Trench warfare started in the 17th century, the purpose was to protect the soilders. There was commonly three or four trenches dug out in a zig-zag pattern then they had wooden planks laid on the ground. The trenches were connected by smaller trenches. The first trench was usually heavily protected with barbed wire and artilery; while the ones further back was were the troops were. Trench warfare was used in the Civil War but really became popular during WWI.
I'm going to talk about a couple new planes that were used in WWI. The first fighter plane to enable the pilot to shoot a machine gun more on target was the Morane-Saulnier “Parasol” Type L. The plane put the gun right in front of the pilot, but this would cause the wooden propeler to break. The airman, Roland Garros, came up with a solution. He knew that some of the bullets were going to hit the propelers no matter what so his plan was to put up a small steel defector so that the propelers wouldn't be damaged. This worked and in April of 1915 it shot down five planes in air combat. Unfortunately the French airman was forced to land in Germany because of engine troubles and they found his new ideas on the plane and improved them for German fighter planes. The plane reached about 71 mph, it was made in 1913, weighed about 1,441 pounds, and was equiped with one machine gun.
The Voisin was a steping stone for many planes to come in WWI and beyond. It was out of date by 1914 but it was the plane that really stared the bomber planes for the French. The Voisin 3 was the type of Voisin that first went to war. It had a range of 125 miles which was impressive at this time since it could carry a bomb load of 330 pounds. Later one of the later versions of the Voisin was the Voisin 10. This bomber had a range of 220 miles while carrying a bomb load of 660 pounds. The Voisin 10 was able to go 23 mph faster than the Voisin 3 at an altitude of 6,562 feet, the Voisin 10 could go about 135 mph. The French made the first bomber group, GB1, that would do day time bomg raids with sometimes up to 62 planes bombing one city at a time. Germany started to gain control of the war that was happening in the air so these raids became less on the French's part.
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