How did they build trenches right next to the enemy during world war 1?

Question

I watched All quiet on the western front the other day and it reminded me about my old history lessons at school
How were both sides able to build trenches right next to each other during the war?
I mean if they tried to do this, one side would obviously kill all of the people on the other side before they were able to even start digging?
How did they do this?

Answer 1

A the beginning of the war they often did not try to find cover when they met in combat; fighting like soldier in the Napoleonic wars, and as you stated this did prove to be very disastrous since the rifles of World war I could fire much faster and were far more accurate than the muskets of previous wars. Thousands of men were killed in the first days of the war in this way. Very quickly the surviving soldiers learned to use rocks, trees and other variation in the ground to hide behind from enemy fire; however this sort of cover was limited so wherever they could find cover they began to dig in. Men dug a pit to hide in, and the pits became linked with slit trenches and evolved into the elaborate trench works. It didn't happen all, but evolved over time as the men tried many things and their enemies tried to prevent them from succeeding.

Answer 2

Trenches pre-date foxholes. Trenches, as used in the American Civil War, the Second Boer War and the Franco-Prussian war were seen as a natural requirement for moving troops safely, not only are they out of view and therefore out of direct rifle or machine gun fire, better yet they are protected from the big killer of any war since the American Civil War – artillery. Artillery pieces had become so accurate and powerful that they would dominate the battlefields of the First World War, and, to a lesser extent, due to the use of the tank and aircraft, the Second World War. A trench is designed to offer as much protection as possible to howitzer rounds which burst above ground showering anyone below with red-hot splinters, barring a close proximity burst a trench offers reasonable protection from artillery. Trenches were used to move troops, ammunition, supplies and wounded to and from the frontline trenches. The best way to take a trench was to outflank it (attack from the side where it was least defended), all sides knew that, so they took measures to prevent outflanking, which eventually meant an extended run of trenches from the Belgian coast to Switzerland. In the Western Front the opposing trenches were, on average, less than 250 metres apart. They were also extensively used in the east and at Gallipoli.

Answer 3

Trenches originally got their start when soldiers dropped for cover from incoming machine & rifle fire. They'd take out their personel shovels & start to dig away on the spot. Trenches eventually developed to the point that they became sophisticated emplacements & noted the 'front line' of a given army. Some distance back from this trenchwork, another set of trenches would be dug as a fall back position as well as a point from which to launch a reserve to back up the frontline trench.



You bet the initial trench diggers were killed from time to time. In many cases their own artillery would lob bombs at the enemy & keep them quiet while they dug their trenchworks quickly.

Answer 4

Lots of people DID get shot building a trench, you needed to do it quickly and at a time when your enemy is not suspecting.