Trench Warfare Flashcards
What is Attrition?
Attrition is the process of reducing something’s strength or effectiveness through sustained attack or pressure i.e. wearing the other side down.
Battles rarely had decisive outcomes. The best commanders could hope for was capturing a couple of trenches at a time, or simply killing more enemy soldiers than the enemy killed theirs.
Life in the trenches varied wildly from the stress of heavy artillery bombardment to extreme boredom.
What is a Trench?
Trenches were long, narrow ditches dug into the ground where soldiers lived. They were made for defensive purposes.
Trench warfare developed because of the deadly machine gun and artillery fire. The sheer quantity of bullets and shells flying in battle conditions compelled soldiers to burrow into the soil to obtain shelter.
Main Layout of a Trench
Early aircraft to spot the approach of enemy troops
Barbed wire blocks approach of enemy troops
No Man’s Land.
The stretch between trenches that was churned up the wet weather and constant artillery bombardment
Front line dug outs provide some shelter and protection
Further back there are much deeper dugouts that could resist artillery fire. One German dug-out even had a grand piano!
Long range artillery round 10km behind the front lines
Front line trench- where the main line of soldiers waited behind
Support trench- where the 2nd line of soldiers waited
Machine gun nest- between the support and the backup trench
Reserve trench- the last resort to attack
Long range artillery round 10km behind the front lines
Soldiers Daily routine and conditions
Soldiers were made to get up the hour before crack of dawn, stood to and pointed their rifles at the enemy trench. Both sides relieved tensions by shooting at each other, however this rarely did any damage to the opposition. After this, they would eat breakfast brought up in containers and clean their weapons in shifts, making sure that only a certain number of men were cleaning weapons at any one time. Each person had assigned chores to maintain their trench section, such as pumping out water collected at the bottom of the trench. At dusk, they stood to again and prepared for an enemy attack. At night time, the soldiers would patrol no man’s land, and, if encountering the enemy, would have to fight, or repair trenches.
Free Time and Food
There was not much food, and it was pre-portioned. Many soldiers did not like the food they were given, and it majorly consisted of beef, bread, water and biscuits.
Warfare and casualties
28th September 1916: A terrible bombardment was started, it is simply awful to hear, as I write the guns are crashing, roaring and the din is like a collision of hundreds of bad thunderstorms. God knows what mothers are losing their sons now.
Many could not cope with the conditions, and mental as well as physical strain. There were many casualties
Disease and Pests
“These beggars is absolutely giving me, arrgh, they’re driving me mad! Problem is you get here in the trenches is that you get covered in lice. Cos what happens is they er, lay their eggs in the seams of your tunic and your breeches and then when they hatch, they latch onto you and they drink your blood, up to about 12 times a day. You can never really get rid of them either, you know and when they’ve bitten you, you want to scratch the bites and so you end up having big scabs and boils on your skin as well as having, having the trouble with the lice. When you go out of the line, you get what’s called deloused and er, they sort of fumigate your uniform while they stick you in this big barrel full of water and then disinfectant which turns the water white and er, burns you quite a bit. But er, it’s there to get rid of the lice. But to be honest with you, a bit like the rats they’re hardy beggars. You can never really get rid of them.”
Hardest Part of the Trenches for Soldiers
I think that the hardest part of trench life for the soldiers how the illnesses and sicknesses were magnified while in the trenches. I think this because the long periods of boredom would have been in pain, with lice and diseases that affected around 97 percent of the soldiers. Moreover, as everyone was in such close contact with one another, diseases were spread a lot more quickly.
