Fighting in the Trenches

The terrible casualties sustained in open warfare meant that trench warfare was introduced very quickly. Trenches provided a very efficient way for soldiers to protect themselves against heavy firepower and within four months, soldiers on all fronts had begun digging trenches.  This photograph shows French infantry manning a forward line of trenches in Lorraine during January 1915.

Service revolvers were initially only carried by officers, but as the war progressed they were issued more widely. The Webley was the standard British service revolver during the First World War, they were robust and powerful weapons and remained in use until 1932.  This revolver belonged to 2nd Lieutenant J R R Tolkien who went on to write The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.  Tolkien joined the Lancashire Fusiliers in 1915 and went on to serve in the front line trenches of the Somme. The impact of the Battle remained with him for the rest of his life and its influence can be clearly seen in his unique mythological world and stories.

The German ‘Minenwerfer’ terrified Allied soldiers. It fired heavy bombs which could be seen slowly tumbling from the sky. When they struck, they demolished or buried everything around them. This particular mortar was captured by the 31st (Alberta) Battalion, 2nd Canadian Division, during the fighting for Vimy Ridge, 9th April 1917.

Artillery bombardments were designed to destroy enemy guns, cut through dense barbed wire and blast men from the trenches.  Often, however, they did not succeed in these objectives. On 24 June 1916 1500 British guns began a week long bombardment to smash German defences on the Somme before the infantry attacked.  Many of the shells they fired, however, were duds and when the infantry advanced it soon became clear that the artillery bombardment had failed.  German troops emerged and gunned down advancing British infantry, killing 20,000 on 1 July alone.

The Vickers machine gun was first used by the British Army in 1912 and during the First World War they became central to British infantry tactics.  From October 1915 onwards they came under the control of a new unit called the Machine Gun Corps, which developed sophisticated new tactics for the Vickers. They grouped guns together to fire barrages – often shooting over the heads of friendly troops. British soldiers soon found the rush of machine-gun bullets passing overhead comforting rather than frightening.

On rare occasions, unofficial truces would occur between trenches. This  image shows British and German soldiers during the infamous ‘Christmas Truce’, which was widespread but not total across the Western Front, on Christmas Day 1914. Although instances such as this were rare, in quieter spots on the front, the armies were known to break from the intensity of continuous fighting in order to repair trenches or collect dead and wounded soldiers.