The Liverpool Scottish - Trench Life Through the Great War

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First Winter 1914/15

• Winter 1914/15 - The Regimental History - Colonel A.M. McGilchrist

• "The siting of the British trenches was quite haphazard, the line on which a counter-attack had been held up ..... frequently becoming the fire trench with no regard for field of fire or even to the direction of the enemy ...... Many were open to enfilade fire, either from rifles or artillery"

• "There was no trench system  .... as in 1916. The front line of trenches was the only line and it was [not] continuous. Support trenches did not exist"
  
  

• The link above leads to a page on trench systems of late 1914

• Fire Trench = Trench from which firing on the enemy took place (generally the 'front line')
  
• Enfilade = Open to fire from the side (i.e. along the length of the trench so the ground provides no cover from the enemy). This is a very dangerous situation. 
  
• Support trenches = reserve trenches in case the front line is attacked or communication trenches which allow a covered route between different main trenches

  

  Trench Systems 1914: the official version

  A Side Gallery

• Rifles = The main weapon of the infantry, firing bullets, held  by a man firing from his shoulder and usually fitted at the end with a short sort of sword called a bayonet 
  
• Artillery = Large guns that could fire explosive shells (which might weigh 8 kg/18 lb or much more) over long distances.
  

• Wrong ideas about trenches The idea that the whole of the First World War was lived out in complex systems of trenches, all connecting and with networks of covered approaches and dugouts (deep covered shelters) is wrong.
  
• Simple Systems In the earliest days of the war, fighting was mobile and soon afterwards, when the situation became static, the trench systems were very simple and crude. 
  

• Development and Decline Later, the very complicated system trench came into being. However, later again (1918), through increased mobility and lack of manpower, the trench systems became disconnected once more with big gaps between trenches of perhaps over a quarter of a mile (400 metres) with machine gun posts in between.
  

Trench Systems 1914: the official version

• charcoal = fuel made by partially burning wood and which burns hot but without a flame and little smoke This trick was apparently learnt from the Russo-Japanese war of ten years earlier. Many lessons were drawn from the Russo-Japanese war  regarding trench warfare and the employment of artillery and machine guns. A brazier is show below.

• khaki = brown colour of uniform which had replaced the traditional scarlet or red some thirty years previously for field or service uniforms (Hindi - 'dust'?)
  

• machine gun = in this case the Vickers Medium Machine Gun which had been recently introduced to the British Army. Firing 550 rounds per minute to a distance of 2900 yards (about 2700 metres) fed by belts of 250 rounds. With a 'dial sight' it would reach targets at 4500 yards (4100 metres) which were not visible from the gun. Captain Bryden McKinnell was the machine gun officer. There were two machine guns per battalion and this was soon increased to four guns. Their importance to the battalion is underlined by McKinnell's comments in his diary that he thought the success or failure of the battalion might rest on his guns.
  

• Diary of Captain Bryden McKinnell

• Nov 26th 1914 "Made charcoal all day to be used in the trenches like the Japs did, that is a little smouldering in a bucket with a blanket over, no smoke is visible".

• Nov 27th 1914 "One officer ... got sniped last night .... The snipers are bad - they get right behind our trenches dressed in our khaki uniform. We shall probably be here for days - not a jolly outlook! Only one machine gun is required , where the line is within thirty yards of the enemy"
  

• December 12th 1914 shows his machine gun position

• Development of Trench Defences Despite the rudimentary nature of the Liverpool Scottish trenches at Kemmel, the Army was already taking on board the need for making use of available features such as sunken roads. In Spring 1915, the CO of the Liverpool Scottish, Lt Col JR Davidson was to set a new standard in the  construction of dugouts in the area around Zillebeeke using his civilian experience as a professional engineer.
  
  
• A Sunken Road Below is a diagram of a field defence built into the side of a sunken road. It is taken from the hurriedly produced Army pamphlet 'Notes on Field Defences - 1914' and demonstrates the urgent need to build up expertise in improvising defences and to pass on the information gained from experience in France and Flanders in the first few months of the war. The Liverpool Scottish quickly acquired this expertise under their commanding officer, a professional engineer. Click on it to enlarge

• parapet = raised bank of spoil (earth or earth in sandbags) in front of a trench too provide extra cover
  

• sniper = a trained marksman who would lie hidden waiting to shoot soldiers who carelessly exposed themselves with a single shot
  

• RE dump = central point at which the Royal Engineers would place defence stores and munitions such as bombs (grenades)
  

• jam tin bomb = bombs (basically grenades) were thrown by hand or fired from the end of a rifle and became very useful in trench warfare. They were in short supply and especially at the beginning of the war they were improvised ('home made') literally from empty tins of jam which came with the rations. There was a more powerful improvised hand grenade which seems to have consisted of a sacking container containing scrap metal and stones with the explosive charge contained in a jam tin inside.
  

• Other Improvised bombs There was a 'hair brush bomb' which was basically a paddle-shaped piece of wood with explosive tied to the broad end. Below, a 'stick bomb' is thrown by Cpl Bartlett of the Liverpool Scottish (posed) in forward trenches at Zillebeke in early 1915. Cpl. Bartlett was later killed during the Battle of Hooge (about 4 km east of Ypres - June 16th 1915) whilst he was involved in bombing during the attack. Although he has no known grave, a German officer returned his effects after the end of the war and recorded that Bartlett had been buried by the Germans  near the east end of Railway Wood.

• Winter 1914/15 - The Regimental History - Colonel A.M. McGilchrist

• " ... it was only 35 yards [33 metres] to the enemy ... the parapet was repaired at night but it was not strong and Captain Twentyman realised that if it did not hold, the whole position would be enfiladed from the German position on higher ground .... the sniper doing the damage was [close] and as soon as it was light ... Capt. Twentyman went down through the trench ...  to an RE dump to get a  jam tin bomb with which to dislodge him .... he came back over the open instead of up the trench  thinking .. that a thin hedge would screen him .... he was seen and shot down.

• Diary of Captain Bryden McKinnell

• Nov 30th 1914 "Poor ... Twentyman was our first casualty ... it was a terrible business to get him out [of the trenches]. However they will manage to get the wounded out, I don't know".

• Jam tin bombs This Liverpool Scottish soldier is seen in the trenches in early 1915 carrying what appears to be a 'jam tin' bomb in his right hand. Trench warfare in which the enemy was often engaged at ranges of 20 yards (just under 20metres) or less had suddenly thrown up a need for short range explosive devices which could be used  quickly against the enemy.
  
  
• Improvised Bombs At the front many types of bomb were improvised. The jam tin bomb might use half a pound (250gm) of dynamite or guncotton surrounded by pieces of iron all stuffed into a used jam tin (really!). The bomb was set off by lighting piece of safety fuse cut long enough to ensure the safety of the thrower but short enough to ensure it didn't get thrown back by the enemy. Other bombs were simply put into sacking containers. The 'hairbrush' bomb was on a shaped piece of wood with a throwing handle that was the size and shape of a old hairbrush. 
  
  
• The shortage of bombs was a cause of considerable difficulty during the Liverpool Scottish attack at Hooge in 1915 when the battalion received only 400 including 150 of the newly invented Mills Bomb)
  
  
• Other features of the picture The enlarged picture (click on it) includes a soldier sniping although this seems to be a posed shot.. He is firing through a pipe which will go through the parapet of the trench. In this way he hopes to avoid detection. The 'Notes on Field Defences (1914)' suggest a  number of ways of protecting the sniper.  

• Diary of Captain Bryden McKinnell

• Dec 1st 1914 " .. enemy attacked [us]  twice ... beaten off with heavy loss, also accounting for several snipers. They were very bold creeping at night right up top our trenches  .. we couldn't put our heads up as the snipers ... directly in front of us five or six yards away, would immediately have potted us". 

• Snipers ... made life extremely difficult. Either in their own trenches or lying out in no-man's land and prepared to wait all day for their victim, no soldier in the trenches opposite dare expose himself. Casualties were often the result of carelessness. 

• Trench Positions The trenches occupied by McKinnell in the Kemmel area were very close to the enemy front line.  Bryden McKinnell's diary of December 9th 1914 shows these trenches 60 yards from the German line in most places and 30 yards in others

• fascines = bundles of wood wired together which were placed at the bottom of trenches for soldiers to stand on. (Also later used on a larger scale to fill ditch/trench obstacles to allow tanks to cross)
  

• heavy artillery = artillery of greater firepower than  the standard artillery gun used to support the infantry which was an 'eighteen pounder' (the weight of its shell - about 8 kg). Heavy artillery was less mobile and about this time the Germans started shelling the town of Ypres with a shell of diameter 17 inches (between 40 and 45 cm and the sort of shell that could be fired by the main guns of a battleship). 

• Diary of Captain Bryden McKinnell

• Dec 7th 1914 [In the trenches] "Busy making fascines .... except for heavy artillery duel, everything quiet ...  having a bad time in the trenches on account of rain breaking earthworks .. Went up to the trenches at night with Adjutant .... snipers sniped at us all the way .... Trenches in a terrible mess and all falling in, deep in water"

• McKinnell's diagram (below) showing the ideal trench is taken from the printed version of his personal diary (Tuesday 8th December 1914). 
  
• He  records that the regulation trench was supposed to be..
  
   'three feet (about 1 metre) [across] and three feet [deep] with an eighteen inch [about half a metre ] parapet with fire recesses and [allowing] for a certain degree of comfort'.
  
• The trench he was actually occupying on that day was ....
  
  'seven feet wide and two feet deep, plus one yard (three feet) of mud and a small parapet with no loopholes. A stream of water ran the whole length of the trench, so I have to have every second man baling water out; as it was two or three men were up to their waists. It rained all the time, and every ten minutes seemed like an hour'.