World War I: Trench Warfare

Trench warfare was a distinct part of World War I in 1916. It also greatly changed World War I as it wasn’t like anything anyone had ever seen before. Before the war, there was a hundred years of peace. Because it was so peaceful, many men actually wanted uprisings to take place and wars to break out to bring them some form of action. They did not know what they were asking for though. World War I brought a shock to everyone as it not only affected the way people thought of war, but also greatly affected the human person. Trench warfare brought destruction and immovable death. With its development, twenty one thousand British soldiers alone died in the first war and a total of millions of men died in World War I. The casualties suffered were …show more content…
Hence, it was never the same after the development of trench warfare. Trench warfare, which came with new technological advancements such as tanks, guns, as well as chemical warfare developments, has changed modern warfare. No longer was traditional marching out to battle used, but shells and tanks were used as means of destruction, as well as the realm of chemical warfare. Since then, new tactics of fighting, similar to those of trench warfare, have been constructed and some methods even remain the same. Therefore, trench warfare was significant, in that it changed the way people viewed total war and it also had a severe effect on the human person. Before World War I, men rode out on horses in their cloth uniforms with bayonets to fight the enemy. This regalia, however, changed as now, with the development of trench warfare, the men fought to save their own …show more content…
David Harkness, in his commentary on trench warfare, said: ‘“By 19I6 there was a huge increase in weapons of all kinds, accompanied by more offensive tactics designed to implement a strategy of attrition. It became increasingly difficult for front line units to maintain unofficial truces, but they developed instead a variety of mutual restraints and ritualized responses.”’ Hence, World War I saw a number of effective advancements, as more weapons were developed, creating the need for new and improved strategies. The weapons used in trench warfare had “greater destructive powers.” Guns were more powerful as they usually had some form of bomb attached to them, as well as a bayonette. The two major kinds used were rifles and machine guns. Because the soldiers stayed in trenches below ground, it was necessary to have guns to shoot across far distances, rather than swords and spears that would involve running across “no man’s land” to get to the enemy, resulting in an easy death. However, alongside these various forms of guns were also grenades, which was a significant development during trench warfare. Grenades were fairly new means of weaponry also designed to take down the enemy without exposing the soldiers as open targets. They could be dropped or thrown far distances without causing harm to the individual throwing it. Thus, grenades proved to be very effective