Читать книгу Trench Warfare: A Manual for Officers and Men онлайн

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A round hole was dug by each man to fit his individual size and made to suit himself. Here he squatted and fought, if necessary, and got what rest was possible during that day, with the enemies’ line at distances varying from 100 to 500 yards from him. During the night, these men when not fighting or bothered by counter-attacks, or trying to obtain rations, water and the many necessaries that a fighting man requires, deepened their shelters and joined them together by little narrow ditches. During the next day there might be bitter fighting, so it would be even possible that other troops would come up and relieve during the early dusk. The relieved troops would retire a short distance and dig themselves another row of little holes where they might act as supports in case the temporary front line gave. During that night the holes on the front line would be enlarged until they finally joined and gradually without deliberate intention the trench became a permanent feature. Then the line slightly in the rear became connected with the front line system by what were then nothing more or less than ditches and this was the birth of the present system which now stretches from the sea to Switzerland.