The Canadian Allies were in interested by the new weapons that the Germans were using, so they decided that they would make their own flame throwers. Just in time for the Somme offencive they were able to make four extremely heavy flame throwers. (weighing two tons each) Built in a trench right infront of No Man's Land, they distanced the flame throwers about 60 yards away from the German trenches. Unfortunately two were destroyed by shellfire even before the beginning of the Somme offensive. The flame throwers were highly effective at clearing trenches at a local level, but they weren't very good at clearing wider areas. Their use for the rest of the Somme attack had to be abandonded.
Introduction to the tank in battle
The Somme was the first battle where these huge armoured vehicles were used, but like most of the new experimental weapons, the tank still had a few bugs in it. Soldiers would often be stranded in the tank in the middle of No-mans land because it would break down. For this reason it wasn't used very often because of its unreliability.
Use of Bayonets
?"In essence a bayonet is simply a blade that is attached to the barrel of a rifle for use in close combat." <1> Because of the intimidating look of of the bayonet, its use was more psychological than practical.
Use of Grenades
Even though grenades were being used since the 15th century, Britain still hadn't realized the full potential of this weapon, like most of the weapons used in the Great War, Germans were usualy better equipped, the same thing applied here. Realising the oversite, and the extremely low manufacturing of them, the British sped up the factory line and started pumping out tens of thousands of grenades. Unfortunately the Canadian allies in the Somme Battle weren't as lucky, even though they had stock of them, it wasn't untill 1915 that Britain had a stronger hold in manufacturing.
Use of Phosgene Gas
"Phosgene as a weapon was more potent than chlorine in that while the latter was potentially deadly it caused the victim to violently cough and choke. The so-called "white star" mixture of phosgene and chlorine was commonly used on the Somme: the chlorine content supplied the necessary vapour with which to carry the phosgene."<2>
Use of Machine Guns
This was one weapon that got the better of the Canadian Allies time after time. Because they only knew one attack method (basicly a slow forward march) the Germans took advantage of their ignorant attack, and slaughtered them.
Use of the Trench Mortar
The trench mortar found a new lease of life during World War One. Especialy during ground battles, such as the one fought at Somme. "A mortar is essentially a short, stumpy tube designed to fire a projectile at a steep angle (by definition higher than 45 degrees) so that it falls straight down on the enemy." <3>