USA HISTORY

AMERICAN IMPERIALISM(1890 1919)

THE UNITED STATES IN WORLD WAR I

[SOURCES]
Which weapon caused the most casualties during WWI?

(A) tank

(B) airplane

(C) ** machine gun

(D) zeppelin

EXPLANATIONS BELOW

Concept note-1: -The machine-gun was one of the deadliest weapons of the Western Front, causing thousands of casualties.

Concept note-2: -60% of the battlefield casualties in WWI were caused by artillery shells exploding. Shrapnel wounds were particularly brutal for soldiers. The word ‘shrapnel’ comes from the small lead balls placed in an artillery shell that would spread out over the battlefield when exploded.

Concept note-3: -Some historians see machine guns as responsible for up to 40 percent of the Great War’s battlefield deaths. A more conservative consensus places the machine gun death rate at about 20-25 percent.

Concept note-4: -Lewis Light Machine Gun. Invented by an American, Colonel Isaac Lewis, the Lewis Gun was the most used light machine gun of the war with Belgium, the Russian Empire, the US Marine Corps and most famously by the British & Commonwealth forces all fielding the weapon. Captured examples were even used by the German Army.