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While trenches have often been dug as defensive measures, in the pre-firearm eras, they were mainly a type of hindrance for an attacker of a fortified location, such as the moat around a castle (this is technically called a ditch).
Only with the advent of accurate firearms, and the tactics that evolved in World War I and the Crimean War, did the use of trenches as positions for the defender of a fortification become common, though the Maori of New Zealand were known to have used it earlier in their Pa fortifications in the late 19th Century. The military usage evolved very quickly in the First World War, until whole systems of extensive main trenches, backup trenches (in case the first lines were overrun) and communication trenches had been developed, often stretching dozens of kilometres along a front without interruption, and some kilometres further back from the opponents lines.
[edit] Other uses
- Trenches are often used for mass graves, sometimes even dug by prisoners about to be executed (see, for example, the Holocaust novel Night).
- Sunken trenches may be combined with a wall on one of their sides to form a ha-ha, a type of hidden fence.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- , Code of Federal Regulations, Title 29, Volume 8, Page 374 (Code revised as of July 1, 2003, via Compliance Magazine's website)
- , Archaeology - Restore! Magazine, Winter 1998
- , Ocean trench (glossary from Student Resource Center website, Houghton Mifflin college division)
[edit] External links
(Source: Wikipedia) |