At the start of the war, the leaders of both sides believed the war would be quick and a war of movement, that would be won by cavalry.  However when the line of trenches from Switzerland to the English Channel had been dug, it became clear that this was to be different from all previous wars.  For starters cavalry were to play no part.  Many generals found this hard to believe, but eventually they had to accept that cavalry were useless in this war and the riders were sent to the trenches.  So what weapons did play a part in trench warfare.  I’ll have a look at a few in turn.

Almost every soldier in WWI carried a rifle of some description; the British army used mostly Lee Enfield rifles.  Other popular bolt action rifles included the Mauser Gewehr (Germany), Lebel (France), Mannlicher-Carcano (Italy), Springfield (United States), Moisin-Nagant (Russia), Mannlicher M95 (Austria) and Arisaka (Japan).  Rifles were mainly used by snipers and by men as they approached an enemy trench.  The good thing about these rifles was that bayonets could be fixed onto the end of the rifle.  This meant that a soldier had a weapon to use in hand to hand combat, but he was still able to fire his rifle despite the bayonet on the end.  All infantrymen were given bayonets in WWI. Most were of the standard knife variety, but the French preferred a needle bayonet and some German soldiers favoured a saw-bladed version. The bayonet was the infantryman's primary close combat weapon in trench warfare. However, some soldiers preferred to rely on clubs or knuckle-dusters in these situations. The importance of the bayonet as an offensive weapon was undermined during the war because of the increasing use of machine guns against an advancing army.

Men fixing their bayonets before going 'over the top'.

Of the major powers, only German realised the potential of the machine gun at the start of WWI.  The British continued to rely heavily on rifles, which could only fire 15 rounds a minute, though some Germans thought they were under machine gun fire, so quick and accurate were the gunners.  The British generals eventually realised they needed machine guns and production shot up.  The machine guns of WWI could fire up to 600 rounds a minute and the machine gun would be turned in an arc, spraying the bullets and hitting almost anything approaching.

Here is a typical machine gun.  It is on a tripod, so that it could be turned accurately.

Another killer was the heavy artillery; huge guns which bombed the enemy position for days on end.  They ranged in size, accuracy and design, so here are a few examples.

Another killer was the heavy artillery; huge guns which bombed the enemy position for days on end.  They ranged in size, accuracy and design, so here are a few examples.

Above is a British 15inch howitzer.  Notice the sizes of the shells, these were mass-produced in British factories, as seen on the left.