The Nature of Warfare During World War 1

The Great War, World War 1 began in July 1914 and lasted until November 1918. The war involved two sides “Central Powers” and the “Allies”. With an estimated 9 million combatants and seven million civilians’ deaths because of the Great War. Many factors led up to World War 1, such as nationalism, imperialism, and the assassination in Sarajevo. The Western Front was quickly lined with trenches producing a stalemate for most of the war. With the introduction of these deadly trenches, it was due to the amount of causalities taken in open warfare that the war turned to building Tunnels. Bodies were left to perish, rot, discarded like a piece of rubbish, those that survived laid there helpless in the open battlefields waiting their fate. Tunnel warfare soon brought new devastating tactics such as poison gas, hand grenades, tanks, and heavy mortar attacks. During World War 1 trench warfare had significant and lasting effects on soldiers due to the devastating and horrid conditions. This was the beginning of the trench warfare, only history now holds the answer, 'The impact of Trench Warfare was a major factor of the outcome of WW1 '. This essay will talk about the conditions, how animals helped in the war and the build of trenches and weapons.

Trench warfare started during the development of rapid firing of small firearms and artillery strikes. Trench warfare was a type of fighting were soldiers on both sides stayed in trenches to avoid enemy fire. The trenches that were constructed were made in a zigzag pattern, never being in a straight line, and were approximately twelve feet deep. Trenches protected the soldiers from heavy firepower, but also cornered them. The zigzag pattern made it so it was not possible to see more than ten feet down the trench. The reason being was so that if the trench was infiltrated with enemies the enemy would not be able to gain access to the whole trench, but rather only one point. Another reason for the zigzagged trenches was to compress a bomb or bomb shell if it landed in the trench. The soldiers built their beds into the side of the trenches. They dug holes in the ground to use as bathrooms. In order to get around in the trenches they needed to walk on boards to keep from sinking in the soft soil. If a solder should lift his head above the trench, he would risk being shot by an enemy sniper. The soldier used box periscope to observe No Man's Land. World War 1 trenches have been described as horrific, apocalyptic terms complete bloodbaths, dirt collapsing around you, it was the Armageddon of war, doomsday near as bullets fired over head. Death within the trenches was a continuous cycle that never ended, The systems developed over the course of the war. The power of defensive weapons held made winning the war much more difficult for either side.

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The fighting in and around the trenches was often a terrifying experience, and the conditions were un sanitary to say the least. Battlefields were muddy , rain filled muddy trenches see Appendix A Captain C.E.W. Bean, knee-deep in mud in a trench, shattered trees. Fields filled with barb wire and corrugated iron, fires and total devastation. The trenches were not nice clean places. Diseases, trench foot, cholera and typhoid fever spread like spilt drink in the trenches. Rodent pests, frogs, rats in the millions infesting the trenches and lice was an ongoing problem breeding in the filthy clothes making the soldiers scratch, causing trench fever. The soldiers were living in trenches of mud ,smells from the stench of rotting bodies, the enormous rats eating your food and eating the rotting flesh of the injured or dead, or just running over your body whilst you slept. Soldiers, became exhausted and afraid of the rats, they tried many different ways to kill them like hitting them to death, shooting them, and even using the bayonets at the end of their guns. Which would later on spread infections within the trenches and contaminate foods. Another disease caused by trench warfare was Trench Foot. The cause for Foot Fever was the unhygienic conditions of the trenches and the cold, wet ground. If it got worse enough the foot many times, would have been amputated. WW1 caused psychological trauma or 'shell shock' which was later recognised as an effect of modern warfare. This was largely due because the soldiers were often trapped in the trenches for long periods of time, under constant bombardment, Shell Shock described as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. See Appendix C, poem written by a soldier. The crimson red stain on the snow of shows the mind and life the soldiers had each day.

The animal victims of the first world war are a stain on our conscience. Over 16 million animals served in the First World War. They were used for transport, communication and companionship. Horses, donkeys, mules and camels carried food, water, ammunition and medical supplies to men at the front, and dogs see appendix B - A German messenger dog leaps a trench and pigeons carried messages. They are the truly forgotten dead. Sixteen million animals “served” in the first world war – and the RSPCA estimates that 484,143 horses, mules, camels and bullocks were killed in British service between 1914 and 1918. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/07/animal-victims-first-world-war. Communication came in other forms of Fly Corps, Flags and wireless telephone. The down side of this technology was they were very large and heavy. The deaths of animals and the large communications system, made the push for the technology advancements in weaponry. Machine guns and tankers , were the greatest developments engineered in WW1. Tanks proved to be the answer that could crush barbed wire and cross trenches whilst firing machine guns. WW1 could have been over sooner had these advancements been developed earlier and potentially had a mass effect on the completion of WW1.

Although trench warfare brought many negative aspects into World War 1, it also had a few positive outlooks .The more modern idea, at the time, of open field fighting was soon lost due to the trenches. Men’s lives wouldn’t simply have been taken away in open field combat, where they lined up waiting to be killed. Although horrid, trenches gave the men somewhere to sleep, eat, and have cover from open fire. After World War I the tank’s design continued to get better and began to bring back the more mobile part of war once known before trench warfare. The use of tanks is still used up to this day with improved designs and tactics. Trench warfare redefined battle in the modern age, making artillery into the key weapon. Tanks proved to be the answer that could crush barbed wire and cross trenches whilst firing machine guns. The Great War paved the way to make major developments in not only transport, but artillery, technology and communication. The systems that are in place now when in combat are immediate and wars are fought with less casualties and more sanitary conditions. Life in the trenches and the trench warfare seen many a grown man bought to their knees. History has paved the way and 'lest we forget' those who suffered in the walls of the tunnels. Would the outcome of the war be the same if trench warfare was better, the outcomes are now as a result of the lessons learned.