One of the most enduring symbols of the First World War is that of the trenches, especially
those on the Western Front, although there were trenches on all fronts. We did a special
episode over a year ago about the trenches, how they were constructed, and what life was
like in them. But since tomorrow is the centennial of the first day of the Battle of Verdun where
carnage on the Western Front is going to reach new levels, we are starting a new small series
exploring the trenches from a different perspective: Today I’m talking about trench warfare and
close quarters combat.
I’m Indy Neidell; welcome to a Great War special episode about trench warfare in World War 1.
The stalemate of trench warfare began in the fall of 1914 on the Western Front, after the
German advance was halted at the Battle of the Marne and the “race to the sea” ended
the last chance for the two sides to outflank each other. The stopping power of the machine
gun had made unsupported infantry and cavalry charges obsolete, and a man in a hole in the
ground was about as safe as you could get in modern war, although trenches and foxholes
had been a part of warfare since the first use of ranged weapons. But the war would not
be won until the stalemate was broken. Until someone broke through the trenches.
And even though most deaths occurred in the slaughterhouse of no-mans land, there were
battles throughout the war that hinted that it was indeed possible to break the enemy’s
trench system. At Neuve-Chappelle early in 1915, the British broke through to the German
trench lines where guns were fired at point blank range, where soldiers hacked at each
other with bayonets, sharpened spades, knives, clubs, anything!
Anyway. Neuve-Chapelle, where the carnage was going strong in the German trenches. And where hand grenades killed both friend
and foe. Many of the officers were killed in the attack, and green NCOs who knew nothing
of close combat had to lead the remnants of their nervous and exhausted troops through
an unknown trench system. Confusion, terror, and hesitation reigned as the German counter
offensive began. Thing is, nobody really knew what to do. The British further back didn’t
know if the advance troops were alive or if they’d taken the trenches, they didn’t
know how many reserves to send and where to send them. Artillery wasn’t going to be
much help without communication with the attacking soldiers. It was clear that close combat in
the trenches needed to be studied.
And think of the conditions. The modern battlefield was LOUD.
Men had to scream into each other's ears over the incessant gunfire and explosions. Bodies
were mutilated; limbs were torn off. It was combat on a scale of carnage that the world
had never seen before, and much as the machine gun was the symbol of death in no-mans land,
the hand grenade would become the symbol of death in the trenches. It could kill and wound
whole groups of enemies at once and with a range of only 40 meters or so, the hand-grenade
was especially deadly in the close combat scenarios of trench warfare. The British Expeditionary
Force had around 40 grenades a week at their disposal in 1914; by 1916 they would have
800,000 Mills bombs weekly.
Lieutenant Walter Ambrosselli describes in his diary how a well-placed grenade could
massacre whole squads.
“As we forced our way through the deep narrow trench, what a horrible sight met our eyes!
(…) On the top a corpse without a head or a torso, and underneath some who were still
alive, though with limbs torn off or horribly mutilated, they looked at us with bleeding,
mournful eyes. The crying and moaning of these poor, doomed enemy soldiers went to our hearts.
We couldn't get out of the trench to avoid this pile of bodies. However much our hearts
shrank from trampling over them with our hob-nailed boots, we were forced to do it!“
You might try trickery to gain an advantage.
At Gommencourt in 1915, the Germans evacuated their first line of trenches, and when the
British entered the trenches, German artillery cut them off from reinforcements, leading
to a bloody trench battle between the German 2 Garde reserves and the Queen Victoria Fusiliers,
Scots Guards, and Westminster Fusiliers. The fighting ended when the British had used all
available ammunition and grenades, including that taken from dead friend and foe, and the
order was given to retreat. Of the 856 British soldiers who had attacked, only 266- many
seriously wounded- made it back to the shell holes of no-mans land.
By mid-1915, close quarter aggression was now, as Tony Ashworth wrote, “an integral
part of the trench war technology, of which the skills and rationale were taught at high
command schools and published in official texts.” A trench raid was now a complex
tactic that needed the coordination of different weapon specialists who could perform trench
warfare on a professional level.
Initially, there were improvised training groups, usually volunteers, but as raiding
tactics proved successful against enemy trench systems, the groups themselves became more
and more specialized. Raiders were now hand picked and were given special privileges like
better rations or more days off because of the dangers they faced. The Canadians, as
an example, put together their raiding troops in different sections, like assault-teams;
artillery-groups, trench-mortar-squads, and so on to maximize their effectiveness. The
aim of the raiding group was to inflict the maximum amount of damage in a short amount
of time, mostly only minutes. They would sneak up, usually at night, kill the sentries silently
if possible and then attack the enemy position with a flurry of grenades. The surprise attack
would shatter the enemy into confusion.
But it was the Germans who were the first to give their raiding parties an overall tactic
and organization. They called it „Sturmkompanie“ or „Stoßtrupps“- these were the stormtroopers
- we will talk about them and the development in equipment and tactics in the 2nd part of
this small special series. But in short:
Handpicked soldiers from different weapon-groups would join together to form small attack teams.
These teams would undergo special small-group tactics training and exercises behind the
frontlines. Like the raiding groups, their job was to invade the enemy trench, do as
much damage and collect as much information and prisoners as possible, and to get out
again. They were specialized in trench combat, which more often than not meant fighting with
clubs, small arms, or bayonets, and of course the hand grenade and rifle grenade, which
they carried in large numbers.
“The first attackers were into the trench long before the mist lifted. (…) In a moment
we were all mixed up in hand-to-hand fighting. I had two men coming at me with their bayonets,
one of whom I think I shot with my revolver, while a sergeant standing just behind me shot
the other at point-blank range with his rifle barrel over my shoulder. But almost at the
same second a German stick bomb came whistling into the trench from the parapet right into
the bunch of us, and killed or wounded practically the whole lot of us – English and German
alike. (…) Before they attacked again they brought up some trench mortars and knocked
seven bells out of us – then swarmed into the trench. By that time there were only a
handful of us left on our feet and all I suppose wounded. I got another wound from a stick
bomb, which put a bit of metal into my thigh. Before I collapsed I tried to give the surrender
signal, and hope I succeeded thereby in saving a few lives. We had done our best.“ Captain
Charles Miller.
And as the war progressed, the raiding groups on all sides became more and more effective,
which meant more and more deadly.
Some saw raiding troops as elite groups embracing the reality of combat; others saw them as
inhuman monsters, others still as heroes. Ernst Junger wrote, “One hears so often
the mistaken view that the infantry combat has sunk to an uninteresting mass slaughter.
On the contrary... wars are decided by the individual... The princes of the trench with
their hard, determined faces, foolhardy, so sinewy, supple jumping back and forth, with
sharp, bloodthirsty eyes, heroes who recalled no report. The trench battle is the bloodiest,
fiercest, most brutal of all, but it also has its men. Men who had grown in this hour
to unknown, swashbuckling fighters... Since there is no turning back and no mercy.”
Maybe they were all three, just men doing their job, monsters, and heroes. I certainly
can’t say, since neither I nor you have lived through the nightmare of trench warfare,
either as an attacker, raining death down upon a hopefully unsuspecting enemy, or in
your own trench, as death came to you and to your comrades and friends, and as your
death came, perhaps you saw your side counter attacking and driving the enemy from you trenches
and your final thought was that dozens of men had died on both sides, but nobody on
either side had gained an inch of territory.
This was just the first part of a small series where we explore the trenches and trench warfare
a bit more than we do in our regular episodes. You can click right here to check out Ian
and Karl over at InRangeTV. They just published a first video about World War 1 melee weapons
that were used in the trenches and generally explore historic and current firearms and
equipment on their show.
Tell us what you think about this episode and and what other specials you would like
to see. And if you want to help out with the research, get in contact with Flo on Facebook
or on our official website.
Don’t forget to subscribe. See you next time.