This book report will be based on the book, World War 1 Told Through 100 Artifacts by Gary Sheffield. This book has informational research from Gary Sheffield, Philomena H. Badsey, Spencer Jones, and Michael LoCicero presenting multiple pages worth of information about known and not very-known items, weapons, places, and vehicles of World War 1, a war where millions of brave men laid down their lives in order to give us a better future. This essay will showcase some of the artifacts from this book that either influence this war and future wars or are just something interesting to learn about.
The first artifact is the Ross Rifle. The Ross Rifle series was adopted by the Canadian military about ten years before the outbreak of the war even though it was rejected for military use by the British. The British were instead using the superior Lee Enfield rifle. The Ross Rifle was so poorly constructed that many Canadian soldiers were killed by their own guns and started taking Lee Enfields from dead and injured British soldiers. The Canadian government replaced the Ross Rifle with the Lee Enfield in September of 1916.
The next artifact is the Lewis Gun. The weapon was created by Colonel Issac Newton Lewis and was invented in America, although not adopted by the American Army. It was then taken to Belgium and a production license was sold to the Birmingham Small Arms Company (BSA). The gun became so popular at the outbreak of the war, there were four Lewis Guns issued to each infantry battalion by June 1915. These Lewis Guns were manned by eight men, each trained with a gun. One was responsible for carrying and firing the gun, two carried four 47-round magazines, another two acted as scouts, and the last three carried an additional 36 magazines with them. The men who carried the ammo collectively carried over 2,000 rounds which weighed about 182 pounds. A single Lewis Gun destroyed German land troops and machine guns single-handedly saved pinned down British troops.
The next artifact is a tank known as the Renault FT Tank. It was created in 1917 and is considered, “the first truly modern tank.” It was designed and produced by the French automotive firm of Renault and it first saw service with French and American forces during May-November 1918. Colonel Jean-Baptiste Estienne was convinced that the lighter tank would be better for maneuverability and had a higher tactical value. He persuaded French General Headquarters to place orders for large quantities of the FTs in early 1917. Major George S. Patton became an enthusiast when he saw this tank, it was because of this and his advancements in tank operations that got him appointed as head of the newly established US Army Tank Corps School at Langres. He'd emerge later as one of the most effective soldiers trained in armored warfare of the Second World War.
The next artifact is the German Flammenwerfer. The development and design of the flamethrower commenced during the first decade of the twentieth century. Richard Fiedler worked with Hermann Reddeman, who would later become an officer of a flamethrower unit on the Western Front, and created two basic designs, the two-man Kleinflammenwerfer, and the impractical Grossflammenwerfer. The first field test took place near Verdun in 1914 and showed that they were