First World War Trenches by Andrew Robertshaw

Author:Andrew Robertshaw
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780750955140
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2014-02-13T00:00:00+00:00

Corporal George Coppard, Machine Gun Corps11

From the outbreak of war, machine guns were an ideal weapon in trench warfare, but the water-cooled British Vickers or German Maxim were heavy and difficult to conceal. They also could not be easily carried forward into the attack or positioned to protect a vulnerable position in the front line. The result of this was that the British Army purchased examples of the Lewis automatic rifle, which was air cooled and relatively light, from the US company. By late 1915, the Lewis gun had entirely replaced the Vickers in the front line and these weapons were transferred to the new specialist Machine Gun Corps (MGC), which could use the long range of this weapon in force more effectively. The German response was to convert some of their Maxim machine guns to light weapons, although these retained the water jacket and were far heavier than the Lewis. Both French forces and the Americans used the French Chauchat as a light weapon, and the American-manufactured Browning automatic rifle entered service in 1918.

Raiding called for specialist weapons, as rifles with bayonets were long and cumbersome, and grenades noisy. If a silent attack was required, soldiers used trench clubs, which were like medieval maces, often made in workshops behind the lines. German troops favoured a standard entrenching tool with a sharpened blade, and these were reputed to be able to cut through a British helmet and the wearer’s head. Some troops made use of pistols in raiding and men made some attacks with a pistol in each hand like a Western gun fighter. The actual combination of weapons and levels of concealment depended upon the nature of the raid and level of experience of the troops. The Germans had specialist raiding units, referred to by the British as the ‘Bosch Flying Circus’. These expert raiders were able to use speed and stealth to capture prisoners, examples of new weapons and intelligence information. Cloudy, moonless nights kept all soldiers ‘on their toes’ and a poor sentry who failed to spot a raider wearing dark clothing had often made his last mistake. Both sides patrolled no-man’s-land at night, even if there were no raids planned. Dominating this area was regarded as being vital to prevent men from becoming defensive and lacking in offensive spirit. Clashes in the dark were frequent, as the patrols clashed in the long grass and weeds between the lines and men were killed or wounded as they cut down this growth to clear ‘fields of fire’ and prevent the enemy using it as cover.

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