Editing Trench warfare (section)

=== Infantry weapons and machine guns ===
{{Main|List of infantry weapons of World War I}}
[[File:N°23 MkII-Version Fusil.jpg|thumb|upright=0.5|left|British [[Mills bomb]] N°23 Mk II, with rod for launch by rifle]]

At the start of the First World War, the standard [[infantry]] soldier's primary weapons were the [[rifle]] and [[bayonet]]; other weapons got less attention. Especially for the British, what hand [[grenade]]s were issued tended to be few in numbers and less effective. This emphasis began to shift as soon as trench warfare began; militaries rushed improved grenades into mass production, including [[rifle grenade]]s.

The hand grenade came to be one of the primary infantry weapons of trench warfare. Both sides were quick to raise specialist grenadier groups. The grenade enabled a soldier to engage the enemy without exposing himself to fire, and it did not require precise accuracy to kill or maim. Another benefit was that if a soldier could get close enough to the trenches, enemies hiding in trenches could be attacked. The Germans and Turks were well equipped with grenades from the start of the war, but the British, who had ceased using grenadiers in the 1870s and did not anticipate a siege war, entered the conflict with virtually none, so soldiers had to improvise bombs with whatever was available (see [[Jam Tin Grenade]]). By late 1915, the British [[Mills bomb]] had entered wide circulation, and by the end of the war 75 million had been used.

Since the troops were often not adequately equipped for trench warfare, improvised weapons were common in the first encounters, such as [[trench raiding club|short wooden clubs and metal maces]], [[spear]]s, [[hatchet]]s, [[hammer]]s, [[entrenching tool]]s, as well as [[Trench knife|trench knives]] and [[brass knuckles]]. According to the semi-biographical war novel ''[[All Quiet on the Western Front]]'', many soldiers preferred to use a sharpened [[spade]] as an improvised melee weapon instead of the bayonet, as the bayonet tended to get "stuck" in stabbed opponents, rendering it useless in heated battle. The shorter length also made them easier to use in the confined quarters of the trenches. These tools could then be used to dig in after they had taken a trench. Modern military digging tools are as a rule designed to also function as a melee weapon. As the war progressed, better equipment was issued, and improvised arms were discarded.

[[File:Wwitrenchweapons.JPG|thumb|Various trench weapons used by British and Canadian soldiers in WWI on display at the [[Canadian War Museum]]]]
[[File:Sauterelle 1915.jpg|thumb|upright=1.0|French soldiers with a [[Sauterelle]] bomb-throwing [[crossbow]], c. 1915]]

A specialised group of fighters called ''trench sweepers'' (''Nettoyeurs de Tranchées'' or ''Zigouilleurs'') evolved to fight within the trenches. They cleared surviving enemy personnel from recently overrun trenches and made clandestine raids into enemy trenches to gather intelligence. Volunteers for this dangerous work were often exempted from participation in frontal assaults over open ground and from routine work like filling sandbags, draining trenches, and repairing barbed wire in no-man's land. When allowed to choose their own weapons, many selected grenades, knives and pistols. [[FN M1900]] pistols were highly regarded for this work, but never available in adequate quantities. [[Colt Model 1903 Pocket Hammerless]], [[Savage Model 1907]], [[Star Bonifacio Echeverria]] and [[Ruby pistol]]s were widely used.<ref>Vanderlinden, Anthony ''[[American Rifleman]]'' (October 2008) pp. 91–120</ref>

Various mechanical devices were invented for throwing hand grenades into enemy trenches. The Germans used the ''Wurfmaschine'', a spring-powered device for throwing a hand grenade about {{convert|200|m|yd|abbr=on}}.<ref name="Sheffield">{{cite book
  |title=War on the Western Front: In the Trenches of World War I|page=201|author=Gary Sheffield|publisher=Osprey Publishing|year=2007|isbn=978-1846032103
}}</ref> The French responded with the ''[[Sauterelle]]'' and the British with the [[Leach Trench Catapult]] and [[West Spring Gun]] which had varying degrees of success and accuracy. By 1916, [[catapult]] weapons were largely replaced by [[rifle grenade]]s and [[Mortar (weapon)|mortars]].<ref name="Britannica1922">{{cite book|title=The Encyclopædia Britannica: The New Volumes of the Period 1910 to 1921 Inclusive, Volume 1|page=470|author=Hugh Chisholm|publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica Company Limited|year=1922}} There is no wikilink available to the  article "Bombthrowers"</ref>

The Germans employed ''Flammenwerfer'' ([[flamethrower]]s) during the war for the first time against the French on 25 June 1915, then against the British 30 July in Hooge. The technology was in its infancy, and use was not very common until the end of 1917 when portability and reliability were improved. It was used in more than 300 documented battles. By 1918, it became a weapon of choice for ''[[Stosstruppen|Stoßtruppen]]'' (stormtroopers) with a team of six ''Pioniere'' ([[combat engineer]]s) per squad.

Used by American soldiers in the Western front, the [[pump action]] [[shotgun]]s was a formidable weapon in short range combat, enough so that Germany lodged a formal protest against their use on 14 September 1918, stating "every prisoner found to have in his possession such guns or ammunition belonging thereto forfeits his life", though this threat was apparently never carried out. The U.S. military began to issue models specially modified for combat, called "trench guns", with shorter barrels, higher capacity magazines, no [[Choke (firearms)|choke]], and often heat shields around the barrel, as well as lugs for the [[M1917 bayonet]]. [[Australian and New Zealand Army Corps|Anzac]] and some British soldiers were also known to use [[sawed-off shotgun]]s in trench raids, because of their portability, effectiveness at close range, and ease of use in the confines of a trench. This practice was not officially sanctioned, and the shotguns used were invariably modified sporting guns.

[[File:Vickers machine gun in the Battle of Passchendaele - September 1917.jpg|thumb|[[Vickers machine gun]]]]

The Germans embraced the machine gun from the outset—in 1904, sixteen units were equipped with the 'Maschinengewehr'—and the machine gun crews were the elite infantry units; these units were attached to Jaeger (light infantry) battalions. By 1914, British infantry units were armed with two [[Vickers machine gun]]s per battalion; the Germans had six per battalion, and the Russians eight.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Jordan  |first=Jonathan W. | title=Weaponry: Hiram Maxim's machine gun probably claimed more lives than any other weapon ever made | journal=Military History | date=November 1, 2002 |volume=19 |issue=4 |page=16 }}</ref> It would not be until 1917 that every infantry unit of the American forces carried at least one machine gun.<ref>{{cite book|last=John K. Mahon and Romana Danysh |title=Infantry Part I: Regular Army |series=Army Lineage Series |publisher=[[United States Army Center of Military History]] |year=1972 |id=LOC number: 74-610219 |url=http://www.history.army.mil/books/Lineage/in/infantry.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100301200342/http://www.history.army.mil/books/Lineage/in/infantry.htm |archive-date=2010-03-01 }}</ref> After 1915, the [[Maschinengewehr 08]] was the standard issue German machine gun; its number "08/15" entered the German language as idiomatic for "dead plain". At [[Gallipoli]] and in [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]] the Turks provided the infantry, but it was usually Germans who manned the machine guns.

The British High Command were less enthusiastic about machine guns, supposedly considering the weapon too "unsporting" and encouraging defensive fighting; and they lagged behind the Germans in adopting it. Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig is quoted as saying in 1915, "The machine gun is a much overrated weapon; two per battalion is more than sufficient".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://history.enotes.com/peoples-chronology/year-1916 |title=1916 &#124; Political Events: The People's Chronology |access-date=2006-06-22 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061117025055/http://history.enotes.com/peoples-chronology/year-1916 |archive-date=2006-11-17 }}</ref> The defensive firepower of the machine gun was exemplified during the first day of the [[Battle of the Somme]] when 60,000 British soldiers were rendered casualties, "the great majority lost under withering machine gun fire".<ref>{{cite web|first=Michael |last=Duffy |url=http://www.firstworldwar.com/weaponry/machineguns.htm |title=Weapons of War: Machine Guns |website=First World War.com |date=2009-08-22 |access-date=2013-05-23}}</ref> In 1915, the Machine Gun Corps was formed to train and provide sufficient heavy machine gun teams.

It was the Canadians that made the best practice, pioneering [[area denial]] and [[indirect fire]] (soon adopted by all Allied armies) under the guidance of former French Army Reserve officer Major General [[Raymond Brutinel]]. Minutes before the attack on Vimy Ridge the Canadians thickened the artillery [[barrage (artillery)|barrage]] by aiming machine guns indirectly to deliver [[plunging fire]] on the Germans. They also significantly increased the number of machine guns per battalion. To match demand, production of the Vickers machine gun was contracted to firms in the United States. By 1917, every company in the British forces were also equipped with four [[Lewis gun|Lewis light machine gun]]s, which significantly enhanced their [[firepower]].

The [[heavy machine gun]] was a specialist weapon, and in a static trench system was employed in a scientific manner, with carefully calculated fields of fire, so that at a moment's notice an accurate burst could be fired at the enemy's parapet or a break in the wire. Equally it could be used as light artillery in bombarding distant trenches. Heavy machine guns required teams of up to eight men to move them, maintain them, and keep them supplied with ammunition. This made them impractical for offensive manoeuvres, contributing to the stalemate on the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]].

[[File:France1918.jpg|thumb|upright|left|German [[Stormtroopers (Imperial Germany)|stormtrooper]] with [[MP 18]], 1918]]

One [[Defensive fighting position|machine gun nest]] was theoretically able to mow down hundreds of enemies charging in the open through [[no man's land]].
However, while WWI machine guns were able to shoot hundreds of rounds per minute in theory, they were still prone to overheating and jamming, which often necessitated firing in short bursts.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.firstworldwar.com/weaponry/machineguns.htm|title=First World War.com – Weapons of War: Machine Guns|website=Firstworldwar.com|access-date=12 November 2018}}</ref> However, their potential was increased significantly when emplaced behind multiple lines of barbed wire to slow any advancing enemy.

In 1917 and 1918, new types of weapons were fielded. They changed the face of warfare tactics and were later employed during World War II.

The French introduced the [[Chauchat|CSRG 1915 Chauchat]] during Spring 1916 around the concept of "[[Marching fire|walking fire]]", employed in 1918 when 250,000 weapons were fielded.<!--did this contribute to the adoption of the BAR?--> More than 80,000 of the best shooters received the semi-automatic [[Fusil Automatique Modele 1917|RSC 1917]] rifle, allowing them to rapid fire at waves of attacking soldiers. Firing ports were installed in the newly arrived [[Renault FT]] tanks.

The French Army fielded a ground version of the [[Hotchkiss gun|Hotchkiss Canon de 37&nbsp;mm]] used by the French Navy. It was primarily used to destroy German machine gun nests and concrete reinforced pillboxes with high explosive and armour-piercing rounds.

A new type of machine gun was introduced in 1916. Initially an aircraft weapon, the [[Bergmann MG15 nA Gun|Bergmann LMG 15]] was modified for ground use, with the later dedicated ground version being the LMG 15 n. A. It was used as an infantry weapon on all European and Middle Eastern fronts until the end of World War I. It later inspired the [[MG 30]] and the [[MG 34]] as well as the concept of the [[general-purpose machine gun]].

What became known as the [[submachine gun]] had its genesis in World War I, developed around the concepts of infiltration and fire and movement, specifically to clear trenches of enemy soldiers when engagements were unlikely to occur beyond a range of a few feet. The [[MP 18]] was the first practical submachine gun used in combat. It was fielded in 1918 by the [[German Army (German Empire)|German Army]] as the primary weapon of the stormtroopers – assault groups that specialised in trench combat. Around the same time, the Italians had developed the [[Beretta M1918]] submachine gun, based on a design from earlier in the war.