27 Trench Warfare Facts To Learn More About World War I And II

Among many types of fighting, trench warfare is where both sides construct deep trenches to gain a defense against the enemy.

The length of these trenches can extend many miles. It can give an upper hand of power to one side.

During World War I, trench warfare was used by the western front in France to fight. The trench length along the western front was around 470 mi (756.39 km), giving them excellent protection from enemy fire.

Reaching the end of 1914, both the opponents had developed an entire series of war trenches covering the area from the North Sea to Belgium and France. Because of this, none of the sides got control over the ground for the whole three years from 1914 Oct to 1918 March.

Soldiers were the ones who dug the trenches. The soldiers sometimes dug trenches directly into the ground. This technique was known as entrenching.

It was quick, but it exposed the soldiers to enemy attacks/enemy bombs while they dug. They would sometimes construct trenches by expanding a trench on one end. This technique was known as sapping.

It was more secure, but it took longer. Making a tunnel and removing the ceiling when the tunnel was complete was the most hidden technique to dig a trench. The safest way was tunneling, but it was also the most complex.

During World War I, any enemy trenches of the German soldiers were destroyed using mines. There was much news of dead German troops in German trenches destroyed by mine explosions on the western front during that time. Trench systems and barbed wire were useful in protecting from artillery fire, but deep trenches also had their own negatives.

Facts About Trench Warfare

Trench warfare has some unique methods to safeguard the soldiers.

• Trenches were built in a zig-zag pattern. This was to stop shrapnel flying down the length of the trench and to soak up blast. Also, if an enemy managed to enter the trench during trench raids, he could not simply fire straight down the line. Barbed wire was deployed extensively at the front of the front lines, and where needed, posing a significant hurdle to any opponents who managed to get through it.
• Almost every trench system had three trench lines to help support the front line, the reserve trench, and the support trench. All these lines used to be a hundred meters apart and had communicating trenches in between to move the soldiers and supplies.
• Some trenches had dugouts that were constructed below trench floors. These trenches used to offer more convenience as there were furniture and bed. The German dugouts were much more sophisticated as they had electricity, toilets, ventilation, and wallpapers.
• Long-range artillery was stationed many miles behind the trench lines, and 'no man's land' was the space between the opposing armies' front lines. This section became a mudslide during wet weather, making crossing even more difficult.
• The continuous noise of shell firing as the war progressed was disturbing to many soldiers, especially those who needed to relax to get ready for war the next day. This made some soldiers develop 'shell shock,' which is a mental illness called post-traumatic stress disorder.
• In September 1915, the Engineer-in-Chief of the British soldiers, Brigadier George Fowke, recommended a deep mining operation as trench warfare had become the rule of the day on the Western Front. As a result, a crew of miners excavated tunnels up to 100 feet down to lay and destroy mines beneath the enemy's trenches, working in complete secrecy.
• The workers battled carbon monoxide, water, tunnel collapse, and other hazards for months while also meeting German tunnel excavators who had started their own mining activities.

Life Of Soldiers In The Trenches

Soldiers were supposed to be in all three-part of trenches in a rotation. Sometimes they would be at the front line trenches, sometimes they would be at resting, and sometimes they would be at the support trenches. There was always room for repairing trenches, moving supplies, guard duty, cleaning the trench or their weapons, and undergoing inspections.

• The conditions inside trenches were not clean and nice. It was not suitable for people to live in them for long.
• They used to be very disgusting and had all types of pests in them besides the soldiers, like lice, frogs, and rats.
• These rats used to insect the food for the soldiers their clothes and even irritated them in their sleep. Lice were also one big problem.
• Soldiers used to get itchy because of lice, and the lice also were the carrier of Trench Fever. If the weather is not pleasant, then the life in trenches used to exhibit its worst form.
• Because of rains, the rooms of trenches used to get flooded by mud. And this mud used to clog up the improvised weapons, making it difficult to operate in the situation of emergency.
• The moisture also caused the Trench Foot infection, and if not treated at the right time, the soldiers' feet needed to be amputated.
• Cold weather was no less severe than rain. Because of cold and frostbite, many soldiers' legs and fingers became severely affected in the trenches.

The Importance Of Trenches In War

Even though the local topography governed the particular construction of a trench, most of them followed the same basic concept.

• During the time of the First World War, trench warfare was crucial. Trench warfare has ushered in a new era of warfighting.
• Trenches were utilized initially during World War One due to breakthroughs in military operations.
• Trenches were employed to protect soldiers from the opposing side's machine guns. The countries had to upgrade their military technology because of the trenches guarding the opposite side's soldiers.
• The Allies and Central Powers improved their military technologies to outperform their adversaries.
• Tanks, long-range artillery, submarines, and airplanes were all deployed on the battlefield at this time.
• The tanks were employed to occupy the opposing side trenches and march forward to take control of the territory.
• The tank's armor was strong and robust, making it difficult to penetrate with a standard machine gun. As a result, the opposing forces relied on long-range weapons.

The trench's front wall, known as the parapet, stood around 10 feet tall. The parapet was lined with sandbags from start to finish and had 2-3 ft (60.96-91.44 cm) of sandbags stacked above ground level. These shielded soldiers from harm, but they also obstructed their perspective.

The Advantages Of Trenches During War

There were huge advantages to the use of trenches during the wars.

• To begin with, one benefit of trench warfare was the protection it provided to those who lived in the trenches. The trenches provided a layer of protection for the troops, shielding them from enemy fire. Trenches also provided a safe place for troops to resupply and fire at enemy forces hiding behind a barrier, making them a more challenging target for opposing fire.
• Trenches provide a static and extremely powerful defensive position, significantly increasing the combat capability of a small army.
• The entrenchments provide an anchor on a line that can be used for armored or fast offensives.
• Trench warfare theory is an infantryman's war, hence a low-cost war. It is much less expensive to outfit and maintain a basic foot soldier than it is to maintain a regiment of tanks or IFVs.
• Trench warfare is most effective when used in conjunction with a narrow front and a defense-in-depth plan. Because infantry is sedentary, highly covered, and easy to create, they can combat units 5–10 times larger.
• Due to their entrenched character, 50–150 German machine gun teams (about 450 men) hindered a 13 division strong attack on the Somme in 1916. They overwhelmed the numerically more significant British troops and delivered 57,000 casualties in a matter of hours, aided by thousands of riflemen.