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The years between the proclamation of the German Empire in 1871 and the outbreak of the First World War saw a massive increase in German industrial output – especially that of the military industries. These were largely powered by coal production in the economic heartland of the Ruhr, which rose from 100 million tonnes in 1894 to 191 million tonnes in 1913. By the 1890s, Germany had the world’s most advanced chemical industry as well, which could readily switch from the production of dyes and fertilisers to explosives and poison gas.
Ironically, much of this technology was deemed highly suspect by most of the aristocratic and conservative officer class, which dominated the German military command structure in the years before 1914. Such attitudes would change under the pressures of war, but the delay in producing weapons to exploit the emerging technologies certainly contributed to the ultimate defeat of Germany in 1918.
Innovation flourished to a greater extent, however, in the Imperial German Air Service and the Navy, which sponsored the production of some remarkable aircraft and weapons. Fortunately for the Allies, by the time many of these advanced weapons were ready for deployment, Germany lacked the resources to produce them in quantity.
‘Gas! Gas! Gas!’
Germany’s pre-WWI dominance in civilian chemical technology gave it a head start in gas warfare: the chemical companies BASF, Hoechst, and Bayer (which in 1925 would form the IG Farben conglomerate, later to become deeply complicit in Nazi atrocities) had been producing chlorine as a by-product of their dye-manufacturing. In cooperation with Fritz Haber of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry in Berlin, they began developing methods of discharging chlorine gas against enemy trenches. The first large-scale German chlorine gas attacks of 1915 proved to be highly effective, but the Allies quickly produced gas masks, before retaliating with their own chemical weapons, and for the remainder of the war there was a deadly race between the introduction of new and more effective poison gases and the production of effective counter-measures. (As a side note: on 15 October 1918, Gefreiter [Lance Corporal] Adolf Hitler was admitted to a field hospital, temporarily blinded by a mustard gas attack – he never forgot the experience and adamantly refused to authorise the ‘first use’ of battlefield chemical weapons during WWII.)
Several types of gas shell were fired in huge quantities. The highly effective mustard gas (known as Yellow Cross from the markings on the shells) was not used against areas to be attacked, as this was a persistent gas which could contaminate ground for several days. It was, however, used extensively to seal off the flanks of these areas and against Allied artillery. The more lethal, but non-persistent phosgene and chlorine (Green Cross gases) were fired against all other targets. As British gas masks were known to give protection against phosgene, the Germans attempted to increase its lethality by mixing it with Diphenylchloroarsine (known as Blue Cross). This was a solid, contained in glass bottles embedded in high explosive in the shells: the detonation was supposed to create a fine dust that could penetrate respirator filters, causing intense irritation and pain in the sinuses, forcing the victims to remove their gas masks. However, the method seldom worked as intended, as the particles were rarely fine enough to penetrate the filters.
Infantry weapons
The first practical submachine-gun, the Maschinenpistole 18/I (MP 18/I), was issued to elite infantry units in mid-1918. It was intended to arm each officer and NCO in every infantry company, plus one in ten riflemen. In addition, each company was to have a special detachment of six submachine-gunners and six ammunition-carriers with three ammunition handcarts loaded with 15,000 rounds. However, only 35,000 weapons were manufactured by the end of the war, of which no more than 10,000 reached front-line units. Despite weight problems – it was heavier than the standard infantry rifle, the Gewehr 98 – the weapon’s high rate of fire (400 rounds/minute) made it highly popular. It was soon known as the ‘Kugelspritz’ (‘bullet squirter’).
The first German flamethrowers entered service in small numbers in 1912, equipping specialised assault engineer siege units (Pionier-Belagerungstrains). More sophisticated versions were developed in response to the demands of trench warfare, and these became important assault weapons – although it was recognised that their psychological effect was markedly greater than their destructiveness. By 1918, earlier types were largely replaced by the Wechselapparat (‘Wex’). This was a relatively lightweight design with an annular tank holding 12 litres of incendiary oil surrounding a spherical compressed-air bottle, capable of firing ten bursts of flame to a maximum effective range of 100 feet.
The Kaiser’s Panzers
K-Wagen
The combat debut of Allied tanks in 1916 convinced the more progressive German military thinkers that ‘bigger and better’ German tanks were the only answer to these weapons. The limitations of the first German tank, the A7V, led to an order for the K-Wagen, a new ‘superheavy’ tank intended for the breakthrough role. Design work was carried out by Joseph Vollmer, an engineer working for the army’s Verkehrstechnische Prüfungskommission (‘Technical Trials Committee’), and by a Hauptmann (Captain) Weger.
As originally designed, the K-Wagen would have weighed 165 tons, but this was reduced to a slightly more practical 120 tons. Even so, the huge size and weight of the vehicle made it impossible to transport as a single unit, so it was decided that it would be split into six sections for transport by rail to an assembly point just behind the front line. The crew totalled 27 men, operating an armament of four sponson-mounted 77mm guns and seven machine-guns. The K-Wagen was powered by two Daimler-Benz 650hp naval diesel engines, giving an estimated top speed of 4.6mph (7.4km/h), roughly equivalent to that of most contemporary British tanks.
Although a total of ten vehicles were ordered, only two were nearing completion by the end of the war at the Riebe-Kugellager factory in Berlin. Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, both were destroyed by the Allied Control Commission. Had the type ever seen action, it would have had poor battlefield mobility due to the huge overhang of the sponsons and the crew’s very limited vision when ‘closed down’. Unlike later German superheavy tanks, armour protection was also poor at 10-30mm – insufficient to protect it from Allied field artillery.
Krupp’s design teams pushed technology to its limits.
Sturmpanzerwagen Oberschlesien
In contrast to the archaic K-Wagen, the Sturmpanzerwagen Oberschlesien was a remarkably futuristic design by Hauptmann Müller for a fast, lightly armoured assault tank, which was ordered from Oberschlesien Eisenwerk of Gleiwitz. It was to be armed with a turret-mounted 37mm or 57mm gun and two sub-turrets each with a single machine-gun. An order for two prototypes was placed in mid-1918, but both were only partially completed at the time of the Armistice in November.
Super-artillery
The Boer War (1899-1902) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) convinced even the conservative German military planners that heavy artillery would be a decisive factor in future conflicts. As a start, field armies were equipped with 150mm (5.9in) howitzers, giving them a distinct advantage over equivalent Allied formations at the beginning of the war. Good as the 150mm howitzers were, they could not cope with the more elaborate Allied trenches and strong-points which evolved as the front solidified in 1914-1915. The problem had been anticipated, and a 21cm howitzer had entered service in 1910, with a total of 216 completed by 1914. However, even these howitzers were dwarfed by the artillery arm’s ‘secret weapons’.
42cm M-Gerät 14 Howitzer (‘Big Bertha’)
The siege howitzer has a strong claim to being the first German secret weapon. It was produced in response to the lessons of the Russo-Japanese War, in which the Japanese only succeeded in breaking through the Russian defences of Port Arthur (now Lüshunkou, in north-east China) after deploying 28cm (11in) coast defence howitzers. The Germans appreciated the need for even larger mobile siege artillery to deal with the formidable French and Belgian fortifications, and developed a series of prototype weapons. By early 1914, two examples of the definitive 42cm M-Gerät 14 howitzer were completed by Krupp’s chief designer, Professor Fritz Rausenberger, and were originally dubbed ‘Dicke Bertha’ – ‘Big Bertha’ – after Bertha Krupp, the wife of the owner of the Krupp armaments consortium.
The type proved its worth in the opening campaigns of 1914, rapidly demolishing the Belgian forts protecting Liège, Namur, and Antwerp, which had proved invulnerable to lighter artillery. It seems likely that a total of 12 Berthas were built by 1918, some of which were fitted with L/30 30.5cm barrels to improve their range, albeit at the expense of shell weight. These weapons were known as the Schwere Kartaune or Beta-M-Gerät.
The ‘Paris Gun’
As WWI dragged on, the increasing diversion of German naval resources to the U-boat programme led to the suspension of work on the last two Bayern-class battleships, Sachsen and Württemberg. However, their 38cm (15in) guns had been completed, and were converted to railway artillery pieces, which were dubbed ‘Lange Max’ (‘Long Max’). At least five guns were used in the Belgian coastal batteries Deutschland and Pommern. The Pommern battery near Dunkirk fired about 500 rounds between June 1917 and October 1918 at ranges of up to about 48,000 yards (44,000m). Although their 1,650lb (750kg) shells were a highly effective addition to the German heavy artillery, these guns lacked the range to bombard Paris, the most prestigious target of all.
Krupp’s design teams pushed the technology of the era to its limits, and managed to produce a weapon capable of reaching the range of 75 miles (120km) needed to shell the French capital. The resulting ‘Paris Gun’ was an amazing technical achievement, although its inaccuracy made it a propaganda weapon rather than a practical artillery system. The gun itself weighed 256 tons and was fitted to a special rail-transportable carriage mounted on a prepared concrete emplacement with a turntable. It had a 92ft-long (28 metres) rifled barrel, with a 20ft- long (6-metre) smooth-bore extension, and a calibre of 210mm (8.3in). This assembly was braced to counteract barrel droop and fitted inside a 38cm ‘Lange Max’ barrel.
The Paris Gun’s shells were fired at such high velocity that each successive round wore away a considerable amount of steel from the rifled bore. The shells were therefore supplied in sets, sequentially numbered according to their increasing diameter, and had to be fired in strict order to avoid the risk of a burst barrel due to a round jamming in the bore. The huge propelling charges also rapidly wore away the gun’s chamber, so that after each shot it had to be carefully measured to determine the difference in its length: a few inches off would cause a great variance in the velocity and, with that, the range. Then, with the variation assessed, the additional quantity of propellant was calculated and added to the standard charge. After 65 rounds had been fired, each of progressively larger calibre to allow for wear, the barrel was returned to Krupp’s and re-bored to 240mm (9.4in) before being reissued with a new set of shells.
Between March and August 1918, when they were withdrawn as the Allies advanced, the three operational guns fired a total of 367 shells, of which 183 hit various points across Paris, killing 256 people and wounding a further 620.
Some devices would later reappear in the arsenal of Hitler’s Reich
Airborne and maritime weapons
Junkers J.I and J.10
The general impression of First World War aircraft is of light, fragile biplanes and triplanes, but the Junkers J.I, whose maiden flight was in 1917, was the first all-metal military aircraft to enter series production. Even more remarkably, the entire forward fuselage, from nose to just aft of the rear gunner’s position, was a single unit formed of 5mm-thick armour. Although slow and unwieldy (dubbed ‘Furniture Vans’ or ‘Tin Donkeys’ by their crews), they were popular for their ability to absorb immense punishment in the ground-attack role. A total of 227 machines saw action in 1918. Junkers went on to produce the J.10, an exceptionally advanced all-metal monoplane, intended to replace the J.I, but only eight were completed by the end of the war.
R-Planes
In 1914, the airship pioneer Graf von Zeppelin began development of a ‘Riesenflugzeug’ (‘Giant Aircraft’), or R-Plane. Designs were steadily developed into the Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI, 18 of which were completed by the end of the war. They carried out night raids over Britain and France in 1917-1918, each carrying an average bomb load totalling 2,200lbs (1,000kg). Four were shot down and six were lost in accidents – mainly crashes on landing.
The ultimate R-Plane was the Siemens-Schuckert R.VIII – but the single prototype was not completed until early 1919, after the Armistice, and never flew due to severe damage when a propeller disintegrated during ground trials. It was the largest bomber of its day, with a wingspan of 157ft 6in (48 metres) and was powered by six 300hp BuS.Iva engines giving an estimated maximum speed of 80mph (125km/h).
Siemens glider torpedo
In October 1914, Dr Wilhelm von Siemens began work on an air-launched ‘stand-off’ torpedo to be carried by Zeppelins. Guidance signals were transmitted through a thin copper wire unrolled from a 2.5-mile (4km) reel above the fuselage, and the airframe was fitted with flares to help the controller steer it within range of the target vessel when a signal was transmitted to release the torpedo.
Extensive flight trials were carried out from Zeppelins between January 1915 and August 1918, using a variety of biplane and monoplane airframes. Eventually, a biplane design was adopted due to its greater carrying ability. This was intended for operational use by the new Siemens-Schuckert R.VIII bomber, but none of these aircraft, nor their glider torpedoes, were delivered by the time of the Armistice.
Explosive motor boats
One of the least-known but most-imaginative weapons of the Imperial German Navy was the FL-boat (Fernlenkboote, literally ‘remote-controlled boat’). It was a wire-guided 56ft-long (17 metres) motorboat, capable of 30 knots, which carried a 1,550lb (700kg) impact-fused explosive charge. The type was primarily developed for use against Royal Navy vessels shelling German positions along the Belgian coast. On 28 October 1917, the monitor HMS Erebus was struck amidships by an FL-boat while bombarding Zeebrugge. The monitor’s anti-torpedo bulge prevented critical damage, but Erebus was put out of action for two weeks.
History repeats itself?
Some of the devices pioneered in 1917-1918 were to reappear in more sophisticated forms in the arsenal of Hitler’s Reich – notably the Linse Explosive Motor Boat (EMB) and a variety of air-launched anti-shipping weapons. The latest examples of the EMB concept are Ukrainian naval drones, such as the Magura V5, introduced in 2023, which has a 700lb (300kg) warhead and a range of 500 miles (800km). It has been used in raids on the Russian naval base of Sevastopol and elsewhere. In 2025, the Magura V6P and V7 were added – the latter being armed with AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles. On 2 May 2025, V7 drones reportedly shot down two Russian Su-30SM fighters off the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk.
David Porter worked at the Ministry of Defence for many years, and is the author of 11 books on the Second World War. He is a regular MHM contributor.
All images: Wikimedia Commons, unless otherwise stated
