Effectiveness of Trench Warfare - Essay Example

Trench warfare was a kind of combat used primarily in the 19th and early 20th centuries to shelter soldiers from small arms, and to a large degree, artillery fire. The protection trenches provided to infantry soldiers made the form of warfare effective in the face of heavy gunfire. Trench warfare developed in this period in response to technological advances in firepower, especially in World War I. However, similar technological advances in mobility of infantry left the ground soldiers vulnerable to open field attacks. Therefore, the defensive position of trenches made for this new kind of warfare to be particularly effective in limiting risk on the field of battle. Trench warfare usually left both sides to dig elaborate dugout systems, protected from assault by barbed wire. Wars in which trenches were used quite often are frequently called by historians “wars by attrition”, meaning that they were fought and won by whoever lost the fewest number of troops in battle, and not solely by strategy. In many ways, World War I was a mirror image of the American Civil War nearly 50 years previously, complete with heavy weaponry, mass casualties, and trench warfare. War historians have argued that there are two primary reasons for the rise of trenches in the new battlefield. First, they point to technological advances in small arms and artillery technology, such as the new rifles being produced in America and Europe around the turn of the 19th century. Although a novelty in the 19th century as hand-cranked, automatic machine guns had become ubiquitous on both sides in World War I. Second, limits in troop mobility kept large numbers of troops from avoiding the enemy. For the first time in history, fronts could be held for months and years at a time due to trains. In World War I, this new kind of warfare came full circle with a continuous 500-mile front flowing across Europe. Combined with barbed wire, invented in 1874, trenches became enormously effective tools for building fortification along a huge space, and limits in enemy mobility made these trenches impenetrable Trenches were primarily used in World War I as a defensive system. Trench systems were typically built in sets of three parallel trenches, including a dedicated communications trench. The front trench was typically lightly fortified, and was supported by the middle trench that would serve as support for situations in which the first trench was lost. The third trench, almost 500 meters behind the second, was the reserve trench that the remaining soldiers would fall back to in case of retreat. As the war progressed and artillery measures were perfected, this trench model proved to be an ineffective defense strategy. Allied forces would consolidate the trenches into one, and use another trench (what was previously the support trench) as a decoy for the opposing forces. The Germans also built support trenches for retreats, as well as other redundant trenches, which eliminated the possibility of Allies breaking through their lines (Baker, 2007). Although trench warfare was largely a defensive strategy, and compensation for a lack of offensive mobility, there still existed trench-based approaches to offensive maneuvers. One such strategy was the building of temporary trenches during the planning of major attacks to offer troops a protected space for attacking troops following the first waves. These trenches, built in “no-man’s land” (the space in between major trenches), could be used as a base for a surprise attack (Baker, 2007). The German trench system was the basis of many of the Soviet’s infantry tactics. Obviously, trenches were vulnerable to any firearms and weapons that could arch a bullet or explosive device, such as an artillery shell or hand grenade. The Soviets knew that attacking the intersection points of communications trenches and the first trench line was the best chance for success. In that case, the soldiers would capture the first trench and use the communication trenches to seize the other German trenches, and thereby disrupting the entire defense system. Attacking the first trench destroyed much of the German artillery and allowed one’s own artillery to focus on the second and third trenches (U.S. War Department, 1944). For most soldiers, time served in the front trenches lasted from a couple days to a couple of weeks, depending on the environmental conditions and the condition of the war (Baker, 2007). Typically, a British soldier would spend no more than a quarter of his service year in the front-line trench, with a majority of his time actually in the reserve line or the support line. Soldiers would be required to participate in only a few heavy combat situations a year, whether to fortify a position against an attack or to make an attack or raid. In addition, the front trenches were not uniform in the degree of combat they saw, with some areas of the trenches receiving far more activities than others did. These areas were under the constant threat of sniper fire, poison gas, and artillery. Thus, it is an error to generalize the experience of some trench soldiers to all such soldiers living in the trenches (OConnor, 2005). The daily life of a soldier in the trenches was without a doubt difficult. One hour before the dawn, soldiers were awake to be on guard for the common dawn raid. At dawn, machine gunners would fire toward the enemy trenches either to test the weapons or to ward off the dawn raid, during which the soldiers would clean their rifles. Both sides would usually eat breakfast with a truce before the chores of the day began. Soldiers would have to refill sandbags, drain the trenches, prepare and clean latrines, and repair the boards on the floor of the trench. After the chores, soldiers could not move much because of sniper fire from enemy lines. Soldiers, without responsibilities at this time, would sleep, write letters, and produce so-called “trench art”, which is just ornaments produced by soldiers when they were bored. At dusk, the soldiers prepared again for possible raids. Because the darkness mitigated the risk of sniper fire, the trenches became bustling with activity: soldiers sought out water, food, and supplies and took part in sentry duty. Soldiers would have to make repairs to barbed wire barriers and patrol in no man’s land in the dark. Troop changes were also made under the cover of darkness (Duffy, 2009). Living conditions in the trenches were understandably bad. The floors of the trenches were unreliable duckboards, and men frequented the latrine, which was a common target for enemy snipers, and posed a considerable health hazard for men in the trenches. However, many of the living conditions varied widely between the activity the trench received in war, and with the time of year. The trenches were, however, always the scene of foulness due to the constrained living space. Discarded food, waste, the latrine, dirt, and a lack of hygiene created not only a sizeable odor throughout the year in the trench, but also a health risk. Rats and lice, two particularly common vermin in the trenches, commonly spread disease, along with the flies and maggots that often fed on the bodies in no man’s land (h2g2, 2007). In rain, the trenches were flooded; in snow, the trenches were frozen; in the sun, the trenches were baked. All of these conditions left soldiers grappling with frostbite, exposure, trench foot, and other diseases, not including the risks posed by the warzone itself. Ten percent of World War I trench combat soldiers were killed. Like the American Civil War, fatalities were high because of the lack of antibiotics and proper medical services, with about 44% of those soldiers with gangrene dead shortly after contraction (Hanlon, 1996). Shell shock posed a significant but unseen risk at the time, which incapacitated soldiers on the field. Sanitary conditions in the trenches led to diseases that served as the primary killer of the First World War. Common infections like typhus, cholera, dysentery, trench mouth, trench foot, and parasites often resulted from unsanitary practices like not burying the dead and not having changes in clothes for weeks. Taken in the context of the heavy fighting that often occurred on the front lines of the trenches, these conditions could not be underestimated in their effects on troop morale and sentiment. Living and dying in the World War I trenches must have been a painful and dicey proposition. Works Cited Baker, C. (2007, June). In the trenches. Retrieved October 2009, from The Long, Long Trail: http://www.1914-1918.net/intrenches.htm Duffy, M. (2009, August). Life in the Trenches. Retrieved October 2009, from firstworldwar.com: http://www.firstworldwar.com/features/trenchlife.htm h2g2. (2007, April). Life in the Trenches of World War One. Retrieved October 2009, from BBC h2g2: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A21605979 Hanlon, M. (1996, February). 1914-1918 - Casualty Figures. Retrieved October 2009, from Trenches on the Web: http://www.worldwar1.com/tlcrates.htm OConnor, P. (2005, January). Routine Life in the Trenches. Retrieved October 2009, from From Papanui to Passchendaele: http://www.pap-to-pass.org/Routine.htm U.S. War Department. (1944, October). German Position Warfare Reverts to Trench Lines in the East. Retrieved October 2009, from Lone Sentry: http://www.lonesentry.com/articles/ttt/trench-warfare-eastern-front.html Read More