Monday, January 30, 2012

WWI - Trenches

WWI trench - soldiers using a mortar 
The trenches on both allies and the axis were very similar. The trenches them self were not very tall, they were roughly 5'8", and then they had multiple sandbags on the top to stop the snipers from killing all of the troops. There were many twists and bends in the trenches so that if a blast went off, it wouldn't fill up the whole trench with debris or kill multiple friendly's. But, since there were so many twists and bends if a soldier was injured, it would be very very difficult to get them out, so they started carrying them on their shoulder rather than carrying them on stretchers. Both sides made separate sections for the heavy weapons such as bombs and grenades, because sometimes the men would be so tired and fatigued while they were putting the fuses in they would drop one grenade and it would set off a ripple effect and make a huge explosion. I found all of this information through a video I watched here.