What was life like for fighting men on the Western Front?

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What was life like for the fighting men on the Western Front?

1.        The trench systems were built during World War I along the confrontation line between the Germans and the Allies they were fighting.  This style of fighting developed really because of the developments in weapons and explosives, particularly the machine gun and high explosive shells, that made it impossible to win a battle in the same Napoleonic style of formed infantry squares, artillery/canons and cavalry as had been the case in the 19th Century.  The trenches started from the North Sea and ended at the Swiss frontier. The Triple Entente (France, Great Britain and Russia) controlled 425 miles of trenches.  The British were in charge of 125 miles and this was the hardest because it was beyond Paris this was where the Germans wanted to take over. A typical British trench was approximately three foot wide and six foot deep.  The German trenches however were twelve feet deep. The trenches were also known as “the suicide hole” by many of the soldiers.  The trenches all had a fire step and this was used to stand on and fire when the enemy attacked.  Soldiers would climb up the side of the trench onto the step and shoot.  It was said that if you exposed your head over the top of the trench, your life expectancy was just two seconds. Soon after they realised the amount of people dying they invented a fake head made up of papier-mâché.  It was put on a stick and waved over the top of the trench. The German snipers thought it was a soldier so they shot at it.  Once it had been hit, the Allies would then use it to fire back through the hole that had just been made and this was very effective. In front of the trench, often in an area known as ‘no-man’s land’, was barbed wire to stop the enemy from getting into the trench. Amongst the barbed wire were paths where the soldiers could patrol and attack through. Tin cans were then attached to the barbed wire and these were used as a burglar alarm.  If a soldier heard the can rattling he would pick up his rifle and shoot in the direction of the noise.  This was very dangerous for the people who were fixing the barbed wire as they were often shot at. The trenches were arranged in a zigzag formation this was done so that if an enemy would get into the trench they could not fire at them in a straight line. There were different types of trenches all for different things:

Communications Trench.  A communications trench was used as a route to all of the trenches and it was also used to drag the dead men back from the battle field to the casualty trench.  Such trenches were also used to carry weapons and equipment from one trench to the other.

Front Line Trench.  Front line trenches were the largest of all the trenches.  They were six feet deep and six feet wide. Sandbags were lined up along the top of the trench and filled with stones to absorb enemy bullets.

In the frontline were different brigades and regiments.  There were normally grouped in fours, with two placed in the front and the other two were put into reserve. Once their time at the front line was finished, the regiments moved to the rear and soldiers were able to write letters home etc. The soldiers were all at some part of the day on patrol.  Often they were sent out to no man’s land.  Some of them had to fix barbed wire and others were sent out to listening posts waiting to hear information coming from the enemy trenches. Often patrolling men from both teams would meet in no man’s land; they would either run for their trench or have close combat, hand to hand fighting. The patrolling men could not use pistols on patrol because this would attract attention to them and would be shot down with machine guns as a result.  

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As you can see from the diagram below, the trench layout system was very well thought out by both sides.  You can now see how the trenches worked.  The trenches in the World War I started as basic lines at key positions and locations, but then developed into a large labyrinth of trenches and tunnels as the war dragged on and men needed to take shelter from the artillery and machine gun fire.    

2.        The weapons used in the fighting during Wold ...

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