Entrenchments.

This is coolbert:

Yet more extracts with my commentary from original articles as seen at the isegoria.net Internet web site topic the Great War.

To war with spade and pick axe! The Great War. Can you dig it?

"A Great War of Entrenchments"

Once again, evidence of time travel in the Nineteenth Century this time courtesy Ivan Bloch?

"In the late 1800s, Ivan Bloch saw that the next great war would be a great war of entrenchments"

“Certainly, everybody will be entrenched in the next war. It will be a great war of entrenchments. The spade will be as indispensable to a soldier as his rifle. The first thing every man will have to do, if he cares for his life at all, will be to dig a hole in the ground, and throw up as strong an earthen rampart as he can to shield him from the hail of bullets which will fill the air.”
[...]

The hail of bullets AND the metal splinters from artillery detonations!!

From the British perspective that vulnerability of the man-a-foot, metal splinters from artillery fire and shelter as offered by entrenchments:

"The Effects of Target Posture"

It's also useful to note how vulnerability changes with target posture because it suggests the relative amounts of fire needed in different circumstances.  The following estimates the relative risks of becoming a casualty to ground-burst shells on ‘average’ ground:-

Standing	1
Lying	1/3
Firing from open fire trenches	1/15 – 1/50
Crouching in open fire trenches	1/25 – 1/100

Ivan had it all figured out, didn't he! Not a military man but his prescience most profound! Keep your head down and no foolish charges.

Can you dig it?

coolbert.