why did they decide to build trenches in the first word war?

Question

could someone please answer this question asap thanx

Answer 1

to move forward to the front line of the battle and to protect the men

Answer 2

Weapon systems, stratagey, and tatics are principals that determine the outcome of wars and how they are waged. As the development of the musket progressed the Rifleman/Infantryman starting to take prominace upon the battle field. With a greater range, accuracy, and rate of fire increase rifleman began to control more and more the battlefeild. An old muzzle loading musket had an effective range of about 150 to 200 meters and a good rifleman could reload 2-3 times per minute. Meaning an opponent would have to risk 2 or 3 volleys of fire to cross the last 200meters to close with the enemy.

Trenches first began coming to as a military tatic during the U.S. Civil War 1861-1865. The sunken road, battle of Antietam Creek as an example. With the rifle muskets and the miniball the accuracy and range of the muskets nearly doubled. The cavarly charge became a thing of the past and would ride to the battle then dismount and "dig in" Infact the last year of the war was almost entirely trench warfare. Soldiers would dig trenches in the ground so that they would not be exposed to enemy fire. To charge an entrenched enemy was very costly. The tatic changed and the goal was not to assualt the trench head on but to try and move around the trench. The defender would expand the trench line but was limited by the number of troops available to effectively defend the position. The opponent would try and go around the trench or get the defend to "thin out' the trench line to where an assault might be carried against the trench.

At the advent of WW1 trenches were dug original by the defending allies France, Britian, Belgium, Italy, etc to stop the Germany/Austrian advances and basiclly a trench was dug from the Channel to the Swiss border and across the alps to the adricatic. The campaign is the east was somewhat different do to the vast landmass and number of troops.

Answer 3

The main reason for the trenches during the war was the Spanish flue. Both sides were so devastated by the flue neither could mount an offensive drive to any degree. The Germans and their allies were in a strong defensive position but with so many deaths, and sick troops form the flue the allies including America could not breach it. Each sides setled into a trench warfare with neither making any gains.The end of the war was basically a draw but ended with German taking the worse toll in land lost.

Answer 4

The tactic of using trench warfare proved useful during the American Civil War, especially outside of Petersburg and it was just as useful during WWI. Charging infantry had no chance against massed artillery and entrenched infantry. The result was a stalemate, where advances were measured by yards and not miles. Interestingly enough, both sides during WWI tunneled under each other trenches and blew gaping holes, similar to that done by the Union army outside of Petersburg.

Countering massed infantry charges and defending against artillery barrages is the reason trenches were built in WWI.

Answer 5

The First World War was synonymous with trench warfare. It was a war of attrition in which armies on both sides sacrificed hundreds of thousands of lives, often for limited territorial gains. Trench warfare was the product of poor planning, muddled military thinking, and limitations of technology. Tactics had not kept pace with the developments in military technology during the previous decades. Machine guns, quick firing artillery, high explosive shells, air burst fuses, high explosive grenades, and trench mortars had given armies tremendous firepower, and defence had gained a significant advantage over offence in military operations.

After the initial German offensives, army commanders on both sides were inadequately prepared to develop new offensive tactics to break defensive lines. Instead, the combatants established an elaborate network of trenches augmented by minefields, sand bags, and barbed wire.

Answer 6

Unlike in earlier wars, the first world war had railways and roads to constantly resupply the front. It wasn't a case of a big battle being fought, one side decisively winning or one side pulling back and a different battle being fought later in a different place when the army had been re-supplied. This time the army had all the supplies it needed whenever it needed them - so neither army retreated. They just dug trenches for protection and slogged it out. The war didn't finish until Germany had been totally exhausted of young men, money, food and everything else. Just lucky for us they were exhausted first.

Answer 7

Armies used to face each other and blast away at each other untill one sides nerve broke ,the Americans stopped that in the war between the American setterlers and the British army , First of all they tried to fight the same way and could not match the trained British soldiers, so they hide behind baricades while the British army stood out in the open , consiquently the British lost , after that the British army changed its tactics and fought from cover , later weaponty reinforced that as the casaulty rate was to high in open ground

Answer 8

up until the great war, battles were usually fought by an opening barrage of artillery and a charge forward by cavalry and infantry,but technology had moved on so much in the art of killing each other that the casualty rate was unsustainable.what with better guns,machine guns,grenades&mortars,no matter how each of the armies tried,they found it impossible to advance.tere only choice was to dig in and periodicaly go over the top and try to take the enemy by surprise.Trenches were dug that streched from the english channel through Belgium France,all the way to Switzerland.The german army may well of won the war,many men on both sides lost their lives on the battle fields,and only surrendered because of the excellent job of cutting the supplies to the country that was done by the royal navy.Also may i add that by 1916 both countrys were on there knees economicaly and militaryly and when the usa entered the war on the british side,with there vast economic capabilitys and reserves of american lives things may have turned out very diferently.During the civil war in america alot of countrys had military observers with both opposing armies and alot of valuable military tactics were gained from this.

Answer 9

David F is correct in his answer.
Also in WW1 powerful defensive weapons were developed namely the machine gun and high explosive shell. These could not be shifted quickly but could be dug in and were very effective in defending a position. Attacking infantry and cavalry were at a considerable disadvantage. Hundreds of 1000s died in fruitless attacks. Both sides were forced to dig trenches to defend the ground they had but neither side could progress. Later in the war offensive weapons were developed, namely tanks and aircraft. During WW2 trench warfare did not develop because the forces were more mobile with armor, aircraft and airborne troops.

Answer 10

The germans,built a defensive front against the British advance.

The best method of protection at that time was to be below ground level.

German soldiers would be able to defend from a postion of relative safety against british soldiers exposed in no mans land.

British and french trenches served to bring up allied troops to the front line and hold ground against german counter attacks.

The classic offensive against trenchlines is to outflank them.Both sides aware of this continued to extend the breadth of their trenchlines to outflank and protect against being outflanked.They continued to expand until they found borders of neutrals.

Answer 11

Since the invention of cannon, troops in siege conditions have done trenches to shiled themselves from fire. In WWI the development of gungire simply necessitated the application of this principle along a continuous front.