Trench warfare what is it

German forces, on the defensive for most of the period from to , proved particularly adept in this style of war.

On battlefields swept by fire, a war of attrition claimed millions of lives. Attacking forces eventually introduced new tactics, ideas, and weapons to overcome the power of defenders dug-in and protected by firepower. Canada and the First World War. Trenches became trash dumps of the detritus of war: broken ammunition boxes, empty cartridges, torn uniforms, shattered helmets, soiled bandages, shrapnel balls, bone fragments. Trenches were also places of despair, becoming long graves when they collapsed from the weight of the war.

They were easy targets and casualties were enormously high. By the end of , after just five months of fighting, the number of dead and wounded exceeded four million men. The trench systems on the Western Front were roughly miles long, stretching from the English Channel to the Swiss Alps, although not in a continuous line. Later in the war, forces began mounting attacks from the trenches at night, usually with support of covering artillery fire. The Germans soon became known for effectively mounting nighttime incursions behind enemy lines, by sending highly trained soldiers to attack the trenches of opposing forces at what they perceived as weak points.

If successful, these soldiers would breach enemy lines and circle around to attack their opponents from the rear, while their comrades would mount a traditional offensive at the front. The brutality of trench warfare is perhaps best typified by the Battle of the Somme in France. British troops suffered 60, casualties on the first day of fighting alone.

German soldiers lying dead in a trench after the Battle of Cambrai, With soldiers fighting in close proximity in the trenches, usually in unsanitary conditions, infectious diseases such as dysentery, cholera and typhoid fever were common and spread rapidly.

Constant exposure to wetness caused trench foot, a painful condition in which dead tissue spread across one or both feet, sometimes requiring amputation. Trench mouth, a type of gum infection, was also problematic and is thought to be associated with the stress of nonstop bombardment.