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Prezi on the stalemate and failure of the German's plan

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Prezi on the stalemate and failure of the German's plan

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Failure of the Schlieffen Plan The Original Plan Take Paris in 6 weeks and demoralize the French. Sweep through Belgium. After taking France, turn against Russia. The Modified Plan Germans would concentrate attack on Liege in Belgium to slow enemy advance. Armies near Loraine were strengthened weakening the attack on Paris which was a key element.

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Australian War Memorial

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Although there had been some trench warfare in the American Civil War of 1861 - 65, and the Russian-Japanese War of 1904 - 05, it wasn't until the First World War that fixed trench warfare became the standard form of fighting. The trench system along the Western Front ran for approximately 475 miles, in an "S" shape across Europe, from the North Sea to Switzerland.

Trench warfare created a living environment for the men which was harsh, stagnant and extremely dangerous. Not only were trenches constantly under threat of attack from shells or other weapons, but there were also many health risks that developed into large-scale problems for medical personnel. Apart from the inescapable cold during the winters in France, trenches were often completely waterlogged and muddy, and crawling with lice and rats.

Diseases such as trench fever (an infection caused by louse faeces), trench nephritis (an inflammation of the kidneys), and trench foot (the infection and swelling of feet exposed to long periods of dampness and cold, sometimes leading to amputation) became common medical problems, and caused significant losses of manpower.

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Although there had been some trench warfare in the American Civil War of 1861 - 65, and the Russian-Japanese War of 1904 - 05, it wasn't until the First World War that fixed trench warfare became the standard form of fighting.

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Harry Patch: Never spoke about the war until he turned a 100 years old http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/worldwars/wwone/last_tommy_gallery_03.shtml

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Tactics and Weapons

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Trench Warfare- This method of warfare is fought from the protection of deep ditches to defend their position. These trenches can stretch up to Four-Hundred miles. These complex systems are...

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After the war, Captain G. H. Impey, 7th Battalion,Royal Sussex Regiment, wrote about his experiences oftrench life. 

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After the war, Captain G. H. Impey, 7th Battalion,Royal Sussex Regiment, wrote about his experiences oftrench life. 

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The trenches were wet and cold and at this time some of

them did not have duckboards and dug-outs. The battalion

lived in mud and water. Altogether about 200 men were

evacuated for trench feet and rheumatism. Gum boots were

provided for the troops in the most exposed positions. Trench

feet was still a new ailment and the provision of dry socks

was vitally important. Part of the trench was reserved for

men to go two at a time, at least once a day, and rub each

other's feet with grease.

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Rags was as brave and hardworking as the American soldiers he fought alongside during World War I. But one key detail set him apart from the men serving in the First Division American Expeditionary Forces: He was a dog.

The stray dog turned soldier was just one of the estimated millions of dogs, horses, camels and other animals that served during the Great War. Often referred to as "military mascots," these beasts of burden typically acted as soldiers' companions, boosting morale when times got rough for soldiers living thousands of miles away from home.

But military mascots didn't just lend a supportive paw: They did real work on the battlefield. Thanks to their speed, strength or agility (depending on the species), they'd take on important tasks like lugging munitions and other cargo, carrying crucial messages between units and sniffing out buried mines. But many of these animals never received any recognition for their hard work and dedication, and their short lives were largely forgotten-until now.

Recently, the National Archives completed a massive scanning project, digitizing 63,000 World War I photos for its American Unofficial Collection of World War Photographs (165-WW) record series. The extensive collection, which took two years to get online, contains images obtained from the U.S. Army Signal Corps, various federal and state government agencies and the American Red Cross. While a majority of the collection contains images of soldiers participating in various stages of military life, from training for battle to engaging in active warfare, archivists noticed something else in the photos: animals.

"I'm an animal lover," says Kristin DeAnfrasio, an archivist who worked on the project. "As I was going through the photos, I kept seeing unique animals, like a raccoon, an alligator and a bear, that stood out to me."

Upon further research, DeAnfrasio learned that many of the animals captured in black and white served as military mascots. (She wrote a post on the subject for the archives' Unwritten Record blog.)

Not much is known about the animals in the collection beyond the typewritten captions that accompany each photo. But they provide rare insight into an aspect of the war that often gets left out of the history books. Animals have often served on the battlefield-the Assyrians and Babylonians were some of the first groups to recruit dogs for war purposes. Closer to home, animals were a part of the Civil War, sniffing out wounded soldiers and responding to bugle calls. However, their role is often underappreciated or unknown.

Take "John Bull," an English bulldog who belonged to an English major general up until an American air unit adopted him. Aside from the picture in the archive, little else is known about him and his time at war. Adoption wasn't the only way animals made their way onto the battlefield-citizens also donated their own pets in a show of patriotism.

And not all of the animals whose images made it into the archives were domesticated. Take, for example, Whiskey and Soda, two lion cubs serving as the mascots of the Lafayette Escadrille, a military unit of the Aéronautique Militaire (French Air Service). Or Dick, a monkey belonging to the Provost Guard at Camp Devens, an Army training ground in Massachusetts. Their stories have been lost to time, so today historians can only wager a guess of what their lives entailed-and if they even survived the war.

Frustrated that so many of these military animals didn't receive the recognition that they deserved, biographer Grant Hayter-Menzies wrote a book about one of them. From Stray Dog to World War I Hero: The Paris Terrier Who Joined the First Division follows the story of Rags, a canine who went from a street dog scrounging for scraps outside a cafe in Paris to a pivotal member of the First Division.

"I wanted to write about a dog who came out of a situation where it had reasons not to trust a human," says Hayter-Menzies. "I'm troubled by service animals in war who were [recruited] into service for something they didn't cause. No animal ever started a war."

Rags, who lived from 1916 to 1936, followed soldiers home after they fed him and refused to leave the battlefield. He began his military life in 1918 as a mere mascot, but soon the soldiers realized he had more to offer than just an affectionate wag of his tail. First Sergeant James Donovan taught him to deliver messages during a time when the U.S. military lacked a formal messenger service, and Hayter-Menzies credits Rags with saving the lives of "hundreds" of men thanks to the messages he successfully delivered.

"Practically overnight, Rags learned how to run messages," Hayter-Menzies says. "He could also tell when shells were coming minutes before the men could hear it, and he would flop over [onto his side to let them know]. When Donovan would go check the mines, Rags would go with him and he was able to identify broken lines, even under foggy conditions, by running up to them and barking. How he did it, no one knew."

Eventually, while running a message that Donovan carefully tied to his collar with telephone wire, Rags' military career came to an abrupt end. His paws and ears were injured by shrapnel, and his lungs damaged by poisonous gas he inhaled from a close-range explosion after his mask slipped off. (The message was successfully delivered.) Rags and Donovan were transferred to a military hospital in Chicago for medical care. His master succumbed to his injuries, but Rags survived. He was adopted by a military family and was their four-legged companion for the remainder of his 20 years. Today, visitors can visit his grave at Aspin Hill Memorial Park in Silver Spring, Maryland, where he was buried with military honors.

Rags' life had a happy ending, but for many military mascots, that wasn't the case. But at least now their memories can live on.

"Often war veterans will go to his grave and leave American flags there," Hayter-Menzies says. "Rags shed red blood just like the rest of the soldiers. Although he weighed only 25 pounds, on his back he saved hundreds of husbands, fathers and sons. He should be honored with the same flag that they all fought under."

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Rags was as brave and hardworking as the American soldiers he fought alongside during World War I. But one key detail set him apart from the men serving in the First Division American Expeditionary Forces: He was a dog.

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A typical day in the trenches:

5am - 'Stand-to' (short for 'Stand-to-Arms', meaning to be on high-alert for enemy attack) half an hour before daylight

5.30am - Rum ration

6am - Stand-to half an hour after daylight

7am - Breakfast (usually bacon and tea)

After 8am - Clean themselves, clean weapons, tidy trench

Noon - Dinner

After dinner - Sleep and downtime (one man per ten on duty)

5pm - Tea

6pm - Stand-to half an hour before dusk

6.30pm - Stand-down half an hour after dusk

6.30pm onwards - Work all night with some time for rest (patrols, digging trenches, putting up barbed wire, getting stores, replacement of unit of soldiers every five days)

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WW1 Trenches: The Central Nervous System of Battle

Trench warfare characterized much of the fighting during World War One, particularly along the Western Front. Trench systems were complicated with many interlinking lines of trenches.

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Front Line Trench Cross Section
Artillery Line

The artillery line was where the big field guns were located. They were used to fire shells at the enemy. The noise from a barrage of guns was deafening.

Communication Trench

The communication trenches were used to move between the front and rear trenches. They were also used to transport injured men to the field hospitals.

Support Trenches

The support trenches provided a second line of defense in case the front line trench was taken by the enemy. They also contained first aid stations and kitchens to ensure men in the front line had medical treatment and hot food.

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Bunker

The underground bunkers were used to store food, weapons and artillery. They were also used as command centres and had a telephone link to report information and receive instructions. The underground bunkers also offered the men protection from fire and the elements.

Traverse

Trenches were not built in straight lines. This was so that if the enemy managed to get into the front line trench they would not have a straight firing line along the trench. Trenches were therefore built with alternating straight and angled lines. The traverse was the name given to the angled parts of the trench.

Machine Gun Nest

The machine gun nest was where the machine guns were located. They were manned by two or three soldiers who fired on any advancing enemy.

Front Line Trench

The front line trenches were generally about 8 feet deep and between 4 and 6 feet wide. Soldiers would spend around a week in the front line trench then would spend a week in the rear trenches or a rest camp. Life at the front line was not pleasant; soldiers were liable to be hit by enemy fire or sometimes by their own artillery. The soldier in the picture is standing on a fire-step - built to enable men to see out of the trench and also to climb out to venture into no-man's land.

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Barbed Wire

Barbed wire was used extensively in the trench warfare of world war one. It was laid, several rows deep, by both sides to protect the front line trench. Wire breaks were placed at intervals to allow men access to no man's land. However attackers had to locate the wire breaks and many men lost their lives through becoming entangled in the wire and shot.

Listening Post

Listening posts were used to monitor enemy activity. They were usually approximately 30 metres in front of the front line trench. The man in this picture is using a stethoscope to listen to the enemy.

No Man's Land

No Man's Land was the name given to the area between the two lines of trenches. It was the land that both sides were fighting to gain control of.

Sandbags

Sandbags were used to protect the soldiers from enemy rifle fire. They were, however, less effective in the event of shell fire. Sandbags were also sometimes placed in the bottom of the trench to soak up water.

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Parapet

The parapet was the name given to the front wall of the trench - that is, the wall nearest to the enemy. It would often be strengthened with wood and then covered with sandbags. The sandbags protected the heads of the men standing on the fire step from rifle fire.

Bolt Hole/Dug Out

The bolt hole or dug out was built into the sides of the trench. The earth was shored up with wood and the roof often lined with corrugated iron. The men used the bolt hole for protection, eating and sleeping.

Duck Board/Sump

To prevent the trenches from becoming waterlogged, a narrow drainage channel known as a sump would be built at the bottom of the trench. This would then be covered with wooden trench boards known as duck boards.

Soldiers who spent prolonged periods of time standing in waterlogged trenches were liable to suffer from frostbite and/or trench foot. To prevent trench foot, soldiers were instructed to change their socks frequently, wear waterproof footwear and to cover their feet with whale oil.

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Parados

The parados was the name given to the back wall of the trench - that is, the wall farthest away from the enemy. It would often be strengthened with wood and then covered with sandbags.

Trench Block

A trench block was a wood and wire structure that was made to block the trenches and prevent the enemy from advancing through a trench system.

Machine Gun

The machine gun was the most widely used weapon in world war one. The guns were very heavy and had to be supported on a tripod. They also required three or four men to operate them. The men in this picture are also wearing gas masks for protection against gas attacks.
This article is part of our extensive collection of articles on the Great War. Click here to see our comprehensive article on World War 1.
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Cite This Article

"WW1 Trenches: The Heart of Battle" History on the Net
© 2000-2019, Salem Media.
April 13, 2019 <https://www.historyonthenet.com/ww1-trenches-what-is-a-trench>
More Citation Information.

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WW1 Trenches: The Heart of Battle - History

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Trench warfare characterized much of the fighting during World War One, particularly along the Western Front. Trench systems were complicated with many interlinking lines of trenches. Loading... Loading... Front Line Trench Cross Section The artillery line was where the big field guns were located. They were used to fire shells at the enemy.

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World War I is often considered the first true 'modern war', a conflict fought between industrialised countries equipped with modern weapons. It saw the rise of powerful weapons such as heavy artillery, machine guns and airplanes - and the decline of 19th century weapons like sabres and bayonets. This page contains brief summaries of the most significant weapons of World War I:

The bayonet was a comparatively simple weapon: a bracketed dagger attached to the end of a rifle barrel. Its primary function was to turn the rifle into a thrusting weapon, so its owner could attack the enemy without drawing too close. Bayonet charges were designed for psychological impact: men were trained to advance in rows, with faces contorted, lungs blaring and bayonets thrusting. Small arms and machine guns made these charges largely ineffective, but they were effective propaganda. When not employed as weapons, bayonets were detached and used as all-purpose tools, used for anything from digging to opening canned food.

The rifle was standard issue for infantrymen from each country: it was relatively cheap to produce, reliable, accurate and easy to carry. British soldiers were issued with the Lee-Enfield 303, while most Germans received a 7.92mm Mauser. Both were known for their durability and long range (both could fire accurately at around 500 metres, while the Enfield could potentially kill a man two kilometres away). But this long range was largely wasted on the Western Front, where distances between trenches could be as low as 40 metres. Rifle cleaning, maintenance and drilling occupied a good deal of an infantry soldier's daily routine.

In World War I, pistols or revolvers were issued mainly to officers. Enlisted soldiers only received pistols if they were required in specialist duties, such as military police work or in tank crews, where rifles would be too unwieldy. The most famous pistol of the war was the German-made Luger, with its distinctive shape, narrow barrel and seven-shot magazine. British officers were issued with the Webley Mark IV, a reliable if somewhat 'clunky' weapon. The Webley could reportedly fire even when caked with mud - but it was also heavy and difficult to fire accurately. For this reason many British officers resorted to using captured Lugers. Pistols were not usually a significant weapon, though they were sometimes important as concealed weapons, or for close combat in the trenches.

The image of infantrymen charging pointlessly into machine gun fire is a common motif of the war. There were fewer machine guns deployed in the war than is commonly thought - but where used they often proved deadly. At the outbreak of war Germany had the upper hand in both the quality and quantity of machine guns. The German army had more than 10,000 units in 1914, while the British and French had fewer than 1,000 each. Machine guns of the time were capable of firing up to 500 rounds per minute - but they were cumbersome, very heavy (often more than 50 kilograms) and required at least three well trained men to set up and operate effectively. Their rapid rate of fire also caused machine guns to quickly overheat, requiring elaborate water and air based cooling systems to prevent them from jamming or exploding.

Grenades are small bombs, thrown by hand or launched from a rifle attachment, which are detonated on impact or by a timer. Germany, as it did for other small arms, led the way in grenade development. Early British models like the Mark I (a cylindrical device attached to a long stick) were awkward to use and prone to accidental detonation. These were superseded by the pineapple-shaped Mills bomb, with its safety pin and firing lever. Mills bombs were produced with four and seven second fuses. Allied soldiers were trained to hurl Mills bombs over-arm - in fact the best cricket players were often co-opted as grenade specialists.

Essentially a 1-2 man small-calibre artillery piece, mortars launched grenades or small bombs short distances. Since most focus had been on long-range artillery, mortars had fallen out of favour (in 1914 Germany had just 150 mortars, Britain barely any). But the development of trench warfare created an important use for mortars: they could be fired from the safety of a trench, lobbing explosives into enemy trenches from on high. Mortars were often used to target machine-gun nests, sniper positions or smaller defensive positions. They made a distinctive 'whoomp' sound when launched, which was often a signal to take cover.

No development had a greater effect on the battlefields of World War I than heavy artillery. Artillery pieces were essentially huge cannons that fired explosive rounds against enemy positions, causing enormous damage to men, equipment and the landscape. During World War I they become larger, easier to handle and more accurate in their fire; they were also mobile, though moving large artillery guns became difficult if not impossible in ragged or muddy areas. There was no denying the deadly impact of artillery: more soldiers were killed by exploding shells and shrapnel than any other weapon of the Great War. At the Battle of the Somme in 1916, almost 1.8 million shells were fired on German lines in the space of a week. The largest single artillery piece was the German-built 'Paris gun', used to shell the French capital from 120 kilometres away.

Tanks were another of World War I's legacies to modern warfare. These large armoured carriers, impervious to rifle and machine-gun fire, were initially called 'landships'. When the first prototypes were being developed, the British military's cover story was that they were building 'mobile water tanks', hence the name. The first British tank, the Mark I, was rushed into battle at the Somme and proved susceptible to breakdown and immobility. But designers and operators soon learned from these problems, and by late 1917 the tank was proving a most useful offensive weapon - though none of them could move faster than just a few kilometres per hour.

Mines were large bombs or explosive charges, planted underground and detonated remotely or by the impact of soldiers' feet. Navies also used sea mines, which floated on the ocean and exploded on contact with ships. The relatively immobile warfare of the Western Front meant there was little use for anti-personnel mines - however trench soldiers often dug tunnels to plant huge mines under enemy trenches and positions. One such attack occurred at Hill 60 during the Battle of Messines (June 1917) where Australian tunnelling specialists detonated 450,000 kilograms of underground explosives, killing thousands of German troops.

Barbed wire and caltrops (single iron spikes scattered on the ground) were used extensively in 'no man's land' to stop enemy advances on one's own trench. Barbed wire was laid as screens or 'aprons', installed by wiring parties who often worked at night. Attacking infantry often found large barbed wire screens impossible to penetrate; many died slow lingering deaths entangled in the wire. The positioning of wire often had strategic purpose: it could keep the enemy out of grenade range from the trench, or funnel them toward machine-gun positions. More than one million kilometres of barbed wire was used on the Western Front.

Flamethrowers, pioneered by the Germans but not widely used, were terrifying weapons. Usually wielded by an individual soldier sporting a backpack or tank, flamethrowers used pressurised gas to spurt burning oil or gasoline up to 40 metres. Their chief use was as a trench clearing weapon: the burning fuel filled trenches, landing on both equipment and people and forcing them to withdraw. But the comparatively short range of flamethrowers required their carriers to be within close proximity of the enemy, where they were easy pickings for a competent rifleman. The British experimented with a larger fixed-position flamethrower, using it to clear frontline trenches at the Somme.

Torpedoes are self propelled missiles that can be launched from submarines or ships, or dropped into the sea from the undercarriage of planes. The first torpedoes, produced in the 1870s, ran on compressed air and were slow and inaccurate. The German navy pioneered the diesel powered motorised torpedo. By 1914 German torpedoes could travel at up to 75 kilometres per hour over a range of several miles. This gave German U-boats a deadly advantage over Allied ships, particularly lightly armed naval vessels and unarmed civilian shipping. As the war progressed the British made rapid advances in torpedoes and sank at least 18 German U-boats with them.

© Alpha History 2014. Content on this page may not be republished or distributed without permission. For more information please refer to our Terms of Use.
This page was written by Jennifer Llewellyn, Jim Southey and Steve Thompson. To reference this page, use the following citation:
J. Llewellyn et al, "Weapons of World War I" at Alpha History, http://alphahistory.com/worldwar1/weapons/, 2014, accessed [date of last access].

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World War I is often considered the first true 'modern war', a conflict fought between industrialised countries equipped with modern weapons. It saw the rise of powerful weapons such as heavy artillery, machine guns and airplanes - and the decline of 19th century weapons like sabres and bayonets.

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" There is nothing to worry us out here,
Only bullets, bombs, and shells,
Bully beef and biscuits,
And nasty, horrid smells." - Private W. Tebay, Waterford

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BBC Bitesized

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There were major developments in weapons and communication technology during World War One. New weapons and new ways to communicate were introduced that changed the way war was fought.

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What weapons and technology were used during WW1?

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There were major developments in weapons and communication technology during World War One. New weapons and new ways to communicate were introduced that changed the way war was fought.

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Harry Patch on meeting a German soldier 87 years after the battle

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Harry Patch on meeting a German soldier 87 years after the battle

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When the war ended, I don't know if I was more relieved that we'd won or that I didn't have to go back. Passchendaele was a disastrous battle—thousands and thousands of young lives were lost. It makes me angry. Earlier this year, I went back to Ypres to shake the hand of Charles Kuentz, Germany's only surviving veteran from the war. It was emotional. He is 107. We've had 87 years to think what war is. To me, it's a licence to go out and murder. Why should the British government call me up and take me out to a battlefield to shoot a man I never knew, whose language I couldn't speak? All those lives lost for a war finished over a table. Now what is the sense in that?

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What were the trenches?

Although most of us think primarily of the Great War in terms of life and death in the trenches, only a relatively small proportion of the army actually served there. The trenches were the front lines: the most dangerous places. But behind them was a mass of supply lines, training establishments, stores, workshops, headquarters and all the other elements of the 1914-1918 system of war, in which the majority of troops were employed. The trenches were the domain of the infantry, with the supporting arms of the mortars and machine-guns, the engineers, the medics and the forward positions of the artillery observers.

Why were the trenches there?

The idea of digging into the ground to give some protection from powerful enemy artillery and small arms fire was not a new idea or unique to the Great War. It had been widely practiced in the US Civil War, the Russian-Japanese war and other fairly recent wars. Trench warfare of the First World War can be said to have begun in September 1914 and ended when the Allies made a breakthrough attack that began in late July 1918. Before and after those dates were wars of movement: in between it was a war of entrenchment. The massive armies of both sides dug in to take cover and hold their ground. By November 1914 there was a continuous line of trenches covering some 400 miles from Switzerland to the North Sea. There was no way round.

What were the trenches like?

The type and nature of the trench positions varied a lot, depending on the local conditions. For example, in the area of the River Somme in France the ground is chalky and is easily dug. The trench sides will crumble easily after rain, so would be built up ('revetted') with wood, sandbags or any other suitable material. At Ypres in Belgium the ground is naturally boggy and the water table very high, so trenches were not really dug, but more built up using sandbags and wood (these were called 'breastworks'). In parts of Italy, trenches were dug in rock; in Palestine in desert. In France the trenches ran through towns and villages, through industrial works, coalmines, brickyards, across railway tracks, through farms, fields and woods, across rivers, canals and streams. Each feature presented its own set of challenges for the men who had to dig in and defend. In the major offensives of 1915, 1916 and 1917 many trench positions were only held for a few days at a time before the next advance moved them on into what had been no man's land or the enemy position. These trenches were scratch affairs, created as the advancing troops dug in, and were sometimes little more than 18 inches deep.

Imperial War Museum image Q62. British troops asleep in a support trench during the preliminary bombardment, previous to the attack on Beaumont Hamel, 1st July 1916. Note scaling ladders (duckboards) across trench. By most standards this would have been regarded as useful shelter but a poor trench: it has no dugouts, does not seem to have any duckboarding or revetment, and has no bays. An enemy shell bursting in this trench would give the men little chance of survival.

From simple hole in the ground to formidable defensive systems

The bird's-eye view (above, from an official infantry training manual of March 1916) shows a typical but very stylised trench layout. There is a front line, or "Main Fire Trench" facing the enemy. It is not straight, but follows contours or other natural features allowing good defence or a view over the enemy lines. Thousands of men became casualties in fighting for, or making small adjustments to their lines, to give this cover or observation. It also is dug in sections rather than a straight line, so if a shell explodes inside one of these 'bays' (also called 'traverses'), or an enemy gets into one, only that section is affected.

Behind it is another line, similarly made, called a support line. In this would be found 'dugouts' cut into the side of the trench wall, often very small but with room for perhaps three or four men to squeeze in for shelter, or for a telephone position for a signaller, or for a Platoon or Company HQ. Communication trenches linked the rear areas with both lines, and it was along these that all men, equipment and supplies had to be fetched, by hand. Probing out from the front line were trenches usually called 'saps', which often went beyond the protective belts of barbed wire, terminating somewhere in 'no man's land' between the two opposing front lines in a listening post, manned by one or two infantrymen. The cross-section shows how the front and rear of the trench was ideally protected and built up using sandbags at the front and rear, or 'parapet' and 'parados'.

The enemy had a very similar system of trenches. The distance between the two lines varied from as little as 30 yards (just under 30m) to several hundred yards. The space between the two opposing lines was called no man's land. It was difficult to consolidate a captured enemy trench - in effect it had to be turned round as you now needed to have a protected front at what had been the unprotected rear when the enemy held it.

As defensive and offensive tactics developed later in the war, trench positions became formidable fortresses with barbed wire belts tens of yards deep in front of them, with concrete shelters and emplacements, often below ground level. Machine guns would be permanently trained on gaps deliberately left in the wire, and the artillery would also have the positions registered for firing at short notice.

A typical trench system eventually consisted of three main fire or support trenches, connected by communication trenches and with various posts, strong points and saps. By 1916, the German system of defence had three or four such trench systems layered back over a distance of a couple of miles. By 1917, the system had deepened even further so that the Allied assaults of 1918 faced complex defensive systems that were several miles deep.

Living conditions

Trench conditions varied widely between different theatres of war, different sectors within a theatre, and with the time of year and weather. Trench life was however always one of considerable squalor, with so many men living in a very constrained space. Scraps of discarded food, empty tins and other waste, the nearby presence of the latrine, the general dirt of living half underground and being unable to wash or change for days or weeks at a time created conditions of severe health risk (and that is not counting the military risks). Vermin including rats and lice were very numerous; disease was spread both by them, and by the maggots and flies that thrived on the nearby remains of decomposing human and animal corpses. Troops in the trenches were also subjected to the weather: the winter of 1916-1917 in France and Flanders was the coldest in living memory; the trenches flooded in the wet, sometimes to waist height, whenever it rained. Men suffered from exposure, frostbite, trench foot (a wasting disease of the flesh caused by the foot being wet and cold, constrained into boots and puttees, for days on end, that would cripple a man), and many diseases brought on or made worse by living in such a way.

Where possible, the floor of the trench was made by using wooden duckboards. One of the features the diagrams above do not show is the latrine, which had to be dug somewhere close to hand. This was generally as deep a hole in the ground as possible, over which was mounted a plank to sit on. Men would, with permission, leave their post to use the latrine. This rough form of sanitation was often a target for enemy snipers and shellfire and was also a considerable smell and health hazard for the men in the trenches.

How long would a man have to be in a trench?

A general pattern for trench routine was for a man and his section to spend 4 days in the front line, then 4 days in close reserve and finally 4 at rest, although this varied enormously depending on conditions, the weather and the availability of enough reserve troops to be able to rotate them in this way. In close reserve, men had to be ready to reinforce the line at very short notice. They may have been in a trench system just behind the front system or in the dubious shelter of a ruined village or wood. The relief of a unit after its time in the front by a fresh one was always an anxious time, as the noise and obvious activity increased the risk of attracting enemy attention in the form of shelling, machine-gun fire or even a raid at the very time when the manning of the position was changing. Once the incoming unit had relieved the outgoing one, various precautionary actions would be taken. At least one man in four (at night, and perhaps one in ten by day) were posted as sentries on look-out duty, often in saps dug a little way ahead of the main fire trench. They would listen for sounds that might indicate enemy activity, and try to observe such activity across no man's land. The other men would be posted into the fire trench or support trench, in sections. Unless they were a specialist such as a signaller or machine-gunner, men would inevitably be assigned to carrying, repair or digging parties, or sent under cover of dark to put out or repair barbed wire defences.

Other than when a major action was underway, trench life was usually very tedious and hard physical work. Officers had to ensure that there was if possible a balance between the need for work against the enemy, on building and repairing trench defences and for rest and sleep. This could only be done by a good system with a definite system of rotas and a work timetable. Obviously, in times of battle or extended alerts, such a routine would be broken, but such times were a small proportion of the time in the trenches. The main enemies were the weather and boredom. The loss of concentration - leaving oneself exposed to sniper fire, for example - could prove deadly. At dawn and dusk, the whole British line was ordered to 'Stand To!' - which meant a period of manning the trench in preparation for an enemy attack.

All of the men posted to the fire trench and most of those in the support trench had to wear their equipment at all times. Men in the front line had to keep their bayonets fixed during hours of darkness or mist, or whenever there was an alert of enemy activity. A man could not leave his post without permission of his immediate commander, and an officer had to approve him leaving the trench. One officer per Company was on trench duty at all times, and his NCOs had to report to him hourly. He was under orders to move continually up and down his assigned trenches, checking that the equipment was in good state, that the sentries were alert and that the men were as comfortable as the conditions allowed. The NCOs had to inspect the men's rifles twice daily and otherwise ensure that fighting equipment and ammunition was present and in good order. From mid-1915, every trench had some form of warning of gas attack. Often this was an empty shell casing, held up by wire or string, that would be hit (like a gong) with a piece of wood or similar. If the gas gong was heard, all officers and men would know that they had to put on their gas masks as soon as they could. Some of the gasses used were invisible, and if their delivery by gas shells popping on impact with the ground had not been heard, they could sometimes be detected by their distinctive smell. Every day, the battalion holding the line would request from the nearby Brigade workshop a list of stores it needed. Some special items such as wire 'knife rests' (a wooden support for a barbed wire entanglement), signboards, boxes, and floor gratings would be made up at Brigade and brought to the trenches ready to use. Sandbags, wood, cement, barbed wire, telephone cable, and other supplies would also be sent up as needed. Men would be sent back to Brigade as a carrying party to fetch it.

Rations and other supplies were invariably brought up at night, under cover of darkness. This was of course known to the enemy, who would shell and snipe at the known roads and tracks leading up to the front. The units holding the front would try to position their mobile field cookers so that the men could be provided with a hot meal, but this was not always possible. The men in the trenches would also cook - especially breakfast - using braziers in the trenches and dugouts. It was important that smoke from fires was masked so as not to give away a position.

Links
A soldier's life in the British Army

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Life in the trenches of the First World War

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Although most of us think primarily of the Great War in terms of life and death in the trenches, only a relatively small proportion of the army actually served there. The trenches were the front lines: the most dangerous places.

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Learn about the trench warfare of World War I. A way of fighting along the western front where long defensive trenches were dug for hundreds of miles as protection for the soldiers.