Term Papers on World War I

Term Paper Title	World War I
# of Words	1003
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	4.01

World War I

During World War One the battles were fought in three main places: on land, in the water, and in the air.
     In 1914, the Germans advanced through Belgium demonstrating the value of siege artillery and all artillery in general.  Using the German Krupp 42 cm Howitzers (Big Berthas) and Austrian Skodas, pounded the frontier fortresses into submission in only a few days.
There are basically two types of large artillery: the cannon and the howitzer (mortar).  A cannon fires a shell over a large arc and typically hits the target head on.  The howitzer lobs the shell over a high arc so it lands on top of its target.
These large guns, like handguns, are measured in caliber (the diameter of the barrel and the shell it fires).  Therefore, the German Krupp 42-cm Howitzer fired a 42-cm or a 16.5-inch shell.
In World War I, the largest artillery was the naval variety, which ranged from 12 to 16 inch class and would grow larger over the course of the war.  The battleship (weighing 18-28,000 tons) was the perfect platform for such large weapons.  Even with the high weight and the water cushion to help absorb the recoil, many battleships used lockout mechanisms to prevent two guns from firing at once.  The lockout was used mostly to help prevent altering the trajectory of the second shell fired by the roll caused by the first.
Weapons from battleships were seen as the tool that could help break the stalemate of the trenches.  The first attempt at setting up the large guns consisted simply of putting the gun on a wheel mount and securing it in place.  Large guns could be moved very slowly only by a large tractor.
Railroad was the perfect transport and firing platform for land based naval weapons (Rail Gun).  The weapon could be moved relatively quickly along the railway, which allowed the carriage to hurdle up to 100 feet down the tracks and disperse the recoil.  These weapons were capable of firing up to thirty miles, and in some cases, a piece of curved siding was used to aim the gun.  One rail gun was the French Schneider 520 mm Howitzer which fired a 24 inch shell that weighed 3100 pounds.  These shells were fused in such a way that they could penetrate the target before detonating.  The war ended before this particular weapon was brought into service.  The most talked about “Big Gun” of WWI was the infamous Paris Gun, also known as Large Max (Long Max), Big Bertha (not the German Krupp 42 cm Howitzer), and William’s Gun.  The Paris Gun (forerunner to the Iraqi super gun) was strategic rather than tactical in nature and was used as a terror weapon meant to demoralize the citizens of Paris.  It could fire a shell 70 miles in about 170 seconds and reach a maximum altitude of 24 miles.  However, the payload was only 15 pounds of explosives, accuracy was non-existent, and the entire gun had to be re-bored after 65 firings.
British con...

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