Military Technology

Selected Themes

“Leave the Generals Alone”

“A continuation of political activity by other means.”

Carl von Clausewitz

Athena and Ares

Athena: goddess of Wisdom

• Usually portrayed as warrior

• Represents rational, purposeful action

Ares: god of War (Combat)

• Represents irrational action for own sake

• Represents brutality of combat

Pre-gunpowder castles in Europe High curtain walls - defense against scaling Walls could be thin - curtain walls Crenellations - shields for archers Machicolations - "bay windows" Round towers Strong defensive advantage

Typical Pre-Cannon

Fort, 1200’s, Istanbul

Pre-Gunpowder Fort, Turkey

Bronze Cannon, Istanbul

Early Mortar, Germany

Wooden Cannon, Germany

Cannons and Castles

Early firearms crude and weak (1300's) By 1400's, firearms were more powerful Curtain walls thickened, often faced with

timber or earth Crenellations and Machicolations removed

(voluntarily or by cannon fire) Moats widened

Iron Cannonballs Iron is twice as dense as stone and doesn’t

shatter as easily. Iron cannonballs caused early cannon to

burst due to the higher pressures in the barrels

By 1450, better gunpowder and metallurgy made iron cannonballs usable

Iron Cannonballs

• Curtain walls replaced by lower earthen structures

Round towers modified to triangular to remove "dead spot," then to arrowhead shape or "Oreillon."

Final result by 1500 - "star fort."

The Blind Spot

Oreillons

Star Fort

From Castle to Fort: Wurzburg, Germany

Fortification, Vatican

Star Fort

Fort McHenry, Maryland

Fort Monroe, Virginia

The Arms Trade, 1500

Freelance engineers often went from town to town designing forts

Same engineers were frequently hired in wartime as consultants by attackers.

Fortified Town,

Holland

Fortified Town, Nicosia, Cyprus

Fort Pulaski, Georgia

Fort Pulaski, Georgia

Cannon are no Use if They Don’t Hit Anything

• Gunners Quadrant, 1537 Triangulation-Frisius, 1533 Plane-table, 1551 Cross-staff for elevation Theodolite - Leonard Digges, 1571, first

efficient surveying instrument: horizontal and vertical circles.

Artillery Survey Tools, 1700

Stimuli to map-making Artillery technology Henry VIII seizes church lands, 1536 -

stimulus to surveying in England Copper engraving makes better map printing

possible Christopher Saxton - national atlas of

England, 1579 - first in W. Europe. Maps often made for military purposes,

frequently classified

Feeding the Troops Early Armies subsisted by foraging for food Problems with local population (Even in

WWII there were famines in Holland and Greece caused by Nazi requisition of food supplies)

Impractical with large armies Armies had to keep moving because they

exhausted local food sources

Napoleon offers prizes for better food preservation

Nicholas Appert, ca. 1800. Put food in champagne bottles, boiled

In 1810 he was awarded a prize of 12,000 francs on condition he publish his method

British introduce metal cans Cans in use by 1812 for military and

exploration

Cans Become Widespread

Cans on sale in shops by 1830. Originally upper-class status symbols. (A single can cost 2/3 of a week's rent on a house)

• No can openers yet! Cans had to opened with a chisel.

• Nobody knew yet why the process worked

The First Modern War

The U.S. Civil War (1861-1865)

Technological weapons and innovations

Telecommunications Photojournalism Aerial observation (Balloons) Submarines (C.S.S. Hunley) Steam and iron-clad ships Railroads Rapid-fire weapons

C.S.S. Pioneer, New Orleans

C.S.S. Hunley

Other Modern Elements War of maneuver rather than pitched

battles; strategic planning First major war in which balance of power

described in terms of technology War telescoped 19th century into four

years: – Early battles would have been familiar to

Napoleon,

– Ended with W.W.I style trench warfare.

I fear our people do not yet realize the magnitude of the struggle they have entered upon, nor its probable duration, and the sacrifices it will impose upon them... Their [the Union's] resources are almost without limit...They have also a navy that in a little while will blockade our ports and cut us off from the rest of the world. They have nearly all the workshops and skilled artisans of the country....We have no ships, few arms, and few manufacturers. We will not succeed until the financial power of the North is completely broken, and this can occur only at the end of a long and bloody war. The conflict will be mainly in Virginia. She will become the Flanders of America before this war is over...I wish I could talk to every man, woman and child in the State now, and impress them with these views.

---Robert E. Lee

The Civil War

The Last Ancient War

World War I (1914-1918)

WWI Technology quite advanced

Radio Airplanes Tanks Chemical Weapons Machine Guns Submarines Radio

Total failure to revise tactics to meet new technology

• Mass charges against machine gun fire. • Feeling that one more push or more willpower

would earn victory. • Allies lost more men on the Somme in one day

than U.S. lost in Korea.• Desperate attempts by soldiers in field to redefine

old concepts of courage and valor. • Cavalry charges• Static trench warfare