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Definition: trench warfare from Merriam-Webster's Collegiate(R) Dictionary

(1915) : warfare in which the opposing forces attack and counterattack from a relatively permanent system of trenches protected by barbed-wire entanglements


trench warfare

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Although trenches were used in ancient and medieval warfare, in the American Civil War, and in the Russo-Japanese War (1904–5), they did not become important until World War I. The introduction of rapid-firing small arms and artillery made the infantry charges of earlier wars virtually impossible, and the war became immobile, with the contenders digging thousands of miles of opposing trenches fronted by barbed wire. To break the stalemate various methods and new weapons were tried; tremendous artillery barrages sought to devastate the enemy and blow a gap in his trenches; trench mortars, hand grenades, poison gas, and tanks were used. It nevertheless remained a war of attrition, with artillery duels and infantry attacks behind creeping artillery barrages. The idea of an uninterrupted line defense held the imagination of the French and German general staffs between the two world wars, and they built lines of field fortifications known as the Maginot Line and the Siegfried Line. The…
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Full text Article trench warfare

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Warfare in which the opposing sides attack, counterattack, and defend from sets of trenches dug into the ground. It was developed by Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban in the 17th century for laying siege to fortresses. Its defensive use was first institutionalized as a tactic during the American Civil…
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Full text Article trench warfare

From The Macquarie Dictionary
warfare in which the opposing sides occupy a system of trenches facing each other. World War I marked a change in the main method of fighting from mobile warfare to static battles fought from an immense system of fixed defensive trenches along a stabilised front line from which troops defended their…
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Full text Article trench warfare

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Although trenches were used in ancient and medieval warfare, in the American Civil War, and in the Russo-Japanese War (1904–5), they did not become important until World War I. The introduction of rapid-firing small arms and artillery made the infantry charges of earlier wars virtually impossible, …
| 224 words
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Full text Article IN THE TRENCHES: Trench Warfare in World War I (1914-1918)

From Opinions Throughout History: War & the Military
Trenches of the 11th Cheshire Regiment on the...
Introduction War in the early 1900s was very different from war in the twenty-first century. The Great War came at a time of tremendous modernization and technological innovation, but the combat strategies were far different. Without drones and long-range laser-guided weaponry, soldiers lined up…
| 4,333 words , 5 images

Full text Article trench warfare

From Merriam-Webster's Collegiate(R) Dictionary
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Full text Article trench warfare

From Collins English Dictionary
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Full text Article trench warfare

From The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Houghton Mifflin
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Full text Article trench

From The Chambers Dictionary
a long, narrow, deep cut in the earth; a protective ditch dug in warfare, with the excavated earth used as a parapet; a long, narrow steep-sided depression in an ocean floor, esp one running parallel to a continent; a deep furrow or wrinkle in the skin. vi to make trenches; to dig deep with spade or…
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Full text Article Trench Foot

From Black's Medical Dictionary, 43rd Edition
Also known as IMMERSION FOOT . This is due to prolonged exposure of the feet to water – particularly cold water. Trench warfare is a common precipitating factor, and the condition was rampant during the First World War. Cases also occurred during the Second World War and during the Falklands…
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Full text Article Marne, First Battle of the

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
(Sept. 6–12, 1914) Military offensive by French and British troops in World War I . After the invading German forces had moved to within 30 mi (50 km) of Paris at the Marne River , Joseph-Jacques-Césaire Joffre counterattacked and halted the German advance. French reinforcements were driven to the…
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