WWI trenches?

Question

Any info you have on the trenches???

Answer 1

A small question with a huge answer - I can't promise to cover everything but the following should help.

British trenches were designed to be "temporary" defence lines, even though things didn't work out that way. They were constructed just deep enough to provide protection for the troops, often with wood or corrugated iron sheets to hold up the earth walls and with sandbags along the front edge to provide extra cover. A "firing step" alllowed the soldiers enough height to shoot from between these sandbags. Shallow "dugouts" were excavated in the rear wall, each serving as a small barrack room, ammunition store or officer's quarters. Rows of barbed wire entanglements would be placed in front of each trench.

German trench systems were much more elaborate and provided far more protection for the troops. They consisted of many rows of linked trenches, with many angles so that an enemy capturing part of the trench could not shoot very far along its length. Dugouts were very deep, accessed by concrete stairs, lined with concrete and furnished with beds, tables, chairs, electric lights - some even with carpets. The Germans also relied on strongpoints in their trench systems, equipped with concrete pillboxes housing machineguns.

All trenches soon filled with rainwater in bad weather, so wooden "duckboards" were placed along the bottom to prevent soldiers slipping or becoming stuck in the mud. Rats, mice and flies were always present; enemy shelling could bury soldiers alive within their dugouts and they were often never found. Poison gas and explosive shells could easily penetrate British dugouts; the German type was often fitted with gas curtains and angled approaches to prevent blast damage.

We often think of trenches as simply single lines of defences, but in fact both sides used many rows of trench systems, linked by "communication trenches", each supporting the one in front.

Hope this helps

Answer 2

ah... so much to tell. I don't know what you want to know, trenches were built to protect men from enemy bullets and artillery. Small rooms were doug under ground behind the standing trench to sleep men. During the day one side would pile all of it's men out of their trench and charge them at the other trench, (typically less than 1/4-1/2 mile away) only to be killed by enemy machine guns, then the other side would counter attack, normally to a very simmilar end. The WWI trenches were one of the most horrible places to ever exist on earth. Disease and paranoya afflicted many of the men, such as trenchfoot and shellshock. Constant bombardment kept the men on both sides up for weeks at a time, and food was commonly scarse.
Hope that helps you!

Answer 3

Basically you have two sides with trenches, one filled with German soliders and the other British/French... World War I was mostly a war fought with 20th century weapons with 19 century tactics. Obviously it was illogical to run at the enemy firing your weapons at the same time- weapons at that point had become very accurate and rather fast firing. Sometimes this happened frequently and waves of men would be mowed down by machine gun fire from the opposing trenches.
The trenches were used as cover. Usually what would happen is an artillery barrage would occur at the enemy trenches and then men from one side would rush into the trench that had just been bombarded.
Of course, it was very slow and difficult moving from one trench to the next. It was pretty disgusting in the trenches. Lots of rats and usually because there were so many dead bodies they would pile the dead bodies in front for cover.
Another method for making the enemy run away from their trenches was to use chemicals- blister agents specifically like mustard gas and chlorine. They were heavy gasses and would settle in the trenches. People had to get away- fast with their gas masks on. The chemical agents used would usually disintegrate lungs if inhaled.

Answer 4

They started with short trenches to lay in, but the artillery fire and machine gun fire was so intense they had to dig trenches that people could stand in and be completely covered in. Not only trenches, but shelters were included, and they were set in many layers so an attack would falter against the following lines.
Only the invention of the tank allowed mobility to resume- and the tanks were so slow that even that was short.