How Trench Warfare Is Used In The First World War ?
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. |
The Germans decided to invade France via Belgium, which was a neutral country during the war, and catch the French off guard. They assumed that they would be able to defeat the French forces in about 6 weeks and this would leave the soldiers free to wage a battle with the Russians. However, the plan failed and this resulted in trench warfare being introduced during the First World War.
During the First World War, a series of parallel trenches were dug and this occurred during the latter half of 1914. At the Western Front, trenches were dug from the Belgium border right up to the Swiss border and these trenches housed millions of soldiers.
How trench warfare was used in the First World War is discussed below:
The most common way of attacking enemy troops was bombardment. The shells used to destroy not just the trenches in the front line, but also the communication trench of the enemies. This was basically done to stop the reinforcements from getting to the front line. After the bombardment, the troops would go over the top and try and get to the enemy trenches by crossing the No Man's Land with the hope that most of the enemy soldiers would have died in the bombardment and the barbed wire protecting the front line of the enemy would be destroyed. If this were the case, the troops would be successful in taking over the enemy trenches and gaining territory.
Unfortunately, the above scenario was not that would await the troops. Where the Germans were concerned, their trenches were deep and fortified by cement. Hence, often the soldiers were unharmed when bombardments occurred. In addition, the bombardment hardly used to have an effect on the barbed wires and the artillery of the Germans.
Another way that trench warfare was used was known as the creeping barrage method. In this method, a first wave of soldiers would fire guns and shells, so that the Germans would be busy trying to take cover or return the fire. This would allow a second wave of British soldiers to creep towards the German trenches and capture them.
Lastly, the soldiers would dig tunnels from their trenches under the No Man's Land towards the enemy lines. This would enable them to approach the enemy lines without being spotted and thereby catching the enemies off guard. However, this strategy was not very effective as the enemy soldiers would hear the digging and begin their own digging to wage a battle in the tunnel.
More Articles :
|
You may have heard of trench warfare, which was used extensively during the First World War. However, you may not know what is trench warfare. So, here is a brief explanation on trench warfare and how it was used during the First World War. 