All original World War One artillery operations film. I explain the three artillery techniques used during World War I, the last developed by the Germans and it may have won the war had not the Americans entered, bring fresh troops. One of the unexpected revelations of the Great War was the overwhelmingly destructive power of artillery. Never before had so many guns of such range and power been put into the field. Mechanization had increased the speed with which artillery could be maneuvered, allowing sheets of stell to be rained down upon opposing armies. When the Battle of the Marne ended on 15 September 1914, both sides had suffered over a quarter of a million casualties, most of them to artillery fire.
An estimated 1.5-billion artillery shells were reportedly fired on the Western Front during the Great War. During the Franco-Prussian War 45 years earlier, a cannon averaged forty rounds a month. By 1918, French and German cannons fired ten times that amount – in just one day.
The result was a stalemate for which the First World War is infamous.
Infantry dug trenches and deep dugouts to protect them from artillery shells. The Western Front turned from a battlefield into the world’s largest siege, with both sides repeatedly failing to break through each other’s defences. Generals had expected new technology such as tanks, telephones, airplanes and gas to bring forth offensive advantage, but instead, artillery turned the war into a defensive one.
Just as artillery had brought the war to a grinding halt, it ultimately broke the stalemate later in the war, which I will explain. Much of the artillery fighting during World War One was counter-battery – gunners aiming to destroy each other’s artillery across the breadth of no man’s land – but also used to support infantry attacks.
Today I'm going to show you artillery operations during World War I and
explain the three artillery techniques used during that war, the last developed
by the Germans, and it may have won the war had not the Americans entered,
bringing fresh troops.
One of the unexpected revelations of the Great War was the overwhelmingly
destructive power of artillery. Never before had so many guns of such range and
power been put into the field. Mechanization had increased the speed with which artillery could be
maneuvered, allowing sheets of steel to be rained down upon opposing armies. When the Battle of the Marne ended on 15 September 1914, both sides had suffered over a quarter of a million casualties, most of them to artillery fire.
An estimated 1.5 billion artillery shells were reportedly fired on the Western Front during the Great War. To give you an idea of how destructive artillery was during World War I, I'm going to show you a video of the Great War.
This is the Verdun Battlefield at the closure of battle in 1916.
Desolation.
During the Franco-Prussian War, 45 years earlier, a cannon averaged 40 rounds per month. By 1918, French and German cannons fired 10 times that amount in just one day.
Generals had actually expected new technologies such as tanks, telephones, airplanes, and gas to bring forth offensive advantage, but instead, the king of battle, artillery, turned the war into a defensive one.
Just as artillery had brought the war to a grinding halt, it ultimately broke the stalemate later in the war, which I will explain.
Much of the artillery fighting during World War I was counter-battery, gunners aiming to destroy each other's artillery across the breadth of no man's land, but also used to support infantry tactics.
Three important new tactics or techniques were invented for this, one after another to try to penetrate the enemy lines.
The first technique was the simplest. Referred to by the French as Rafale, meaning a gust or blast of wind, this was the classic artillery bombardment.
Four days before an attack, shells were poured onto enemy positions, shrapnel filled the air, and men raced for cover in this maelstrom of destruction.
The problem with the Rafale was that, impressive as it looked, it proved unsuitable for softening up defenses.
After the initial bombardment, soldiers took cover in their deeply dug defenses.
Shrapnel did nothing to destroy the enemy defenses, leaving trenches largely intact and barbed wire completely uncut.
When the assault came following a Rafale, the attackers ran straight into a wall of steel, tangled on barbed wire, blocked by trenches, and shell holes of their own size.
Worse still, the long bombardment warned defending commanders of where the attack was coming, allowing them to bring up reserves.
A second technique was used by the end of 1950, when high explosive shells were becoming more available.
Gunners looked for ways to make the most of this technology.
It was during this era that the barrage, the French word for down, came into being as a more careful application of the artillery fire.
The barrage consisted of walls of exploding shells, carefully targeted to prevent the enemy from taking defensive positions.
First came the Rafale, as it had during the early days of the war, still failing in its task of softening up the defenders.
Then, when the attackers were beginning their advance, a barrage was directed at the enemy trenches to prevent them from emerging and taking up firing positions.
At the same time, another barrage was directed further back to prevent reinforcements from approaching.
This approach was first used in allied offenses in the Champagne and Artois regions in autumn 1915.
5,000 artillery guns were used for the offensive.
Despite the application of this new barrage technique, the attack was another failure, with little ground gained at huge cost.
The barrage continued to develop, requiring more skill from gunners, and as they improved their craft, they found new ways to apply it.
First used on 1 July 1916 at the Battle of the Somme, the Creeping Barrage was a bombardment that fell just in front of the infantry assault, advancing at marching speed to provide cover and rip apart any defenders who stood in their way.
Leaping barrages began by bombarding the target trenches, then moved to attack other positions, then returned to firing at the targeted trenches, hoping to catch the defenders as they emerged from cover.
The barrage, with this new nuance, failed at the Somme, the Germans emerging safely from cover to defend their trenches.
Improved techniques had some success in 1917 at Arras and Passchendaele, but even then the gains were tactical, not strategic.
The barrage had failed to break the enemy line.
Meanwhile, the Germans were developing their own plan to win with artillery, called neutralization to break the enemy spirit.
First applied on the Eastern Front by General Bruchmuller, it used artillery, not to physically destroy the enemy, but to shatter their morale.
Applied against the already crumbling Russian army of 1917, it was hugely successful.
The full application of this principle came on March 21, 1918, with the launch of General Ludendorff's Kaiserschlag, or Emperor's Battle.
This was Ludendorff's great attempt to win the war, and it came very close to success.
As part of the Kaiserschlag, Ludendorff used the artillery tactic of neutralization.
6,000 guns were gathered, but there was no preliminary bombardment, not even a warning shot that might draw the attention of Allied reinforcements.
Instead, an overwhelming bombardment of shells began in the middle of the night, combining gas with shrapnel and high explosives.
This was as shockingly traumatic as Ludendorff had hoped, and when the Germans advanced at dawn, many Allied soldiers surrendered.
Within three days, the Germans were in the Allied rear.
Logistical problems halted Ludendorff's advance, but neutralization was used to great effect in four more German advances before the end of the war.
It was this technique which brought them within 40 miles of Paris.
Without the overwhelming number of soldiers brought by the American intervention, it might have won Germany the war.
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