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In 1917 and 1918, new types of weapons were fielded. They changed the face of warfare tactics and were later employed during World War II. The French introduced the CSRG 1915 Chauchat during Spring 1916 around the concept of "walking fire", employed in 1918 when 250,000 weapons were fielded.
Hidden trenches to assemble for surprise attacks were dug, connected via tunnels for secure fallback. [4] In action, often barriers were used to prevent the enemy from pursuing. Roman legions entering the country soon learned to fear this warfare, as the ambushing of marching columns caused high casualties.
The terms used most frequently at the start of the war to describe the area between the trench lines included 'between the trenches' or 'between the lines'. [11] The term 'no man's land' was first used in a military context by soldier and historian Ernest Swinton in his short story "The Point of View". [ 1 ]
Western Front; Part of the European theatre of World War I: Clockwise from top left: Men of the Royal Irish Rifles, concentrated in the trench, right before going over the top on the First day on the Somme; British soldier carries a wounded comrade from the battlefield on the first day of the Somme; A young German soldier during the Battle of Ginchy; American infantry storming a German bunker ...
A preserved World War 1 fighting tunnel in the Vimy sector. Between October 1915 and April 1917 an estimated 150 French, British and German charges were fired in this 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) sector of the Western Front. [34] The tunnelling companies of the Royal Engineers progressively took over from the French between February and May 1916.
The front line had been increased from one trench line to a position of three lines 150–200 yards (140–180 m) apart, the first trench (Kampfgraben) occupied by sentry groups, the second (Wohngraben) for the bulk of the front-trench garrison and the third trench for local reserves. The trenches were traversed and had sentry-posts in concrete ...
Raiders were aware that the longer they stayed in the trench, the greater the likelihood of enemy reinforcements arriving. Grenades would be thrown into dugouts where enemy troops were sleeping before the raiders left the enemy lines to return to their own. There was a risk that returning raiders could be shot in so-called friendly fire incidents.
The majority of trench maps were to a scale of 1:10,000 or 1:20,000, although trench maps also frequently appeared on a scale of 1:5,000 (maps printed on a large scale such as 1:5,000, were generally meant for use in assaults). In addition, the British army also printed maps on scales smaller than 1:20,000, such as 1:40,000 and 1:100,000, but ...