October 01, 2018

It was called "The Great War" and "The War to End All Wars" but what World War I was, was a war of firsts and innovations that revolutionized warfare and the world in general.

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Tanks were initially called "landships." However, in an attempt to disguise them as water storage tanks rather than as weapons, the British decided to code name them "tanks."

They were first used in force on 16 September during the Battle of Flers-Courcelette and proved to be cumbersome death traps more adept at killing their own occupants than the enemy. But their potential was undeniable.

Big Bertha was a 48-ton howitzer used by the Germans in WWI. It was named after the wife of its designer Gustav Krupp. It could fire a 2,050-lb shell a distance of 9.3 miles. However, it took a crew of 200 men six hours or more to assemble. Germany had 13 of these huge guns or "wonder weapons."

Not every innovation to come out of the war was designed to kill. Cellucotton - a by-product of processed sugar cane - was first developed during the war for use as field bandages, being more absorbent, cheaper and more plentiful than surgical cotton. It wasn't long before a few whip-smart nurses found that cellucotton made for a great disposable sanitary napkin, and in 1920 Kotex brought out its first commercial pad.

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