today we're looking at trench warfare of world war one
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you'll find more resources that go with many of the bell ringer videos in the early stages
of world war one both sides the allied powers and central powers were confident in victory
however as the war began during the summer of 1914 both sides experienced enormous casualties
and soon fighting especially on the western front wore down to a stalemate by the winter of 1914
both sides began to fortify or strengthen their position by digging trenches trench warfare is
a form of combat in which soldiers attack each other from deep trenches dug into the earth the
use of trenches in combat can be traced all the way back to the ancient romans but most recently
prior to world war 1 trench warfare had been used by both the union and confederate forces
during the american civil war most notably at the siege of vicksburg and then at petersburg
as the civil war came to a close but since the end of the civil war in 1865 the technology of war had
moved forward at a deadly rate the development of machine guns poison gas grenades and motorized
tanks made military tactics of previous wars obsolete trenches offered some protection to
troops as they used these weapons of war against one another in the wake of the battle of marn in
early september of 1914 both allied and central power troops began digging trenches eventually
the system of trenches would stretch over 450 miles from the english channel to the swiss alps
most trenches were dug about nine feet deep and about three to six feet wide they were not dug
in a straight line and would zigzag as it was believed that a straight line of trenches would
be easily flanked where the enemy could easily capture one end of the trench and then sweep down
the line so by creating several turns and angles it made the trench more defendable furthermore
there were typically three lines of trenches in many of the positions along the line there
would be a front line trench located sometimes as close as 30 or 40 yards from the enemy a
support trench a few hundred yards back and then a reserved trench back a few hundred more yards
as a result of all these different lines it's estimated that during world war one that if all of
the trenches dug were laid end to end they would stretch more than thirty thousand miles there were
several different methods to digging the trench first was the most obvious which was digging
straight down this was known as entrenching the problem with entrenching was it was the most
dangerous as it left soldiers completely exposed to enemy fire while trying to establish a trench
another method was tunneling in which soldiers would dig a tunnel and remove then remove the top
this was the safest method as soldiers were not exposed to fire while digging once the trench was
dug out many times steps were added to allow soldiers to fire at the enemy barbed wire and
other barriers would be placed at the top of the embankment of the trench sandbags wooden planks
and bricks would be added to try to reinforce the walls of the trench trenches were constantly under
construction and repair as one of the biggest problems soldiers faced with trenches was water
since the trench was dug deep in the ground water would constantly be collecting in the bottom and
causing the trench to erode trenches were known to be muddy and damp messes that caused all kinds of
physical ailments for the soldiers that spent days and weeks in the trench one of the most
common ailments was trench foot which was caused by soldiers having their feet exposed to cold and
wet conditions for long periods of time causing the tissue around their feet to die in many cases
soldiers had to have amputations to stop the spread of trench foot along with the miserable
conditions in the trenches was the problem of lice and rats that spread throughout the trenches the
area in between the enemy trenches became known as no man's land the area which was usually less than
a few hundred yards was strewn with barbed wire and land mines crossing this area was obviously
extremely dangerous especially during the day when the enemy could easily see movement across no
man's land so most offensives took place at night as troops would sneak across the divide and then
most attacks occurred early in the morning these trenches grinded world war one to a standstill
as making successful attacks and gaining any ground against these fortified positions was
almost next to impossible so with that hopefully you learned something and thanks for watching
you