Amongst
many other reasons, because in World War 1, the armies were faced with
weapon technology that had advanced too far, but they didn’t have the
other necessary technology to counter that.
World War 1 started on 28th July, 1914 and it finished on 11th November, 1918. In that time, 2,490 km of trenches were dug.
Trenches were used in World War 2, but nowhere near as extensively as they were used in World War 1.
The idea of trench warfare and “going over the top” has become synonymous with World War 1.
The
basic reason to dig a trench during a battle is for protection.
Trenches have been in use for as long as people have been fighting each
other.
It always makes sense to dig in and
protect yourself from enemy fire. However, up until the middle of the
19th century really, battles could never be won if both sides were in
trenches.
The two armies had to meet to fight
it out. This style of fighting began to change with the introduction of
the rifle, but not to a huge extent to begin with.
Muskets
had a range of about 150 m, but they were wildly inaccurate and it took
a long time to reload them. Canons were lethal, but they also took a
long time to load and fire.
The cartridge
bullet was invented in 1846, and reloading became a lot faster, but
still not very fast. Any two armies running at each other, or using
cavalry, might lose some people to rifle or canon fire, but the two
sides would be able to meet each other and fight. And this was how
warfare was done.
The First World War ended up as a trench war because when the machine gun was invented, this fighting style had to change.
If
two opposing armies ran at each other, the firepower of a machine gun
was so great there was no way they could ever reach each other.
Any
side that tried to overwhelm the other would be cut to pieces, as was
witnessed when 60,000 people were killed on the first day of the Battle
of the Somme.
The armies resorted to hiding in
trenches and then trying to charge at each other. They inevitably just
got cut down by machine guns. Nobody knew how to change the style of
warfare to fit these new weapons.
It ended up
being a war of attrition where the first army to run out of replacements
lost. This would probably have been Britain if America hadn’t joined
in.
So, why weren’t there many trenches in the
Second World War? They still had to face machine guns, so what had
changed? In the 20 years between the First and Second World Wars, the
engine had improved dramatically.
In the First
World War, ordinance and supplies had to be delivered by horse and
carts because no trucks could drive over the muddy land. In wars before
this, the horses and carts had followed the armies, but their supplies
had been fairly light.
In the First World War, massive amounts of heavy armaments were needed and the horses struggled.
This
meant the armies couldn’t stray too far from the railway lines because
then they wouldn’t ne able to arm themselves, which meant they had to be
static.
In World War 2, trucks were more powerful and armaments could be delivered to a mobile army.
Communication
had also improved. Communication in the First World War was done over
static phone lines that need to be laid. The cables couldn’t stretch too
far.
Any army that was mobile, would not be
able to communicate with their headquarters. In World War 2, each army
had radios they could use to communicate.
The airplane made trench warfare an impossibility in World War 2. In the First World War, the airplane was in its infancy.
Planes
were generally used for looking down on the enemy’s trenches or
shooting down other planes. They could drop bombs, but not very large
bombs and not very accurately.
Mortars were
used to hit the trenches, but they were not very efficient or accurate.
By World War 2 the plane had significantly improved. If there had been
static trenches in World War 2, bombers would have destroyed them.
Tanks
were also a reason why World War 2 didn’t have trenches. The tank was
invented in World War 1 to be able to go over trenches.
They
weren’t very good or successful. By World War 2, they were much more
powerful and better armoured. They would have caused havoc on static
trenches.
However, the main reason why the
First World War became a war of trenches is because once both sides were
entrenched, there was no way of stopping or changing. And this is what I
learned today.
thank you for reading. Don't forget to leave your thoughts in the comment section below
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