What Are The Effects Of Machine Guns During World War 1

World War 1: The Effects of U-Boats and Machine Guns
Growing tensions between world powers for dominance and resources helped bring about one of the deadliest wars in human history. It was the first major war in an industrializing world, and technology was beginning to grow exponentially. New weapons such as the machine gun, tank, U-boat, advanced lethal chemicals, and airplane completely changed the face of battle. The machine gun and U-boat ultimately had a larger strategic effect, but overall the machine gun itself reined the ultimate weapon in the transformation of battle in WW1 due to its ability to shred infantry and cause them to dig trenches.
Traditional combat before WW1 was still heavily reliant on organized column based infantry. This worked well due to the low rate of fire in weapons and
During WW1 “Neither side could make any headway because of the terrible sheet of fire that even a relatively thinly held infantry position was able to produce. Each side was forced to dig holes in the ground to protect themselves from the fire.”(Ellis 19). This was the birth of trench warfare. Typically the strategy in war was to obliterate the enemy as fast as possible to avoid economic pressure. However, the new trenches didn’t allow any forward movement in battle. This created problems for the Germans because “The Entente possessed not only superior resources but also access to the world’s trade and to American money markets. German leaders were in a quandary: they needed to win the war soon if they were to win it at all” (Rogers 6.2). These trenches created a huge strategic change in the war because the Entente realized that they had an advantage over the Germans. There were two ways for Germany to win the war. The first was simply to beat the Entente economically, and the second was to destroy the enemy quickly before economies played a role in the war. Germany attempted both