A guy can dream can't he?
When the fighting began in Europe during World War One, it was clear that a new style of warfare was needed in this technological era of tanks, machine guns, long-range artillery, and airplanes. The system of lining up troops and charging was just illogical when a man with a machine gun could completely wipe them all out. Thus, trench warfare was instituted. Instead of charging the troops, it was decided that the soldiers should move slowly and aided with tunnels and trenches would stay below the ground level most of the time. Although the plan was developed in order to reduce deaths, it was only a matter of time before such things as chemical weapons countered the trenches and increased the death toll by quite possibly, millions. In fact, the trenches only proved to draw out the fighting much longer than expected and put the soldiers through a horrible ordeal that marred the survivors both physically and mentally.
Frontline trenches were generally about seven feet wide and about six feet wide. Obviously, a trench dug at these specifications would be impossible to see over the top, so a two or three foot ledge was added, known as a fire-step. Along the bottom of the trench planks of wood, duck boards, were placed to prevent trench foot. The top of the trench was referred to as the parapet and the rear was named the parados. It was important for the parados to be higher than the parapet so that the soldier’s outline would not be as visible and thus be an easy target to an enemy sniper. Also, the trenches were never dug in straight lines due to the fact that if the enemy were to successfully penetrate the trench, they would have a clear shot all the way down. Ahead of the parapets thousands of feet of barbed wire would be strewn about to hinder enemy attacks, and then beyond the wire was No Man’s Land. No Man’s Land was named by the soldiers and referred to the area between the opposing forces trenches. The longest No Man’s Land was roughly 500 yards and the shortest had the soldiers fighting at a mere seven yards. Attempts were always made to spy on the enemy by sending listeners past the barbed wire into No Man’s Land, an obviously dangerous job. All of these aspects of a trench make it a formidable defensive barrier.
Although the trenches were engineered to an exact science of defense, a war cannot be won on defense alone. In order to win, one must attack and take land. So as trenches became more advanced the weapons and tactics used to attack the trenches had to also evolve. One of the main reasons trenches were used is the machine gun. Throughout the course of the war, machine guns became more and more deadly and used as much as possible. A few good machine gun placements could completely decimate an attack in a matter of minutes. In fact, they were so effective that machine-gunners were profoundly hated by the troops and if taken by the enemy, they were more likely to be executed than other soldiers. Although not used in large numbers, tanks were immensely important. Imagine standing, freezing, in a trench when for the first time in your life you see monstrous infernal machines start heading your way with hundreds of soldiers behind them. The tanks served no real purpose besides inciting panic in the enemy troops and lowering morale. Almost every attack in the war was subsequent to a heavy artillery bombardment. The artillery was intended to destroy barbed wire, soften up the trenches, and lower the morale of enemy troops. In 1917 Gen. Douglas Haig ordered a 10-day bombardment against a German line in which over 4 million shells were fired from 3,000 guns. But, in fact, often the artillery was ineffective in the first two objectives but the morale-lowering effect was always effective. The exploding of artillery shells near soldiers was also linked to a condition known as shell-shock that affected thousands of soldiers during the war. Aircraft were much like tanks in that they were ineffective for killing troops, but being bombed from the air and having no power to stop it is very demoralizing. Mostly planes were relegated to reconnaissance and played a more defensive role. But again, like the tank they forever changed the way wars are fought. Quite possibly the most horrible weapon devised to kill the inhabitants of the trenches is poison gas. Many different gases were developed, but all caused the soldiers torture. Most of the gases used caused death, but the deaths were always slow and unimaginably painful. Sometimes it would take weeks for a soldier to die from a gas attack, slowly choking to death as their respiratory system deteriorated. These gases reacted whenever they came into contact with anything moist on the soldier, it would burn their eyes and they would swell shut, it would eat away the mucus lining of the respiratory system, and it would cause horrible blistering on the wet skin of a soldier. All in all, man devised thousands of new ways to kill other men and the horrible suffering of the troops got worse.
Dysentery was a major problem at the outset of the war because proper, regular supplies of water had not been established and men often had to drink impure water out of the bottom of artillery-shell holes. The dysentery caused the men to have diarrhea which made the men more dehydrated so they were forced to drink more bacteria-filled water. Latrines were just deeper holes in the trenches and soldiers often did not have time to bury them and dig new ones so contaminated waste often seeped into the trenches. Trench foot is another common ailment affecting the soldiers. It was caused from standing in the water-logged trenches day and night without ever changing shoes or socks. Their feet would turn gangrenous and required amputation. Trench-foot was common in the early stages in the war, before it was realized that duck boards were needed to keep the soldiers out of the water in the bottom of the trench. Lice were also rampant in the trenches and an effective way of removing them was never found. Not only did the lice cause discomfort to the men, they also carried a disease known as Trench Fever. Trench Fever didn’t kill the men, but it did keep them from fighting. In the British Army, Trench Fever accounted for about 15% of all cases of disease. Rats began multiplying in the trenches because they had a constant source of food, human flesh. The rats were reported as being extremely large and vicious. If a wounded man could not defend himself, the rats would eat him alive. Doctors argued about whether artillery shells exploding around the men caused a condition known as shell shock. Some believed that shells affected the spinal and brain fluids and disturbing the normal functioning of the brain. It often resulted in a mental breakdown and could only be treated with rest. Some officers decided that many of the men who complained of shell-shock simply faked the symptoms in order to be removed from the front. Soldiers often resorted to self inflicted wounds in order to be removed from combat. Men who were convicted of doing this faced an execution by firing squad, but rarely this was the case. More often the men just served time in prison. Others opted for death rather than a wound. They could either do it with their own rifle or stand on the fire-step and hope to be killed by an enemy sniper. If they chose the prior, they would turn their rifle around with the muzzle pointed towards their head and push the trigger with their toe. If you found a man lying dead next to his rifle with only one shoe on, he had ended his own life.
Life in the trenches was tortuous and
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