world war i - part #3

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When Europe's armies first marched to war in 1914, some were still carrying lances on horseback. By the end of the war, rapid-fire guns, aerial bombardment, armored vehicle attacks, and chemical weapon deployments were commonplace.

Any romantic notion of warfare was bluntly shoved aside by the advent of chlorine gas, massive explosive shells that could have been fired from more than 20 miles away, and machine guns that spat out bullets like fire hoses. Each side did its best to build on existing technology, or invent new methods, hoping to gain any advantage over the enemy. 

American troops using a newly-developed acoustic locator. The large horns amplified distant sounds, monitored through headphones worn by a crew member, who could direct the platform to move and pinpoint enemy aircraft. 

An Austrian armored train in Galicia, ca, 1915. Adding armor to trains dates back to the American Civil War, used as a way to safely move weapons and personnel through hostile territory.  

A German communications squad behind the Western front, using a tandem bicycle power generator to power a light radio station in September of 1917.   

Allied advance on Bapaume, France, ca. 1917. Two tanks are moving towards the left, followed by troops. In the foreground some soldiers are sitting and standing at the roadside.

Soldier on a U.S. Harley-Davidson motorcycle, ca. 1918. During the last years of the war, the United States deployed more than 20,000 Indian and Harley-Davidson motorcycles overseas. 

British Medium Mark A Whippet tanks advance past the body of a dead soldier, moving to an attack along a road near Achiet-le-Petit, France, on August 22, 1918. 

A German soldier rubs down massive shells for the 38 cm SK L/45, or "Langer Max" rapid firing railroad gun, ca. 1918. 

German infantrymen adopt a fighting pose in a communication trench somewhere on the Western Front. 

A British fake tree, a type of disguised observation post used by both sides. 

Turkish troops use a heliograph at Huj, near aza City, in 1917. A heliograph is a wireless solar telegraph that signals by flashes of sunlight usually using Morse code, reflected by a mirror.

A disused German trench-digging machine, January 8, 1918. The vast majority of the thousands of miles of trenches were dug by hand, but some had mechanical assistance. 

A German soldier holds the handset of a field telephone, as two others hold a spool of wire, presumably unspooling it as they head into the field.

Western front, loading a German A7V tank onto a railroad flat car. Fewer than a hundred A7Vs were ever produced, the only tanks manufactured by Germany that they used in the war. German troops did manage to capture and make use of a number of allied tanks, however. 

Derelict tanks lie strewn about a chaotic battlefield at Clapham Junction, Ypres, Belgium, ca. 1918.

A German soldier holds a camera, standing in front of a destroyed British Mark IV tank and the burned remains of its crew in 1917. 

Americans setting up a French 37mm gun on the parapet of a second-line trench at Dieffmattch, Alsace, France, on June 26, 1918.

American troops aboard French-built Renault FT-17 tanks head for the front line in the Forest of Argonne, France, on September 26, 1918.

British Mark I tank, flanked by infantry soldiers, mules and horses.

A Turkish artillery squad at Harcira, in 1917.

Irish Guards line up for a gas mask drill on the Somme, in September of 1916.

The Holt gas-electric tank, the first American tank, in 1917. The Holt did not get beyond the prototype stage, proving too heavy and inefficient in design. 

German officers with an armored car, Ukraine, Spring of 1918.

A member of the No. 3 Australian Flying Corps, fixes incendiary bombs to an R.E.8 aircraft at the AFC airfield north west of Arras.

Seven machine-gun crews are ready to set out on a sortie in France, ca. 1918. Each crew consists of two men, the driver on a motorbike and the gunner sitting in an armored sidecar. 

New Zealand troops and the tank "Jumping Jennie" in a trench at Gommecourt Wood, France, on August 10, 1918. 

A German column looks over a destroyed Canadian Armored Autocar, the bodies of Canadian soldiers, empty belts, and cartridge boxes strewn about.

German troops load gas projectors.

French lookouts posted in a barbed-wire-covered trench. The use of barbed wire in warfare was recent, having only been used for the first time in limited form during the Spanish-American War.

American and French photographic staff, France, 1917.

Pictured is an Obice da 305/17, a huge Italian howitzer, one of fewer than 50 produced during the war. November 1917

A British-made Mark IV tank, captured and re-painted by Germans, now abandoned in a forest.