiry was held.[6] In November they proceeded to ANZAC on the 10th of November with 10 officers and 286 other ranks. Hopefully I am following the diary correctly by concluding that Rupert could have set foot on Gallipoli.[7] They stayed at Gallipoli until the 12th of December where they made their way back to Lemnos Island on board the HMTS Knight of the Garter.[8] The Gallipoli positions the AMR held until they left had been heavily shelled on their return to Lemnos Island.The day after they had left their positions it had been reported in the diary that they had been subject to heavy shelling from the enemy. Left on the 24th December on board the HMTS Hororata for Egypt. From Alexandra they went by train on the 27th to NZMR base at Hemlich Camp in Egypt.

On the 23rd of January 1916 the AMR left Zeitoun Camp in Egypt, which according to a map is near Cairo.[9] The unit diary entries are missing for the date Rupert was admitted to hospital in February that could have been Ismailia. A map is included with the footnote and has some of the areas mentioned within Egypt.[10] I don’t know if I even have the correct hospital, but the 2nd Australian Stationary hospital was located in Ismailia around the time period. On the 18th of February he had been admitted to what I could read to be the Ismailia A.E General hospital with Enteric fever otherwise known as typhoid. Rupert was initially diagnosed with Paratyphoid A where it was thought caught it Jan 28 in Ismailia and admitted to hospital Feb 18th. Had a severe Typhoid fever for around 21 days. With no end in sight his cardiac condition was not good and listed as his complications was also bronchial pneumonia.

Enteric fever is a type of typhoid that is caused by salmonella spread by eating or drinking from contaminated from an infected person. Rupert being a cook for the Auckland Mounted Rifles while in Egypt could have come into contact with anything within the camps. Disease throughout World War One was rife especially when you consider life in the trenches and even within the Gallipoli campaign and then afterwards with the influenza pandemic.[11]


 On the 22nd within the service record he had been reported as being seriously ill in Cairo. Through illness Rupert had been relinquished of his appointment as cook on the 11th of February. Within his files it says Rupert became sick on the 18th of Feb 1916 around Suez Canal. Rupert left Egypt from Suez on board the Ulimaroa around the 6th of March. By the 17th of March he was struck off strength and invalided. He would return to New Zealand around April 17, 1916 where his return was reported in the Auckland Star carrying 223 soldiers. The note in his record says he returned on the 21st of April.[12] The hospitals mentioned in his file were the Isamalia Auct. General Hospital and Pont de Koubbah hospital. New Zealand did have several hospitals that were in their control. Pont de Koubbah was run by the No. 2 NZ stationary hospital. The other hospital might have been something else or I could have interpreted it incorrectly.[13]


When Rupert returned he was listed as being at both the K.G.V hospital and Auckland hospital signed off by a Lt Col T. Hope Lewis on the 27th of May 1916. The K.G.V hospital in Rotorua was actually the King George V hospital that was used by recovering soldiers after it opened in January 1916.There was a memorandum to the director of military hospitals in Wellington where they discussed Rupert’s treatment and that he be sent to Rotorua convalescent hospital. He was examined in June 16th at the Auckland hospital by a Lt Col T. Hope Lewis. Where he received further treatment. His lumbar pain was still present, but other girole pains had gone. The man who was T. Hope Lewis, which I have learnt was actually Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Hope Lewis a medical practitioner who was the director of New Zealand’s military hospitals who passed away in 1917.[14]


The medical board under Major Arthur. S. (A.S.) Herbert, 20 July 1916 found Rupert had Enteric fever causing painful spine and slow progress. The medical board speculated he got the disease from duties and would take at least a period of 12 months to recover. Recommendation was to discharge the soldier from service. The medical review was done in Rotorua and that he is considered for a pension. The explanation of medical board on Rotorua is answered as there was a convalescent hospital there as he was sent there for further treatment. The medical people mentioned within Rupert’s files like Major Herbert was part of the Rotorua Sanatorium and Military Hospital, which would be why he mentioned Rotorua for his recovery. Another name that I had seen mentioned within the service file was Col. J.R. Purdy.[15]


Rupert passed away in 1941 and according to the newspaper article in the New Zealand Herald he offered his services for World War 2 at age 54.[16]

Rupert Williams
Service Number 13/1112
Height 5 ft 8 inches
Weight 168 lb
Age 28
Lived in Hukernuei as his address with his father Lewis in Parua Bay
Occupation: Bushman
Was in New Zealand from 13/ 2 / 15 until 13/ 6/ 15 where he was overseas
Service 1 year and 146 days 16/ 2/ 1915 to 10/ 8 /1916
AMR – Auckland Mounted Rifles rank Trooper – 13/ 2 /16
Relinquishes app as cook and erases 15 draw working pay 11/2/16
ranks
13/2/15 private to AMR A squad
3/10/15 gained rank of trooper and assigned as cook on same day
11/2/16 relinquish appointment as cook
Service
3/10/15 AMR posted to unit at Moudros on Limnos island where there was a short trip to Gallipoli
27/12/15 Disembarked at from Dardanelles and landed at Alexandria 
23/1/16 left for camel tour?
12/2/16 Admitted to hospital, Somalia?
22/2/16 reported as seriously ill, Cairo
17/3/16 Invalidated to New Zealand and struck off strength
21/4/16 Ulimaroa return to New Zealand with Typoid Fever
27/5/16 treated in New Zealand at the Auckland hospital, K. G. V Hospital

Sources

Primary Sources

Anon, ‘Obituary’, New Zealand Herald, 30 April 1941, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH19410430.2.136, accessed 24 October 2018.


Anon, ‘Doctor Suddenly Dies’, New Zealand Herald, 13 June 1917, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH19170613.2.107, accessed 29 October 2018.

Anon, ‘Returning Invalids’, Auckland Star, 17 April 1916, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19160417.2.17, accessed 23/10/2018
Auckland Mounted Rifles (AMR) - War Diary, 1 - 31 January 1916, National Archives New Zealand, https://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewFullItem.do?code=23494192&digital=yes, accessed 24 October 2018.

‘Auckland Mounted Rifles (AMR) - War Diary, 1 - 30 June 1915’, New Zealand National Archives, https://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewFullItem.do?code=23494185&digital=yes, accessed 24 October 2018.
‘Auckland Mounted Rifles (AMR) - War Diary, 1 - 31 October 1915’, New Zealand National Archives, https://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewFullItem.do?code=23494189&digital=yes, accessed 24 October 2018.

Auckland Mounted Rifles (AMR) - War Diary, 1 - 30 November 1915’, New Zealand National Archives, https://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewFullItem.do?code=23494190&digital=yes, accessed 24 October 2018.

‘Auckland Mounted Rifles (AMR) - War Diary, 1 -31 December 1915’, New Zealand National Archives, https://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewFullItem.do?code=23494191&digital=yes, accessed 24 October 2018.
Williams, Rupert SA8765, WWI 13/1112 – Army, https://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewFullItem.do?code=20524259&digital=yes, accessed 24 October 2018.

Secondary Sources

Anon, ‘Enteric Fever’, Infectious diseases advisor, https://www.infectiousdiseaseadvisor.com/infectious-diseases/enteric-fever/article/609538/, accessed 24 October 2018.

Bowerbank, ‘New Zealand Hospitals in Egypt’, The War Effort of New Zealand, Auckland, Whitcombe and Tombs Limited, 1923, http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-WH1-Effo-t1-body-d6-d2.html, accessed 24 October 2018.

Butler, Steve ‘Embarkations of Reinforcements from New Zealand 1914 – 1918’, http://www.nzmr.org/lists/reinforce.html, accessed 24 October 2018.

Carbery, A. D. The New Zealand Medical Service in the Great War 1914-1918, Auckland, Whitcombe and Tombs Limited, 1924, http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-WH1-Medi-t1-g1-t1-body-d22.html, accessed 24 October 2018.

Stout, T. Duncan M. War Surgery and Medicine, Wellington, Historical Publications Branch, 1954, http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-WH2Surg-pt2-c2.html, accessed 24 October 2018.

Stowers, Richard Rough Riders at War, 7th edition, 2013.

 ‘NZEF in Egypt 1914-16 map’, https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/nzef-egypt-1914-16-map, accessed 24 October 2018.

‘Zeitoun Training Base Egypt’, Digger History:  an unofficial history of the Australian & New Zealand Armed Forces, http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-conflicts-periods/ww1/zeitoun.htm, accessed 24 October 2018.

Sarpi Camp on Lemnos, https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/sarpi-camp-lemnos, accessed 24 October 2018.



[1]              Richard Stowers, Rough Riders at War, 7th edition, 2013, p.277.
[2]              ‘NZ units in South Africa 1899-1902, The Contingents’, https://nzhistory.govt.nz/war/nz-units-south-africa/the-contingents#10th, https://nzhistory.govt.nz/soldier/rupert-williams, accessed 24 October 2018.

[3]              Steve Butler, ‘Embarkations of Reinforcements from New Zealand 1914 – 1918’, http://www.nzmr.org/lists/reinforce.html, accessed 24 October 2018.
[4]              ‘Auckland Mounted Rifles (AMR) - War Diary, 1 - 30 June 1915’, New Zealand National Archives, https://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewFullItem.do?code=23494185&digital=yes, accessed 24 October 2018.

[5]              Sarpi Camp on Lemnos, https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/sarpi-camp-lemnos, accessed 24 October 2018.

[6]              ‘Auckland Mounted Rifles (AMR) - War Diary, 1 - 31 October 1915’, New Zealand National Archives, https://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewFullItem.do?code=23494189&digital=yes, accessed 24 October 2018.

[7]              Auckland Mounted Rifles (AMR) - War Diary, 1 - 30 November 1915’, New Zealand National Archives, https://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewFullItem.do?code=23494190&digital=yes, accessed 24 October 2018.

[8]              ‘Auckland Mounted Rifles (AMR) - War Diary, 1 -31 December 1915’, New Zealand National Archives, https://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewFullItem.do?code=23494191&digital=yes, accessed 24 October 2018.
[9]              ‘Zeitoun Training Base Egypt’, Digger History:  an unofficial history of the Australian & New Zealand Armed Forces, http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-conflicts-periods/ww1/zeitoun.htm, accessed 24 October 2018; Auckland Mounted Rifles (AMR) - War Diary, 1 - 31 January 1916, National Archives New Zealand, https://www.archway.archives.govt.nz/ViewFullItem.do?code=23494192&digital=yes, accessed 24 October 2018.
[10]             ‘NZEF in Egypt 1914-16 map’, https://nzhistory.govt.nz/media/photo/nzef-egypt-1914-16-map, accessed 24 October 2018.
[11]             ‘Enteric Fever’, Infectious diseases advisor, https://www.infectiousdiseaseadvisor.com/infectious-diseases/enteric-fever/article/609538/, accessed 24 October 2018; T. Duncan M. Stout, War Surgery and Medicine, Wellington, 1954, p. 493, http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-WH2Surg-pt2-c2.html, accessed 24 October 2018.

[12]             Returning Invalids’, Auckland Star, 17 April 1916, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19160417.2.17, accessed 23 October 2018.

[13]             Bowerbank, ‘New Zealand Hospitals in Egypt’, The War Effort of New Zealand, Auckland, 1923, http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-WH1-Effo-t1-body-d6-d2.html, accessed 24 October 2018.
[14]             Thomas Lewis Hope, Auckland Museum, http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/war-memorial/online-cenotaph/record/90816?p=2&ps=3&w=Territorial+Military+Service&from=%2Fwar-memorial%2Fonline-cenotaph%2Fbrowse%2Fwars&ordinal=21, accessed 24 October 2018; Anon, ‘Doctor Suddenly Dies’, New Zealand Herald, 13 June 1917, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH19170613.2.107, accessed 29 October 2018.

[15]             A. D. Carbery, The New Zealand Medical Service in the Great War 1914-1918, Auckland, 1924, http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-WH1-Medi-t1-g1-t1-body-d22.html, accessed 24 October 2018.

[16]             Anon, ‘Obituary’, New Zealand Herald, 30 April 1941, https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZH19410430.2.136, accessed 24 October 2018.

26 October 2018

Technological changes throughout World War One




The introduction of new and improved technology during World War One meant the war was fought differently than previous wars. Some technological equipment evolved slowly throughout the war like artillery or the airplane, even though warfare from the skies would be something new for the world to encounter.  Others had sudden and dramatic appearances on the battlefront taking soldiers and superiors by surprise like the introduction of the tank or when toxic gas was suddenly unleashed with devastating results. Changes throughout the structure of warfare from 1914, onwards became apparent once Britain, Germany and their allies became entrenched within what would become understood as static warfare where neither side moved or could be budged from their positions along what would become known as the Western Front. The war changed the world as new countries rose from the ashes of previous countries, which no longer existed.[1] Science and improved construction methods meant older, proven technologies like the battleship and artillery adapted to improvements unheard of during the nineteenth century as weapons became more powerful and accurate than before the war. Aircraft were relatively new to warcraft arena and were initially used for surveillance of enemy combatants including directing artillery towards those positions. Both forms of aircraft from aeroplanes to zeppelins were used to attack ground troops and civilians alike.[2] The expenditure of armaments like wide spread use of artillery shells meant production on a mass industrial scale was required once the highly mobile war became static and trench warfare ensued. Civilians left on the home front pulled their own weight by joining the production effort in building weapons for the soldiers along the Western Front.[3] Technology had been romanticised through novels and hoaxes that had spread fear amongst the populations before the war. The military and civilians alike had to think about the war from different perspectives especially the way colonial wars had been conducted. The war invited devastation on the grand scale, which had been unseen and death from improved weaponry could come from the land, air or below the oceans.[4]

The increasing sophistication of technology used throughout World War One battlefields demoralised and discouraged men from fighting to the point where they would hopefully rebel against their superiors. Men would soon learn to fear and hate technology when they could not see where the shell or bullet had come from.[5] Attitude towards technology before and throughout World War One were varied. Ideas about wars had been romanticised and the British military were focusing their ideas of wars from colonial periods and from technological change during early twentieth century. The British were not ready for the scale of World War One, where sweeping victories had been made using artillery and cavalry charges.[6] People who feared the use of technology before the war in 1914, were viewed as alarmists especially when novels were written about future warfare buy authors like H.G. Wells and from German airship hoaxes around 1913, where people had witnessed supposed sighted aircraft over Britain bringing great paranoia about Germany. The war would be bought to the front of people’s minds when zeppelins bombed London in 1915, far from the front of the battlefield within Europe.[7] Throughout the war between 1914 and 1918, there had been fierce debate between two opposing groups of military minds and their schools of thought towards how the war was meant to be fought. The traditionalists who wanted to use conventional means to win the war and the modernists who wanted to use technology to defeat the enemy like the landship otherwise known as the tank. The tank had flaws and could be used with soldiers, but strategy did not always flow freely throughout the many battles. Some military minds even viewed the conflict from trenches as phoney as they wanted to some real soldiering once the war ended.[8] Throughout the war there were always innovation being created against the weapons the enemy were using against all soldiers. Defences against gas resulted in the creation of the gas mask that evolved throughout the war and anti-aircraft artillery were used against aircraft that had been attacking the soldiers from the air or to prevent the civilian population to being bombed from far off cities. Some of the technological innovations created throughout the war would still be used when the next World War began.[9]

Once the war began countries such as France and Britain early in 1914, realised they had limited supplies of ammunition especially for artillery where demand was extreme. Supplies from factories needed to be produced quicker than during peace time. Through mass employment, industrialisation and mass production, factories were able to produce more ammunition monthly than what had been manufactured in one year in peace times. The twentieth century conflict outstripped production rates from nineteenth century conflicts.[10] Factories solved the problem of diminished man power once able-bodied men had been sent to the European continent. Part of the success behind the mass production of munitions and gears of war like aircraft were the factories being expanded for the labour force of women and boys. The factories would expand as the war went on and more men were required to fight. The technology to build aircraft changed as first all metal planes were being built to replace the older flimsy aircraft and engines were constantly being improved upon throughout the war.[11] The idea behind mass production of shells was the same for other equipment throughout the war, which included technological marvels like aircraft, the tank and the gas mask to protect the soldiers. Technology would be used to develop new techniques and improve production even though there was a reliance of mass produced items as demand would outstrip supply as the war went on for longer than first predicted.[12] Throughout the war technology of mass scale would be used against both sides, while each competed for resources to supply their militaries to dislodge the others within the stalemate of trench warfare. Factories were built to accommodate towards the production scale required for the war.[13]

The image of artillery weapons changed between the nineteenth and the twentieth century. The weapon had been used throughout wars during the nineteenth century like the American Civil War and Waterloo but continued to evolve throughout World War One. Specific artillery had their purposes throughout the war and ranged from light to heavy guns that could only be used along railway lines due to their side and inability to traverse the battlefield once it became unpassable. The smaller guns could be used against aircraft by shooting them from the air and were known as anti-air artillery.[14] The soldiers had to dig deeper trenches as artillery was the main weapon used against them and the soldiers needed to protect themselves from the impact from the deadly weapon. The storm of artillery shells upon soldiers on the Western Front were the direct consequences of mass production within the factories. Soldiers learnt how to identify the various forms of artillery shells by the sound they made once fired and could estimate where they would land.[15] As artillery could be fired further than before the war, new and updated techniques were required especially complementing the use of the aeroplane to provide cartographic innovations through photography of the landscape, where they could fire accurately upon targets using tactical information, troop movements and angle of fire.[16] Towards the end of the war, soldiers operating artillery learnt about the impact of weather conditions upon their weapons especially  air pressure and wind strenght when firing shells at targets and decreased the use of range finding targets by firing an initial shell before a barrage. German soldiers were instructed about diversionary firings of their artillery especially when the allied soldiers could accurately pin point the location through the science of range finding. If one artillery gun fired several others were supposed to provide cover fire to distract the allied artillery.[17]

Germany unleased dramatic and unexpected change to how warfare was conducted catching the allies on the Western Front by surprise when they released gas in 1915. Cannisters of liquid chlorine were opened near Ypres creating fear, confusion and death along five kilometres of trenches. Germany had hoped gas warfare would provide them with a complete victory, but even they were unprepared for the outcome of the gas.[18] Gas was not as effective along the Eastern Front due to the weather conditions working against the German soldiers much to their horror when they found the Russians were pretty much alive.[19] Weapons like the Livens projector first used in 1917, by Britain in response to German gas attacks and was effective when used within trenches to spew either flammable liquid or toxic gas into German held trenches with a range up to 1,500 metres.[20] Gas was indiscriminate between civilians and soldiers especially when it was uncontrollable once released. The vapours could follow soldiers down within the trenches and had debilitating effects on the psychological wellbeing of soldiers.[21] Defending against such a formidable weapon meant the invention of breathing apparatus otherwise known as gas masks. Masks evolved throughout the war and early ones appeared in 1915, simple and uncomfortable. Soldiers along the front were trained relentlessly about using gas masks to become comfortable with their use especially when alerted to the presence of gas.[22] Early gas masks had been put together by civilians who tried new ideas and sent them to the Western Front, although there was the fear from civilian populations in Britain when they were being bombed that they could be attacked by gas at the same time. Gas masks at first were not fully adaptable against every gas especially when filters became clogged, which meant the effectiveness wore off and as the war progressed new gas masks were created.[23] Television and movies have taken liberty through showing modern audiences the horrors of the World War One trenches including the latest Wonder Woman movie involving the use of gases and Doctor Who revisits the Western Front on many occasions.[24] Once Germany had used gas along the Western Front, Britain and her allies created their own weapon against Germany by unleashing the same weapon against Germany during the battle of Loos in September, 1915.[25]

Ocean going vessels changed long before World War One arrived in August 1914. Nighteenth Century vessel construction evolved from materials like wood and reliance upon wind power to running on oil and steam. Vessels would later be constructed with heavy armour and were known as ironclads. Vessels could now fire long range weapons further and with more frequency, unlike the canons of their forebearers. Early in the Twentieth Century, Germany and England went head to head in a naval arms race through building dreadnaughts to outmatch each other. There had been the fear during this time around 1909, Germany was preparing for war. Although some British politicians had dismissed the idea Germany was preparing for war.[26] The introduction of submarines during the early part of the war by Germany meant they could travel undetected from surface vessels.  Britain did have submarines but were more interested in using surface ships even when Germany proved submarines were effective weapons. Submarines especially the German U-boat employed the use of torpedos to strike at naval and merchant vessels on the surface unaware of the danger.[27] Germany had on occasion throughout World War One unleashed unrestricted submarine campaigns aimed towards sinking Merchant vessels destined for Britain to starve the country out of the war. In turn Britain came up with the convoy system to protect vessels from submarines.[28] Early during the war in December 1914, German navy vessels shelled the British coastal towns around Scarborough and Hartlepool hoping the destruction would demoralise the British soldiers on the Western Front. Instead the attacks caused anger much like bombing campaigns from zeppelin and Gotha bombers.[29] Britain were also able to intercept communications from the German fleet with the use if intelligence gathering services of code breakers by the name of Room 40. The battle of Jutland proved the German and British vessels were almost equal in strength even though the German shops returned to port.[30]

Tanks otherwise known as landships by the British were an important innovation like gas was to Germany. Designing the tank began during 1914, with objectives in mind for it to cross no mans land between trenches, crush barbed wire and protect people inside from heavy machine gunfire. The tank would create fear amongst soldiers who came face to face with the weapon.[31] France and Britain designed version of tanks during the war, although they had little consultation with each other regarding the designs. Strategy for their use were to manoeuvre behind creeping artillery barrages with soldiers behind the tank protected by the armour. British tanks were first used under the command of Field Marshal Douglas Haig in late 1917, which gained territory in less time than the Battle of Passchendaele between July and November 1917.[32] During the Battle of Hamel in 1918, where Australian soldiers were supported by British tanks, German soldiers would routinely surrender since were inexperienced when encountering the tank.[33] Germany soon used countermeasures against the armoured tanks through the creation of effective anti-tank weapons that could pierce the armour once the shock of the tank wore off.[34] Germany was late when introducing tanks late in 1918. Other issues would have been on the mind of German engineers when they had been trying to design vehicles that could cross the trench lines. German tanks encountered British tanks near Villers Bretonneux where the first tank on tank battle was recorded.[35] The A7V Sturmpanzerwagen tank was Germany’s answer to the British tank and only twenty were in service. Only one of these tanks survive and was captured by Australian soldiers and was bought to Brisbane, Australia. The name of the tank was Mephisto and went by the designation of tank 506. The impact of trench warfare meant technology and new weaponry like the tank would push the war in directions unheard of before.[36]

Powered flight was an emerging technology that was taken advantage of during World War One. Heavier than air flight had occurred early in the twentieth century with the Wright Brothers in 1903. Heavier than air craft were fixed winged powered aircraft and lighter than air aircraft were machines like balloons and the zeppelin, which were mainly used by Germany.[37] Technology along the Western Front had changed warfare by making surveillance from cavalry risky and unreliable through ground conditions and rapid firing weapons like artillery. Aircraft could relay information about the enemy movements quickly.[38] Zeppelins became the most recognised images of World War One and were not just used for observation of the battlefield. Germany unleashed the horror of air attacks through bombing campaigns against the London civilian population by using Zeppelins.[39] Gotha bombers replaced the much slower zeppelin in 1917, when they bombed London. Germany had changed the dynamic of how war was conducted and how technology had improved aircraft design throughout the war.[40] The rise of aerial warfare meant countermeasures were created to combat the attacks from enemy aircraft. To protect themselves Britain developed an air defence detection system that would continue to evolve at the end of the war. They relied upon observers and other early warning signals to detect aircraft approaching.[41] Photography was used during World War One through aircraft reconnaissance in creating accurate maps that would help mark out German troops’ positions and other important targets.[42]. Aircraft were able to take photographs throughout the war to create clear pictures of the landscape and could be used to direct artillery and organise the soldiers on the ground. Aircraft could be complemented with artillery by providing the ground units with real time data on their firing positions by providing information back.[43]

World War One was fought on massive scales involving not only soldiers who were sent to their deaths to achieve impossible objectives, but technological advances. Technology before the war had caused fear and confusion especially when civilians thought they had seen zeppelins before the war began. The war meant fighting would occur from land, air and the ocean, and involving many countries beyond the European continent. Those participating in the war thought the fighting would be over within several months, but as the fighting dragged on for four years meant technology might force the conclusion of conflict. Once the war became static where each side faced each other along trenches, technology was used to break the deadlock. Gas, artillery and tanks were used to dislodge soldiers from their comfortable holes in the ground creating fear hoping to break the enemy. Innovation against new weaponry meant soldiers could protect themselves and fight the enemy at their own game. Gas masks evolved to sustain the lives of soldiers hidden in trenches when gas was used against them protecting them from succumbing the chemicals. Aircraft were used for surveillance especially for photography along the Western Front helping artillery to locate targets. Aircraft also bought home the horrors of warfare once cities like London had been bombed first by zeppelins and later by Gotha bombers, which would have implications for later wars that would be fought. Shortages amongst military supplies destined for the Western Front meant production rates were required on the industrial scale unheard of before the war. People were employed within factories throughout the war to mass produce weapons. World War One changed warfare forever especially how technology was implemented throughout the war years, which became costly through the lives of those who fought. Warfare between 1914 and 1918, changed how countries prepared and fought each other. Technological innovation was only part of the story to the Great War that cost many countries their youth and new countries appeared amongst the ashes of previous countries. Borders had been redrawn and enemies like Germany had been defeated once World War One concluded.















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[1]              Trevor Wilson and Robin Prior, ‘Conflict, technology, and the impact of industrialisation: The Great War 1914 – 18’, The Journal of Strategic Studies, vol. 24, 2001, p. 128.
[2]              Susan R. Grayzel, At Home and Under Fire Air Raids and Culture in Britain from the Great War to the Blitz, New York, 2012, pp.22 – 23; Williamson Murray, War in the Air, 1914-45, London, 2002, pp. 32-79.
[3]              Susan R. Grayzel, ‘Defence against the indefensible: The gas mask, the state and British Culture during and after the First World War’, Twentieth Century British History, vol. 25, 2014, p. 421; Jorg Lehmann and Francesca Morselli, ‘Science and Technology in the First World War’, CENDARI Archival Research Guide, 2016, p. 8.
[4]              Tim Travers, The Killing Ground The British Army, the Western Front and the Emergence of Modern War 1900-1918, Barnsley, 2003, pp. 37-61; Nicholas Murray, ‘The State of Military Thinking in 1914’, The Rocky Road to the Great War, Washington DC, 2013, pp. 216 – 217.
[5]              Mary R. Habeck, ‘Technology in the First World War: The view from below’, in The Great War and the Twentieth Century, Jay Winter, Geoffrey Parker, Mary R. Habeck (eds.), 2000, p. 119; Anon, ‘The Somme's Secret Weapon’, Time Team Special 42, Youtube, uploaded 9 September 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2pGoz4ZDgE, accessed 3 October 2018.
[6]              Travers, Killing, pp.37-61; Murray, ‘The State’, pp. 216 – 217.
[7]              Brett Holman, ‘The Phantom Airship Panic of 1913: Imagining Aerial Warfare in Britain before the Great War’, Journal of British Studies, Vol. 55, 2016, pp. 99–102; Malcolm Cooper, ‘Blueprint for Confusion: The Administrative Background to the Formation of the RoyalAir Force, 1912-19’, Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 22, 1987, pp. 438-439.

[8]              Travers, Killing, pp. 40 – 46.
[9]              H.E. Cloke, ‘Is Anti-aircraft Artillery Overtaking the Airplane?’, Scientific American, Vol. 134, 1926, p. 303; Peter Forbes, ‘Camouflage and cubism in the First World War’, Dazzled and Deceived, Yale University Press, 2009, p. 101.
[10]             Ian E.W. Beckett, The Making of the First World War, Padstow, 2012, pp. 72 – 76; Wilson and Prior, ‘Conflict’, p. 129.
[11]             Morrow, ‘Defeat’, pp. 114 – 123.
[12]             Jeremy Black, War and Technology, Bloomington, 2013, p. 179.
[13]             Gerd Hardach, ‘Industrial Mobilization in 1914 – 1918: Production, planning and ideology’, in The French home front, 1914 – 1918, Patrick Fridenson (ed.), Berg, 1992, pp. 59 – 60.
[14]             Philip Magrath, ‘Ordnance, B.L., 18-inch Howitzer, Mark I: The Last of the Super-Heavies’, Arms & Armour, vol. 12, 2015, p. 182; Ian V. Hogg, Allied Artillery of World War One, Ramsbury, 1998, pp. 16 – 17; Cloke, ‘Anti-aircraft’, p. 301.
[15]            Nicholas Murray, ‘The theory of field fortification, 1740 – 1914’, The Rocky Road to the Great War, Lincoln, 2013, p. 2; Habeck, ‘view’, p. 110.
[16]             Peter Chasseaud, ‘British military mapping on the Western Front 1914–18’, International Journal of Cartography, 2018, p. 2.
[17]             Roy MacLeod, ‘Sight and Sound on the Western Front: Surveyors, Scientists, and the ‘Battlefield Laboratory’, 1915–1918’, War & Society, vol. 18, 2000, pp. 37-38; Arne Schirrmacher, ‘Sounds and repercussions of war: mobilization, invention and conversion of First World War science in Britain, France and Germany’, History and Technology, vol. 32, 2016, p. 269.
[18]             Gerard J. Fitzgerald, ‘Chemical Warfare and Medical Response During World War I’, American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 98, 2008, p. 611; Marion Girard, A Strange and Formidable Weapon: British Responses to World War I Poison Gas, Lincoln, 2008, pp.51-52.
[19]             Steven J. Main, ‘Gas on the Eastern Front During the First World War 1915–1917’, The Journal of Slavic Military Studies, vol. 28, 2015, pp. 102-103.
[20]             Edgar Jones, ‘Terror Weapons: The British experience of Gas and its treatment in the First World War’, War in History, vol. 21, 2014, p. 359; Anon, ‘The Somme's Secret Weapon’, Time Team Special 42, Youtube, uploaded 9 September 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2pGoz4ZDgE, accessed 3 October 2018.

[21]             Grayzel,‘Defence’, p. 419; Albert P. Palazzo, Tradition, Innovation, and the pursuit of the decisive Battle:  Poison gas and the British army on the western front 1915 - 1918, Ph.D thesis, Ohio State University, 1996, pp. 151 – 153.
[22]             Jones, ‘Terror Weapons’, p. 364; Fitzgerald, ‘Chemical’, p. 615.
[24]             Patty Jenkins (director), Wonder Woman, DVD, 2017.
[25]             Jones, ‘Terror’, p. 356.
[26]             Nicholas Lambert, 'Sir John Fisher, the fleet unit concept, and the creation of the Royal Australian Navy', In Southern trident: strategy, history and the rise of Australian naval power, David Stevens and John Reeve (eds.), Crows Nest, 2001, p. 116.

[28]             Elizabeth Bruton and Paul Coleman, ‘Listening in the dark: audio surveillance, communication technologies, and the submarine threat during the First World War, History and Technology, vol. 32, 2016, p. 247.
[29]             Paul G. Halpern, ‘The war at sea’, in A Companion to World War I, John Horne (ed.), Oxford, 2010, p.146.
[30]             Hew Strachan The First World War 7/10 Blockade 1916 – 1917, episode 7, YouTube, uploaded 2 April 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXwOZylYHzw, accessed 18 September 2018.
[31]             Elizabeth Greenhalgh, ‘Technology Development in Coalition: The Case of the First World War Tank’, The International History Review, vol. 22, 2000, pp. 806-807.
[32]             Williamson Murray, War in the Air, 1914-45, London, 2002, pp. 32 – 79; Tim Travers, How the war was won: Factors that led to victory in World War One, Barnsley, 2005, pp. 40 – 46.
[33]             Travers war, pp. 113 – 115.
[34]             Palazzo, Tradition, p. 90; Ralf Raths, ‘German Tank Production and Armoured Warfare, 1916–18’, War & Society, vol. 30, 2011, p. 33.
[35]             Black, War, p. 146.
[36]             Anon, ‘Mephisto – rarest tank in the world’, in Australian War Memorial, https://www.awm.gov.au/about/our-work/projects/mephisto, accessed 4 October 2018.
[38]             Wilson and Prior, ‘Conflict’, pp. 140 - 141.
[40]             Black, War, p. 177 – 178; Beckett, Making, pp. 162 – 163.
[41]             John Ferris, ‘Fighter Defence before Fighter Command: The Rise of Strategic Air Defence in Great Britain, 1917-1934’, The Journal of Military History, vol. 63, 1999, p. 853.
[42]             Murray, War, pp.32 – 79;
[43]             Roger Owen, ‘British and French Military Intelligence in Syria and Palestine, 1914–1918: Myths and Reality’, British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, vol. 38, 2011, p. 3.; Wilson and Prior, ‘Conflict’, pp. 139 - 144.