Trench Warfare

by

John Thomson

Introduction

Throughout this investigation I will be trying to find out the answer to the following question : Why was trench warfare so costly in human lives in World War 1?

Along the way I will also try to find out the information presented on the spider chart below:- 

The first world war war a devastating period of time in which many countries ( inc. Britain, France, Belgium and Germany) were devastated. Work was left to the women but many businesses still went bust while food was rationed, meaning the health of the nation suffered. All this was happening on home turf though...the real disasters were happening on the battlefield. Due to the new weapons available and the defensive position of the Belgian & French troops a new type of warfare. Trench warfare. But why was this type of warfare so deadly? This is the question I will answer by the end of this investigation.

It may seem crazy that anybody in their right mind would "go over the top" but thousands upon thousands of ordinary people did. Knowing that more than half wouldn’t return, believing that they wouldn’t be hit, hoping it would hit the next man rather than him. This rather selfish attitude had to exist or the Allied forces wouldn’t have won the First World War.

For the men in the trenches their job was fatally simple:- a) to fire weapons (see later topic) at any advancing or stationary Nazi soldiers and

b) when given the signal were ordered to climb out of the trench and charge across "no-mans land". Here they would be met with a hail of machine gun bullets along with grenades and sometimes underground mines. This together with the fact that the ground would probably be muddy, boggy and filled with craters from mortar shells made it very difficult for the soldiers and it is easy to see how nine out of ten would either be killed (more than half. see topic on trench life for info on healing wounded soldiers) or injured in someway.

These soldiers would also have to fight hand to hand if any enemy troops reached the trench.

When or "if" any soldiers reached the enemy trench they then had to cut through the barbed wire which lay in front of them. This would slow them down - resulting in more shot, and would also cut them seriously. If they were still alive they then had the small matter of fighting the whole enemy trench hand to hand. This was done either using fists, knives or bayonets on their rifles but it was here that you had to be very physically strong as well as being a good shot. If somehow the troops managed to defeat the enemy they would then have to take prisoners and go on to stop the heavy artillery firing. The above goes to show how impossible it was to actually advance and with a battle, most the victories came to those who defended.

Heavy artillery was used to great effect in World War One. They would sit behind the front lines simply lobbing shells into the air on to enemy soldiers. At the beginning of the battle they were used to weaken the enemy’s trenches and troops, making it easier for the side who were attacking as there would be less gunmen shooting at them. It was also used to churn up the land known as "no man’s land" so that it was difficult to traverse and when the troops were slowed down they would shoot shrapnel or gas shells at them.

There was really only five main parts to the trench warfare battlefield. They are as follows :-

a) own heavy artillery

b) own front-line trench

c) "no-mans land" (neutral)

d) enemy front-line trench

e) enemy heavy artillery

As I’ve said above, the attacking army would rise out of their trench and run across "no-mans land" towards the defending army’s trench while being shot at by the defenders.if they reached it, hand to hand conflict followed and if they won, the attackers would then try to destroy or disarm the heavy artillery, which were firing explosive shells onto the attackers the whole time. As you can see... it was very hard for the attacking army to win a battle without losing thousands upon thousands of soldiers. But it was done (as you will see later on) and the defending army can crumble. But this was mainly to do with the conditions of the soldiers and the places they slept, food they ate, the weather all played a part in weakening the soldiers’ physical and mental well-being.