Weapons of War - Heavy Artillery

Artillery was the number one cause of wounds and deaths during the First World War. Artillery also became the favorite weapon of generals during the First World War. They believed that artillery could solve all problems on the battlefield. They thought that the more you used, the better the attack. The nice thing about artillery for the generals was that you could easily keep track of the number of shells fired. Some generals boasted about how many shells they had ordered fired in a month. In 1915, the Allies were firing over 400,000 shells a month.

Artillery pieces are capable of throwing a shell several miles. Once the shell has reached its intended range, it will explode spreading shrapnel (metal splinters) over a large area.

Shells can explode in a variety of ways. Some shells have a time fuse on them so that they can explode in the air. This type of air burst spreads shrapnel over a wide area from the top down. Other types are set to explode upon impact. These shells are also capable of spreading a large amount of shrapnel, but it moves from the impact site outwards along the ground.

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Click HERE to see the different ways artillery were used.

Individual soldiers had to become very good at understanding artillery and the sound they made. Over time, soldiers learned to tell the difference between shells going over to the enemy lines and ones that were coming towards them. The German army used a 77 mm shell that the British nicknamed the "wizz-bang." If they heard the "wizz", they immediately took cover, because the bang carried the shrapnel.

Artillery has a number of possible effects upon the human body. First, were the various jagged edged pieces of the shell. Some pieces were tiny as needles and others were like as big as your hand. Inside the shells, small steel balls were placed to increase the shrapnel once they exploded.

The shells also produce a concussion effect when they explode. These massive changes in pressure can cause brain damage or death. A new battlefield injury developed in the war that had not been experienced before. Men who had endured several days of shelling developed shell shock. Some men would just snap under the constant shelling. They would go wild and attempt to run out of the protection of dug-outs. These men would have to be held down until evacuated. Other men would just rock back and forth moaning.

Initially doctors and generals believed that the men were faking these Symptoms to escape the battlefield. Some shell-shocked men were executed for cowardness in the early part of the war. During the war, the British army officially stated that there were only 80,000 cases of shell shock, but for many, they were misdiagnosed and sent back to the front.

Medical personnel did not know what the problem was or how to treat it. Some doctors believed that the burst of a shell produces a powerful vacuum during the explosion. As the air rushes back into the vacuum area it upsets the fluids in the brain, thus strange behaviors. Many of these men never recovered from this condition, but as the war wore on; treatment of these men was undertaken as a true battlefield injury.

It was while I was in this Field Hospital that I saw the first case of shell shock. The enemy opened fire about dinner time, as usual, with his big guns. As soon as the first shell came over, the shell-shock case nearly went mad. He screamed and raved, and it took eight men to hold him down on the stretcher. With every shell he would go into a fit of screaming and fight to get away.

It is heartbreaking to watch a shell-shock case. The terror is indescribable. The flesh on their faces shakes in fear, and their teeth continually chatter. Shell-shock was brought about in many ways; loss of sleep, continually being under heavy shell fire, the torment of the lice, irregular meals, nerves always on end, and the thought always in the man's mind that the next minute was going to be his last.
Memoirs
Corporal Henry Gregory

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