Trench warfare

Trench warfare is a form of war in which both opposing armies have static lines of fortifications dug into the ground, facing each other. Trench warfare arose when there was a revolution in firepower without similar advances in mobility and communications. Periods of trench warfare occurred during the American Civil War (1860s) and the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, and reached peak brutality and bloodshed on the Western Front in the First World War.

Obsolescence

With the withdrawal of Russia from World War I, the Germans were able to reinforce their western front with troops from the eastern front. This allowed them to take units out of the line and train them in new methods and tactics as stormtroopers. The new methods involved men rushing forward in small groups using whatever cover was available and laying down covering fire for other groups in the same unit as they moved forward. The new tactics (intended to achieve surprise) were to bypass strongpoints and attack the weakest parts of an enemy's line. Additionally, they acknowledged the futility of managing a grand detailed plan of operations from afar, opting instead for junior officers on the spot to exercise initiative. These tactics proved very successful during the German 1918 Spring Offensive against Allied forces.

Related Topics:
Stormtrooper - Spring Offensive

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Trench warfare is a static battle, ruled by machine gun and wire. The tank was developed to break this stranglehold. From its first outings the tank showed that the trenches could be broken. More and better tanks including the first light tanks appeared during the war on the Western front.

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During the last 100 days of World War I the British forces broke through the German trench system and harried the Germans back toward Germany using infantry supported by tanks and close air support. Between the two world wars these techniques were used by J.F.C. Fuller and B.H. Liddell Hart to develop theories about a new type of warfare. The ideas were picked up by the Germans who developed them further and put them into practice with the use of Blitzkrieg. Blitzkrieg relied on the concentration of armor launched at a narrow front to make the breakthrough followed by a high speed encirclement of the enemy's front line. Armor was supported by close air support with airmen inserted into army units to direct tactical air strikes.

Related Topics:
J.F.C. Fuller - B.H. Liddell Hart - Blitzkrieg

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The stunning victories by the Germans early in World War II using blitzkrieg showed that fixed fortifications like the Maginot Line could be bypassed. The amphibious landing (combined with aircover and landings behind the line) by the Western Allies in 1944 broke through the incomplete Atlantic Wall with relative ease. The fight inland through the bocage proved far more of an obstacle than the fixed fortifications of the Atlantic Wall.

Related Topics:
World War II - Maginot Line - Atlantic Wall - Bocage

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Combined arms tactics (where infantry, artillery, armor and aircraft operate in close cooperation) made trench warfare obsolete. The foundation of modern land warfare lies in semi-autonomous small teams (such as the fire team) and places a large emphasis on rapid communication and allowing smaller units to exercise initiative.

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This is not to say that entrenchment is redundant. It is still a valuable method for reinforcing natural obstacles to create a line of defence. At the start of the Battle of Berlin, the last major assault of World War II, the Russians attacked over the river Oder against German troops dug in on the Seelow Heights which are about 50 km east of Berlin. Entrenchment allowed the Germans, who were massively outnumbered, to survive a barrage from the largest concentration of artillery in history; it also allowed the Germans to inflict tens of thousands of casualties on the Soviets, thanks to the marshy land which lay between the river and the heights, before being driven west.

Related Topics:
Battle of Berlin - Oder - Seelow Heights

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