History Of Trench Warfare
If you check the history of trench warfare, you will realize that initially, there were no trenches. It all started out by digging up foxholes so that troops could entrench their tools. However, soon the troops realized that by digging deeper holes, they would be able to stand in them and protect themselves. So, this led to individual soldier digging deeper foxholes. Soon, these foxholes were connected to one another by means of crawl trenches. And, this led to the construction of more permanent trenches. |
The soil that was dug out from the trenches was used to make elevated parapets on either side of the trenches. In addition, even firing positions were made, so that soldiers could fire and then duck down.
The first time trenches were used were in the 17th century when a military engineer from France named Sebastien Le Prestre de Vauban developed a system of excavation to attack fortresses. Initially, these excavations were made to lay siege on the enemy and this continued until firepower technology improved and small arms and cannons were invented. It was during the American Civil War that a network of trenches were dug and used and gave rise to trench warfare.
However, it was during the First World War when trench warfare was used extensively. Some of the network of trenches used to run up to 1.6 kilometers, or 1 mile. There were up to 4 lines of trenches. These trenches were dug in a zigzag manner so that if an enemy soldier was standing at one end of the trench, he would not be able to fire for more than a couple of yards along the length of the trench. The network of trenches was used to deliver food, ammunition, mail, orders from the superiors and also supply fresh troops. The trenches housed command posts, supply dumps, first aid stations, latrines as well as kitchens. There was even place made in the trenches for putting machine guns and firing at the enemies. There were dugouts in the trenches that were used by many soldiers when they were faced by bombardment.
While trench warfare was used extensively during the First World War, it was also used by Japanese, North Koreans and Chinese during the Second World War. Then, in modern times, trench warfare has been used during the Iran Iraq War and also in the Persian Gulf War by Iraq, who not only built defensive trenches, but also berms and ditches.
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When the Schlieffen Plan failed, it led to the development of trench warfare during the First World War. Germany was fighting the war on 2 fronts, the Eastern and Western fronts, and this meant that the small German army would have to be divided. This led Count von Schlieffen, who was the Chief of the General Staff in Germany, to come up with a plan to solve this problem. 