Trench warfare
Living and fighting in the trenches
Soldiers did not spend all their time fighting in the trenches. They
would often spend four days in the front line, four days in a reserve
trench and four days resting. Although sometimes soldiers had to
spend more than two weeks in the front line before being replaced.
A soldier’s daily routine was generally repetitive but there was always
the threat of an enemy attack. Before the sun went up, the soldiers
would have to stand-to (stand guard on the firestep in case of
enemy attack). During the day, the soldiers took it in turns to keep
watch while others collected supplies, rebuilt trenches or fortified
defences. At night, some soldiers would stand on duty whilst others
would be sent out into no man’s land to repair barbed wire risking
being shot.
What began as a war of movement (the German army advancing
rapidly through Belgium hoping to invade France) quickly became a
war of attrition (a military strategy consisting of attempts to win a war
by wearing down the enemy to the point of collapse through
continuous human and material losses). Trench warfare developed,
as both sides dug trenches to shelter from the enemy fire.
By 1915, it became clear that defence was easier than attack. The
trenches were easily defended with machine guns. Trenches could
be as little as 15 m apart or as far as 1 km apart.
On neither side did the generals understand the nature of this new
warfare. Many British generals thought the best way to go forward
was for a large number of men to climb out of the trenches and to
walk through the no man’s land towards enemy guns. This was rarely
effective. Men would get stuck on the barbed wire or shot down by
the enemy.
New weapons such as tanks and poisonous gas were effective but
weren’t reliable. For example, tanks would usually break down within
four days of use.
The living conditions in the trenches were poor. The big dangers of
were rats, lice, diseases such as dysentery, the weather that caused
exposure and skin infections such as trench foot, shell shock that
meant that soldiers suffered mental breakdowns, and boredom due
to long wait between battles.
The attacking army would often use heavy artillery to bombard the
enemy trenches. This was intended to destroy barbed wire defences,
destroy enemy trenches, kill many soldiers and reduce survivors’
morale. The attacks could go on several days and when they
stopped thousands of men would go ‘over the top’ to attack enemy
trenches by food. Those who weren’t immediately shot would get
tangled in barbed wire when they reached the enemy trenches and
would then become easy targets for machine guns.
“One night we heard the cry of someone in excruciating pain; then all was
quiet again. Someone in his death agony, we thought. But an hour later the
cry came again. It never ceased the whole night. Nor the following night.
Naked and inarticulate the cry persisted. We could not tell whether it came
from the throat of German or Frenchman. Later we learned that that is was
one of our own men hanging on the wire. Nobody could do anything for
him; two men had already tried to save him, only to be shot themselves.”
An account by a German soldier.