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Then you get transportation advancements though some of those may be going into rocket engines at the expense of internal combustion. Given the way the hot reactionless thruster has to work for other purposes in this setting what I would anticipate sub-sonic "battlewagons" like an HMS Dreadnought that flew with much gushing of flame out of its' underside.
Creation of these would pre-empt tank development very thoroughly and troopship equivalents would probably greatly shorten the infantry battlefield. something like a heavily armored Huey (with a big Flash Gordon-like aesthetic) might result.
I really can't se anyone who has access to such a vehicle ever being very interested in tracked or wheeled combat vehicles for any environment.
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On the other hand, the super-science elements are pretty rare. In the same way that we don't ride helicopters to work, you probably don't replace all war vehicles with hover tanks.
Actually, without world war 1, a lot of military technology that looks obvious to us is a matter of great debate to them. World war one overturned centuries of military thought, and it did so very painfully. You may not so much get tanks as armored cars. You are unlikely to get the idea of suppressing fire either.
Flying battleships will be awesome, and should certainly be included though. They're just going to be insanely expensive.
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Originally Posted by Fred Brackin
To sell the smaller caliber is mostly a knowledge that the possible range of infantry engagements was shrinking. That would be very forward-thinking. In 1908 the full-power .30 caliber rifle was the longest range fully portable weapons system the infantry had. Indeed, it may not have been clear that artillery wasn't going to be towed into position by mule teams.
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To be fair, World war 2 artillery was towed into position by mule teams much of the time, and world war 1 artillery was almost exclusively drawn be beasts of burden after it got off of trains.
I think its awesome to embrace the bad combat assumptions these people have.