Aspects of Trench Warfare
1.
Trenches were built in an attempt to continue the war as both sides had reached a stalemate. There was a rush for the sea and then they found nothing else could happen so they dug in. The resulting trench system on the Western Front not only covered the equivalent of 25,000 miles (enough to encircle the world) but also stretched non-stop from Belgium to Switzerland. To explain the main features of trench warfare we must look at all the points the trench design, the modern technology etc.
Trenches were designed in a specific way. They were built in a zigzag fashion to accommodate for bombs destroying them. If a bomb did hit them then only a corner of the
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The lice and the rats ate away at the bodies. This was bad as it caused disease from unhealthy living conditions for the soldiers. Conditions during attacks were even worse. Men were killed as they were trying to go over the top. The noise of the artillery fire was deafening and could even be heard in London. This caused many men to have shell shock. The Germans in 2nd battle of Ypres first used the gas. Many men died from gas attacks, the gas would fill their lungs with fluid until they slowly drowned in the fluid. Over the top attacks were even worse soldiers would fix bayonets and wait for the whistle from officers, aware that minutes later they stood a good chance of being killed. At the whistle, they would climb over the trenches and advance into no-man's land facing a hail of machine gun fire and shells. Almost all attacks were awful failures, with mass slaughter being the result. Some were killed outright; others would take days to die from their horrific injuries, lying alone in the mud.
Technology was a main part of trench warfare. Heavy artillery gave many men shell shock. It was generally used for creeping barrages when it would fire just in front of the men creeping forwards to try and get into the enemy trenches. For four years the British had been using artillery and firing 170 million shells in that time. For years, German scientists were developing the biggest
Trenches were long, narrow ditches dug into the ground where soldiers lived day and night. There were many lines of German trenches on one side and many lines of the trenches on the allied side. In the middle there was no-man’s land, so called because it didn’t belong to either army. Soldiers crossed no- man’s land when they wanted to attack. Soldiers in the trenches did not get much sleep, but when they did it was in the afternoon during daylight and at night for only 1 hour at a time. They were woken up at different times, either to complete one of the daily chores or the go to fight. The system of trenches was employed because a German commander, General Erich von Falkenhayn, decided that his troops must at all costs hold onto those parts of France and Belgium that Germany still occupied. Falkenhayn ordered his men to dig trenches that would provide them with protection from the advancing French and British troops. The Allies soon realised that they could not break through this line and they also began to dig trenches.
Trench warfare was adopted to maintain an area of land, to prevent the enemy from capturing that land. The importance of this investigation was to show the significance of trench warfare during the First World War and how effective it was on how it had prevented many full on, front lined, assaults. World War I could have had a great impact in history with the amount of war casualties, which would have been historically shocking, but instead it created the stalemate, which prevented such numbers of deaths from happening.
The grim reality of living in muddy, rat-infested trenches epitomizes the brutal and prolonged nature of this new form of combat. Soldiers endured constant peril from enemy fire, disease, malnutrition, and psychological trauma, locked in a deadly stalemate that exacted a heavy toll on both sides. In the document packet, document 4 talks about how trench warfare got very severe and how the introduction of new machinery changed warfare too when gasses were made and added into the fight. Its effect on the French was a violent nausea and faintness, followed by an utter collapse. It is believed that the Germans, who charged in behind the vapor, met no resistance at all, the French at their front being virtually paralyzed” This shows how trench warfare got extreme and soldiers were left injured in many ways if not
The long period that the soldiers had to spend within the trenches,normally because dirty rain flood,with soaked shoes in mud puddles,rats and decomposing bodies,caused the
The military technological advancements of trench warfare, poison gas, and tanks were just a few of the many important military innovations in the First World War. In WWI, the advent (no—trench warfare had existed since the American Civil War) of trench warfare slowed battles to vicious, bloody scraps over a few meters of ground, often lasting months and even years. Be sure you have a clear introduction on the AP exam. This is critical. Warfare in the nineteenth-century demanded the concentration of large masses of troops over open ground to compensate for the extremely inaccurate musket.
World War 1 also known as the Great War (1914-1918) started due to the assassination of the Hungary-Austria archduke Franz Ferdinand. The war was fought mainly on the “Western Front”. and was a war fought only by industrialized countries such as the UK and France. This war had a strong effect on technological advancement of the world as new inventions kept needing to be created to stop the stalemate between the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance. This essay will use source material to outline how the nature of trench warfare in particular affected these soldiers in a significant and long-term way.
During the Great War, many different types of trenches were used. This includes the frontline trenches, and the reserve trench. In the front
Adding to this point, when it came to weapons, the trenches were not a good protection. Gases could easily run into the trenches harming most soldiers. There was hardly anything to do about it because if they got out of their trenches they would obviously be shot down. Secondly, the soldiers themselves weren't all that happy most of the time.
Soon the machine gun became a defensive weapon rather than an offensive weapon, as it was used to stop offensive enemy troops across this no man’s land. Gas was used infinitely by both sides in an effort to triumph over the trenches. If any trench was taken by an opposing force, a succeeding trench was dug just meters behind the one taken, making advancements longstanding and difficult. In this process many troops lost their lives, more so than any other war.
During the Great War, many different types of trenches were used. This includes the frontline trenches, and the reserve trench. In the front
2. What were the main· features of trench warfare for the troops involved? What would happen to people who managed to live through this experience?
Trench warfare was a largely used tactic for fighting in WWI, 1914. Trenches are long, deep, narrow holes made in a complex, “zigzag” pattern, resembling that of a deep, elongated bunker (McCrackin). With trench warfare being so widely used, their growth allowed them to reach hundreds to thousands of miles all throughout Northern Europe. They were essentially a shield made from dirt walls reinforced with anything from sandbags to steel. They were usually protected by barbed wire and landmines.
Death by gas was a horrible thing. We learned this in class from the book that we heard about the effects of gas. You maintain consciousness until the very last five minutes in your life. You suffocate yourself for weeks on end with it getting harder and harder to breathe as the time passes. There was also lots of rain which caused lots of mud which soldiers would occasionally drown in.
The trench system on the Western Front consisted of front-line, support and reserve trenches. The three rows of trenches covered between 200 and 500 yards of ground. Communication trenches were dug at an angle to those facing the enemy. These trenches used to transport men equipment and food supplies.
During World War I, trench warfare was very common. It was a newer technique in battles as in wars prior to the Great World War, fighting was less invasive and men merely marched at each other from opposite ends of fields and fought until only one side remained standing or a white flag was hung high in surrender. In fact in older wars, the fighting was far less dangerous to the point where battles were often times viewed by locals who watched from side lines with really no threat of getting hurt. In World War I however, the fighting had upscaled to the most sadistic type the world had ever experienced. With the industrialist wave that had overcome us in the late 1800s into