Shell-proof dugouts became a high priority.[30]. In the Battle of Dien Bien Phu (March 13May 8, 1954), which resulted in the French expulsion from Indochina, the communist-led Viet Minh used classic 18th-century siege methods and drove forward an elaborate system of trenches to negate the effects of French artillery and airpower, preparatory to the battle. The sides of the trench were often revetted with sandbags, wire mesh, wooden frames and sometimes roofs. [89] The Japanese caused the American advance to slow down and caused massive casualties with these underground fixed positions. Large salients were perilous for their occupants because they could be assailed from three sides. The guidelines for British trench construction stated that it would take 450 men 6 hours at night to complete 250m (270yd) of front-line trench system. Mustard gas was not as fatal as phosgene, but it was hard to detect and lingered on the surface of the battlefield, so could inflict casualties over a long period. After some relatively ineffectual use in 1914, it was decided to withdraw flamethrowers from frontline service. According to the semi-biographical war novel All Quiet on the Western Front, many soldiers preferred to use a sharpened spade as an improvised melee weapon instead of the bayonet, as the bayonet tended to get "stuck" in stabbed opponents, rendering it useless in heated battle. The first, or front, line of trenches was known as the outpost line and was thinly held by scattered machine gunners distributed behind dense entanglements of barbed wire. This ensured that parasites (and diseases) would spread onto rations and food sources that would then be eaten by other soldiers.[60]. Pioneered by the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry in February 1915,[51] trench raids were carried out in order to capture prisoners and "booty"letters and other documents to provide intelligence about the unit occupying the opposing trenches. In the conflict in the Donets Basin (2014 ), the relatively static contact line between Ukrainian government troops and Russian-backed forces led to the establishment of a system of trenches that covered much of the 250-mile (400-km) front. These trenches can stretch for many miles and make it nearly impossible for one side to advance. The increases in firepower had outstripped the ability of infantry (or even cavalry) to cover the ground between firing lines, and the ability of armour to withstand fire. Used by American soldiers in the Western front, the pump action shotgun was a formidable weapon in short range combat, enough so that Germany lodged a formal protest against their use on 14 September 1918, stating "every prisoner found to have in his possession such guns or ammunition belonging thereto forfeits his life", though this threat was apparently never carried out. At the "Quinn's Post" in the cramped confines of the Anzac battlefield at Gallipoli, the opposing trenches were only 15 metres (16yd) apart and the soldiers in the trenches constantly threw hand grenades at each other. Another benefit was that if a soldier could get close enough to the trenches, enemies hiding in trenches could be attacked. This greatly slowed advances, making it impossible for either side to achieve a breakthrough that would change the war. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/topic/trench-warfare, National Park Service - Training for Trench Warfare, National WWI Museum and Memorial - Trench Warfare, National Center for Biotechnology Information - PubMed Central - Trench Conflict with Combatants and Infectious Disease, trench warfare - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up), American Civil War: Union soldiers in trenches, PetersburgRichmond theatre of operations. In 1914, 12% of wounded British soldiers developed gas gangrene, and at least 100,000 German soldiers died directly from the infection. Trench warfare is resorted to when the superior firepower of the defense compels the opposing forces to dig in so extensively as to sacrifice their mobility in order to gain protection. The fundamental strategy of trench warfare in World War I was to defend one's own position strongly while trying to achieve a breakthrough into the enemy's rear. Trenches in WWI were constructed with sandbags, wooden planks, woven sticks, tangled barbed wire or even just stinking mud. The Germans actively pursued a strategy of attrition in the Battle of Verdun, the sole purpose of which was to "bleed the French Army white". A typical trench system included a line of three or four trenches: the front line (also called the outpost or the fire line), the support trench, and the reserve trench, all built parallel to one another and anywhere from 100 to 400 yards apart. The attacking force would have to advance with not only the weapons required to capture a trench but also the toolssandbags, picks and shovels, barbed wireto fortify and defend from counter-attack. Early land warfare tactics included the use of cover, charges and counterattacks. The British eventually adopted a similar approach, but it was incompletely implemented when the Germans launched the 1918 Spring Offensive and proved disastrously ineffective. Ruapekapeka is often considered to be the most sophisticated and technologically impressive by historians. This was a scale of violence unknown in any previous war. In World War I, British and Commonwealth forces relied on wire cutters, which proved unable to cope with the heavier gauge German wire. Trenches were often used in both sides[84][85] particularly the Nationalists whose military ground doctrine employs static defence. They also significantly increased the number of machine guns per battalion. Behind the front system of trenches there were usually at least two more partially prepared trench systems, kilometres to the rear, ready to be occupied in the event of a retreat. Soldiers carried specialised weapons, like knives and knuckledusters, during these raids, but . There are examples of trench digging as a defensive measure during the Middle Ages in Europe, such as during the Piedmontese Civil War, where it was documented that on the morning of May 12, 1640, the French soldiers, having already captured the left bank of the Po river and gaining control of the bridge connecting the two banks of the river, and wanting to advance to the Capuchin Monastery of the Monte, deciding that their position wasn't secure enough for their liking, then choose to advance on a double attack on the trenches, but were twice repelled. [15][16], The Crimean War (18531856) saw "massive trench works and trench warfare",[17] even though "the modernity of the trench war was not immediately apparent to the contemporaries".[18]. The problems of trench warfare were recognised, and attempts were made to address them. ", Early in the war, the term referred to what was believed to be the result of an actual physical injury to the nervous system, brought about by exposure to constant shelling. During trench raids, soldiers would aim to kill the enemy, take prisoners and gather information. [56] Even after the Great War had ended, disabled veterans in Britain attributed their decreasing quality of life to trench fever they had sustained during wartime. The smaller numerical difference in mortar rounds, as opposed to howitzer rounds, is presumed by many to be related to the expanded costs of manufacturing the larger and more resource intensive howitzer rounds. Not only did these unsanitary conditions contribute to the spread of disease, they also attracted an enemy despised by both sidesthe lowly rat. Western Front 191418. Despite these strategies, the nature of trench warfare made it almost impossible for either army to overtake the other. Equally it could be used as light artillery in bombarding distant trenches. [61] Mandatory routine (daily or more often) foot inspections by fellow soldiers, along with systematic use of soap, foot powder, and changing socks, greatly reduced cases of trench foot. During World War I, trench warfare was a defensive military tactic used extensively by both sides, allowing soldiers some protection from enemy fire but also hindering troops from readily advancing and thus prolonging the war. This outbreak resulted in approximately 2.5 million recorded deaths, 100,000 of them being Red Army soldiers. As terrible as the sights and smells were for the men to endure, the deafening noises that surrounded them during heavy shelling were terrifying. After German loss at Marne in September 1914, both . Daniels, Patricia E. "History of Trench Warfare in World War I." Artillery was the real killer, accounting for 60 percent of all deaths and injuries during the first three years of the war. Final Report Of The War Office Trench Fever Investigation Committee", "The impact of infectious disease in war time: a look back at WW1", "Intestinal Parasites in First World War German Soldiers from "Kilianstollen", Carspach, France", "Trench foot: The medical response in the first World War 191418", "Trench Foot A study in Military-Medical Responsiveness in the Great War, 19141918", "Infectious agents as a security challenge: Experience of typhus, variola and tularemia outbreaks in Serbia", "Typhus and its control in Russia, 18701940", "From shell shock and war neurosis to posttraumatic stress disorder: a history of psychotraumatology", "Battle for the mind: World War 1 and the birth of military psychiatry", "The Deterrent Effect of the Death Penalty? Their aim was to find a way to avoid as many unnecessary casualties as possible. They cleared surviving enemy personnel from recently overrun trenches and made clandestine raids into enemy trenches to gather intelligence. The French Army fielded a ground version of the Hotchkiss Canon de 37mm used by the French Navy. More than 80,000 of the best shooters received the semi-automatic RSC 1917 rifle, allowing them to rapid fire at waves of attacking soldiers. Frontal assaults, and their associated casualties, became inevitable because the continuous trench lines had no open flanks. The Republicans also employ the use of trenches, but also human wave attacks most notably during their defence of Casa de Campo in the Siege of Madrid. The trenches were inhabitated by millions of rats which were often responsible for the spread of diseases. The point at which a communications trench intersected the front trench was of critical importance, and it was usually heavily fortified. Two undetonated mines remained in the ground near Messines, with their location mislaid after the war. [53] Even if a soldier was not hit directly by the artillery, shell fragments and debris had a high chance of wounding those in close proximity to the blast. [58] After rapid advances in medical procedures and practices, the incidence of gas gangrene fell to 1% by 1918. In April 1915, chlorine gas was first used by Germany at the Second Battle of Ypres. Classic trench warfare reappeared in the Iran-Iraq War (198088), a basically static war in which such mobile weapons as tanks and aircraft were in short supply. It was during these daytime hours that the soldiers would amuse themselves with trench magazines. [62] In 1918, US infantry were issued with an improved and more waterproof 'Pershing boot' in an attempt to reduce casualties from trench foot. Soldiers shot them out of disgust and frustration, but the rats continued to multiply and thrived for the duration of the war. The Germans and Turks were well equipped with grenades from the start of the war, but the British, who had ceased using grenadiers in the 1870s and did not anticipate a siege war, entered the conflict with virtually none, so soldiers had to improvise bombs with whatever was available (see Jam Tin Grenade). By the end of World War I, trench warfare had become the very symbol of futility; thus, it has been a tactic intentionally avoided by modern-day military strategists in favor of movement, surveillance, and airpower. Minutes before the attack on Vimy Ridge the Canadians thickened the artillery barrage by aiming machine guns indirectly to deliver plunging fire on the Germans. Trenchmen were trained to dig with incredible speed; in a dig of three to six hours they could accomplish what would take a normal group of frontline infantry soldiers around two days. Trenches were also places of despair, becoming long graves when they collapsed from the weight of the war. The architect of the plan was Salman the Persian who suggested digging a trench to defend Medina. Mortars had certain advantages over artillery such as being much more portable and the ability to fire without leaving the relative safety of trenches. Trenches remained merely a part of siegecraft until the increasing firepower of small arms and cannon compelled both sides to make use of trenches in the American Civil War (186165). Life in the trenches was nightmarish, aside from the usual rigors of combat. [12] British casualties, such as at Gate Pa in 1864 and the Battle of Ohaeawai in 1845, suggested that contemporary weaponry, such as muskets and cannon, proved insufficient to dislodge defenders from a trench system. Both sides concentrated on breaking up enemy attacks and on protecting their own troops by digging deep into the ground. On the Western Front, Ypres was invariably hellish, especially for the British in the exposed, overlooked salient. Heavy shelling quickly destroyed the network of ditches and water channels which had previously drained this low-lying area of Belgium. World War I popularized the use of the machine guncapable of bringing down row after row of soldiers from a distance on the battlefield. On the Eastern Front and in the Middle East, the areas to be covered were so vast, and the distances from the factories supplying shells, bullets, concrete and barbed wire so great, trench warfare in the West European style often did not occur. Heavy machine guns required teams of up to eight men to move them, maintain them, and keep them supplied with ammunition. Both countries often prepared entrenched defensive positions and tunnels to protect and supply the cities and bases throughout the regions. Kansas City, MO 64108 USA [37], Various mechanical devices were invented for throwing hand grenades into enemy trenches. This vulnerability, and the length of the front to be defended, soon led to frontline trenches being held by fewer men. In the 21st century trench warfare was utilized in both the Syrian Civil War and the Russian-backed conflict in eastern Ukraine. Amid a heavy barrage, dozens of shells per minute might land in the trench, causing ear-splitting (and deadly) explosions. Trench walls collapsed, rifles jammed, and soldiers fell victim to the much-dreaded "trench foot." [96] In less than three hours after the initial assault, US and coalition forces had already broken through and bypassed the Saddam line and the rest of war was composed by highly mobile manoeuvre warfare focusing on overwhelming power against the Iraqis.[97][96]. [111], World War I generals are often portrayed as callously persisting in repeated hopeless attacks against trenches. Entrenching, where a man would stand on the surface and dig downwards, was most efficient, as it allowed a large digging party to dig the full length of the trench simultaneously. Trench warfare was utilized by opposition forces in the Syrian Civil War (2011 ) until Russian airpower, deployed in support of Syrian Pres. [24] After the buildup of forces in 1915, the Western Front became a stalemated struggle between equals, to be decided by attrition. Military technology of the time included important innovations in machine guns, grenades, and artillery, along with essentially new weapons such as submarines, poison gas . Members of the raiding parties armed themselves with rifles, knives, and hand grenades. The role of artillery in an infantry attack was twofold. Trenches were never straight but were dug in a zigzagging or stepped pattern, with all straight sections generally kept less than a dozen metres. Origins Trench warfare is a form of static, defensive warfare. [105][106], Trench warfare has become a powerful symbol of the futility of war. While the British military was the first to use whistles in the trenches of WWI, the use . Despite the use of wooden plank duckboards and sandbags to keep out the water, soldiers on the front lines lived mired in mud. The sheer quantity of bullets and shells flying through the air in the battle conditions of that war compelled soldiers to burrow into the soil to obtain shelter and survive. They usually dug or repaired in groups of four with an escort of two armed soldiers. The second aim was to protect the attacking infantry by providing an impenetrable "barrage" or curtain of shells to prevent an enemy counter-attack. The pervading precipitation created other difficulties. The popular image of a trench assault is of a wave of soldiers, bayonets fixed, going "over the top" and marching in a line across no man's land into a hail of enemy fire. [41] After 1915, the Maschinengewehr 08 was the standard issue German machine gun; its number "08/15" entered the German language as idiomatic for "dead plain". Trench warfare becomes necessary when two armies face a stalemate, with neither side able to advance and overtake the other. The Western Allies in 1944 broke through the incomplete Atlantic Wall with relative ease through a combination of amphibious landings, naval gunfire, air attack, and airborne landings.