Trench Warfare During The Great War

The trench system on the Western Front consisted of front-line, support and reserve trenches. The three rows of trenches covered between 200 and 500 yards of ground. Communication trenches were dug at an angle to those facing the enemy. These trenches used to transport men equipment and food supplies.

During World War I, trench warfare was very common. It was a newer technique in battles as in wars prior to the Great World War, fighting was less invasive and men merely marched at each other from opposite ends of fields and fought until only one side remained standing or a white flag was hung high in surrender. In fact in older wars, the fighting was far less dangerous to the point where battles were often times viewed by locals who watched from side lines with really no threat of getting hurt. In World War I however, the fighting had upscaled to the most sadistic type the world had ever experienced. With the industrialist wave that had overcome us in the late 1800s into

From living a nice life to living in a “dump” the soldiers of the trench warfare were into a big surprise of grief .The trenches caused death and suffering for a long time. This happened due to the lack of building the trenches properly ,this is also due to the war and sickness . The soldiers lived in tight quarters with other men. The trenches were terrible and caused many problems to be faced . Virginia postrel former writer says “European nations began World War I with a glamorous vision of war, only to be psychologically shattered by the realities of the trenches. The experience changed the way people referred to the glamour of battle; they treated it no longer as a positive quality but as a dangerous illusion”.

Trench warfare was adopted to maintain an area of land, to prevent the enemy from capturing that land. The importance of this investigation was to show the significance of trench warfare during the First World War and how effective it was on how it had prevented many full on, front lined, assaults. World War I could have had a great impact in history with the amount of war casualties, which would have been historically shocking, but instead it created the stalemate, which prevented such numbers of deaths from happening.

Soldiers did not die only from warfare casualties,especially the war atmosphere in the trenches brought health issues and diseases which caused most of the death during WW1.Some of this diseases were caused because of weather change , lack of hygiene and the filthy environment.Many of this diseases were insignificant colds but others were deadly as Shell Shock or Trench Foot.

During the Great War, many different types of trenches were used. This includes the frontline trenches, and the reserve trench. In the front

Trenches were long, narrow ditches dug into the ground where soldiers lived day and night. There were many lines of German trenches on one side and many lines of the trenches on the allied side. In the middle there was no-man’s land, so called because it didn’t belong to either army. Soldiers crossed no- man’s land when they wanted to attack. Soldiers in the trenches did not get much sleep, but when they did it was in the afternoon during daylight and at night for only 1 hour at a time. They were woken up at different times, either to complete one of the daily chores or the go to fight. The system of trenches was employed because a German commander, General Erich von Falkenhayn, decided that his troops must at all costs hold onto those parts of France and Belgium that Germany still occupied. Falkenhayn ordered his men to dig trenches that would provide them with protection from the advancing French and British troops. The Allies soon realised that they could not break through this line and they also began to dig trenches.

Trench warfare was implemented to provide cover for soldiers during battle in WW1 seeing that most battlefields were open field & farms, so soldiers had little or no cover from rifle fire. After suffering thousands of casualties, soldiers began to dig into the ground creating cover. Over the months the trenches grew & evolved to hold barracks & equipment. Within a few months trenches were equipped with all essentials to ensure there was no need to leave them unnecessarily. Trenches were first dug by hand but soon soldiers would be equipped with shovels to increase productivity. Trenches were also mainly built at night to avoid detection by enemy troops.

Life in the trenches was very difficult and often very dangerous. They were often kept in the confined and small trenches for long periods of time. “Soldiers were bound to trenches, enduring long stretches of inactivity, suffering the random bombing or sniper attack, then undertaking terrifying charges” (Showalter). Trenches were often dug deeply underground and served as protection from incoming artillery. The idea and formation of these trenches were a result of France’s flat terrain. With flat terrain, soldiers were more prone to be killed from bullet fire. “Opposing forces dug deep trenches into the earth; from the trenches soldiers could safely lob explosives at their enemies” (Kreibohm). Trenches also spanned many miles and connected to other trenches. The most popular trench that spanned 475 miles was located between the Belgian coast and Switzerland called the Western Front, where most of the fighting took place. “The majority of the war was fought...stretching 475 miles between the Belgian coast and Switzerland...called the Western Front” (Kreibohm). The Central Powers and the Allied Powers both participated in this idea of trench warfare and elaborated on the complexity and the conformity of them. To protect the front line of the trench, machine guns were positioned in the front. Trenches were also protected by barbed

To explain the main features of trench warfare we must look at all the points the trench design, the modern technology etc. Trenches were designed in a specific way. They were built in a zigzag fashion to accommodate for bombs destroying them. If a bomb did hit them then only a corner of the

World war I is considered one of the bloodiest wars ever fought in the history of the world. A major contributor to the death toll of this war was the new tactic of trench warfare. Trench warfare is a battle strategy using man made trenches and weapons to attack and take the enemy’s trench. This battle strategy combined with the use of new war technology, and the living conditions in the trenches resulted in one of the deadliest wars ever fought by mankind.

Were Men from all Armies Involved in Trench Warfare? At Which Battle Sites Were Trenches Dug?

German Trench warfare a popular tactic of WW1 it was somewhat safe to be in trenches but for every good thing about the trenches death surrounded them. “By the wars end, each side had dug atleast 12,000 miles of trenches”(pbs.org The Trenches: Symblol of the stalemate). The war could have been completely different if the soldiers didn 't put all the effort they did in building them. “Connecting these trenches were communication trenches”(pbs.org :The Trenches: Symbol of the stalemate). The communication trenches used only for connecting the 3 sets of trenches to move soldiers and supplies. The soldiers who were put in the most danger were the trench runners who were put in even more danger because of what their job entailed. Trench runner or most commonly runners would deliver messages to different front leaving them in “no

Trenches are basically long narrow ditches that were dug by soldiers for shelter from enemy fire. Back in WW1, the trenches became a place where soldiers would live and sleep with poor living conditions. The way the trenches in WW1 were set up was with the German trenches on one side and all the Allied trenches on the other. Between the two enemy trenches would be no man’s land which didn’t belong to either one of the armies. Some soldiers would climb out of the trenches and charge across no-man’s land to attack the enemy. This tactic is known as going over the top .

Terror, disease, long days, and cold nights are some of the best words to describe life in the trenches during the first World War. Offensive advancements were quickly met with standoffs, leaving soldiers living in dirt holes in the ground for months at a time. To overcome the stalemates brought on by trench warfare in WWI, technological advances were made, such as poison gas, tanks, and machine guns, that have changed warfare even to this day.