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They were dug in dog-legged fashion so that when an enemy got into the trench they couldn't fire a machine gun along the entire length of it. This also minimised damage from a grenade blast or a shell happening to land in the trench.

Often they were below the water-table, so were waterlogged and muddy. Duckboards usually ran along the bottom to make walking easier. They were narrow and difficult to move through. A parapet made of filled sandbags (and, occasionally, of dead bodies) would run along the side facing the enemy. Sometimes they would sandbag the parados (back edge of the trench) as well.

Dugouts were scraped into the earth. British dugouts and trenches were notoriously bad. They assumed they would be swiftly on the move soon after, so never dug proper fortifications. On the contrary, the German trenches were well constructed because to them this was the new German border. They concreted bunkers to make them impervious to shell blasts. Sometimes they put a sea of barbed wire out the front to prevent the enemy taking them.

There was a frontline trench which was linked by communication saps to the reserve trenches. Latrines would be simply be a hole in the ground.

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How were trenches designed?

Trenches were designed to offer maximum defensive cover. It is this attribute caused the stalemate of the war on the Western Front.


How was the western feont characterized in World War 1?

The Western Front was characterized by trenches that ran from the Switzerland border with France to the North Sea. The front did not change much during the course of the war.


What was a line of German trenches called in ww1?

they were called long time stays because they were planning on ataying for a long time


Did russia fight in the trenches during World War 1?

Generally when speaking of "the trenches" during WWI its understood that this means "the western front", which was in France and Belgium. There the British, French, Belgians and Americans fought the Germans. Both world wars were, for Germany, "two front wars", because, in the west, they had the British, French and Americans, and, in the east, on the other front, the Russians. There were no Russians on the western front. I am sure there were times and places during WWI where the Russians did dig in, and perhaps even create trench systems, though nothing as elaborate as what the trench systems grew into on the western front. There were also "trenches" on what amounts to the southern extension of the western front, to the southeast of Switzerland, where the Allied Italians faced the Austro-Hungarian armies of the Central Powers.


How many people died on the western front?

Approximatly one million soldiers died in the trenches in world war one

Related Questions

What was the series of trenches dug by both sides in northern France?

They were the western front. But the different trenches were front line trenches, communication trenches.


What style of warfare did the western front have?

trenches and sieges on cities


How were trenches designed?

Trenches were designed to offer maximum defensive cover. It is this attribute caused the stalemate of the war on the Western Front.


Where did the soldiers hide on the western front during world war 1?

In trenches.


What weapon kept soldiers on the western front in the trenches for years?

Maxium machine gun


In what countries were the trenches?

Trenches were used extensively in World War I in countries such as France, Belgium, Germany, and other Western European nations where the front lines were established.


Contributions from France to the world?

France was stuck fighting in the trenches on the Western Front for most of WWI.


The western front was consisted of two lines of trenches along the Eastern border of which country?

France


A stalemate developed in the trenches on the western front because?

neither side could decisively beat the other


Who used trenches World War 1?

Germany, France, and Russia. They are called the western and eastern front.


How was the western feont characterized in World War 1?

The Western Front was characterized by trenches that ran from the Switzerland border with France to the North Sea. The front did not change much during the course of the war.


What was a line of German trenches called in ww1?

they were called long time stays because they were planning on ataying for a long time