h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

*Shoots at it too*

They had 'em, but they didn't use 'em. The Generals on both sides thought that it would encourage the pilots to ditch their planes if the slightest thing went wrong

They were used on obs. ballons I think

only towards the end of the war, again that whole "we can't have our men ditching their planes/ballons because that would encourage them to do it often" thing. I can see their point, but I can also see the point of, saving pilots lives, leaves you with more experienced pilots to put in the air next time

Come on guys! Let's get this war going! I just had a large number of weapon sheds built in No Man's Land. Each time can decide whether to risk certain death to get to the weapon's shed or not. Let's get this battle going!

Yeah, come on lets go!
I'm going in, cover me, I'm heading for that pile of sandbags, call in arty support!

*HDS opens supressing fire against the enemy with his 50 cal*

Right, here I come!
*swings over edge, and runs like h**l towards the shed*

there aren't any enemies around - i'd better be one for a while!

*gets out gun and starts firing at rimmer. hits rimmer's metal hat, causing it to jump of his head.*

*dives down in an old crater and fires a shot at Spook with his Lee Enfield*

*Aims the 50 cal at Spook and unloads many a round at him*

*runs and throws himself into another crater and fires the rest of his clip at Spook*
*reloads*

*fires back, by himself.*

*Aims slightly to the right of spook, to give him a fair chance and fires*
We need more people.

*grins as the bullets of the enemy strike the sandbags and dirt piles in front of him an cause no damage, clears a blockage in the Browning .50 caliber machine gun and returns fire on spook*

*takes the oppurtunity and heads for the shed while spook is busy*

*Pulls out a tompson with a barrel clip and begins heading towards the sound of gun fire.*

Yay! Spook's on my side.

/Did the germans have tompsons in 1914-18?/
*fires the rest of his clip at Skullock*

nope, they had revolvers, bolt action rifles (.30 calibre), and machine guns of .30 and .50 calibres

The Allied powers had the same, just different designs, different pistol calibres.

Let's see, I know the brits had the Lee enfield but what else did the have? Lewis machine gun, Webley revolver(?)
*Rushes to the next crater and lands in a pile of mud and ready's his Lee enfield*
Take this!
*Pang-Pang-Pang-click!*
What the...? Oh no.
*throws the rifle away and pulls out his gun and yells to the trench he left*
-I'm gonna need some cover!

*Shakes his head saddly as a fellow American "Dough Boy" throws away his useless French "Cho Cho" and takes the early modal BAR (Browning Automatic Rifle) of a fallen frenchmen and start firing to cover for Rimmer. HDS then fires as well*