Here's a link to a BBC program 'The Peacemakers' which you might like to watch in association with John's notes to keep you 'in the zone before we next meet.   
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74-HkCRozls

​Our late October session ‘Technology in World War I’ provided a fascinating and at times gruesome survey highlighting technological advances of the Great War.  We learnt that deadly, sharp shooting German snipers armed with scoped sniper rifles appeared, impacting on trench warfare.  We learnt of a responding innovation - the use of a dummy head to find the location of an enemy sniper.  The papier-mâché figures were painted to resemble soldiers to draw sniper fire.  Some were equipped with rubber surgical tubing so the dummy could "smoke" a cigarette and thus appear realistic.  Holes punched in the dummy by enemy sniper bullets then could be used for triangulation purposes to determine the position of the enemy sniper, who could then be attacked with artillery fire.  We learnt that fake trees were sometimes used as sniper posts.  We learnt of developments in machine gun technology and in poison gas, including mustard gas.  John explained that although gas was not a great killer of men it incapacitated them for life.  For example only one of the 144 men named on the Benalla Memorial he has researched died of gas.  Two more died before 1922 from its effects.  We learnt about developments in artillery; plastic surgery; submarines; aeroplanes; barbed wire; tanks; helmets; trench coats and much more.  Thank you John Barry for another wonderful session.   

​Our next session, ‘The What If War and The Treaty of Versailles’, will be followed up on December 15th by a session with John over coffee at a local café to ask further questions and raise any issues we would like to discuss with him in greater depth.