Lucila Kelly

Rosario Sisto
Justina Pose

Newspaper Article

03, March 1918

World War One Gets Bigger and Better
By Swiss writer Franz Maillet


During the past four years, the two
alliances from the WWI have been
thoroughly improving their weapons.
The two countries that are the most
innovating are Germany and England.
These have been efforts to win the war
and to annihilate the opposition.
Both sides have been improving
things such as artillery, airplanes,
submarines, gases and plenty more.
There is a tight competition and both
sides think they can win.
Germany, on the one hand, has
developed many devices. They began by
improving, in 19241914, the originally
American machine gun. They put it to
use spectacularly in 1916 during the
Battle of Somme. They also created the
idea of an airplane with a machine gun
attached to it. This was a huge discovery
since before that they planes were only
used for observation. These guns were
able to shoot from long distances
without harming the planes propellers.
Wanting to improve air force even more,
Germans also made zeppelins and large
bomber planes to drop bombs on British
and French cities.
Furthermore, Germans were the
ones to make poisonous gas deadly for
the first time in 1915. The two most
commonly used are Phosgene and
Mustard gas, both extremely deadly.
Moreover, naval forces were also very
important to the Germans. Their
strongest force was the submarine. They
created torpedo armed ones to attack all
ships, even civilian ones such as the
American liner Housatonic Lusitania,
which brought them into the war. But
their greatest creation was the U-boat.
These are extremely sophisticated
submarines, which helped defend sink
multiple English ships. The most
Comment [BC1]: Im not sure about
the use of this adjective here. Can a war
really get better?
Comment [BC2]: Careful with tense
shift. Decide whether you are writing in
the present or in the past.
recently sunk was the Andania less than
two months ago.
Finally, artillery has been crucial
to the trench warfare. Guns are currently
the new and improved canons of the
trenches. They have been the most lethal
in close combat. When asked, German
Sergeant said These weapons have been
our security and, undoubtedly, the
reason as to why we will win the war.
On the other hand, English
weapons have also been revolutionary.
To begin with, the British created the
Tanks. These are armored cars that can
climb over barbed wire and fend of
gunfire. This became the key to breaking
the earlier stalemate in the trenches and
further terrorizing German soldiers.
While Germans concentrated in
submarines, the British specialized in
Battleships. In order to defeat U-boats,
they also developed underwater listening
devices and underwater explosives.
Battleships have been getting better and
better and the English hope to create a
blockade in order to starve out the
Germans.
Thirdly, modern grenades were
invented. Some are difficult to use but
are certainly effective. Once ignited,
they expel lethal fragments into the air.
Finally, the most used and
improved weapon is the rifle. Its main
use belongs to the trench warfare, but it
has become critical. Even though new
models have not been introduced; both
sides have been concentrating on its
mass production. Previous to the war the
British created the Lee-Enfield, which
continues to prove successful.
All of these have made the war
what it is today. It is like no other before
and hope goes to its fighters. Comment [BC3]: This is not clear.