27 facts about ww1 battles and weapons

150,000 Chinese labourers were digging trenches on the Western Front. They were known as the Chinese Labour Corps.  Tweet This

Tanks received their names due to early attempts to be disguised as water tanks. Tweet This

Initially tanks were thought to be “males” and “females.” Male tanks were equipped with cannons, while females had heavy machine guns. Tweet This

Tanks were initially called “landships”. Tweet This

First tanks were very slow, not exceeding 4 mph (6.5 km/h). Tweet This

Britain and France produced total of 6,500 tanks.  Tweet This

Germany had only 20 tanks but learnt how to destroy them very efficiently: in the Battle of Amiens (1918) 75% of allied tanks were annihilated in just 4 days. Tweet This

In the last week of the war, the British Tank Corps had at its disposal only 8 tanks. Tweet This

German Fokker Scourge was the first fighter airplane that could fire through its propeller without hitting the rotating blades. Tweet This

In April 1917 (a.k.a. “Bloody April”), British lost almost 250 planes and more than 200 pilots. Tweet This

Aircraft Balloons were filled with extremely flammable hydrogen. Both sides used successfully incendiary bullets against them. Tweet This

The most successful pilot of the entire war was Rittmeister von Richthofen, a.k.a. the Red Baron, destroying 80 enemy planes. Tweet This

A pilot had to shoot down 5 enemy airplanes to become a “Flying Ace”. Tweet This

The term “dogfight” appeared during WWI. Pilots had to turn off every now and then the plane’s engine, which, when restarted, sounded like dog’s barking. Tweet This

Over 65,000 aircraft had been produced during WWI. Tweet This

Germany built 123 Zeppelin airships, which flew more than 100 bombing runs on Great Britain. Tweet This

During WWI, France built a ‘Fake Paris’ near the real city in order to confuse German pilots. Tweet This

Allies’ biggest use of battleships was to support the disastrous attempt for invasion of Gallipoli in 1915, where Allies lost in vain 250,000 soldiers. Tweet This

During the Dardanelles Campaign, 99% of participating Irish troops got killed. Tweet This

Churchill lost his post in the government because of Gallipoli disaster; for same reason, his adversary Mustafa Kemal was covered with glory and later on became Turkey’s first President. Tweet This

William Scurry’s self-firing rifle helped Allies in several evacuations. It kept firing days after soldiers had abandoned their positions, thus misleading enemy troops. Tweet This

On 22 September 1914, a German U-boat sank 3 British armoured cruisers within one hour. Tweet This

There was no real decisive clash between battle fleets in World War 1. The struggle for dominance between German U-boats and British merchant ships was much more significant. Tweet This

Allies implemented several counter-measures to tackle U-boat threat: grouping vessels in a large convoy for better protection; use of early sonar technology and use of aircraft to track German U-boats. Tweet This

At the outbreak of WWI, Germans had 29 U-Boats, building another 360 until 1918. Half of them were lost but not before sinking millions of tons of allied shipping (over 5,500 vessels). Tweet This

Prior to sinking the transatlantic ship Lusitania, German embassy to U.S. published in 50 newspapers warning that any ship under British flag will be attacked in the War Zone around U.K. Tweet This

When sunk, Lusitania was not having any flag and was carrying ammunitions, violating all rules. Tweet This