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Life in the trenches - Part 6

60 second histories

This video covers:

A description of how soldiers crawled on their bellies across No Man's Land to make a raid on enemy trenches

Being in the front line trench you’re under constant threat of being blown up by German artillery or shot by one of their snipers so in the day you have to keep your head down under cover. If there’s a daylight raid on the German trenches you take only what you needed to fight with. If the enemy trenches are only a matter of twenty five yards away you might just charge over, but if they’re some distance away you have to crawl across no mans land on your belly until you reach the German barbed wire, if they see you they’ll fire their machine guns and you have had it. A night raid is much better as you can get across no mans land in the dark. If they hear you they will fire rockets up in the air and turn night into day, you must freeze even if you are standing up, because in that strange light of the flare the enemy can see movement, one thing keep one eye shut to preserve your night vision.
Eras: 
20th Century
WW1
Topics: 
Trench Life
Character: 
WW1 British infantry soldier
Key words: 
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