Catalogue of the equipment of the Great War
The Arsenal
87 weapons, machines and items of kit, numbered as plates and shelved in 9 classes. Select a plate for the entry, with the chapters that mention it.
Rifles & pistols
8 plates- Pl. 1
Rifles & pistolsBayonet
A knife, dagger or spike mounted on the muzzle of a rifle so that the gun can be used as a spear in close combat.
- Pl. 2
Rifles & pistolsFN Model 1910
A Belgian blowback semi-automatic pistol designed by John Browning for Fabrique Nationale.
- Pl. 3
Rifles & pistolsGewehr 98
The Mauser bolt-action rifle that was the main German infantry rifle of the war, adopted on 5 April 1898.
- Pl. 4
Rifles & pistolsLebel rifle
The French 8 mm bolt-action infantry rifle adopted in 1886 and issued from 1887, the first military firearm to use smokeless powder.
- Pl. 5
Rifles & pistolsLee-Enfield
The standard British and Commonwealth infantry rifle of both world wars, a bolt-action weapon adopted in 1895 that fed .303 cartridges from a ten-round box magazine.
- Pl. 6
Rifles & pistolsM1903 Springfield
The five-round bolt-action rifle officially adopted as the standard United States infantry rifle on 19 June 1903.
- Pl. 7
Rifles & pistolsMannlicher M1895
The Austro-Hungarian straight-pull bolt-action rifle designed by Ferdinand Ritter von Mannlicher, used by the Habsburg army throughout the war.
- Pl. 8
Rifles & pistolsMosin-Nagant
The standard Russian bolt-action infantry rifle, officially the 3-line rifle M1891, firing the 7.62 mm rimmed cartridge from a five-shot internal magazine.
Machine guns
8 plates- Pl. 9
Machine gunsChauchat
The standard French light machine gun, officially the Fusil Mitrailleur Modèle 1915 CSRG, in service with French infantry from June 1916.
- Pl. 10
Machine gunsHotchkiss machine gun
The gas-operated machine gun, Model 1914, that became the standard French Army machine gun in the latter half of the war replacing the unreliable Saint-Étienne gun.
- Pl. 11
Machine gunsLewis gun
A light, air-cooled machine gun, invented by the American Isaac Newton Lewis and manufactured in Britain, that a single man could carry.
- Pl. 12
Machine gunsM1917 Browning machine gun
The water-cooled, belt-fed heavy machine gun designed by John Browning and tested at Springfield Armory in May 1917.
- Pl. 13
Machine gunsMachine gun
A fully automatic, rifled firearm designed for sustained fire, usually fired from a bipod, tripod or fixed mount.
- Pl. 14
Machine gunsMaxim gun
The first fully automatic machine gun, a recoil-operated weapon invented by Hiram Maxim in 1884.
- Pl. 15
Machine gunsSchwarzlose machine gun
The standard heavy machine gun of the Austro-Hungarian Army, a simple, robust delayed-blowback design selected in 1907.
- Pl. 16
Machine gunsVickers machine gun
The standard heavy machine gun of the British army, a water-cooled, belt-fed weapon that could fire for hours.
Artillery
10 plates- Pl. 17
Artillery18-pounder
The standard British field gun of the First World War, the backbone of the Royal Field Artillery, first accepted into service in 1904.
- Pl. 18
ArtilleryArchie
British slang for German anti-aircraft guns and the bursts of their shells.
- Pl. 19
ArtilleryBig Bertha
The popular name of the Krupp 42 cm siege howitzer, one of the largest artillery pieces ever fielded.
- Pl. 20
ArtilleryFrench 75
The French 75 mm field gun, Mle 1897, adopted in 1898 and regarded as the first modern artillery piece, with a hydro-pneumatic recoil mechanism that kept the gun in place between shots.
- Pl. 21
ArtilleryHowitzer
An artillery weapon that falls between a field gun and a mortar, able to fire at both low and high angles.
- Pl. 22 JNot photographedArtillery
Jack Johnson
British soldiers' name for a heavy German shell whose explosion produced a cloud of black smoke, after the black American heavyweight boxing champion of the day.
- Pl. 23
ArtilleryParis Gun
A German super-gun that shelled Paris from about 75 miles (120 km) away between 23 March and 9 August 1918.
- Pl. 24
ArtilleryShrapnel shell
An anti-personnel shell that burst in the air above the target and sprayed forward the many bullets it carried.
- Pl. 25
ArtillerySkoda 30.5 cm mortar
The Austro-Hungarian Škoda 30.5 cm Mörser M.11, a siege howitzer built to break the concrete fortresses of Belgium and Italy.
- Pl. 26 WNot photographedArtillery
Whizz-bang
Soldiers' name for a light, fast German field-gun shell, which arrived with a whistle almost at the same instant as the sound of the gun, leaving no time to take cover.
Grenades & mortars
6 plates- Pl. 27
Grenades & mortarsFlamethrower
A weapon that projects burning liquid at close range, developed by Germany (Flammenwerfer) and first used on the Western Front in 1915.
- Pl. 28
Grenades & mortarsLivens Projector
A simple mortar-like weapon, created by Captain William Livens of the Royal Engineers, that threw large drums filled with flammable or toxic chemicals.
- Pl. 29
Grenades & mortarsMills bomb
The standard British hand grenade, designed in 1915 by William Mills, with a segmented iron body and a fuse of a few seconds.
- Pl. 30
Grenades & mortarsMinenwerfer
A German trench mortar, the "mine thrower", firing a heavy shell on a high arc at short range.
- Pl. 31
Grenades & mortarsStick grenade
The German Stielhandgranate, a hand grenade on a wooden throwing handle, widely called the potato masher.
- Pl. 32
Grenades & mortarsStokes mortar
A British 3-inch trench mortar designed by Sir Wilfred Stokes in January 1915, a smooth-bore, muzzle-loading weapon for high angles of fire.
Gas & protection
6 plates- Pl. 33
Gas & protectionChlorine
A choking gas that attacks the lungs, used by Germany in the first large-scale gas attack, at Ypres on 22 April 1915.
- Pl. 34
Gas & protectionGas mask
Protective equipment that seals over the face to stop the wearer from breathing toxic gases.
- Pl. 35
Gas & protectionMustard gas
A persistent blistering agent first used by Germany at Ypres in July 1917.
- Pl. 36 PNot photographedGas & protection
Phosgene
A colorless gas with a smell of musty hay, first used on a large scale by Germany in December 1915.
- Pl. 37
Gas & protectionPoison gas
The use of toxic chemicals as weapons, first on a large scale in the First World War, when chlorine, phosgene and mustard gas were all used.
- Pl. 38
Gas & protectionSmall Box Respirator
The British gas mask introduced in 1916 to give reliable protection against chlorine and phosgene.
Tanks & armoured cars
8 plates- Pl. 39
Tanks & armoured carsA7V
The Sturmpanzerwagen A7V, a German heavy tank of about 30 tons with a crew of at least 17 soldiers and one officer.
- Pl. 40
Tanks & armoured carsArmored car
A wheeled armored fighting vehicle, used for reconnaissance and escort and developed to take over some duties of light cavalry.
- Pl. 41
Tanks & armoured carsMark I tank
The first tank to enter combat, a British rhomboid, tracked vehicle developed in 1915 from the experimental Little Willie.
- Pl. 42
Tanks & armoured carsMark IV tank
The British tank of 1917 and the most numerous British tank of the war, with 1,220 built.
- Pl. 43
Tanks & armoured carsRenault FT
A French light tank, the first production tank with its armament in a fully rotating turret.
- Pl. 44
Tanks & armoured carsSchneider CA1
The first French tank, designed to open passages through barbed wire for the infantry and to suppress German machine-gun nests.
- Pl. 45Tanks & armoured cars
Tank
An armored, tracked, gun-armed vehicle able to cross trenches and wire.
- Pl. 46
Tanks & armoured carsWhippet
The British Medium Mark A, a fast tank of about 14 tons and a crew of three, built to exploit gaps made by the slower heavy tanks and the infantry.
Aircraft & airships
13 plates- Pl. 47
Aircraft & airshipsAirship
A powered, steerable lighter-than-air aircraft, classed as rigid, semi-rigid or non-rigid.
- Pl. 48
Aircraft & airshipsAlbatros D.III
A German biplane fighter flown by top aces including Manfred von Richthofen and Ernst Udet.
- Pl. 49
Aircraft & airshipsFokker D.VII
A German fighter designed by Reinhold Platz of Fokker, which began to reach front-line units in April 1918.
- Pl. 50
Aircraft & airshipsFokker Dr.I
The Fokker Triplane (Dreidecker), a German fighter that saw widespread service in spring 1918.
- Pl. 51
Aircraft & airshipsFokker Eindecker
A series of German monoplane fighters designed by Anthony Fokker in 1915.
- Pl. 52
Aircraft & airshipsGotha
A German twin-engine bomber, the Gotha G.IV, used from May 1917 for daylight and then night raids on southern England.
- Pl. 53
Aircraft & airshipsNieuport 17
A French sesquiplane fighter introduced in March 1916, whose maneuverability and rate of climb gave it an advantage over fighters on both sides.
- Pl. 54
Aircraft & airshipsSikorsky Ilya Muromets
A Russian four-engine aircraft designed by Igor Sikorsky in 1913, first conceived as a luxurious airliner.
- Pl. 55
Aircraft & airshipsSopwith Camel
A British single-seat biplane fighter introduced on the Western Front in 1917, armed with twin synchronized Vickers machine guns.
- Pl. 56
Aircraft & airshipsSPAD S.XIII
A French biplane fighter, one of the most capable of the war, with 8,472 built.
- Pl. 57
Aircraft & airshipsSynchronization gear
A mechanism that lets a machine gun fire through the arc of a spinning propeller without hitting the blades.
- Pl. 58
Aircraft & airshipsZeppelin
A rigid airship named after Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, which had a framework of aluminum girders covered in fabric and held gas bags inside.
- Pl. 59
Aircraft & airshipsZeppelin-Staaken R.VI
A four-engined German biplane bomber, the only Riesenflugzeug (giant aircraft) design built in any quantity, with a wingspan of 42.2 meters.
Ships & submarines
19 plates- Pl. 60
Ships & submarinesBattlecruiser
A capital ship with the guns of a battleship but thinner armor, on a longer hull with much more powerful engines for higher speed.
- Pl. 61
Ships & submarinesCruiser
A warship type used for scouting, commerce raiding and operating far from home, ranging from protected cruisers to large armored cruisers almost as big as pre-dreadnoughts.
- Pl. 62
Ships & submarinesDepth charge
An explosive canister dropped or thrown from a ship and set to detonate at a chosen depth.
- Pl. 63
Ships & submarinesDestroyer
A fast, maneuverable warship intended to escort larger vessels and defend them against torpedo attack.
- Pl. 64
Ships & submarinesDreadnought
An all-big-gun battleship of the type launched with HMS Dreadnought in 1906, which made earlier battleships obsolete.
- Pl. 65Ships & submarines
HMS Dreadnought
The Royal Navy battleship, completed in 1906, that revolutionized naval power and gave her name to a whole generation of ships.
- Pl. 66
Ships & submarinesHMS Furious
A British warship built as a very lightly armored battlecruiser with two 18-inch guns, then converted to carry aircraft with a flight deck in place of her forward turret.
- Pl. 67
Ships & submarinesHydrophone
An underwater microphone used to detect the noise of a submarine's engines or propellers.
- Pl. 68
Ships & submarinesMinelayer
A naval ship used to deploy naval mines.
- Pl. 69
Ships & submarinesMonitor
A small warship that is neither fast nor strongly armored but carries disproportionately large guns.
- Pl. 70
Ships & submarinesNaval mine
A self-contained explosive weapon placed in the water to damage or sink ships and submarines that touch it or come near.
- Pl. 71
Ships & submarinesPre-dreadnought
A battleship built from the mid-1880s to the early 1900s, so named in hindsight because the commissioning of HMS Dreadnought in 1906 made all existing battleships obsolete.
- Pl. 72
Ships & submarinesQ-ship
An armed decoy: a merchant ship with concealed guns, sent out by the Royal Navy to lure a U-boat to the surface and sink it.
- Pl. 73
Ships & submarinesRMS Lusitania
The Cunard liner, launched in 1906 as the world's largest passenger ship until her sister Mauretania was completed.
- Pl. 74
Ships & submarinesSMS Emden
The German light cruiser that raided Allied shipping in the Indian Ocean in 1914 under Karl von Müller.
- Pl. 75
Ships & submarinesSMS Goeben
A German battlecruiser which, with the light cruiser Breslau, evaded British forces in the Mediterranean in August 1914 and reached Constantinople.
- Pl. 76
Ships & submarinesTorpedo
A self-propelled underwater weapon with an explosive warhead, made effective by Robert Whitehead in 1866.
- Pl. 77
Ships & submarinesTorpedo boat
A small, fast warship built to carry torpedoes into battle against much larger ships.
- Pl. 78
Ships & submarinesU-boat
From Unterseeboot, "undersea boat": a German submarine.
Kit & field equipment
9 plates- Pl. 79
Kit & field equipmentAdrian helmet
The French steel helmet designed by the army supply officer Louis Adrian and introduced in 1915.
- Pl. 80
Kit & field equipmentBarbed wire
Steel fencing wire with sharp points at intervals.
- Pl. 81
Kit & field equipmentBrodie helmet
The British steel combat helmet, patented in 1915 by John Leopold Brodie and selected in September 1915 as the army's standard head protection.
- Pl. 82
Kit & field equipmentEntrenching tool
A digging tool carried by soldiers; the first truly modern one was invented in 1869 by the Danish officer Johan Linnemann.
- Pl. 83
Kit & field equipmentPickelhaube
The spiked leather helmet worn by Prussian and German soldiers, officially adopted by Prussia in 1842 and widely imitated by other armies.
- Pl. 84
Kit & field equipmentPuttees
Long, narrow strips of cloth wound spirally around the leg from ankle to knee, giving support and protection and replacing the leather or cloth gaiter.
- Pl. 85
Kit & field equipmentStahlhelm
The German steel helmet, recognizable by its coal-scuttle shape, which replaced the leather Pickelhaube from 1916.
- Pl. 86
Kit & field equipmentTrench knife
A combat knife designed to kill or disable an enemy at close quarters in a trench or other confined space, developed for soldiers attacking enemy trenches in the First World War.
- Pl. 87
Kit & field equipmentTrench periscope
A simple device for looking over the top of a trench without exposing the head to snipers: a case with mirrors set at 45 degrees at each end, sometimes with two simple lenses added.
No plate matches that search.