<P> In the 19th century, Britain and France exploited the rapid technical developments in artillery to serve a War of Movement . Such weapons served well in the colonial wars of that century, and served Germany very well in the Franco - Prussian War, but trench warfare was more like a siege, and called for siege guns . The German army had already anticipated that a European war might require heavier artillery, hence had a more appropriate mix of sizes . Foundries responded to the actual situation with more heavy products and fewer highly mobile pieces . Germany developed the Paris guns of stupendous size and range . However, the necessarily stupendous muzzle velocity wore out a gun barrel after a few shots requiring a return to the factory for relining, so these weapons served more to frighten and anger urban people than to kill them or devastate their cities . </P> <P> Field artillery entered the war with the idea that each gun should be accompanied by hundreds of shells, and armories ought to have about a thousand on hand for resupply . This proved utterly inadequate when it became commonplace for a gun to sit in one place and fire a hundred shells or more per day for weeks or months on end . To meet the resulting Shell Crisis of 1915, factories were hastily converted from other purposes to make more ammunition . Railways to the front were expanded or built, leaving the question of the last mile . Horses in World War I were the main answer, and their high death rate seriously weakened the Central Powers late in the war . In many places the newly invented trench railways helped . The new motor trucks as yet lacked pneumatic tires, versatile suspension, and other improvements that in later decades would allow them to perform well . </P> <P> The British Royal Navy and French industrialists invented tanks in World War I. After initial small - scale use they brought success in the opening assault of the Battle of Cambrai (1917) until German artillerymen learned to resist them . Despite rapidly increasing French production, their numbers remained too small to make more than a modest impact on the progress of the war in 1918 . Germany used a few captured enemy tanks, and made a few . Plan 1919 outlined the future use of massive tank formations in great offensives combined with ground attack aircraft . </P> <P> Pre-war decades had seen great technical improvements in warships, as exemplified by the Dreadnought . German ambitions brought an Anglo - German naval arms race in which the Imperial German Navy was built up from a small force to the world's most modern and second most powerful . The 1916 Battle of Jutland demonstrated the excellence of German ships and crews, but also showed that the High Seas Fleet was not big enough to challenge openly the British blockade of Germany . </P>

What was the most used gun in ww1