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Introduction "Why
was trench warfare so costly in human lives in WW1 ?" This
is the question that I have been asked to answer. Throughout my
investigation you will find different headings showing how trench
warfare did contribute to the slaughter of human lives. First
of all I am going to give you a little background information about the
war and how it started. The
Archduke of Austria, Franz Ferdinand, and his wife Sophie were visiting
Sarajevo on a royal visit. Austria had been waiting for an excuse to
declare war on Serbia, and the assassination of the couple was just
perfect. They were assassinated by a group called the "Black
Hand".
Due
to Russia's strong relationship with Serbia, they entered themselves
into the war against Austria and the rest followed. Britain, who had
links with Belgium, were ready to declare war on Germany if they invaded
Belgium and therefore the inevitable happened on August the 4th when
Germany invaded Belgium on their way to capturing France. This plan was
known as the Schleiffen Plan as Count von Schleiffen thought of it but
this did actually fail. Once Germany resisted Britain's threats of
fighting through Belgium, World War One started! ! At
first, the common saying was that it'll be over by Christmas. But as
Christmas drew closer and closer, people then began to realise that it
was far from over. I
now intend to prove how costly fighting in the trenches led to so many
people losing their lives.
Trench Layout & Trench System
The layout of a trench was quite complex. You may think that the trenches were just built anywhere in a straight line but you couldn't be more wrong. The reason they were not built in straight lines is simple. They were built in a zigzag sort of way when possible. This was because, if the trench was taken by the enemy, they wouldn't be able to shoot straight along the trench and kill all the people in the gunfire's way.
There were quite a lot of lines of trenches so the soldiers could take cover at any point. The second line of trenches was about fifty to one hundred metres back. If they were driven out of the front line, then this was the place to take cover and rest. There were also communication trenches which linked up the trenches. These just led back until they were far enough away from enemy guns. Everything "going up the line" used these trenches. Here are a few examples of things that were used by the trenches: fresh troops, mail, food, water, ammunition and lots of other important supplies. Wounded men also went down the line to the CCS (the Casualty Clearing Station). These could stretch back to up to seven or eight hundred metres back! Apart from the CCS, there were also a lot of different things that were needed. There were resting soldiers, artillery, ammunition dumps, the very important cook houses, transport such as horses and mules, tailors, cobblers, blacksmiths and the batallion headquarters. Although some of these don't sound that important, they were extremely handy when needed. Also to communicate with the front line and other trenches, phone lines were placed going along underground. These had to be repaired quite frequently as they were damaged by explosions and shells. Messages were also sent by runners and by private soldiers. If all these failed, they would use pigeons or signallers using flags. All the trenches were deep enough for the men to stand up and walk along the trenches without any part of them showing. If any part of them could be seen popping up out of the trench, it could be very, very dangerous as snipers were always on the lookout for potential killings. They were also wide enough for a man to rest at the side of the trench while others walked past.
Mud dug to make the trench had to be put somewhere and they had a very good idea for this. They put the mud at the top of the trench for reinforcement. This was called a parapet. They sometimes reinforced the parapet to make it very strong and make good protection. They used sandbags etc. for this. |
