TRENCHES IN WORLD WAR 1
Trench Warfare was first introduced in the fourteenth century but the Great War it adopted again. It played an important role in the war. ... Trench Warfare is when opposing armed forces attack, counterattack, and defend from relatively permanent systems of trenches dug into the ground. The trenches are usually very close to one another. ... Trenches spread from east-west. Some of the enemy trenches were less than 30yards apart. Day by day the trenches were strengthened, expanded and deepened. Trenches were seen as temporary expedients. ... An area called no-man’s land, which could vary in width from yards to a mile, separated front line trenches. ... The Fire trenches went into no mans land. Communications trenches linked all the trenches. ... Trenches were not dug in straight lines. Otherwise, if the enemy had a successive offensive, and got into your trenches, they could shoot straight along the line. ... Each side protected their trenches with masses of barbed wire, sandbags and timber. Behind the trenches were the heavy guns of the artillery, designed to obliterate the enemy before an attack. ... German trenches had a highly developed trench system. ... The Germans made extensive use of a system of dugouts, cut into the firm chalk region, to improve both the strength and comfort of the trenches. The Germans used a system of right angled bays for their trenches while the French used zigzags. ... Therefore their trenches were not generally as well positioned; they dug them as close to the German lines as they could. ... World War one relied on irregular forces and unconventional methods of fighting to inflict damage. ... This was when soldiers climbed from their trenches to advance across no mans land. They would then try to take over the opposing sides trenches. ... The aim was to clear the trenches allowing troops to advance and take enemy position. ... French soldiers reported seeing yellow-green clouds drifting slowly towards the Allied trenches. ... One nurse described the death of one soldier who had been in the trenches during a chlorine gas attack. ... The most lethal of all the poisonous chemicals used during the war, it was almost odourless and took twelve hours to take effect. ... BRITISCH GAS CASUALTIES: 1914-1918 DEATHS NON-FATAL CHLORINE 1,976 164,457 MUSTARD 4,086 16,526 The conditions that the soldiers faced in the trenches were disease-infested and very unsanitary.