Lesson Y9-U03-L04

Y9-U03-L04 Weapons and Technology of WW1 Quiz: KS3 History, Unit 16

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson Y9-U03-L04, Weapons and Technology of WW1: 20 multiple choice questions for the KS3 History (National Curriculum), Unit 16: Year 9: WW1 Warfare, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. Roughly what share of all WW1 casualties did artillery cause?

    • About 90%
    • About 60%
    • About 25%
    • About 6%

  2. How many rounds a minute could a machine gun fire?

    • Around 40 to 60
    • Around 4,000 to 6,000
    • Around 400 to 600
    • Around 10 to 20

  3. How many men were needed to crew a machine gun?

    • One alone
    • Ten or more
    • Exactly eight
    • Two to four

  4. What was the main drawback of long artillery bombardments before an attack?

    • They made the tanks break down before they could advance
    • They were too quiet to damage the enemy's defences
    • They stopped all aircraft from flying over the front
    • They warned the enemy and churned the ground into mud

  5. Where was poison gas first used by Germany?

    • Ypres, in April 1915
    • Gallipoli, in April 1915
    • Cambrai, in November 1917
    • Verdun, in February 1916

  6. Which poison gas burned and blistered its victims?

    • Tear gas
    • Chlorine gas
    • Mustard gas
    • Phosgene gas

  7. Roughly what share of WW1 casualties did poison gas cause?

    • About 15%
    • About 3%
    • About 60%
    • About 30%

  8. Why did poison gas often backfire on the side that used it?

    • It could only be fired from aircraft, which were not yet reliable
    • The wind could blow it back onto their own men
    • It only worked in the rain, which never fell on the Western Front
    • It burned up in the air before it reached the enemy

  9. When were tanks first used in battle?

    • 11 November 1918, at the Armistice
    • 1 August 1914, at the Belgian border
    • 15 September 1916, at the Somme
    • 5 December 1915, at Gallipoli

  10. Roughly how many tanks were used in the 1917 attack at Cambrai?

    • Nearly 400
    • Nearly 40
    • Nearly 4,000
    • Exactly 12

  11. About how fast could a WW1 tank travel?

    • About 14 miles per hour
    • About 400 yards per hour
    • About 40 miles per hour
    • About 4 miles per hour

  12. What problem was the tank designed to solve?

    • Carrying wounded men back from the field hospital to the rear each day
    • Protecting the aircraft from attack on the ground at their airfields
    • Crossing no man's land over wire and trenches under fire
    • Transporting food and water to the trenches by road in convoys each night

  13. Why did early tanks have limited effect at the Somme in 1916?

    • They were sunk by the Royal Navy on the way to France
    • They were banned by the generals before the battle began
    • Only about 30 were used, and many broke down
    • They were too heavy to be carried across the Channel

  14. What was the main job of aircraft in WW1?

    • Reconnaissance, spotting enemy trenches and directing artillery
    • Carrying troops across no man's land to attack the enemy in open ground
    • Dropping food supplies to soldiers trapped in the front line by the mud
    • Replacing artillery as the main killer of enemy soldiers on the battlefield

  15. What did aerial photography achieve on the Western Front?

    • It allowed soldiers to send letters home by air each day
    • It stopped all artillery bombardments across the front
    • It let tanks travel faster across the open ground
    • It mapped enemy positions in detail for the first time

  16. Which nickname was given to a famous German fighter ace of WW1?

    • The Red Baron
    • The Silver Fox
    • The Black Knight
    • The Iron Duke

  17. Why did the tank's promise fail to win the war by 1917?

    • The British could not hold the ground gained at Cambrai
    • Germany had captured all of the British tanks in 1916
    • Tanks were banned from the battlefield after the Somme
    • The tanks were used only in the Balkans, far from the front

  18. Why did aircraft fail to win the ground war on their own in WW1?

    • Pilots had to stay on the ground for their entire service
    • Planes were fragile and pilots had short lives in combat
    • Planes were only used by the navy and never by the army
    • Planes were made of stone and could not fly in the wind

  19. Why were machine guns and artillery described as DEFENSIVE weapons?

    • They made attacks across open ground almost impossible
    • They could only be fired from behind the lines at the enemy's rear
    • They were used only to protect the navy's ships at sea from attack
    • They were designed to hold cities rather than to fight in trenches at all

  20. What did 'attrition' mean in WW1 strategy?

    • Wearing the enemy down by killing more of their men
    • Building a wall of barbed wire around the whole of Europe in secret
    • Winning a single decisive battle in the first week of the war
    • Surrendering a city to the enemy to save civilian lives

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