TRENCH WEAPONS of World War 1:

I thought that I knew about trench warfare during WW1 - things like the men using grenades and bayonets and periscopes to defend their positions in rival trenches sometimes as close as only 16 yards apart in the steep terrain above the beaches of Gallipoli. I'd even heard of shotguns being called "trench-sweepers" - the Winchester Model 1897 pump-action being the original type.

Winchester Model 1897 Shot-gun.

The M1897 had an external hammer and barrel lengths varied between 20 inches up to as long as 36 inches.

Rod has just reminded me by e-mail that the trigger disconnect design of the M1897 meant that by holding-back the trigger you can fire 9 ball buckshot as fast as you can pump or cycle the action! - "Very handy in the confines of a trench!".

 British officers went into the war armed with the Webley MkV and from 1915 the Webley MkVI - top break revolvers in .455" calibre. This revolver was a sturdy and reliable gun - well suited to rough use in mud and filth - and was also issued to tank crews,  trench raiders and machine gun teams.

WEBLEY Mk VI .455" Calibre.

Sappers were troops trained to specialise in tunnelling - a 'SAP' was a trench used to advance under cover on a fortress in earlier times - and Sappers or miners were also sometimes known as Pioneers. Both sides would try to literally undermine the enemy's lines and place explosive mines to use when an attack was to be attempted. - Dirty, hard, dangerous work while the opposition would be listening for digging - and placing their explosive charges to catch the other team at work at the right time. Boom.

 The first world war saw Maori serving in the New Zealand Maori Pioneer Battalion.

Meanwhile, barely above ground the troops were trying to survive infiltration attacks - sneak attacks under the cover of darkness  - and at close contact it wasn't only guns that were in use.

Trench Club Marked 'S&W'  - 1914/18

Entrenching Tools were sharpened for affect:

German WW1 Entrenching Tool

WW1 US Mark 1 TRENCH KNIFE

- Brutal stuff - but the idea was to sneak-in, -  cause maximum casualties and sneak back to the home lines undiscovered.

The surrounds of front-line dug-outs would have been protected by low-tech movement detectors of tin-cans suspended from wires to rattle when moved - in the hope that troopers would be able to snatch some sleep without having anyone drop by and use a mace on their head. - The steel helmets were never designed as bullet proof - but they might well deflect glancing blows.

The US Trench 'Bolo' was classed as a tool rather than a weapon.

-Add into the mix early tanks, artillery, airships, poison gas attacks, and hand-grenades being lobbed into your trench - with heavy machine guns waiting for any movement from the cover of the trenches, - and you'll get the idea that an infantry-mans lot was not an easy one.

British P1907 Bayonet  (18 inch) for Enfield Rifle.

 - New Zealand lost 16,697 killed and 41,317 wounded - a high casualty rate of 58%. A further 1,000 men died from their wounds over the following five years - and 507 died during training.

On the 15th August 1914 a force of 1,413 men with 6 nursing sisters sailed for German Samoa and landed on the 29th to no resistance from the Germans.

Marty K
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