The British Western Front in France was a continuous line of defenses that stretched from the Belgian border down to the Somme River. In August 1914, the British Expeditionary Force arrived with 80,000 professional soldiers. By 1916, this force grew into a massive army of millions of volunteers and conscripted men. The geography of the front varied from the flat, marshy plains of Flanders in the north to the chalky ridges of the Somme in the south. For four years, the British army occupied this sector to prevent the German military from reaching the French coast and Paris.
The Structure of the Trench System
The British built a sophisticated system of three parallel trench lines. The front-line trench faced the German positions across No Man’s Land. Behind it lay the support trench, which held extra troops and supplies. The third line was the reserve trench, located several hundred yards further back. Communication trenches ran perpendicular to these lines. They allowed soldiers to move between the front and the rear without being seen by enemy snipers.
British engineers reinforced the trench walls with sandbags and wooden frames. They placed wooden slats called duckboards at the bottom of the ditches to keep soldiers’ feet out of the standing water. Every front-line trench had a fire step. This was a ledge that allowed a soldier to step up and fire his rifle over the top of the parapet. Steel wire entanglements were placed in front of the trenches to slow down enemy attacks.
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The Daily Routine of the Soldier
Life on the Western Front followed a strict military schedule. The day began with “Stand-to-Arms” before dawn. Every soldier stood on the fire step with his bayonet fixed to his rifle. This was the time when enemy attacks were most likely to occur. After an hour of waiting, the men performed “Morning Hate,” which involved firing rifles and machine guns at the enemy lines to show they were alert.
Once the morning checks were finished, the men received their breakfast. The rest of the daylight hours were spent on maintenance tasks. Soldiers filled thousands of sandbags to repair damage from artillery shells. They cleaned their rifles constantly to remove the thick mud. At night, the work became more dangerous. Sapping parties moved into No Man’s Land to repair the barbed wire fences or dig new “sap” trenches toward the enemy. Fatigue was a constant factor because soldiers only slept for a few hours at a time in small holes dug into the side of the trench called “funk holes.”
Rations and Supplies
The British army operated a massive logistics network to feed the troops. The daily ration for a soldier included one pound of meat and one pound of bread or biscuits. The meat was usually “bully beef,” which was salted corned beef in a tin. Another common meal was Maconochie’s stew, a mixture of meat, turnips, and potatoes. Fresh vegetables were almost impossible to find at the front.
Biscuits were so hard that soldiers often had to soak them in water or tea before they could eat them. Tea was the primary drink, and it arrived in large metal containers that often tasted of gasoline. Each soldier received two ounces of tobacco every week. This helped the men cope with the stress of the environment. Mail from home was the most important delivery. The Army Postal Service delivered millions of letters and parcels every week to keep morale high.
The Hazards of the Environment
The weather in Northern France created a hostile environment for the British troops. Heavy rain turned the clay-rich soil into a thick, sticky mud. This mud clogged rifle mechanisms and made movement difficult. In the winter, temperatures dropped well below freezing. Thousands of men suffered from “trench foot,” a condition caused by standing in cold water for days. To prevent this, the army ordered men to change their socks twice a day and rub whale oil on their feet.
Rats and lice were everywhere in the trenches. The rats grew to the size of cats because they fed on the remains of horses and men. They chewed through sandbags and contaminated the food supplies. Lice lived in the seams of the soldiers’ wool uniforms. They caused a constant, maddening itch and spread a disease called “trench fever.” This fever caused high temperatures and muscle pain, taking many soldiers away from the front lines.
Weaponry and Technology
The British infantryman used the Short Magazine Lee-Enfield rifle. It was a reliable weapon that held ten rounds of ammunition. A trained soldier fired fifteen aimed shots per minute. For heavy fire support, each battalion used Vickers machine guns. These guns were water-cooled and could fire for hours without stopping. The British also used the Stokes Mortar to drop explosives directly into the German trenches from a high angle.
Artillery was the primary weapon of the Western Front. Huge howitzers were positioned miles behind the lines. They fired high-explosive and shrapnel shells over the heads of the infantry. In 1915, the British faced the first chemical gas attacks. They quickly developed gas masks made of rubber and glass to protect the men from chlorine and mustard gas. In 1916, the British introduced the tank at the Battle of the Somme. These armored vehicles could crush barbed wire and cross trenches, although the early models were slow and often broke down.
Major Operations and Battles
The British army participated in several massive offensives to break the stalemate. The Battle of the Somme in 1916 was the largest of these operations. On the first day, July 1, the British suffered 57,470 casualties. The battle lasted until November and resulted in a gain of only seven miles of territory. In 1917, the British fought the Third Battle of Ypres, also known as Passchendaele. The battlefield was a swamp of mud and shell craters.
The Battle of Cambrai in November 1917 was a turning point for British tactics. For the first time, they used 476 tanks in a massed formation. They did not use a long artillery bombardment before the attack, which caught the German army by surprise. The tanks successfully broke through the Hindenburg Line, which was the strongest part of the German defenses. This battle proved that a combination of tanks, infantry, and airplanes could move the front line.
The Hundred Days Offensive
In August 1918, the British began the Hundred Days Offensive. They used a “creeping barrage” where the artillery fire moved forward in stages, and the infantry followed closely behind. They coordinated their attacks with the French and American armies. The British used light tanks called “Whippets” and armored cars to strike deep into the rear of the German lines.
By September, the British had broken the final German defensive positions. They moved out of the trenches and into the open countryside of France. The German army was in full retreat and could no longer hold their positions. The British captured thousands of prisoners and hundreds of artillery pieces every day. This rapid advance continued until the armistice was signed on November 11, 1918. The British army remained in France and Belgium until the formal peace treaty was signed the following year.
