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Trench warfare

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   Trench warfare is a form of war in which both opposing armies have
   static lines of defence. 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 (1861–65) and the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–05, and reached
   peak brutality and bloodshed on the Western Front in the First World
   War.

Background

   Fortification is nearly as old as warfare itself; however, because of
   the relatively small size of the armies and the lack of range of the
   weapons, it was traditionally not possible to defend more than a short
   defensive line or an isolated strongpoint. The very long fortifications
   of the ancient world, such as the Great Wall of China or Hadrian's
   Wall, were exceptions to the general rule and were in any case not
   designed to completely prevent enemy crossing the border, but to act as
   a deterrent to casual border infringement, as well as to act as a
   border control.

   Although both the art of fortification and the art of weaponry advanced
   a great deal in the second half of the second millennium, the advent of
   the longbow, the muzzle-loading musket, and even of artillery did not
   substantially change the traditional rule that a fortification required
   a large body of troops to defend it. Small numbers of troops simply
   could not maintain a volume of fire sufficient to repel a determined
   attack.

Siege warfare

   Most of the techniques used in trench warfare had existed for years in
   siege warfare. It was the implementation of these techniques between
   two armies in the field which was new.

   Julius Caesar in his Gallic Wars describes how at the Battle of Alesia
   the Roman legions created two huge fortified walls around the city. The
   inner circumvallation, 10 miles, held in Vercingetorix's forces, while
   the contravallation kept relief from reaching them. The Romans held the
   ground in between the two walls. The besieged Gauls, facing starvation,
   eventually surrendered with their relief force standing by helpless.
   Thucydides describes a similar, but unsuccessful, siege of Syracuse by
   the Athenians during the Peloponnesian War.

   Once siege engines were developed the techniques involved in assaulting
   a town or a fortress became well known and ritualised—the siège en
   forme. The attacking army would surround a town. Then the town would be
   asked to surrender. If they did not comply the besieging army would
   invest (surround) the town with temporary fortifications to stop
   sallies from the stronghold or relief getting in. The attackers would
   then build a length of trenches parallel to the defences and just out
   of range of the defending artillery. They would then dig a trench
   towards the town in a zigzag pattern so that it could not be enfiladed
   by defending fire. Once within artillery range another parallel trench
   would be dug with gun emplacements. If necessary using the first
   artillery fire for cover, this process would be repeated until guns
   were close enough to be laid accurately to make a breach in the
   fortifications. In order that the " Forlorn Hope" and their support
   troops could get close enough to exploit the breach, more zigzag
   trenches could be dug even closer to the walls with more parallel
   trenches to protect and conceal the attacking troops. After each step
   in the process the besiegers would ask the besieged to surrender. If
   the first wave stormed the breach successfully, the defenders could
   expect no mercy.

Development

   United States Civil War: Union Army Soldiers of 6th Corps, Army of the
   Potomac, in trenches before storming Marye's Heights at the 2nd Battle
   of Fredericksburg during the Chancellorsville campaign, Virginia, May
   1863
   Enlarge
   United States Civil War: Union Army Soldiers of 6th Corps, Army of the
   Potomac, in trenches before storming Marye's Heights at the 2nd Battle
   of Fredericksburg during the Chancellorsville campaign, Virginia, May
   1863

   The first development which was critical for trench warfare was the
   introduction of mass-conscripted armies during the French Revolution
   and the Napoleonic Wars. Prior to this, armies still consisted of small
   numbers of troops which were unable to defend a large territory for
   very long—battles were either brief or degenerated into siege warfare.
   Large armies made it much more difficult for one army to outflank
   another, but it was still possible with cavalry and infantry charges
   for one army to break another by a direct assault. An example of an
   early fortified military line which stretched for many miles was the
   Lines of Torres Vedras (1810), which was built by the Portuguese under
   the direction of Royal Engineers of the British Army during the
   Peninsular war.

   What made this tactic increasingly suicidal was the development of
   improved firearm technology in the mid-19th century. When the American
   Civil War began in 1861, it was fought with the same tactics that had
   been used in the era of Napoleon and indeed for several centuries. By
   the time the war drew to a bloody close in 1865, it had become a
   preview of the First World War, complete with trenches, Gatling guns,
   field fortifications, and massive casualties. The Battle of Petersburg
   near the end of the war with its trenches and static formations
   contrasts sharply with the early battles such as the First Battle of
   Bull Run where manoeuvre was still possible, and famous charges such as
   Pickett's Charge at the Battle of Gettysburg revealed the military
   futility of a direct assault on an opposing line.
   A Cheshire Regiment sentry in a trench near La Boisselle during the
   Battle of the Somme, July 1916
   Enlarge
   A Cheshire Regiment sentry in a trench near La Boisselle during the
   Battle of the Somme, July 1916

   Two main factors were responsible for the change. First, there was the
   proliferation of rifles (such as the .58 Springfield), manufactured in
   their thousands. Effective at double the range of the typical
   smoothbore of the Napoleonic era (and able to kill a man at over 1000
   m), they enabled men sheltering in a trench or behind an improvised
   obstacle to hold a body of attackers at a much greater distance than
   before; attackers were unable to cross the swept zone rapidly enough to
   avoid prohibitive casualties. Second was the persistence of essentially
   Napoleonic columnar tactics, which amplified losses; only late in the
   war did open order (or skirmish line) become standard. Thus, the first
   response to increased firepower, cover, and the second, dispersal, were
   eventually adopted. The third, armor, was not then an option, as it had
   been in the face of Welsh or Mongol bows; the fourth, speed (crossing
   the swept zone faster), was not, either. It would take internal
   combustion, and an innovative mind, to find the solution.

   Other factors appearing after the end of the American Civil War played
   a part, as well. The first was the development of barbed wire (invented
   in 1874), which in itself did little harm to anyone but—crucially—could
   slow the progress of an attacking force, and thus allow emplaced
   machine-gunners and riflemen time to inflict unacceptable losses. The
   second was the improvement of artillery. Artillery in one form or
   another had been a part of warfare since classical times, and from the
   rise of gunpowder until the development of trench warfare in the 1860s
   had been the major killing force; it was supplanted only temporarily by
   the rifle. With the development of steel breechloading guns by Krupp,
   however, much of its former killing power was restored (as graphically
   demonstrated in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71). Third was the
   introduction of high explosive shells, which amplified killing power up
   to sixteen-fold. Finally, hydraulic recoil mechanisms, pioneered by the
   French 75 mm M1897 (the famed " French 75") significantly increased the
   rate of fire. These magnified the effectiveness of artillery to a
   degree unimaginable in the 1870s. The swept zone between attacker and
   defender became a " no man's land" too lethal to cross.

Implementation

   Although firearms technology and the conscript army dramatically
   changed the nature of warfare, most armies were completely unaware of
   the implications of these changes and unprepared for their
   consequences. At the start of World War I, most armies prepared for a
   brief war whose strategy and tactics would have been familiar to
   Napoleon.

   However, as war broke out, German and Allied (mostly French and
   British) forces soon learned that with modern weapons even a shallow
   scrape in the soil could be defended by a handful of infantry. To
   attack frontally was to court crippling losses, so an outflanking
   operation was essential. After the Battle of the Aisne in September
   1914, an extended series of attempted outflankings, and matching
   extensions to the fortified defensive lines, soon saw the celebrated
   "race to the sea"—the German and Allied armies dug what was essentially
   a single pair of trenches from the Swiss border in the south to the
   North Sea coast of Belgium. Trench warfare prevailed on the Western
   Front from September 16, 1914, until the Germans launched their "Spring
   Offensive", Operation Michael, on March 21, 1918.

   On the Western Front, the small improvised trenches of the first few
   months rapidly grew deeper and more complex, gradually becoming vast
   areas of interlocking defensive works. The space between the opposing
   trenches was referred to as " no man's land" and varied in distance
   depending on the battlefield. On the Western Front it was typically
   between 100 and 300 yards, though only 30 yards on Vimy Ridge. After
   the German withdrawal to the Hindenburg line in March 1917, it
   stretched to over a kilometre in places. At the infamous "Quinn's Post"
   in the cramped confines of the Anzac battlefield at Gallipoli, the
   opposing trenches were only 15 metres apart and a bombing war was waged
   there incessantly. On the Eastern Front and in the Middle East, the
   areas to be covered were so vast, and the distances from the factories
   that supplied shells, bullets, concrete and barbed wire so great, that
   trench warfare in the European style often did not eventuate.

   In the Alps the trench warfare even stretched into the 3rd dimension,
   on vertical slopes and deep into the mountains, up to heights of 3900
   meters above sea level (the Ortler had an artillery position on its
   summit near the front line). The trench-line management and trench
   profiles had to be adapted to the rough terrain, hard rock and the
   harsh weather conditions. Many trench systems were constructed within
   glaciers like the Adamello-Presanella group or the famous city below
   the ice on the Marmolada in the Dolomites.

Defensive system

   1st Lancashire Fusiliers, in communication trench near Beaumont Hamel,
   Somme, 1916
   Enlarge
   1st Lancashire Fusiliers, in communication trench near Beaumont Hamel,
   Somme, 1916

   Very early in the war the British defensive doctrine suggested a main
   trench system of three parallel lines with each line connected by
   communications trenches. The point at which a communications trench
   intersected the front trench was of critical importance and was usually
   heavily fortified. The front trench was lightly garrisoned and
   typically only occupied in force during "stand to" at dawn and dusk.
   Between 70 and 100 yards behind the front trench was located the
   support (or "travel") trench to which the garrison would retreat when
   the front trench was bombarded. Between 300 and 500 yards further to
   the rear was located the third reserve trench, where the reserve troops
   could amass for a counter-attack if the front trenches were captured.
   This defensive layout was soon rendered obsolete as the power of the
   artillery grew; however, in certain sectors of the front, the support
   trench was maintained as a decoy to attract the enemy bombardment away
   from the front and reserve lines. Fires were lit in the support line to
   make it appear inhabited, and any damage due to shellfire was
   immediately repaired.
   Aerial view of opposing trench lines between Loos and Hulluch, July
   1917. German trenches at the right and bottom, British at the top-left.
   Enlarge
   Aerial view of opposing trench lines between Loos and Hulluch, July
   1917. German trenches at the right and bottom, British at the top-left.

   Temporary trenches were also built. When a major attack was planned,
   assembly trenches would be dug near the front trench. These were used
   to provide a sheltered place for the waves of attacking troops who
   would follow the first waves leaving from the front trench. "Saps" were
   temporary, unmanned, often dead-end utility trenches dug out into no
   man's land. They fulfilled a variety of purposes such as connecting the
   front trench to a listening post close to the enemy wire or providing
   an advanced "jumping-off" line for a surprise attack.

   When one side's front line bulged towards the opposition, a " salient"
   was formed. The concave trench line facing the salient was called a
   "re-entrant". Large salients were perilous for their occupants because
   they could be assailed from three sides.

   Behind the front system of trenches there were usually at least two
   more partially prepared trench systems, kilometres to the rear, ready
   to be occupied in the event of a retreat. The Germans often prepared
   multiple redundant trench systems; in 1916 their Somme front featured
   two complete trench systems, one kilometre apart, with a third
   partially complete system a further kilometre behind. This duplication
   made a decisive breakthrough virtually impossible. In the event that a
   section of the first trench system was captured, a "switch" trench
   would be dug to connect the second trench system to the still-held
   section of the first.

   The Germans made something of a science out of designing and
   constructing defensive works. They used reinforced concrete to
   construct deep, shell-proof, ventilated dugouts as well as strategic
   strongpoints. They were more willing than their opponents to make a
   strategic withdrawal to a superior prepared defensive position. They
   were also the first to apply the concept "defence in depth", where the
   front-line zone was hundreds of yards deep and contained a series of
   redoubts rather than a continuous trench. Each redoubt could provide
   supporting fire to its neighbours, and while the attackers had freedom
   of movement between the redoubts, they would be subjected to withering
   enfilade fire. The British eventually adopted a similar approach, but
   it was incompletely implemented when the Germans launched the 1918
   "Spring Offensive" and proved disastrously ineffective.

Trench construction

   Trench construction diagram from a 1914 British infantry manual
   Enlarge
   Trench construction diagram from a 1914 British infantry manual

   Trenches were never straight but were dug in a square-toothed pattern
   that broke the line into bays connected by traverses. This meant that a
   soldier could never see more than 10 metres or so along the trench.
   Consequently, the entire trench could not be enfiladed if the enemy
   gained access at one point or if a bomb or shell landed in the trench;
   the fragmentation (often incorrectly called shrapnel) could not travel
   far. The side of the trench facing the enemy was called the parapet and
   had a fire step. The rear of the trench was called the parados. The
   parados protected the soldier's back from fragmentation from shells
   falling behind the trench. If the enemy captured the trench, then the
   parados would become their "parapet". The sides of the trench were
   revetted with sandbags, wooden frames and wire mesh. The floor of the
   trench was usually covered by wooden duckboards.

   Dugouts of varying degrees of luxury would be built in the rear of the
   support trench. British dugouts were usually 8 to 16 feet deep, whereas
   German dugouts were typically much deeper, usually a minimum of 12 feet
   deep and sometimes dug 3 stories down with concrete staircases to reach
   the upper levels.
   Australian light horseman using a periscope rifle, Gallipoli 1915
   Enlarge
   Australian light horseman using a periscope rifle, Gallipoli 1915

   To allow a soldier to see out of the trench without exposing his head,
   a loophole would be built into the parapet. A loophole might simply be
   a gap in the sandbags or it might be fitted with a steel plate. German
   snipers used armour-piercing bullets that allowed them to penetrate
   loopholes. The other means to see over the parapet was the trench
   periscope—in its simplest form, just a stick with two angled pieces of
   mirror at the top and bottom. In the Anzac trenches at Gallipoli where
   the Turks held the high ground, the periscope rifle was developed to
   enable the Australians and New Zealanders to snipe at the enemy without
   exposing themselves over the parapet.

   There were three standard ways to dig a trench: entrenching, sapping
   and tunnelling. Entrenching, where a man would stand on the surface and
   dig downwards, was most efficient as it allowed a digging party to dig
   the length of the trench simultaneously. However, entrenching left the
   diggers exposed above ground and hence could only be carried out when
   free of observation, such as in a rear area or at night. Sapping
   involved extending the trench by digging away at the end face. The
   diggers were not exposed, but only one or two men could work on the
   trench at a time. Tunnelling was like sapping except that a "roof" of
   soil was left in place while the trench line was established and then
   removed when the trench was ready to be occupied. The guidelines for
   British trench construction stated that it would take 450 men 6 hours
   (at night) to complete 250 metres of a front-line trench system.
   Thereafter the trench would require constant maintenance to prevent
   deterioration caused by weather or shelling.
   Breastwork "trench", Armentières, 1916
   Enlarge
   Breastwork "trench", Armentières, 1916

   The battlefield of Flanders, which saw some of the worst fighting,
   presented numerous problems for the practice of trench warfare,
   especially for the Canadians, who were often compelled to occupy the
   low ground. In most places, the water table was only a metre or so
   below the surface, meaning that any trench dug in the ground would
   quickly flood. Consequently, many "trenches" in Flanders were actually
   above ground and constructed from massive breastworks of sandbags
   (actually filled with clay). Initially, both the parapet and parados of
   the trench were built in this way, but a later technique was to
   dispense with the parados for much of the trench line, thus exposing
   the rear of the trench to fire from the reserve line in case the front
   was breached.

Trench geography

   The confined, static and subterranean nature of trench warfare resulted
   in it developing its own peculiar form of geography. In the forward
   zone, the conventional transport infrastructure of roads and rail were
   replaced by the network of trenches and light tramways. The critical
   advantage that could be gained by holding the high ground meant that
   minor hills and ridges gained enormous significance. Many slight hills
   and valleys were so subtle as to have been nameless until the front
   line encroached upon them. Some hills were named for their height in
   metres, such as Hill 60. A farmhouse, windmill, quarry or copse of
   trees would become the focus of a determined struggle simply because it
   was the largest identifiable feature. However, it would not take the
   artillery long to obliterate it, so that thereafter it became just a
   name on a map.
   German stormtroopers training with a Flammenwerfer near Sedan, France,
   May 1917
   Enlarge
   German stormtroopers training with a Flammenwerfer near Sedan, France,
   May 1917

   Battlefield features could be given a descriptive name (" Polygon Wood"
   near Ypres or " Lone Pine"), a whimsical name (" Sausage Valley" and "
   Mash Valley" on the Somme), a unit name ("Inniskilling Inch" at Helles
   named for the Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers) or the name of a soldier
   ("Monash Valley" at Anzac named after General John Monash). Prefixing a
   feature with "Dead Man's" was also popular for obvious reasons, such as
   "Dead Man's Road" leading in to Pozières, "Dead Man's Ridge" at Anzac
   or "Le Mort Homme" at Verdun. There were numerous trench networks named
   "The Chessboard" or "The Gridiron" because of the pattern they
   described. For the Australians at Mouquet Farm, the advances were so
   short and the terrain so featureless that they were reduced to naming
   their objectives as "points" on the map, such as "Point 81" and "Point
   55".

   Enemy trenches, which would become objectives in an attack, needed to
   be named as well. Many were named for some observed event such as
   "German Officers' Trench" at Anzac (where a couple of German officers
   were sighted) or "Ration Trench" on the Somme (where German
   ration-carrying parties were sighted). The British gave an alcoholic
   flavour to the German trenches in front of Ginchy: "Beer Trench",
   "Bitter Trench", "Hop Trench", "Ale Alley" and "Pilsen Trench". Other
   objectives were named according to their role in the trench system such
   as the "Switch Trench" and "Intermediate Trench" on the Somme.

   Some sections of the British trench system read like a Monopoly board,
   with names such as "Park Lane" and "Bond Street". British regular
   divisions habitually named their trenches after units, which resulted
   in names such as "Munster Alley" ( Royal Munster Fusiliers), "Black
   Watch Alley" ( Black Watch Regiment) and "Border Barricade" ( Border
   Regiment). The Anzacs tended to name features after soldiers ("Plugge's
   Plateau", "Walker's Ridge", "Quinn's Post", "Johnston's Jolly",
   "Russell's Top", "Brind's Road" and so forth).

Life in the trenches

   French trench at Côte 304, Verdun, 1916
   Enlarge
   French trench at Côte 304, Verdun, 1916

   An individual soldier's time in the front-line trench was usually
   brief; from as little as one day to as much as two weeks at a time
   before being relieved. The Australian 31st Battalion once spent 53 days
   in the line at Villers Bretonneux, but such a duration was a rare
   exception. A typical British soldier's year could be divided as
   follows:
     * 15% front line
     * 10% support line
     * 30% reserve line
     * 20% rest
     * 25% other (hospital, travelling, leave, training courses, etc.)

   Even when in the front line, the typical soldier would only be called
   upon to engage in fighting a handful of times a year—making an attack,
   defending against an attack or participating in a raid. The frequency
   of combat would increase for the men of the "elite" fighting
   divisions—on the Allied side; the British regular divisions, the
   Canadian Corps, the French XX Corps and the Anzacs.
   "Studying French in the Trenches," The Literary Digest, October 20,
   1917.
   Enlarge
   "Studying French in the Trenches," The Literary Digest, October 20,
   1917.

   Some sectors of the front saw little activity throughout the war,
   making life in the trenches comparatively easy. When the I Anzac Corps
   first arrived in France in April 1916 after the evacuation of
   Gallipoli, they were sent to a relatively peaceful sector south of
   Armentières to "acclimatise". Other sectors were in a perpetual state
   of violent activity. On the Western Front, Ypres was invariably
   hellish, especially for the British in the exposed, overlooked salient.
   However, quiet sectors still amassed daily casualties through sniper
   fire, artillery and gas. In the first six months of 1916 before the
   launch of the Somme Offensive, the British did not engage in any
   significant battles on their sector of the Western Front and yet
   suffered 107,776 casualties.

   A sector of the front would be allocated to an army corps, usually
   containing three divisions. Of these two would occupy adjacent sections
   of the front and the third would be in rest to the rear. This break
   down of duty would continue down through the army structure so that
   within each front-line division, typically containing three infantry
   brigades, two brigades would occupy the front and the third would be in
   reserve. Within each front-line brigade, typically containing four
   battalions (regiments for the Germans), two battalions would occupy the
   front with two in reserve. And so on for companies and platoons. The
   lower down the structure this division of duty proceeded, the more
   frequently the units would rotate from front-line duty to support or
   reserve.
   Chateau Wood, Ypres, 1917
   Enlarge
   Chateau Wood, Ypres, 1917

   During the day, snipers and artillery observers in balloons made
   movement perilous, so the trenches were mostly quiet. Consequently, the
   trenches were busiest at night when cover of darkness allowed the
   movement of troops and supplies, the maintenance and expansion of the
   barbed wire and trench system, and reconnaissance of the enemy's
   defences. Sentries in listening posts out in no man's land would try to
   detect enemy patrols and working parties or indications that an attack
   was being prepared.

   Raids were carried out in order to capture prisoners and
   "booty"—letters and other documents that provide intelligence about the
   unit occupying the opposing trenches. As the war progressed, raiding
   became part of the general British policy, the intention being to
   maintain the fighting spirit of the troops and to deny no man's land
   from the Germans. Such dominance was achieved at a high cost, and a
   post-war British analysis concluded that the benefits were probably not
   worth the price.

   Early in the war, surprise raids would be mounted, particularly by the
   Canadians, but increased vigilance made achieving surprise difficult as
   the war progressed. By 1916, raids were carefully planned exercises in
   combined arms and involved close co-operation of infantry and
   artillery. A raid would begin with an intense artillery bombardment
   designed to drive off or kill the front-trench garrison and cut the
   barbed wire. Then the bombardment would shift to form a "box", or
   cordon, around a section of the front line to prevent a counter-attack
   intercepting the raid.

Death in the trenches

   The intensity of World War I trench warfare meant that about 10% of the
   fighting soldiers were killed. This compared to 5% killed during the
   Second Boer War and 4.5% killed during World War II. For British and
   Dominion troops serving on the Western Front, the proportion of killed
   was 12% while the total proportion of troops who became casualties
   (killed or wounded) was 56%. Considering that for every front-line
   infantryman there were about 3 soldiers in support (artillery, supply,
   medical, etc.), it was highly unlikely for a fighting soldier to
   survive the war without sustaining some form of injury. Indeed many
   soldiers were injured more than once during the course of their
   service.

   Medical services were primitive and life-saving antibiotics had not yet
   been discovered. Relatively minor injuries could prove fatal through
   the onset of infection and gangrene. The Germans recorded that 12% of
   leg wounds and 23% of arm wounds resulted in death, mainly through
   infection. The Americans recorded that 44% of casualties that developed
   gangrene died. Half of those who were wounded in the head died and only
   1% of those wounded in the abdomen survived.

   Three-quarters of the wounds inflicted during the war came from shell
   fire. The wound resulting from a shell fragment was usually more
   traumatic than a gunshot wound. A shell fragment would often introduce
   debris making it more likely that the wound would become infected.
   These factors meant that a soldier was three times more likely to die
   from a shell wound to the chest than from a gunshot wound. The blast
   from shell explosions could also kill by concussion. In addition to the
   physical effects of shell fire there was the psychological damage. Men
   who had to endure a prolonged bombardment would often suffer
   debilitating shell shock, a condition that was not well understood at
   the time.

   As in many other wars, World War I's greatest killer was disease.
   Sanitary conditions in the trenches were quite poor, and common
   infections included dysentery, typhus, and cholera. Many soldiers
   suffered from parasites and related infections. Poor hygiene also led
   to conditions such as trench mouth and trench foot. Another common
   killer was exposure, since the temperature within a trench in the
   winter could easily fall below zero degrees Celsius. (32 F)

   Burial of the dead was usually a luxury that neither side could easily
   afford. The bodies would lie in no man's land until the front line
   moved, by which time the bodies were often unidentifiable. On some
   battlefields, such as at the Nek in Gallipoli, the bodies were not
   buried until after the war. On the Western Front, bodies continue to be
   found as fields are ploughed and building foundations dug.
   Stretcher bearers, Passchendale, August 1917
   Enlarge
   Stretcher bearers, Passchendale, August 1917

   At various times during the war—particularly early on—official truces
   were organised so that the wounded could be recovered from no man's
   land and the dead could be buried. Generally though, the higher
   commands disapproved of any slackening of the offensive for
   humanitarian reasons and so ordered their troops not to permit enemy
   stretcher bearers to operate in no man's land. However, this order was
   almost invariably ignored by the soldiers in the trenches, who knew
   that it was to the mutual benefit of the fighting men of both sides to
   allow the wounded to be retrieved. So, as soon as hostilities ceased,
   parties of stretcher bearers, marked with Red Cross flags, would go out
   to recover the wounded, sometimes swapping enemy wounded for their own.
   There were occasions when this unofficial cease fire was exploited to
   conduct a reconnaissance or to reinforce or relieve a garrison. One
   famous truce was the Christmas truce between British and German
   soldiers in the winter of 1914 on the front near Armentieres. German
   soldiers began singing Christmas carols and soon soldiers left their
   trenches. The soldiers exchanged gifts and stories, and played several
   games of football. As mentioned previously, the commanders of the
   warring nations disapproved of this cease fire, and the British
   court-martialed several of their soldiers. The spirit of this truce is
   portrayed in the 2005 movie Merry Christmas (Joyeux Noël).

Weapons of trench warfare

Infantry weapons

   The common infantry soldier had four weapons to use in the trenches:
   the rifle, bayonet, shotgun and grenade.

   The standard British rifle was the .303-in. (7.7 mm) Short Magazine
   Lee-Enfield (SMLE), originally developed as a cavalry carbine, with a
   maximum range (for sniping) of 1400yd (1280 m), though its effective
   range was more like 200yd (180 m). Early in the war, the British were
   able to defeat German attacks at Mons and the First Battle of Ypres
   using massed rifle fire, but as trench warfare developed, opportunities
   to assemble a line of riflemen became rare. The German counterpart to
   the Lee-Enfield was the 8 mm (.312-in.) Mauser Gewehr 98 (G98), which
   was equal to or better than its British counterpart in accuracy, range,
   and reliability. However, it was less suited to rapid fire due to its
   5-round magazine, half that of the British rifle. The French Lebel and
   Russian Mosin-Nagant rifles were generally inferior to the German and
   British weapons in most fields, especially reliability and workmanship.

   The British soldier was equipped with a 21-in. (53 cm) sword bayonet,
   which was too long and unwieldy to be particularly effective in close
   quarters combat. However, bayonet use was safer than firing the rifle
   which, in a mêlée, might strike an ally instead of an enemy. British
   figures recorded that only 0.3% of wounds were caused by bayonets;
   however, a strike from a bayonet was highly likely to result in death.
   A bayonet charge could be effective at inducing terror in an opponent,
   encouraging them to flee or surrender. The bayonet was used to finish
   off wounded enemy during an advance, saving ammunition while reducing
   the possibility of being attacked from the rear. Imperial German
   soldiers generally carried the M1898 "Butcher-blade" bayonet, which was
   a deadly effective weapon in the open, but like the British bayonet,
   difficult to use in the narrow trenches.

   Many soldiers preferred a short-handled spade or entrenching tool over
   a bayonet. They would sharpen the blade to a knife edge so it was just
   as effective as a bayonet, and the shorter length made them handier to
   use in the confined quarters of the trenches. These tools could then be
   used to "dig in" after they had taken a trench.

   Since the troops were often not adequately equipped for trench warfare,
   improvised weapons were common in the first encounters, such as short
   wooden clubs and metal maces, as well as all sorts of short knives and
   even brass knuckles (see trench raiding). As the war progressed, better
   gear was issued, and the improvised arms were discarded.

   Pump action shotguns were mainly used by American soldiers in the
   Western front. Rather than a single, high velocity bullet, a shotgun
   fires a larger number of metal balls, called shot. While each shot
   pellet causes far less damage than a rifle round, the standard load of
   9 .34 caliber (US designation: "00" or "double ought") buckshot was
   likely to cause multiple serious wounds at close range, thus increasing
   the odds of a disabling wound. A shotgun loaded with buckshot was a
   formidable weapon in short range combat--enough so that Germany lodged
   a formal protest against their use on 14 Sept. 1918, stating "every
   prisoner found to have in his possession such guns or ammunition
   belonging thereto forfeits his life" (though this threat was apparently
   never carried out). The US military began to issue pump shotguns
   specially modified for combat, called "trench guns". These had shorter
   barrels than sporting shotguns, longer magazines, no choke, and were
   often outfitted with heat shields around the barrel and bayonet lugs
   which used M1917 Bayonets. Descendants of the "trench gun" still exist
   today in the form of the combat shotgun and its cousin the riotgun.
   ANZAC and some British soldiers were also known to use sawn-off double
   barrel shotguns in trench raids, because of their portability,
   effectiveness at close range, and ease of use in the confines of a
   trench. This practice was not officially sanctioned, and the shotguns
   used were invariably civilian sporting shotguns, suitably altered for
   their new purpose.

   The grenade came to be the primary infantry weapon of trench warfare.
   Both sides were quick to raise specialist bombing squads. The grenade
   enabled a soldier to engage the enemy indirectly (without exposing
   himself to fire), and it did not require the precise accuracy of rifle
   fire in order to kill or maim. The Germans and Turks were well equipped
   with grenades from the start of the war, but the British, who had
   ceased using grenadiers in the 1870s and did not anticipate a siege
   war, entered the conflict with virtually none, such that soldiers had
   to improvise bombs with whatever was available. By late 1915, the
   British Mills bomb had entered wide circulation, and by the end of the
   war 75 million of them had been used.

Machine guns

   The machine gun is perhaps the signature weapon of trench warfare, with
   the image of ranks of advancing infantry being scythed down by the
   withering hail of bullets. The Germans embraced the machine gun from
   the outset—in 1904, sixteen units were equipped with
   Maschinengewehr—and the machine gun crews were the elite infantry
   units, these infantries were attached to Jaeger light infantry
   battalions. British infantry units were armed with one Maxim machine
   gun per battalion, as for the Germans, they had six per battalion and
   the Russians displayed eight. As for the Americans, they had to wait
   until 1917 to see every infantry unit carry at least one machine gun.
   After 1915, the MG 08/15 was the standard-issue German machine gun; its
   number entered the German language as an idiomatic expression for "dead
   plain". At Gallipoli and in Palestine the Turks provided the infantry,
   but it was usually Germans who manned the machine guns.

   The British High Command were less enthusiastic about machine gun
   technology, supposedly considering the weapon too "unsporting" and
   encouraging defensive fighting, and they lagged behind the Germans in
   adopting the weapon. Field Marshall Sir Douglas Haig is quoted as
   saying in 1915 "The machine gun is a much overrated weapon; two per
   battalion is more than sufficient" , which resulted in record numbers
   of British casualties using these tactics. In 1915 the Machine Gun
   Corps was formed to train and provide sufficient heavy machine gun
   teams. It was the Canadians that made the best practise, pioneering
   area denial and indirect fire (soon adopted by all Allied armies) under
   the guidance of former French Army Reserve officer Major General
   Raymond Brutinel. To match demand, production of the Vickers machine
   gun was contracted to firms in the United States. By 1917, every
   company in the British forces were also equipped with four Lewis light
   machine guns, which significantly enhanced their firepower.

   The heavy machine gun was a specialist weapon, and in a static trench
   system was employed in a scientific manner, with carefully calculated
   fields of fire, so that at a moment's notice an accurate burst could be
   laid upon the enemy's parapet or at a break in the wire. Equally it
   could be used as light artillery in bombarding distant trenches. Heavy
   machine guns required teams of up to eight to move them, maintain them
   and keep them supplied with ammunition.

Mortars

   Mortars, which lobbed a shell a relatively short distance, were widely
   used in trench fighting for harassing the forward trenches and for
   cutting wire in preparation for a raid or attack. In 1914, the British
   fired a total of 545 mortar shells. In 1916, they fired over 6,500,000
   shells.

   The main British mortar was the Stokes mortar, which was the precursor
   of the modern mortar. It was a light mortar, but was easy to use, and
   capable of a rapid rate of fire by virtue of the propellant cartridge
   being attached to the shell. To fire the Stokes mortar, the round was
   simply dropped into the tube, where the cartridge was ignited
   automatically when it struck the firing pin at the bottom.

   The Germans used a range of mortars. The smallest were grenade-throwers
   (Granatenwerfer) which fired "pineapple" bombs. Their medium
   trench-mortars were called mine-throwers ( Minenwerfer), dubbed
   "minnies" by the British. The heavy mortar was called the Ladungswerfer
   which threw "aerial torpedoes", containing a 200 lb (90 kg) charge,
   over 1000 yards. The flight of the missile was so slow and leisurely
   that the men on the receiving end could make some attempt to seek
   shelter.

Artillery

   Artillery dominated the battlefield of trench warfare in the same way
   that air power dominates the modern battlefield. An infantry attack was
   rarely successful if it advanced beyond the range of its supporting
   artillery. In addition to bombarding the enemy infantry in the
   trenches, the artillery would engage in counter-battery duels to try to
   destroy the enemy's guns.

   Artillery mainly fired fragmentation, high explosive, or, later in the
   war, gas shells. The British experimented with firing thermite
   incendiary shells to set trees and ruins alight.
   Loading a 15-inch howitzer
   Enlarge
   Loading a 15-inch howitzer

   Artillery pieces were of two types: guns and howitzers. Guns fired
   high-velocity shells over a flat trajectory and were often used to
   deliver fragmentation and to cut barbed wire. Howitzers lofted the
   shell over a high trajectory such that it plunged into the ground. The
   biggest artillery were usually howitzers. The German 420 mm howitzer
   weighed 20 tons and could fire a one-ton shell over 10 km.

   A critical feature of modern artillery pieces was the hydraulic recoil
   mechanism which meant the gun did not need to be re-laid (re-aimed)
   after each shot. Initially each gun would need to register its aim on a
   known target, in view of an observer, in order to fire with precision
   during a battle. The process of gun registration would often alert the
   enemy an attack was being planned. Towards the end of 1917, artillery
   techniques were developed enabling fire to be delivered accurately
   without registration.

Gas

   See main article: Use of poison gas in World War I

   Tear gas was first employed in August 1914 by the French, but this
   could only disable the enemy. In April 1915, chlorine was first used by
   Germany at the Second Battle of Ypres. A large enough dose could kill,
   but the gas was easy to detect by scent and sight. Those that were not
   killed on exposure could suffer permanent lung damage.

   Phosgene, first used in December 1915, was the ultimate killing gas of
   World War I—it was 18 times more powerful than chlorine and much more
   difficult to detect. However, the most effective gas was mustard gas,
   introduced by Germany in July 1917. Mustard gas was not as fatal as
   phosgene, but it was hard to detect and lingered on the surface of the
   battlefield and so could inflict casualties over a long period. The
   burns it produced were so horrific that a casualty resulting from
   mustard gas exposure was unlikely to be fit to fight again. Only 2% of
   mustard gas casualties died, mainly from secondary infections.

   The first method of employing gas was by releasing it from a cylinder
   when the wind was favourable. Such an approach was obviously prone to
   miscarry if the direction of the wind was misjudged. Also, the
   cylinders needed to be positioned in the front trenches where they were
   likely to be ruptured during a bombardment. Later in the war, gas was
   delivered by artillery or mortar shell.

Helmets

   During the first year of the First World War, none of the combatant
   nations equipped their troops with steel helmets. Soldiers went into
   battle wearing simple cloth or leather caps that offered virtually no
   protection from the damage caused by modern weapons. German troops were
   wearing the traditional leather Pickelhaube (spiked helmet), with a
   covering of cloth to protect the leather from the splattering of mud.
   Once the war entered the static phase of trench warfare, the number of
   lethal head wounds that troops were receiving from fragmentation
   increased dramatically.

   The French were the first to see a need for greater protection and
   began to introduce steel helmets in the summer of 1915. The Adrian
   helmet (designed by August-Louse Adrian) replaced the traditional
   French kepi and was later adopted by the Belgian and Italian armies.

   At about the same time the British were developing their own helmets.
   The French design was rejected as not strong enough and too difficult
   to mass-produce. The design that was eventually approved by the British
   was the Brodie helmet (designed by John L. Brodie). This had a wide
   brim to protect the wearer from falling objects, but offered less
   protection to the wearer's neck. When the Americans entered the war,
   this was the helmet they chose.

   The traditional German pickelhaube was replaced by the Stahlhelm or
   "steel helmet" in 1916. Some elite Italian units used a helmet derived
   from ancient Roman designs.

   None of these standard helmets could protect the face or eyes, however.
   Special face-covers were designed to be used by machine-gunners, and
   the Belgians tried out goggles made of louvres to protect the eyes.

Wire

   The use of barbed wire was decisive in slowing infantry travelling
   across the battlefield. Without it, fast moving infantry (or cavalry)
   might cross the lines and reach the enemy machine gun posts and
   artillery. Slowed down by the barbed wire, they were much more likely
   to be shot down by the machine guns or infantry men. Liddell Hart
   identified barbed wire and the machine gun as the elements that had to
   be broken to regain a mobile battlefield.

   Wiring was usually done at night in active sectors, and the screw
   picket invented during the war helped decrease the amount of noise
   working parties would create.

Aircraft

   The fundamental purpose of the aircraft in trench warfare was
   reconnaissance and artillery observation. Aerial reconnaissance was so
   significant in exposing movements, it has been said the trench
   stalemate was a product of it. The role of the fighter was to protect
   friendly reconnaissance aircraft and destroy those of the enemy, or at
   least deny them the freedom of friendly airspace. This involved
   achieving air superiority over the battlefield by destroying the
   enemy's fighters as well. Spotter aircraft would monitor the fall of
   shells during registration of the artillery. Reconnaissance aircraft
   would map trench lines (first with hand-drawn diagrams, later
   photographs), monitor enemy troop movements, and locate enemy artillery
   batteries so that they could be destroyed with counter-battery fire.
   More ingenious pilots would carry bricks with them when going on
   flights in order to drop on the enemy.

Other Weapons

   The Germans employed flame throwers (Flammenwerfer) during the war but
   as the technology was in its infancy, its value was mostly
   psychological.

Mining

   All sides would engage in vigorous mining and counter-mining duels. The
   dry chalk of the Somme was especially suited to mining, but with the
   aid of pumps, it was also possible to mine in the sodden clay of
   Flanders. Specialist tunneling companies, usually made up of men who
   had been coal miners in civilian life, would dig tunnels under no man's
   land and beneath the enemy's trenches. These mines would then be packed
   with explosives and detonated, producing a large crater. The crater
   served two purposes: it could destroy or breach the enemy's trench and,
   by virtue of the raised lip that they produced, could provide a
   ready-made "trench" closer to the enemy's line. When a mine was
   detonated, both sides would race to occupy and fortify the crater.

   If the miners detected an enemy tunnel in progress, they would often
   drive a counter-tunnel, called a camouflet, which would be detonated in
   an attempt to destroy the other tunnel prematurely. Night raids were
   also conducted with the sole purpose of destroying the enemy's mine
   workings. On occasion, mines would cross and fighting would occur
   underground.

   The mining skills could also be used to move troops unseen. On one
   occasion a whole British division was moved through interconnected
   workings and sewers without German observation.

   The British detonated a number of mines on July 1, 1916, the first day
   of the Battle of the Somme. The largest mines—the Y Sap Mine and the
   Lochnager Mine—each containing 24 tons of explosives, were blown near
   La Boiselle, throwing earth 4,000 feet into the air.

   At 5.10 AM on June 7, 1917, 19 mines were detonated by the British to
   launch the Battle of Messines. The average mine contained 21 tons of
   explosive and the largest, 125 feet beneath St. Eloi, was twice the
   average at 42 tons. The combined force of the explosions was supposedly
   felt in England. As the Chief of Staff of the British Second Army,
   General Sir Charles Harrington, commented on the eve of the battle:

          I do not know whether we shall change history tomorrow, but we
          shall certainly alter the geography.

   The craters from these and many other mines on the Western Front are
   still visible today. Three further mines were laid for Messines but
   were not detonated as the tactical situation had since changed. One
   blew during a thunderstorm in 1955; the other two remain to this day.

Trench battles

Strategy

   The fundamental strategy of trench warfare was to defend your own
   position strongly while trying to achieve a breakthrough into the
   enemy's rear. The effect was to end up in attrition; the process of
   progressively grinding down the opposition's resources until,
   ultimately, they are no longer able to wage war. This did not prevent
   the ambitious commander from pursuing the strategy of annihilation—the
   ideal of an offensive battle which produces victory in one decisive
   engagement. The Commander in Chief of the British forces, General
   Douglas Haig, was constantly seeking a "breakthrough" which could then
   be exploited with cavalry divisions. His major trench offensives—the
   Somme in 1916 and Flanders in 1917—were conceived as breakthrough
   battles but both degenerated into costly attrition. The Germans
   actively pursued a strategy of attrition in the Battle of Verdun, the
   sole purpose of which was to "bleed the French Army white". At the same
   time the Allies needed to mount offensives in order to draw attention
   away from other hard-pressed areas of the line.

Tactics

   The popular image of a trench warfare infantry assault is of a wave of
   soldiers, bayonets fixed, going "over the top" and marching in a line
   across no man's land into a hail of enemy fire. This indeed was the
   standard method early in the war and successful examples are few. The
   more common tactic was to attack at night from an advanced post in no
   man's land, having cut the barbed wire entanglements beforehand.

   In 1917, the Germans innovated with the "infiltration" tactic where
   small groups of highly trained and well-equipped troops would attack
   vulnerable points and bypass strongpoints, driving deep into the rear
   areas. The distance they could advance was still limited by their
   ability to supply and communicate.
   Passchendaele village, before and after the 3rd Battle of Ypres
   Enlarge
   Passchendaele village, before and after the 3rd Battle of Ypres

   The role of artillery in an infantry attack was twofold: firstly in
   preparation by killing or driving off the enemy garrison and destroying
   his defences, and secondly in protecting the attacking infantry by
   providing an impenetrable "barrage" or curtain of shells to prevent an
   enemy counter-attack. The first attempt at sophistication was the
   "lifting barrage" where the first objective of an attack was intensely
   bombarded for a period before the entire barrage "lifted" to fall on a
   second objective farther back. However, this usually expected too much
   of the infantry, and the usual outcome was that the barrage would
   outpace the attackers, leaving them without protection. This resulted
   in the use of the " creeping barrage" which would lift more frequently
   but in smaller steps, sweeping the ground ahead and moving so slowly
   that the attackers could usually follow closely behind it.

   Capturing the objective was half the successful battle—the battle was
   only won if the objective was held. The attacking force would have to
   advance with not only the weapons required to capture a trench but also
   the tools—sandbags, picks and shovels, barbed wire—to fortify and
   defend from counter-attack. The Germans placed great emphasis on
   immediately counter-attacking to regain lost ground. This strategy cost
   them dearly in 1917 when the British started to limit their advances so
   as to be able to meet the anticipated counter-attack from a position of
   strength.

Communications

   The main difficulty faced by an attacking force in a trench battle was
   reliable communications. Wireless communications were still in their
   infancy, so the available methods were telephone, semaphore, signal
   lamps, homing pigeons and runners, none of which were particularly
   reliable. Telephone was the most effective, but the lines were
   extremely vulnerable to shell fire and so would usually be cut early in
   a battle. In an attempt to counter this, telephone lines would be laid
   in a ladder pattern to provide multiple redundant paths. Flares and
   rockets were used to signal an objective was reached or to call for
   prearranged artillery support.

   It was not unusual for a battalion or brigade commander to wait two or
   three hours for word on the progress of an attack, by which time any
   decision made based on the message would probably be long out of date.
   A similar period would pass when transferring the news to the division,
   corps and army headquarters. Consequently, the outcome of many trench
   battles was decided by the company and platoon commanders in the thick
   of the fighting.

Breaking the deadlock

   Throughout World War I, the major combatants slowly groped their way
   towards the tactics necessary for breaking the deadlock of trench
   warfare, beginning with the French and Germans, with the British and
   Empire forces also contributing to the collective learning experience.

   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 (Sturmtruppen). 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 by disrupting entrenched enemy positions) 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.

   The static trench battle was broken as the tank developed. Conceived to
   give infantry armor against machine guns, it also added mobility. While
   not effectively employed at first, tanks had tremendous morale effects
   on German troops in the closing stages of the war on the Western front.

   The Americans played a major role in breaking through the trenches.
   General John Pershing saw trench warfare as useless and costly, and
   ordered the men he commanded to launch both direct and surprise
   assaults on the enemy trenches, using artillery and infantry fire to
   strike targets up close.

   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.

   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 air-cover 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.

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

   This is not to say that entrenchment is redundant. It is still a
   valuable method for reinforcing natural obstacles to create a line of
   defense. 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.

Post-1945 trench warfare

   US Marines of Company B, Battalion Landing Team, 1st Battalion, 4th
   Marines, 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, perform a trench clearing
   exercise in Camp Pendleton, Jan. 7, 2004
   Enlarge
   US Marines of Company B, Battalion Landing Team, 1st Battalion, 4th
   Marines, 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, perform a trench clearing
   exercise in Camp Pendleton, Jan. 7, 2004

   Trench warfare has been very infrequent since the end of World War I.
   When two large armored armies meet, the result has generally been
   mobile warfare of the type which developed in World War II.

   However, trench warfare reemerged in the latter stages of the Korean
   War (1950-53) and in some locations and engagements in the Vietnam War
   (1964-75).

   During the Cold War, NATO forces routinely trained to fight through
   extensive works called "Soviet-style trench systems", named after the
   Warsaw Pact's complex systems of field fortifications, an extension of
   Soviet field entrenching practices for which they were famous in their
   Great Patriotic War.

   The most cited example of trench warfare after World War I was the
   Iran-Iraq War, in which both armies had a large number of infantry with
   modern small arms, but very little armor, aircraft or training in
   combined weapons. The result was very similar to World War I with
   trenches and chemical warfare used.

   Another example of trench stalemate was the Eritrean-Ethiopian War of
   1998– 2002. The front line in Korea and the front lines between
   Pakistan and India in Kashmir are two examples of demarcation lines
   which could become hot at any time. They consist of kilometers of
   trenches linking fortified strongpoints and in Korea surrounded by
   millions of land mines.

Māori Pa

   The Māori of New Zealand had built stockades called Pā on hills and
   small peninsulas for centuries before European contact. These resembled
   the small Iron Age forts which dot the British and Irish landscapes.
   When the Māori encountered the British they developed the Pā into a
   very effective defensive system of trenches, rifle pits and dugouts,
   which predated similar developments in America and Europe. In the New
   Zealand land wars for a long time the modern Pā effectively neutralised
   the overwhelming disparity in numbers and armaments. At Ohaeawai Pā in
   1845, at Rangiriri in 1864, and again at Gate Pā in 1864 the British
   and Colonial Forces discovered that a frontal attack on a defended Pā
   was both ineffective and extremely costly.
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   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
