Trenches and Weapons

Question 1

What are infantry?

Answer 1

Soldiers marching or fighting on foot; foot soldiers collectively

Question 2

What was a parados?

Answer 2

A mound of earth or sandbags that raised the height of the back of the trench which was designed to protect soldiers from shell explosions behind the trench

Question 3

What were lined along the floors in wet areas of trenches?

Answer 3

Duckboards

Question 4

What were Duckboards?

Answer 4

Boards consisting of a number of wooden slats joined together, placed so as to form a path over muddy ground or in a trench

Question 5

What is a parapet?

Answer 5

Similar to a parados but on the front side of a trench. It was meant to be bulletproof and was lined with sandbags, wooden planks or netting

Question 6

Why were trenches designed in traverses?

Answer 6

So that it would be harder to hit soldiers, stopping enemy infantry from firing along the trenches

Question 7

What were the main weapons used in WW1?

Answer 7

Rifles, Artillery, Shrapnel and Machine Guns

Question 8

What were the main parts of a trench system?

Answer 8

- The front line (contains the firing trench and the 
  supervision trench)
- Communication trenches 
- Support trenches
- Reserve trenches
- Saps

Question 9

What was the purpose of the fire and supervision trench?

Answer 9

The fire trench faced the enemy allowing the soldiers to peer over their side into no mans land

The supervision trench was used to move along the line behind the fire trench

Question 10

What were “Saps”?

Answer 10

Small trenches that pushed out into no man’s land

Question 11

What were support trenches?

Answer 11

Trenches around 60-90 metres from the front trench to protect it from shell bombardment, primarily made for reinforcements, and connected to the front trench via communication trenches so soldiers could retreat to it

Question 12

What were communication trenches?

Answer 12

Trenches that connected the trench lines to each other and to local roads and army depots behind the lines

Question 13

How many lines were there in an ideal trench system?

Answer 13

3

Question 14

What were reserve trenches?

Answer 14

Trenches around 350-550 metres behind the front line that were made of dugouts or lines of trenches. Reinforcements waited here so they could counter enemy attacks

Question 15

What were dugouts?

Answer 15

Shelters that protected 4 to 6 soldiers

Question 16

What Artillery weapon was developed by the British which could send 900kg shells over 12 miles?

Answer 16

The Howitzer

Question 17

What was the Howitzer?

Answer 17

An artillery weapon developed by the British which could send 900kg shells over 12 miles

Question 18

After what year did all rifles have automatic rapid fire?

Answer 18

1889

Bullets also started to have a more pointed shape to drive deeper into the skin

Question 19

Purpose of FANY

what does it stand for

Answer 19

• Moved injured soldiers through the “evacuation chain”
• Ran ambulance services called CONVOYS which transported soldiers back to boats or
  trains where the seriously ill could get away
• women were trained in first aid, veterinary skills, signalling and driving
• mainly worked as field ambulances moving wounded men between base hospitals, trauns
  (First Aid Nursing Yeomanry Corps)

Question 20

How did trench warfare affect transport networks?

Answer 20

Shelling and entrenchment damaged roads and terrains. The British used horse drawn and motor vehicles to move supplies, but the muddy and shell damaged terrain was often hard to navigate

The inadequacy of motor transport was cruelly exposed during the Somme campaign from July 1916 onwards. The combination of heavy rainfall, inadequately built roads and the pounding caused by large numbers of heavy lorries on narrow, solid-rubber tyres caused the supply lines literally to bog down in the mud

However, as the war ground down into static trench warfare it became easier for armies to support their troops with the use of the railway, especially for the artillery. This made the transportation of supplies easier and quicker to get from the factories to the front line.

Question 21

what were breastworks and how did they protect soldiers

Answer 21

sandbags full of clay