Indispensable Vehicles That Got Their Start in WWI
The Tank - The first great tank was arguably France's Renault FT. Cheap, lightweight and maneuverable, it was designed to overwhelm enemy firing positions through sheer numbers. It's impact may have been mostly psychological, with the mere appearance of tanks giving demoralized German infantry an excuse to surrender, but it showed how important armor would be. THREE LIONS/GETTY
The Tank - The first great tank was arguably France's Renault FT. Cheap, lightweight and maneuverable, it was designed to overwhelm enemy firing positions through sheer numbers. It's impact may have been mostly psychological, with the mere appearance of tanks giving demoralized German infantry an excuse to surrender, but it showed how important armor would be.
THREE LIONS/GETTY
The Submarine - For British merchant vessels, few things were as terrifying as the submarine. German U-Boats sunk 5,000 ships during World War I, as part of a war of attrition meant to literally starve the British into submission. Submarines today, with their nuclear-tipped missiles, have only gotten scarier---and remain just as hard to find. dpa/picture-alliance/dpa/AP
The Submarine - For British merchant vessels, few things were as terrifying as the submarine. German U-Boats sunk 5,000 ships during World War I, as part of a war of attrition meant to literally starve the British into submission. Submarines today, with their nuclear-tipped missiles, have only gotten scarier---and remain just as hard to find.
dpa/picture-alliance/dpa/AP
The Airplane - Though the Allies won the war, the Germans gave us the Fokker Dr.1 triplane, one of the most recognizable aircraft in the early twentieth century (think Red Baron) and one that helped launch dogfighting as a new form of combat. Less famous than the Red Baron's Fokker Dr.1, the Curtiss JN-4 (Jenny) biplane helped kick-off civil aviation in post-war America. The Jenny was used to train a new generation of pilots following the war. U.S. Air Force
The Airplane - Though the Allies won the war, the Germans gave us the Fokker Dr.1 triplane, one of the most recognizable aircraft in the early twentieth century (think Red Baron) and one that helped launch dogfighting as a new form of combat. Less famous than the Red Baron's Fokker Dr.1, the Curtiss JN-4 (Jenny) biplane helped give rise to civil aviation in post-war America. With a 90-horsepower engine, the mass produced could hit 75 mph and fly as high as 11,000 feet. After the fighting, it was used to train a new generation of pilots.
U.S. Air Force
The Battleship - Unlike airplanes and the tank, naval warfare had thousands of years of history behind it when World War I started. Britain poured its resources into building huge ships that helped it win the war and eventually lose its empire. They spent a ton of money building more than two dozen Battleships that soon faced significant threats from torpedo ships operated by even tiny navies. Whoops. U.S. Naval Historical Center
The Battleship - Unlike airplanes and the tank, naval warfare had thousands of years of history behind it when World War I started. The ships that Britain poured its resources into building helped the country win the war and eventually lose its empire. The Brits spent an enormous amount of money building more than two dozen first-class Battleships that faced significant threats from torpedo ships operated by even tiny navies. Whoops.
U.S. Naval Historical Center
The Car - By the beginning of the war, automobiles had begun to pop up in the hands of the wealthy and Henry Ford was pioneering mass production of the Model T. The Vauxhall D-Type crossed battlefields all over the continent, an appealing alternative to traversing conflict zones by horse for military higher-ups. With skinny tires and a 25 horsepower engine, it helped usher out the age of the horse. VAUXHALL
The Car - By the beginning of the war, automobiles had begun to pop up in the hands of the wealthy and Henry Ford was pioneering mass production of the Model T. The Vauxhall D-Type crossed battlefields all over the continent, an appealing alternative to traversing conflict zones by horse for military higher-ups. With skinny tires and a 25 horsepower engine, it helped usher out the age of the horse.
VAUXHALL
The Zeppelin - Unlike the submarine and the airplane, which continue to be vital instruments of war today, lighter-than-air craft have turned out to be little more than a way to get aerial shots of sporting events. Still, the German zeppelins helped bring about the concept of "strategic bombing"---targeted airstrikes on a particular location---and allowed the Germans to scare the hell out of people, even if they didn't do too much damage. US NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
The Zeppelin - Unlike the submarine and the airplane, which continue to be vital instruments of war today, lighter-than-air craft have turned out to be little more than a way to get aerial shots of sporting events. Still, the German zeppelins helped bring about the concept of "strategic bombing"---targeted airstrikes on a particular location---and allowed the Germans to scare the hell out of people, even if they didn't do too much damage.
US NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER
It’s hard to overestimate the impact the First World War had on the modern world. The four-year conflict shaped borders, destroyed and created empires, and completely changed the very definition of war and how it is fought. That impact, of course, extended to the vehicles used by each nation desperate for any advantage needed to come away victorious.
The cars, tanks, planes, boats, and even zeppelins that went into battle shaped the war, but the war shaped them as well, accelerating innovation and providing a hellish testing ground. To mark the 100th anniversary of the start of the fighting, we took at some of those vehicles, how they were designed, what they were used for, and how they transitioned back to civilian life in 1918.
These days, we talk about possible replacements for the venerable Humvee or a robot fish for the Navy, but these are mere iterations of what’s come before. It’s likely that nothing will ever come close to the breakthroughs and sheer mass of new technologies and tactics produced during The Great War, just 100 years ago.
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