French trench at Verdun, 1916 |
An individual soldier's time in the
WW1 front line trench
was usually brief; from as little
as one day to as much as two weeks at a time before being relieved. The Australian 31st
Battalion once spent 53 days in the line at Villers Bretonneux but such a duration was
a rare exception. A typical British soldier's year could be divided as follows:
- 15% front line
- 10% support line
- 30% reserve line
- 20% rest
- 25% other (hospital, travelling, leave, training courses, etc.)
Life in the trenches
Even when in the front line, the typical soldier would only be called upon to engage
in fighting a handful of times a year - making an attack, defending against an attack
or participating in a raid. The frequency of combat would increase for the men of the
"elite" fighting divisions - on the Allied side; the British regular divisions, the
Canadian Corps, the French XX Corps and the Anzacs.
Some sectors of the front saw little activity throughout the war, making life in the
trenches comparatively easy. When the I. Anzac Corps first arrived in France in April
1916, after the evacuation of Gallipoli, they were sent to a relatively peaceful sector
south of Armentières to "acclimatise". Other sectors were in a perpetual state of
violent activity.
On the Western Front, Ypres was invariably hellish, especially for
the British in the exposed, overlooked salient. However, quiet sectors still amassed
daily casualties through sniper fire, artillery and
gas. In the first six months of
1916, before the launch of the Somme Offensive, the British did not engage in any
significant battles on their sector of the Western Front and yet suffered 107,776
casualties.
The routine of trench life
A sector of the front would be allocated to an army corps, usually containing three
divisions. Of these two would occupy adjacent sections of the front and the third would
be in rest to the rear. This break down of duty would continue down through the army
structure so that within each front line division, typically containing three infantry
brigades, two brigades would occupy the front and the third would be in reserve.
Within each front line brigade, typically containing four battalions (regiments for
the Germans), two battalions would occupy the front with two in reserve. And so on
for companies and platoons. The lower down the structure this division of duty proceeded,
the more frequently the units would rotate from front line duty to support or reserve.
British sentry at the Battle of the Somme
July 1916 |
During the day, snipers and artillery observers in balloons made movement perilous so
the trenches were mostly quiet. Consequently, the trenches were busiest at night when
cover of darkness allowed the movement of troops and supplies, the maintenance and
expansion of the barbed wire and trench system, and reconnaissance of the enemy's
defences.
Raids on the enemy trenches
Sentries in listening posts out in no man's land would try to detect enemy patrols and
working parties or indications that an attack was being prepared.
Raids were carried out in order to capture prisoners and "booty" - letters and other
documents that provide intelligence about the unit occupying the opposing trenches.
As the war progressed, raiding became part of the general British policy, the intention
being to maintain the fighting spirit of the troops and to deny No-Man's Land from the
Germans. Such dominance was achieved at a high cost and a post-war British analysis
concluded that the benefits were probably not worth the price.
Early in the war, surprise raids
would be mounted, particularly by the Canadians, but
increased vigilance made achieving surprise difficult as the war progressed. By 1916,
raids were carefully planned exercises in
combined arms and involved close cooperation
of infantry and artillery. A raid would begin with an intense artillery bombardment
designed to drive off or kill the front trench garrison and cut the barbed wire. Then
the bombardment would shift to form a "box", or cordon, around a section of the front
line to prevent a counter-attack intercepting the raid.
Death in the trenches
Death in the trenches of Verdun |
The intensity of World War I trench warfare meant that about 10% of the fighting soldiers
were killed. This compared to 5% killed during the Boer War and 4.5% killed during World
War II. For British and Dominion troops serving on the Western Front, the proportion of
killed was 12% while the total proportion of troops who became casualties (killed or
wounded) was 56%.
Considering that for every front-line infantryman there were about 3
soldiers in support (artillery, supply, medical, etc.) it was highly unlikely for a
fighting soldier to survive the war without sustaining some form of injury. Indeed many
soldiers were injured more than once during the course of their service.
Medical services were primitive and life-saving antibiotics undiscovered. Relatively
minor injuries could prove fatal through the onset of infection and gas gangrene. The
Germans recorded that 12% of leg wounds and 23% of arm wounds resulted in death, mainly
through infection.
The Americans recorded that 44% of casualties that developed gangrene died. Half of
those who were wounded in the head died and only 1% of those wounded in the abdomen
survived.
Three quarters of the wounds inflicted during the war came from shell fire. The wound
resulting from a shell fragment was usually more traumatic than a gunshot wound. A shell
fragment would often introduce debris making it more likely that the wound would become
infected. These factors meant that a soldier was three times more likely to die from a
shell wound to the chest than from a gunshot wound.
The blast from shell explosions
could also kill by concussion. In addition to the physical effects of shell fire there
was the psychological damage. Men who had to endure a prolonged bombardment would often
suffer debilitating shell shock, a condition that was not well understood at the time.
As in many other wars, World War I's greatest killer was disease. Sanitary conditions
in the trenches were quite poor, and common infections included dysentery, typhus, and
cholera. Many soldiers suffered from parasites and related infections. Poor hygiene
also led to conditions such as trench mouth and trench foot. Another common killer
was exposure, since the temperature within a trench in the winter could easily fall
below zero degrees celsius.
Burial of the dead was usually a luxury that neither side could easily afford. The
bodies would lie in no man's land until the front line moved, by which time the bodies
were often unidentifiable. On some battlefields, such as at the
Nek in Gallipoli, the
bodies were not buried until after the war. On the Western Front, bodies continue to be
found as fields are ploughed and building foundations dug.
Looking after the wounded
Stretcher bearers, Passchendale
August 1917 |
At various times during the war (particularly early on) official truces were organised
so that the wounded could be recovered from no man's land and the dead could be buried.
Generally though, the higher commands disapproved of any slackening of the offensive
for humanitarian reasons and so ordered their troops not to permit enemy stretcher
bearers to operate in no man's land.
However, this order was almost invariably ignored
by the soldiers in the trenches, who knew that it was to the mutual benefit of the
fighting men of both sides to allow the wounded to be retrieved. So, as soon as
hostilities ceased, parties of stretcher bearers, marked with Red Cross flags, would go
out to recover the wounded, sometimes swapping enemy wounded for their own. There were
occasions when this unofficial cease fire was exploited to conduct a reconnaissance or
to reinforce or relieve a garrison.
Please see some Banknotes from WW1
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