THEFirst World War(1914-1918) produced about 19 million deaths, between military and civilians. If we compare it to Second (1939-1945), in which the death toll exceeded 70 million, we may be tempted to minimize its destructive potential, but let us not be mistaken. No war before “GreatWar”, started in 1914, was so brutal, deadly and terrifying – and the Second, as several historians have proposed, can be seen as a continuation of the First. Well then, among the fateful features of the First War is the so-called “warintrenches” or “warinposition”. But what is this?
What was the “trench warfare”?
The First World War began in July 1914, in the form of “warinmovement”, that is, the large movement of troops from both sides of the conflict (TripleAlliance and Tripleunderstand) with a view to the invasion and rapid occupation of enemy territories. However, this advance – which lasted throughout practically the entire year of 1914 – began to be curbed in 1915, when strategists began to privilege the defense of the conquered positions. This phase of defending the positions became known as "
warinposition”, but also took the epithet of “warintrenches”, since the trenches – which were long corridors of ditches dug in the ground – served as “cords” demarcating these positions.the german general Erich von Falkenhayn he became famous for having elaborated definitions for “trench warfare”. According to him, the “first principle of positional warfare should be not to give an inch of ground; and, in the event of losing it, immediately taking it back through the counterattack, even at the expense of the last man”. This explains why war became so deadly from 1915 onwards. THE life in the trenchesit was absolutely strenuous and unhealthy for the soldiers. In addition, the constant bombardment with cannonballs, the use of toxic gases and the various tactical errors on the part of both sides of the war caused a very high mortality rate, especially in battles like the one in Ypres it's from Somme.
Dynamics of battles
The dynamics of the battles during the "trench warfare" obeyed the criterion of the slow advance of the infantry - which left the trenches on a day and time determined by the high command - on the so-called "no man's land", the space interposed between the two enemy positions. It turns out that holes in the ground caused by bombing, rain, snow and rotting corpses turned these “no man's lands” into a scenario of terror. On the other hand, as the soldiers advanced on enemy lines, automatic machine guns shredded them like paper. As the historian Modris Eksteins narrates in his work The Rite of Spring: the Great War and the Birth of the Modern Era:
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The cratered comb of no man's land quickly destroys any planned order. Men slip and fall. The line disperses. Some get up and continue. Others cannot. In the mud at Passchendaele, in 1917, some men drown in the huge craters that look like manholes filled with silt from rain, earth and decay. Some only then begin to hear the bullets. Others smell the stench, an irresistible smell that emanates from corpses that the fire from the dam has brought to the surface. Some are hit. The run to the parapet was lost. The field is being swept by machine guns, engulfed in mortar fire and scanned by rifle bullets. [1]
The historian goes on to describe the psychological tension felt, individually and collectively, by soldiers:
Other men fall. Some scream. Most are silent. The injured rarely feel pain at first. Officers try to keep the column together. But these men in the limbo of no man's land, these "wanderers between two worlds," don't even need encouragement, for isolation in this situation means fear. Only in the group is there any emotional security, any relief. In fact, attackers tend to cluster together, to form groups for mutual protection. [2]
Thus, we realized that the “Great War” was the burial of the codes of honor and the possibility of having meaning and heroism in the combats between nations. It ushered in an era of catastrophes that would have its high point with the burnt offering and the bombsnuclear dropped on Japanese soil.
GRADES
[1] EKSTEINS, Modris. The Rite of Spring: the Great War and the birth of the Modern Era. Trans. Rosaura Eichenberg. Rio de Janeiro: Rocco, 1991. P. 185.
[2]ibid. P. 185-186.
By Me. Cláudio Fernandes
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
FERNANDES, Claudio. "What was trench warfare?"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/o-que-e/historia/o-que-foi-guerra-trincheiras.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.
