Trench Warfare

1560 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The importance of trench warfare

Trench Warfare

World War 1 is perhaps best known for being a war fought in trenches, ditches dug out of the ground to give troops protection from enemy artillery and machine-gun fire. The trenches spread from the East to the West. By the end of 1914, trenches stretched all along the 475 miles front between the Swiss border and the Channel coast.

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.

The Frontline Trench was usually about seven feet deep and six feet wide. The front of the trench was known as the parapet. The top two or three feet of the parapet and the parados (the rear side of the trench) would consist of a thick line of sandbags to absorb any bullets or artillery shell fragments. The frontline Trench war were all the fighting took place but most of it wasn’t offensive because trench warfare in based on defense.

Next were Communication trenches which carrying parties took supplies of water, food, ammunition, bombs and trench stores to the front-line. The communication trench was also used to transport wounded men to Casualty Clearing Station. Sometimes communication trenches were dug in zigzags just like all the other trenches and also had a fire-step in case the enemy managed to break-through the front-line.

Then came the Reserve Trench was much like the front-line trench but without all the fighting. It held all the reinforcements and some of the ammunition. This also held the place for the Regimental Aid Post where standard medical procedures...

... middle of paper ...

...oldiers had to be strapped to their beds. It usually took a person four or five weeks to die of mustard gas poisoning.

Trench warfare was a strategy of fighting in World War 1 that involved two or more armies in trenches. This was not always a good way to fight because many young men lost there lives. Trench fighting was usually grim and not always very pleasant but it was an affective way to fight but with many casualties. It was a high point in history and always will be.

Bibliography:

Works Cited

Simkin, John. Home page. 19 April 2002

Trench Warfare. BBC History. 20 April 2002

Farwell, Byron. Over There: the United States in the Great War. W. W. Norton & Company:

New York. 1999

Livesey, Anthony. Great Battles of World War I. Introduction by Major General Jeremy Moore.

Marshall Editions Limited: New York. 1997

Show More
Related

  • How Did Imperialism Lead To The Outbreak Of Ww1

    655 Words  | 2 Pages

    Imagine four years of justing trying to capture the other teams trench, how dreadfully boring. World war one a great war of powers, invoked first by serbia’s overwhelming feeling to be their own people separate from Austria-hungary which thus lead to the assassination of the archduke Ferdinand of the Austrian-hungarian empire, which then lead to all the countries allied with Austria-hungary to support Austria in it’s attack on serbia, then all the countries allied with serbia to bring up arms on Austria, and Austria’s allies. This in terms of alliances had come upon through imperialism that lead to germany already against Austria in terms of expansion.

    Read More

  • Canada's Involvement in World War One

    1424 Words  | 3 Pages

    "First World War.com - Feature Articles - Life in the Trenches." First World War.com - A Multimedia History of World War One. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Mar. 2011. .

    Read More

  • Life and Suffering in The Trenches

    1694 Words  | 4 Pages

    Ellis, John. Eye-Deep in Hell: Trench Warfare in World War I. New York: Pantheon, 1976. Print.

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of The Revolutionary War

    950 Words  | 2 Pages

    At the beginning of the war, the preconceptions of each side show exactly why Britain was destined for failure. On the American team,

    Read More

  • TRENCH WARFARE

    1362 Words  | 3 Pages

    The First World War saw a new form of warfare known as Trench warfare which involved trenches which were deep long dugouts made by the soldiers that lived in these trenches. The trenches proved useful as they protected the soldiers from artillery and bomb fire and were most likely situated in the eastern and western fronts of Europe. However the conditions of the trenches were far from exuberant but were in fact severely terrible. There was bad hygiene throughout the trenches, for example soldiers bathed probably only once a month and as such were prone to diseases such as trenches fever (which were due to the lice attracted by the bad hygiene). The weather was no exception as well, in the summer it would be too hot and in the winter it would be too cold and due to the nature of the trenches, when it rained the trenches would be filled with water, and due to such conditions welcomed the disease known as trench foot which was due to prolonged exposure to water and claimed the foots of many soldiers. There was also the constant danger of bomb fire and snipers would always be on the lookout for any movement. Latrines, which were toilets used in the trenches also sprouted fear as the enemy could see them in this area of the trenches and therefore were in constant danger of death. Soldiers also had to follow a strict code of conduct which was known as trench etiquette which ordered them to respect higher officers and they would have to be punished if the trench etiquette was ignored.

    Read More

  • World War I Changed Combat Tactics

    1649 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Generals and politicians thought the war was going to end very quickly where every I gets to go home on Christmas. Generals and Politicians said “A few quick campaigns and a few decisive victories would “bring the boys home by Christmas, “perhaps even by the fall” (Overfield, James H. Sources of Twentieth-century Global History. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2002. Print.) , p74. They were definitely wrong on that note. The war lasted 4 years in the hell the soldiers called the battlefield. One of the first major battles on the western front was called the Battle of Marne. The battle that halted the Germans from entering France into a long standing stalemate. The trench warfare started here, where soldiers dug deep into the ground and settled down to fight off the enemy soldiers. It was a stalemate for man...

    Read More

  • The Stalemate in World War I

    563 Words  | 2 Pages

    By December 1914 the First World War had reached a dilemma on the western front that neither the triple entente nor the triple alliance had expected. The war had reached a stalemate, a state where both sides are so evenly balanced that neither can breakthrough against the enemy. The advances in Technology played a big role in creating the stalemate through strong defensive weaponry such as Machine Guns and Artillery, this caused ‘trench warfare’ (BOOK 48). Trench war is when troops from both sides are protected from the enemy’s firepower through trenches. Many advances in technology also attempted to break the stalemate throughout the war with tanks, gas and aircraft, these however failed. Eventually the stalemate was broken through a combination of improved technology, new strategies and the blockading of the German ports.

    Read More

  • Life on the Western Front During World War One

    2401 Words  | 5 Pages

    Thus, a prolonged occupation of either of the combatant’s trench systems would be untenable: It is said that a single Stokes 2 in. Mortar projector on the hands of a well-trained mortar squad could have fifteen rounds in the air before the first one hit the target. Imagine the effect of a sustained barrage of this ferocity on even a lightly manned trench. Obviously, then, some form of compromise must have developed, on some occasions, between the warring sides; at least during the inevitable prolonged periods of inactivity in the majority of the sector... ... middle of paper ... ...

    Read More

  • The Battle of Yorktown

    1105 Words  | 3 Pages

    Lanning, M. L. (2005). The History Place - Top Ten Battles of All Time. Retrieved from http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/topten/

    Read More

  • The St. Mihiel Offensive

    1710 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...also being used. 1st Division had done well supporting the troops by making ease of the passing of impassable obstacles. Though by the end of the first day, what tanks did not bog down in German trenches were now out of gas.

    Read More

  • The Battle of Gettysburg

    942 Words  | 2 Pages

    the lower grounds they could have used the trenches to take cover and have better aim of the adversary Union army.

    Read More

  • Propaganda Effects of World War One

    3318 Words  | 7 Pages

    Field, Frank. British and French Operations of the First World War. Cambridge (England); New York: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

    Read More

  • The Battle of France

    2520 Words  | 6 Pages

    Warfare was in a state of transition. Older commanders and generals in the French and British militaries were very cavalry and infantry focused. These commanders believed that cavalry, infantry, and artillery would assure victory in any circumstance, against any foe. They clung to the static tactics of the bygone World War I era. World War I had been fought primarily on French soil, and the military as well as the government never wanted that to happen again, therefore they wanted to reinforce their main border against any future German. Little did they know that only twenty two years later they would be bested by German forces in a way that would shock the world. This research will be analyzing many important assumptions, oversights,...

    Read More

  • World War II

    1611 Words  | 4 Pages

    O’Neill, William L. World War II A Student Companion. 1 ed. William H. Chafe. New York, New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Film War Horse

    1373 Words  | 3 Pages

    The First World War introduced a new type of warfare. New weapons were combined with old strategies and tactics. Needless to say, the results were horrific. However, a new type of warfare was introduced: trench warfare. In the movie War Horse, the character that owned the horse originally while he worked on his farm, Albert Narracott, finally was old enough to join the army. His first sight of battle was the Battle of Somme which took place in France near the Somme River. During this battle, the British troops start out in trenches, which were pretty much tunnels dug strategically to avoid gunfire. The soldiers would wait until they were told to advance, and they would run from one trench to the next. Trenches and the area between trenches were muddy and the trenches themselves were poorly conditioned (http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/chapters/ch1_trench.html). Many of the soldiers who fought in trenches succumbed to a foot disease called trench foot and if not treated immediately, gangrene could infect the foot and an amputation would be necessary for survival. Commanding officers ordered one or t...

    Read More

More about Trench Warfare

Open Document