Unlike wars in past centuries, hapless combatants, armed mainly with bayonet-equipped rifles, faced unforeseen threats, which grew out of expanding mechanization and scientific research:
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the flamethrower, a German invention, could hurl a burning stream of gasoline gel at bunkers and pillboxes.
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chlorine gas burned the lungs of victims, who either died or lived a miserable invalidism. Against the rules of the Geneva Convention, poisonous gas added a terrifying aspect to an already brutal war. The gas mask, invented by Garrett Augustus Morgan, an African-American, became a regular part of infantry gear.
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the biplane, a plane with two sets of wings that could pinpoint troops massing for a ground attack, was enhanced by Anthony Fokker with a machine gun, which was synchronized to the turn of the propeller. The plane was frequently involved in dog fights, which Paul and his comrades observe from ground level.
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high-explosive shells, frequently mentioned in All Quiet as the most tormenting of weapons, augmented by increased accuracy of aim, devastated trench positions and threatened whole towns.
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the zeppelin, a hydrogen-filled airship, could glide silently over targets and drop bombs.
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the U-boat, a lethal submarine that Germany used to invade British waters and sink supply ships, scuttled the Lusitania, a passenger vessel traveling from New York to Liverpool, lost off the coast of Ireland on May 7, 1915, killing 1,196 people.
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the tank maneuvered inexorably across all types of terrain — mud, barbed wire, and trenches — on rotating caterpillar treads.
More familiar scourges — hunger, dysentery, typhus, and tetanus — reduced otherwise healthy men to ragged, dispirited wrecks. As war rhetoric continued to push for greater sacrifice, particularly rationing among civilians, many German soldiers, like Detering, grew disillusioned, deserted to defend their families, and were caught, hastily tried, and executed in the field.
