The Attack in Trench Warfare: Impressions and Reflections of a Company Commander

by André Laffargue

FORMS OF THE GERMAN DEFENSIVE ORGANIZATIONS.

The German defensive organizations, as well as I have been able to establish, appear to be in general as follows:[^[3]]

1. A continuous line of trenches over the whole front, comprising on a limited depth two or three trenches, joined by numerous communicating trenches (boyaux), and separated by 100 to 300 metres, each one often protected by a wire entanglement.

2. Centers of resistance, comprising large villages, woods, or immense field works, consisting of a network of trenches which are very strongly organized and in which machine guns under cupolas as well as pieces of artillery are mounted.

Such are, for example, the Labyrinth and Ouvrages Blancs of Neuville. These centers of resistance are separated by intervals of 800 to 1,500 metres; they mutually flank each other, and their intervals are generally guarded by closed works.

3. A second line of defense, which is not always continuous.