Trench Warfare was when soldiers would stand and fight in large trenches, generally about 12 feet deep, dug in the ground that would stretch for miles and would make it almost impossible for the other side to advance on them. The land between the two trench was called no man’s land which would stretch from 50-250 yards apart. When soldiers would build them, they had 2 ways of doing it, just dig right into the ground which left them with no cover and could very easily be shot or they would or they would make a tunnel and when they completed, they would remove the roof. Trench warfare caused an enormous amount of deaths and many health issues. Because there were many many men crowded together in trenches, shooting and fighting in the war and ultimately dying, was a disgusting ordeal. They were full of dead rotting bodies, rats eating dead and sleeping soldiers, lice infesting everything, when it rained it would flood the trenches, clogging guns and making it very hard to move through the water and mud and would make the soldiers feet rot or when it got cold they would get frostbite and their fingers and toes would fall off.
Digging trenches was decided by German commander, General Erich von Falkenhayn on September 15, 1914, who told his soldiers to dig trenches to protect themselves from the advancing French and British troops and after the French and British saw what the Germans were doing, they decided to also dig trenches and it became a very important part of WWI. They way they worked was that there were three lines of trench. The frontline trench was the closest to the enemy and would basically stand guard morning and night and communicated information. The second line was 70-100 yards behind the first one, they were there for backup if the first trench got bombarded and the third which was 100-300 yards behind the second and that was the one with the most weapons and would take over when the first and second trench would be taken over. When the war would finally end the trenches, if laid out into a straight line, would measure about 25,000 miles. |
sources
//www.ducksters.com/history/world_war_i/trench_warfare.php
https://www.britannica.com/topic/trench-warfare
http://www.ducksters.com/history/world_war_i/trench_warfare.php
http://guernseydonkey.com/?p=6165
//www.ducksters.com/history/world_war_i/trench_warfare.php
https://www.britannica.com/topic/trench-warfare
http://www.ducksters.com/history/world_war_i/trench_warfare.php
http://guernseydonkey.com/?p=6165