Page 278 - (DK) Smithsinian - Military History: The Definitive Visual Guide to the Objects of Warfare

INTRODUCTION

The two world wars, from 1914 to 1918, and to aircraft carriers, while submarines established
from 1939 to 1945, were the most destructive themselves, unexpectedly, as potentially war-winning
conflicts in human history. In terms of commerce raiders.
technology, the period was marked by the The tank, a useful—if clumsy—adjunct to World War I
spectacular development of aviation and infantry operations, was vital to the fast-moving motorized
of motorized warfare, especially tanks. warfare of World War II, when coordinated by radio with
ground-attack aircraft serving as aerial artillery. The motor

The pace of development was by no means even. Infantry truck eventually made horse-drawn transport obsolete,
firepower increased over time, from the introduction of although, as late as 1941, Germany still used hundreds of
light machine-guns and mortars, to sub-machine-guns, thousands of horses for its invasion of the Soviet Union.
automatic rifles, and, late in World War II, assault rifles. The pressure of war generated a search for “wonder
But there is no comparison between this scale of change weapons,” as scientists were enlisted to help the military
and the absolute transformation of aerial warfare. effort. Poison gas proved indecisive in World War I, and
Armies entered World War I with a few hundred flimsy, chemical weapons were not used between 1939 and 1945.
unarmed reconnaissance aircraft. By 1945, however, The jet aircraft, V-1 flying bomb, and V-2 ballistic missile
fleets of thousands of multi-engined bombers were able were all introduced by Germany late in World War II, without
to devastate enemy cities, while ground forces could affecting the outcome of the conflict; however, the atom
barely operate if their opponents controlled the skies. bomb, developed by the United States between 1942 and
Dominance in naval battles shifted from large battleships 1945 at vast cost, truly heralded a new era in warfare.

KEY DATES
1914 August 1914 December 1914 May 1915 July 1916 April 1917 1921 the Air, saying wars can be May 1935 April 1937
The Messerschmitt Bf109 is the
The United States enters World
Italian General Giulio Douhet
At the opening of the Battle
War I, in response to German
German Zeppelin airships
first of a new generation of
In the Spanish Civil War,
high-performance fighter aircraft
U-boats sinking merchant ships
publishes The Command of
of the Somme, the British
opposing armies are dug
On the Western Front,
Army suffers almost 60,000
aircraft of the German
won through strategic bombing
Condor Legion bomb the
World War I begins
into static trench warfare
bombing raid on London
carry out the first
Basque town of Guernica
casualties in one day
April 1915
September 1914 one hour The Germans introduce The interrupter gear allows a pilot to September 1916 November 1918 The Japanese ship Hosho September 1935 August 1939
1922
June 1915
The British government
The first tanks are used in
A German U-boat sinks
In Germany, the Heinkel
He 178 makes the first
plans to build a chain of
poison gas at the
warfare by the British, at
fire through the arc of his propeller,
three British cruisers in
is the first specially built
World War I ends with
aircraft carrier
experimental jet flight
making air combat practical
Second Battle of Ypres
Flers-Courcelette, in France
air defense radar stations
the defeat of Germany
THE BATTLE OF VERDUN—1916 THE BATTLE OF ARRAS—1917 US GROUND FORCES—C.1943