By Amir Ali Said
Going into Social Studies class today I knew we were going to see some weapons from W.W.I (World War I.) I was looking forward to seeing all the different weapons that my teacher brought in from World War I. Then there was an announcement, "All 8th Grade Homerooms, kindly report to the Auditorium, thank you." That SABOTAGED everything! Once my class got downstairs we waited for about 10 minutes, to be notified by another announcement that, "The Assembly has been canceled and rescheduled, sorry for the inconvenience, may all 8th Grade Homerooms please report back to class." If I decided to describe my anger, it wouldn't be such a great idea, so I'll continue.
Once my class finally got back, we immediately started the lesson, since we already lost a lot of time. We started off learning about the words Squadron and "Ace". Then we went into the airplane used by America during World War I and the weapons used. A squadron is a group of six to seven airplanes. A "Ace" is a pilot that is able to shoot down 5 or more enemy planes. The "Ace" was seen differently throughout the world. Each major nation in the war, had its own standards for their fighter pilots. Germany didn't allow their fighter pilots to gain the title, "Ace" until they shot down 20 enemy planes. France and Great Britain also had their own standards. America probably had the lowest standards for their fighter pilots high ranking.
The Speed and Altitude level of the airplane dramatically changed over a four year period. In 1914, the airplane could only fly up to 80 MPH, could reach 12,000 feet in altitude and could only fly for two hours. By 1918, the airplane could fly up to 125 MPH, could reach 19,000 feet in altitude, and fly for four hours. Also, airplanes had the M2 Machine Gun, Browning .50 Caliber Machine Gun attached to the top of the plane. It shot 450-600 rpm (Rounds Per Minute), however, the gun jammed easily, so if it happened to jam on you, the fight was over, and you where going down. The airplane was really bulky and big, but over the years it improved.
The moment we've all been waiting for has come. Its time to announce the six out of about ten weapons my class should've saw (see paragraph 1). My class saw three medals handed out to fighter pilots. The Medals where given from America, Germany, and France. These medals were incredibly cool. We also saw the "hat" that American fighter pilots wore. Then we saw a round of Machine Gun casings, along with four bullets left, from the Browning .50 Caliber Machine Gun. I think that was the best thing we saw, those bullet casings and bullets looked incredible. I've never seen bullets before, but if you got hit with one of those it sure would do some damage. The last thing we saw was the Lazy Dog. The Lazy Dog was a small bomb during World War I. This little bomb did a lot of damage. As you may know, usually in a fighter plane two people are there. One in the front flying, and the other in the back watching the tail and shooting. Well the person in the back also had another job, to empty boxes upon boxes of Lazy Dogs onto the battlefield. This little bomb falling from 12,000 feet would instantly kill a wandering soldier. All of these weapons/medals were great, but I think the Machine Gun casings and bullets, and the American medal was the best.
My social studies teacher said he's brought most of these items at Army auctions, and I sure feel like taking a trip to one of them. These items are cool and valuable and they tell a lot of history. Tomorrow I look forward to seeing more weapons, if there isn't another assembly or assembly malfunction.
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