Twenty-seven countries on five continents were involved in World
War I. This war was also called the Great War or The War to End All Wars.
was the bloodiest and most costly of all the previous wars.
The total casualties numbered thirteen million with another thirteen
million wounded. The cost of this war was estimated to be more than $337
billion (Young World Book 364). World War I was different from previous
wars because of the new types of weapons and methods used on the
battlefields, in the skies, and on the seas.
New weapons and new methods of warfare were developed during World
War I that dramatically affected the war. On the battlefield, trench
warfare forced the fighting nations to develop grenades, trench mortars,
flamethrowers, and heavy artillery. The British army first established the
use of tanks, a new weapon in warfare. The Germans, in turn, developed new
weapons to deal with the tanks which included field guns such as the German
77 mm and French 75 mm (Young World Book 369). A famous long range gun was
called Big Bertha. This was also the first war in which cars and trucks
were used to carry men and supplies to the front.
World War I marked the beginning of chemical warfare in which
clouds of poisonous mustard gas contributed to the casualties of the war
(Stewart 8).
Unlike previous wars, World War I was fought on the sea and in the
air. This was the first war in which airplanes and zeppelins were used. At
the outbreak of the war, each army had several hundred planes. During the
war, the ...