World War I and World War Ii:

World War I and World War II:

A comparison of the weapons,

Technological advances and the tactics involved.

World War I and World War II both changed the political world and forever alter the war we thought about warfare. Not only did it change the world in those ways, it also drastically changed the way war was waged. Numerous technological advancements allowed for war to be waged further away from your enemy, with greater accuracy, and more efficiently. In only a short span of 30 years, warfare changed more so than it had in the past 300 years, and I will compare the two wars in terms of the tactics and weapons used, and the advancement of armor in terms of tanks and how these affected the wars.

Rifles were the mainstay of every army involved in both of the World Wars. Some armies had bolt-actions rifles through both conflicts, some switch to semi-automatic in World War II, such as the Americans with the M1 Garand. However, in World War I, the Americans used a bolt-action rifle known as the Springfield 1903, the Germans used a bolt-action rifle called the Mauser, the Russians used another bolt-action rifle by the name of the Mosin-Nagant, and the British used a Lee-Enfield bolt-action. The technology didn't change much for the bolt-action rifles, but the semi-automatic Garand, was as General Patton describe it, "the greatest battle implement ever devised." It allowed for the accuracy of a rifle with a much quicker fire rate than that of a bolt-action rifle. A bolt action rifle could fire all 5 rounds in about 10-12 seconds. The M1 garand could fire them in about 3 to 4 seconds, so there is a much greater rate of fire (ROF) which would allow for more rounds being placed on the target. Hands down, the M1 Garand was the best rifle of both wars. It's rapid fire, accuracy, and reliability made it the most loved rifle by the infantry.

Rifles were not the only weapons used in the world wars. Submachine guns played a vital part in the wars as well. The Americans in World War I developed the M1A1 Thompson SMG. It was often called the Ð''trench broom' for it's abilities to clear the various trench systems used, which I will elaborate on later. SMG's fired a small, pistol caliber round. In the Americans case, the Tommy fired a .45 round. The Thompson had a ROF of 600-720 rounds per minute (RPM.) It was one of the only SMG's used in World War I. In World War II however, SMG's were a a very important part of any squad of men. The Americans still used the Thompson, the Germans used the Maschinenpistole (Machine Pistol) 40 which fired a 9mm round, the Russians used mainly the PPSH 43s which fired a 7.62x25mm round, and the British who used the Sten series, which also fired a 9mm round. The Sten was made out of stamped steel, was very cheap to produce, but sometimes unreliable. The PPSH was the predecessor to the AK-47, so it is a very capable weapon. The MP 40 used by the Germans was also a very reliable weapon. The Thompson was still the same design as used in World War I. The PPSH, MP 40, and Thompson are all fantastic SMG's. The only real difference, besides looks and firing mechanisms, is the size of the clip. The MP 40 had a 30-32 round clip, but the PPSH and Tommy had the option to use a 72 round drum-clip, but only the Russians with their PPSH SMG used this to great effect. All in all, the PPSH, MP 40, and Thompson were great SMG's and changed the way war was waged by their rapid fire, light weight, fantastic mobility, and ease of use. Their light weights allowed one man to carry the rapid fire of a machine gun, without all the weight, which allowed for a much great base of fire mobility. These weapons forever changed the way squad tactics evolved.

Machine guns, which played a massive part in the war of attrition in World War I. Machine guns allowed for massive amounts of fire with devastatingly powerful rounds with very large clips of ammo. Some machineguns were belt-fed which held about 250 rounds. Others had small clips with 30-50 rounds which could be fed into the machine gun very quickly. Some machineguns such as the Vickers or M1917 Water-Cooled machine guns, used by mainly the allied forces in World War I, could weigh between 60-90 pounds fully loaded, so they were often in fixed positions. Others, such as the MG-42 used by the Germans, the DP used by the Russians, and the and M1919 machine guns used by the Americans, were machine guns that could be moved relatively easily and could be carried by a two or three man team used in World War II. This allowed for the killing power of machine guns to be moved anywhere on the battlefield. There were also advancements in light machine gun technology. The Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) was in use during World War I. The BAR was a weapon which fired heavy-duty rifle ammunition in either a semi-automatic, slow-automatic, or fast-automatic. It offers tremendous firepower and squads were usually formed around either 1 or 3 BARs. The BAR was used to great effect in both wars, increasing the mobility of greater firepower on the battlefield. The British also had a light machine gun called the Bren. It, like the BAR allowed squads to have massive amounts of firepower and carry it wherever they needed to go. The machine guns, light-weight or otherwise gave one or two men to hold down an entire squad or platoon while the rest of the men in their squad flanked the platoon and caused massive causalities. Both of the war had their own machine guns, but World War II really gave the machine gun its chance to make an impact while on the offense, not just defending a position like in World War I.

Tanks first showed up in World War I, but were not used to great effect. They often only had slots for the tanks operators to stick small arm weapons out of or occasionally a crew-operated machine gun with which to attack the enemy. Clearly the World War I era tank was not an assault weapon, but more of a mobile shield, or armor, to protect advancing troops from machine gun fire, which was the main obstacle when assaulting trenches. In World War II however, tanks had much more of an impact than in the previous World War. They became not only mobile shields from fire, but also had enough firepower to suppress or destroy almost any target on the battlefield. Hitler's Blitzkrieg tactics centered around fast moving tanks overrunning the enemy, and it worked to devastating effect. Tanks really changed the way war was fought, especially on the Eastern Front. Massive battles such as the battle at Kursk showed that tank warfare on a massive scale could change the tide of the wars. The battle at Kursk