Sergeant J. Haddock, quoted in N. Jones, 'The War walk', 1983
This is an example of how desperate people were to get out of fighting, but it was clear that
when given the choice of losing their legs or their lives many would choose legs.
This is what the trenches looked like from overhead:
The trenches were made up of different sections, the front line trench was usually seven feet
deep and six feet wide as it was so deep there was a fire step so the soldiers could see over the
top of the trench and fire. The trenches were not built in a straight line; as if an enemy shell was
fired into a trench then it would explode outwards killing all the men in a straight line. If it was
not straight then only the men next to the to the shell would be killed or badly wounded.
Behind the front line were support and reserve trenches. The three rows of trenches covered
between 200 and 500 yards of ground. Between each of the trenches would be communication
trenches, which were used to transport men, food and equipment between the trenches.
To protect the trenches there was a long line of barbed wire. This was to stop the enemy
attacking on foot. As the trenches were built like this, nearly all the battles fought were
defensive.
This is an example of a German trench:
'Problems facing attacking troops' from Neil Demarco's The Great War
This drawing shows how well the German trenches were protected with many deep dugouts.
Some of the German trenches were made to stay where they were and had electricity and other
forms of energy.
Being in the front line was extremely dangerous and many of the casualties occurred in these
trenches. The soldiers didn't spend all their time in the trenches and they had a 16 day timetable.
Eight days were spent in the front line, four in the reserve trench and four in a rest camp a few
miles away. Many shells were fired into the trenches and would explode inside badly injuring
many soldiers each day. It was found that almost one third of all casualties occurred in the
trenches. It was not uncommon for a man to spend much more time in the front line and once
one regiment stayed there for 51 days at one time.
In front of the trenches was the barbed wire. The wire was often very tangled up and could not
be moved. It was often very underestimated in its strength as when the officers decided to go on
a major offensive they were often stopped by the barbed wire, and then shot by the enemy.
It is simply murder at this part of the line. There is one of our officers hanging on the German
barbed wire and a lot of attempts have been made to get him and a lot of brave men have lost
their lives in the attempt. The Germans know that we are sure to try and get him in so all they
have to do is to put two or three fixed rifles on to him and fire every few seconds - he must be
riddled with bullets by now: he was leading a bombing party one night and got fixed in the wire -
the raid was a failure.
Private Jack Sweeney, letter to girlfriend (May 1916)
This shows how effective the barbed wire was used. They were very hard to get through and
often very tangled. An example of this is the battle of the Somme. The British had planned a
very heavy bombardment of the German trenches and had believed that the Germans would all
be dead by the end of the bombardment. They marched forward finding all the barbed wire was
still standing and the Germans, still alive, launched a heavy attack on the British. The problem
with this was they had thought all the barbed wire would have been destroyed but the barbed
wire was almost indestructible without wire cutting tools.
"Who told them that artillery fire would pound such wire to pieces, making it possible to get
through? Any Tommy could have told them that shell fire lifts wire up and drops it down, often
in a worse tangle than before."
Arthur Coppard a soldier in the Somme
With many other poor judgements made by the officers many battles were lost without them
realising it. At the battle of the Somme, there was an argument for them approaching the
German trenches with a slow pace and that was because they had to carry with them so many
things.
"The necessity of crossing no man's land at a good pace was not discussed. Each man carried
66 lbs. - over half his body weight - which made it difficult to get out of a trench, impossible to
move much quicker than a low walk or to rise or lay down quickly."
B. H. Liddel Hart 'History of the first world war', 1972
When a soldier fought on the Western front he had to carry around with him:
? a rifle
? two mills grenades
? 220 rounds of ammunition
? a steel helmet
? wire cutters
? field dressing
? entrenching tool
? greatcoat
? two sandbags
? rolled ground sheet
? water bottle
? haversack
? mess tin
? towel
? shaving kit
? extra socks
? message book and
? preserved food rations
All of this took up 30 kg, a huge amount to carry on their backs. Making it nearly impossible to
move quickly at all
"We had two days' rations to take, and the 150 rounds of ammunition we always carry. I only
took an extra pair of socks, but I wished before I got back that I had taken three extra pairs.
We wore our great coats, with full equipment on top of this. Our mack we put on top of the
pack. Our water bottle was full and of course we carried our mess tin, also mug and cutlery.
The one blanket we were allowed to take was rolled in the ground sheet, and slung like a horse
collar round our necks. I carried in addition my pocket primus, and a tin of paraffin, two small
tins of Heinz baked beans, vaseline, a tommy's cooker and a tin of re-fill; a pair of gloves,
mittens and a muffler. Beside this, we carried our rifle. I wish you could have seen us. We
looked like animated old clothes shops."
Private Kenneth Garry, Letter to mother ( January 1916)
As it is shown in this letter, the conditions were much worse in the wintertime as they were very
cold almost all of the time. They also had to walk across much of the land in this condition:
No Man's Land at Passchendaele in 1917
This poor terrain slowed the soldiers down a great deal.
The development of new weapons in the war was huge. The most effective were machine guns,
barbed wire and gases.
The machine guns were used very frequently in the war as they could fire a huge amount of
ammunition very quickly. At first the British didn't think much of it but when the German's used it
straight away it had a big effect on the war and shortly after every battle was full of machine gun
fire.
Gas was one of the most deadly of the weapons as in the instance of mustard gas the gas had
no smell at all and it took twelve hours to take effect. Other gases were used to great effect as
well. Chlorine and phosgene gas were the other gases used. This table shows how lethal the
gases were.