World War 1 Trench Warfare

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Implementation At the beginning of World War 1, most of the armies expected, and prepared for a brief war, and to win it quickly, and decisively. This was not the case though, and the soldiers of both sides realized that to be dug into the ground with bolt action rifles, and assisted by machine guns, was to make yourself almost invinceable. As the war further progressed, they trenches of both sides became deeper, and more complex. The result was large areas of interlocking defensive works, which could resist artillery bombardments and mass infantry assault. http://images4.fotki.com/v45/photos/1/133612/492565/FoxholeSoldier-vi.jpg Infantry The common infantry in World War One Trench Warfare was equipped with four weapons. They had the rifle, bayonet, shotgun, and hand grenade. The Rifle was the main weapon that…show more content…
Medical services were primitive, and anti biotics were yet to be discovered. Compared to today's standards, minor injuries could prove fatal, though an onset of infection and gangrene. American troops recorded 44% of casualities that developed a cause of gangrene died, 50% who were wounded in the head died, and 99% of those wounded in the abdomen died. Bullets were not to blame for these, rather shell fire, which 75% of all wounds came from. A fragment of a shell would carry debris with it into the wound, which would cause a greatly higher risk of infection, that being factored, this caused a shell wound to the chest to cause three times more likeliness to be fatal, than a gunshot in the same place. Soldiers could also die from concussions of the blast of shells explosions. Though not even shell blasts were the greatest killer, but disease. The sanitary conditions in trenches were dismal, and common infections were dysentery, typhus, and chlorea.

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