Life on the Western Front During World War One

Life on the Western Front During World War One

A dispassionate look at the numbers of the horrendous casualties

sustained by the armies of the Allies and the Central Powers on the

Western Front in WW1, clearly indicate that these casualties figures

are far inferior to what might be anticipated if, indeed, total war

had reigned in every location, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and

along all the 475 miles of trenches that extended from the North Sea

to Switzerland. A couple of simple examples will readily make the

case. Imagine two front-line trenches separated by only 20 to 30 yards

of ‘No Man’s Land’ (in some extraordinary situations, distances were

even less). A determined and prolonged effort by a few hand-grenade

bombers on either side could make any hope of a sustained tenancy

quite impossible. Again, given the accuracy and rapidity which trench

mortars could be deployed against routinely manned trenches (one

battalion per 1,000 yards) and their associated dug-outs, a quite

short, but determined, and mutually hostile, barrage could readily

reduce both trench systems to total ruin. Thus, a prolonged occupation

of either of the combatant’s trench systems would be untenable: It is

said that a single Stokes 2 in. Mortar projector on the hands of a

well-trained mortar squad could have fifteen rounds in the air before

the first one hit the target. Imagine the effect of a sustained

barrage of this ferocity on even a lightly manned trench. Obviously,

then, some form of compromise must have developed, on some occasions,

between the warring sides; at least during the inevitable prolonged

periods of inactivity in the majority of the sector...

... middle of paper ...

...war went on, was that of encouraging at least some

degree L&LL. At the same time they stoically maintained a

toecap-to-toecap confrontation with the German Army whilst

periodically energetically pursuing the High Command’s policy of

continuous offensive action. This meant that when the German High

Command in 1918 finally felt obliged by external factors to take the

great gamble of their last great offensive on the Western Front, the

German Army suffered increasingly unsustainable levels of attrition to

their armies. Secondly, by thus steadfastly holding the Germans and

their allies at bay in the trenches, the trench fighters enabled the

twin pressures of the Allied land and sea blockade, and the failure of

German State’s domestic production, to squeeze the fighting heart out

the German nation and its autocratic rulers.