Elements of Trench WarfareWaldron, William H. (William Henry)
History
Elements of Trench Warfare
Waldron, William H. (William Henry)
Intrenchments; Siege warfare
2. At a group on the move. Fire should be concentrated on an advancing
group. The time when the group is preparing to start its rush may be
indicated by rifles being raised and the movements that take place
along the line. After a rush has started, look out for the late comers
trying to rejoin their comrades. They make good targets.
3. When the enemy attempts to build up his line to the front by a
process of infiltration. That is, by having single men crawl from one
point to the other, each man should be fired on during his advance.
4. Fire will be immediately concentrated on any machine gun that comes
into action. With the German gun prolonged firing heats the water in
the jacket to the boiling point and puffs of steam are given off. Do
not be deceived into thinking that this necessarily gives away the
position of the gun, for this steam has been piped to a distant place
and allowed to escape so as to draw fire that otherwise might be
directed on the real position of the gun.
5. On signallers or runners. These are carrying information that will
probably be of benefit to the enemy’s commander. You will appreciate
the necessity of preventing this.
6. On an enemy showing a flank. No opportunity must be lost to fire
upon an enemy that exposes his flank. The fire of a single rifleman
down the flank may cause a whole line to retreat.
[Sidenote: Use of Rifle Grenades]
Rifle grenades are capable of causing more losses to the enemy than
bombardment. The rifle grenade arrives at its destination unexpectedly
without any noise; it explodes before one has even time to get out of
the way. As it does not arrive at fixed hours like the bombardment, the
enemy cannot continually avoid it by taking refuge in his dugouts and
shelters; when he is moving about a trench which is subject to rifle
grenading he must be continually on the alert. This perpetual menace,
hour in and hour out, day in and day out, renders his sojourn in the
trenches extremely disagreeable.
Before rifle grenades are thrown careful observation of the opposing
trench must have been made to determine the point where the grenade is
likely to do the greatest damage.
Rifles are placed in the aiming racks and the grenades fired from time
to time, day and night, at moments when it seems propitious. In this
way a sentinel may be taken by surprise; a noncommissioned officer or
officer may be caught unawares.
It should be remembered that we will probably be able to throw twenty
grenades to the enemy’s one. Advantage should always be taken of this
munitions superiority. Every man of the enemy we can put out of action
is one less to kill us in the advance which will eventually come.
Sometimes the enemy will try to reply. Here is where our munitions
superiority comes in again. We can fairly shower him with grenades and
make him take to his shelters.
It may be advisable to execute a sudden burst of grenade fire. This is
started by a volley and followed by fire at will.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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