FIGURE 17:
British soldier fully equipped with pack, entrenching tool, sandbags and steel helmet.
CHAPTER VII
PROTECTION OF TRENCHES
There are two things to be done after the trenches have been dug—one is to keep them in order, and the other is to provide outside protection for them. The elements themselves are enough to play havoc with the sand bags and the walls of trenches, but if you add to this the fact that they will immediately become the marks for the enemy gunners you will see that the cost of upkeep is liable to be high.
During the first year of the war the Germans were supplied with an amount of shells that enabled them to do what they pleased with our trenches without our being able to reply. Indeed, for many months, as is now well known, we were on an allowance of six shells per battery per day, or about one shell per gun per day! Gunners will readily appreciate the uselessness of a stock of this kind. The result of this discrepancy in the number of shells was that the enemy could shell us with impunity. He used to set to work to break down our parapets early in the morning, and then, knowing that we should have to repair them during the night, would train machine guns on the breeches that had been made. It is a very disheartening business to have the parapets that you have laboured so hard to construct, knocked down in a few minutes. There would be some consolation in being able to serve him the same way, but that was denied us at that time. Indeed, one of the best ways to preserve your trenches is to let him know by experience that every time he breaks them down, you will do the same thing to him.
Every night there will be something to do in this connection. No effort must be spared to get the trenches into first-class condition and keep them thus. It is very annoying to relieve a battalion that has lain down on their job during their tour of duty in the line, and to find that you have a great deal of work to do—work that could have been avoided if they had taken reasonable care of the work that had already been accomplished when they took over the trenches.
As to the outside protection for the trenches, that consists for the most part of barbed wire. Sir Ian Hamilton, in his report on the Dardanelles Expedition, paid a tribute to the effectiveness of the Turkish barbed wire. It was the means of stopping a British advance more than once on the Peninsula, just as it was in France. At the battle of Aubers Ridge, fought on May 9, 1915, we suffered most heavily from the fact that the wires had not been cut, and therefore we were unable to make progress. We had to retreat, leaving a number of our dead and wounded before the enemy lines. It would be difficult to exaggerate the part that barbed wires have played in this war. Wherever they are set up it means that a thorough bombardment must be made before an advance can be risked.