who put the barbed wire in no man's land during WW1?

Question

and how did they do it without getting shot. Was it negotiated between both parties? did it grow there naturally? Who put barbed wire in the middle of the battle field?

Answer 1

Quite an interesting question this. The first identified military use of a wire obstacle was in early 1863, during the American Civil War, when smooth (ie non-barbed) telegraph wire was taken from a nearby telegraph line and placed around treee stumps at the foot of a Confederate defensive position known as Stockage Redan, in the besieged city of Vicksburg.

Barbed wire itself was developed from 1867 onwards, and was widely available by the early 1880's. By the late 1890's, harsher and thicker versions were being produced for military use, particularly in the USA. It was used militarily by a number of nations, and was certainly widely used by both sides during the South African War of 1899-1902. Therefore, by 1914, the use of barbed wire for defensive purposes was well-established.

As to who first put barbed wire up during WW1, it does seem mlikely that the Geramn Army did so first. With the onset of trench warfare in the Aisne Salient in November 1914, and its general commencement on the length of the Western Front thereafter, the German Army began to build defensive positions, as they were almost everywhere in occupation of French and Belgian soil. Contemporary accounts (newspapers, personal journals, letters etc) refer to the German use of barbed wire, sandbags, timber and concrete for defensive purposes from November 1914 onwards. Therefore, it does appear the Germans were first to use it on a large scale during WW1. This would reflect their essentially defensive, 'siefge mentality' cast of mind once their hopes of a knock-out blow in 1914 were frustrated. Essentially, once in occupation of French and Belgian territory, the German Army remained on the strategic defensive until Spring 1918. For this, large amounts of defensive stores were needed in order to make their positions more defensible.

The Germans, French, British and Belgian forces were all using barbed wire extensively by early 1915, by which time the fortification and 'improvement' of trenches and other positions had become standard along the Western Front. All units in the front-line trenches were required to maintain and repair the defences in their sector of the line, and all units therefore sent out 'wiring parties' at night, as part of the routine programme of defensive works. However, for large-scale defensive works, Engineer and Pioneer units would be used, as for instance with the German 'Hindenburg Line' defences, which were under construction from October 1916 onwards.

Interestingly, of all the major combatant nations on the Western Front, the French Army was reputed to be the least energetic in maintaining and improving upon its defensive positions, by the use of barbed wire, sandbags, etc. This was probably because they didn't intend to be in the trench systems indefinitely, unlike the German Army, in whose interests it was to continue the static war on other nations' soil.

Answer 2

It was never in the middle of the battlefield, just at the parameter of the lines. (Gemans also had many, many tunnels and underground command centers!)

It could have been put up in sections, a bit at a time, or during cease fires.

There were many arrangements, formal and informal, to do things like collect battle dead, exchange prisoners, have a rest. It's a long standing tradition among soldiers that sentries from both sides allow limited contact between themselves and the sentries of the enemy, usually for exchanging newspapers!

Of course the famous example is British and German troops taking off Xmas day to play soccer. Paul McCarthy did a music video with that theme.

Answer 3

At night, troops would go out into no man's land and place barbed wire and other obstacles. It was an extremely dangerous job but it helped to stop the attacks during the day.

Answer 4

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Answer 5

Wiring parties were a frequent punctuation of a soldier's life in the trenches. The work was done at night and it was exceedingly dangerous. It was not unknown for British and German parties to blunder into each other on occasion but usually they ignored each other lest any commotion would bring down an artillery barrage or machine-gun fire.

Answer 6

The troops put the barbed wire up or repaired it during night fall.

Answer 7

By no means a task for the faint of heart, wiring duties were correctly regarded as being fraught with danger.

When assigned as a member of a wiring party - usually operating under the direction of more experienced NCOs - men would creep into No Man's Land under cover of darkness, a necessary precaution given the essentially unprotected nature of their activities.

Once there the wiring party would, as occasion demanded, insert new wiring posts (approximately 6 feet in height) ahead of the front trench, either by hammering the post with a muffled mallet, or else by winding the post in the manner of e a screw (the earlier method being more common during the early stages of trench warfare).

Once the posts were in place reels of barbed wire - concertina wire - would be affixed to the post, unwound and attached to a second post (and often doubled back again to provide an additional layer of protection).

The task was one which obviously needed to be undertaken in strict secrecy and silence. Men assigned to wiring duties lived in constant fear of enemy flares, sent up to illuminate an area of the battlefield as if by daylight. Men caught in No Man's Land by such flares would either freeze until the light of the flare died, or else (more often) throw themselves instantly to the ground. It was not uncommon for enemy machine gun fire to accompany the sending up of flares as a precautionary measure.

Barbed wire, which could and often was laid to a formidable depth, proved difficult to destroy, although high explosive artillery was often launched so as to clear the enemy lines of wire; all too often however the wire remained uncut, as was disastrously the case for advancing British forces on the first day of the Battle of the Somme in 1916.

Wire would generally be laid at sufficient distance from the front line trench to prevent the possibility of enemy infantry lobbing grenades into the trench and fleeing. Furthermore wire would commonly be laid in such a configuration as to draw advancing enemy troops into ideal range for enfilading machine gun fire.

Where the distance between the enemy front lines was narrow - often the case on the trenches of the Western Front - it was not unusual for wiring parties of one side to encounter men from the opposing line engaged in the same task.

In such circumstances hand-to-hand fighting would often ensure (the use of pistols often instantly drawing deadly machine gun fire from both sides), or else one side would instantly flee back to their line in order to open up fire on the opposing wiring party.

Answer 8

Engineer squads, most likely. And yes, prisoners of war too. I'm pretty sure those Huns didn't negotiate with the Brits and Frenchies.

Answer 9

airplanes were a first in war in ww1 also tanks machine guns thats all i got

Answer 10

that's easy it was the barbed wire fairy's