Trench Warfare

Trench warfare was a deadly combat tactic that was used during World War I. It created a deadlock throughout the whole war. When World War I started, there was much confusion.

Within one week of the first declaration of war, the whole world was scrambling to mobilize their military. No one knew how to prepare for the new war.

Trenches were ditches dug from the ground that were usually six to eight feet deep and broad enough to allow two soldiers to pass at the same time. The trench line of the Western Front, that is the Western Front of Germany, which it was called by all countries, was roughly 460 miles long, from the North eSouth of Europe.

Trench warfare was invented by an exhausted German army during World War I. They had been retreating from allied forces for days. Finally they were too tired to go on, and made a defense line to protect themselves from allied troops. The defense was inadequate. When the allies did not come, the Germans were delighted and used the time to entrench themselves on September 14, 1914 in the ground, but the trenches that they made could still be "turned," because it was still possible to reach the end of the trench line, allowing allied forces to enter the trench through an unprotectable spot This ultimately led to a trench race across Europe from sea to sea to turn the enemy flanks. This created the Western Front.

There were three main lines of trenches on each side, along with smaller trenches to connect the three, called communication trenches. The first trench was called the front line, the second, the support trench, and the third, the reserve trench. Men from the front line that are off-duty go to the support trenches.

The main reason that trenches created a deadlock was because of the space between opposing forces' trenches, no-man's land. This area was usually between 30 meters and 1.7 kilometers, and was riddled with barbed wire so that soldiers could not cross easily, and could definitely could carry out surprise attacks easily. The procedure for attacking would be to bombard enemy trenches with artillery fire, and then yell "over the top," and charge to the opposite side of no-man's land with other soldiers under the same command.

Artillery fire rarely took out enemy front lines effectively, so when troops charged, machine guns would take out wave after wave of soldiers, and even if some soldiers made it to the enemy trench, their strength would not be adequate