What did "entrenched" actually mean ?

[Simon Cains]

I have read accounts of pre-war army exercises talking about "entrenched" positions, so I assumed these trenches were up to 6 feet deep, but then found some pictures and videos showing the men scraping a very shallow depression and building a tiny mound to lie behind , but still described as "entrenched".  So did this word have a very wide range of meanings ?  e.g. this 1912 photo.  No protection from shelling at all.   A press report from a 1905 exercise was much more detailed and said the men did dig more "real" trenches, 4 ft 9 inches deep, 2 feet wide.

It seems it can be very difficult to find out from a written account if men really were in deep trenches to protect from shellfire.  I guess if troops had more time, or were expecting shelling, they would dig deeper ?

The digging with little pickaxes in Sept 1912 can be viewed here  https://eafa.org.uk/work/?id=1878  at 2 minutes into the video.  The troops seem to be just at a temporary pause in an attack, not preparing to defend. 

I am preparing a talk on pre-war exercises, trying to get my facts right.

Thanks very much.

[RussT]

I have considered entrenching simply to mean taking any form of cover when movement is halted either voluntarily or because of being engaged by the enemy.

So it could end up being provisional providing a minimal amount of temporary protection with the aim of continuing the movement shortly after halting or more substantial works if it is intended to offer a more permanent defensive position.

Regards

Russ

 

 

[PhilB]

Could be described as changing the environment to a greater or lesser extent in order to improve a position for a greater or lesser time.  In practice, if it looks like a trench.....!

[Simon Cains]

I thought a trench always looked at least 6 feet deep, not just a slight dip to lie in.   But many pictures of the early months do show soldiers firing from the sort of position in the photo.  So I have learnt a lot.

[Interested]

I think "entrenched" means "digging in" and applies to any/all of the activities that involved an entrenching tool.

[Bob Davies]

20 hours ago, Simon Cains said:

I have read accounts of pre-war army exercises talking about "entrenched" positions, so I assumed these trenches were up to 6 feet deep, but then found some pictures and videos showing the men scraping a very shallow depression and building a tiny mound to lie behind , but still described as "entrenched".  So did this word have a very wide range of meanings ?  e.g. this 1912 photo.  No protection from shelling at all.   A press report from a 1905 exercise was much more detailed and said the men did dig more "real" trenches, 4 ft 9 inches deep, 2 feet wide.

It seems it can be very difficult to find out from a written account if men really were in deep trenches to protect from shellfire.  I guess if troops had more time, or were expecting shelling, they would dig deeper ?

The digging with little pickaxes in Sept 1912 can be viewed here  https://eafa.org.uk/work/?id=1878  at 2 minutes into the video.  The troops seem to be just at a temporary pause in an attack, not preparing to defend. 

I am preparing a talk on pre-war exercises, trying to get my facts right.

Thanks very much.

I have thought about your question for a while now.

In your first picture above I would describe the soldiers as being in 'shell scrapes'.

Basically hastily or not hastily dug shallow holes with the earth placed in front of them to give them some protection from rifle bullets. You will need a minimum of 2 feet of hard packed earth to stop a rifle bullet.

These being dug to give temporary cover before moving off again, either forward, back or elsewhere.

'Entrenched',  in my mind means a deep trench of a minimum of five feet into the ground, dug with a view to staying put for some period of time.

There may be official documents/training manuals of some sort from the time, describing the fortification of positions?

There is a download here, from America. Dated 1916.

It goes into quite a lot of detail.

Eg. If actually under fire and unable to work in a
standing position a rifle trench may still be constructed
by the men working in pairs, one using his
intrenching tool to excavate a shallow trench on his
right side and heaping up the earth so obtained to
gain cover for his head and a rest for his rifle while
his comrade keeps on firing. Duties are exchanged
from time to time by passing the intrenching tool
back and forth, one man digging and the other firing
until gradually a standing trench is secured. The
-84--
method of executing a trench under fire is shown in
Fig. 7, Plate X.

If I may call upon @FROGSMILE for his help and expertise on this matter please?

Regards, Bob. 

Edited 17 December , 2023 by Bob Davies

[Simon Cains]

Hi thanks.  Frogsmile usually replies to every question I ask, on any topic !

I am wondering now whether the army ever dug deep trenches on their pre-war exercises, except for the 1905 example that I found.  These are described as "the new standard size, 4 feet 9 inches deep".  But in many exercises all the emphasis was on the attack, and the defenders were led by a fairly unknown general with a small mixed bag of troops, who were just described as "providing a target", in one exercise.  This small 1905 exercise seems unusual with the emphasis on defense.  It was not the main annual army exercise, but it was led by Sir John French.  I haven't found it documented in any official documents or books.    Here is my description of it for the parish council history website.   https://piddingtonandwheelerend.org.uk/archive/Documents/Invasion-of-the-Chilterns-1905.pdf   The press cutting is from the Berks and Oxon Advertiser Sept 29th 1905.

[FROGSMILE]

1 hour ago, Bob Davies said:

I have thought about your question for a while now.

In your first picture above I would describe the soldiers as being in 'shell scrapes'.

Basically hastily or not hastily dug shallow holes with the earth placed in front of them to give them some protection from rifle bullets. You will need a minimum of 2 feet of hard packed earth to stop a rifle bullet.

These being dug to give temporary cover before moving off again, either forward, back or elsewhere.

'Entrenched',  in my mind means a deep trench of a minimum of five feet into the ground, dug with a view to staying put for some period of time.

There may be official documents/training manuals of some sort from the time, describing the fortification of positions?

There is a download here, from America. Dated 1916.

It goes into quite a lot of detail.

Eg. If actually under fire and unable to work in a
standing position a rifle trench may still be constructed
by the men working in pairs, one using his
intrenching tool to excavate a shallow trench on his
right side and heaping up the earth so obtained to
gain cover for his head and a rest for his rifle while
his comrade keeps on firing. Duties are exchanged
from time to time by passing the intrenching tool
back and forth, one man digging and the other firing
until gradually a standing trench is secured. The
-84--
method of executing a trench under fire is shown in
Fig. 7, Plate X.

If I may call upon @FROGSMILE for his help and expertise on this matter please?

Regards, Bob. 

Entrenched was a broad term covering any kind of excavation Bob.  A generic term.  The actual trench itself was designated in stages, stage 1, stage 2, etc. as progress was made until you ended up with a full depth.  A final stage might be a shelter in which rudimentary cover could be achieved from splinters received from above, usually dug into one wall, but much later running at a right angle from one end if trench was unconnected with others to form a continuous, crenellated, or zigzag line.

Edited 17 December , 2023 by FROGSMILE

[Bob Davies]

51 minutes ago, FROGSMILE said:

Entrenched was a broad term covering any kind of excavation Bob.  A generic term.  The actual trench itself was designated in stages, stage 1, stage 2, etc. as progress was made until you ended up with a full depth.  A final stage might be a shelter in which rudimentary cover could be achieved from splinters received from above, usually dug into one wall, but much later running at a right angle from one end if trench was unconnected with others to form a continuous, crenellated, or zigzag line.

Thank you FROGSMILE, that answers the question.

I found this while searching, it may help in your studies @Simon Cains et al:

https://archive.org/details/1914-uk-musketry-regulations-1909-part-1-rw-a/page/n1/mode/2up

Also this one. There may be others, just a matter of searching the internet archive.

https://archive.org/details/infantrytraining00grea/page/n3/mode/2up

One more, with a list of military books at the start;

https://archive.org/details/1914-uk-infantry-training/page/n1/mode/2up

Edited 17 December , 2023 by Bob Davies
To add some more.

[Old Forge]

22 hours ago, Interested said:

I think "entrenched" means "digging in" and applies to any/all of the activities that involved an entrenching tool.

I think that's spot on. Every time 'entrenching implements' are used suggests a state of being 'entrenched'.

Some contemporary reference material may help to shed a little light. From Infantry Training 1914 ...

 

...and Manual of Field Engineering 1911 (1914 reprint). Whilst Stage 1, Stage 2 etc were the rule in my day, they're not mentioned here. The pre-war detail is interesting, one wonders how often infantry dug positions to these designs in practice. Plate 16 had me wondering if it was a later insertion, but it's dated 10/14 (bottom right).

 

Cheers,

Richard

[FROGSMILE]

3 hours ago, Old Forge said:

I think that's spot on. Every time 'entrenching implements' are used suggests a state of being 'entrenched'.

Some contemporary reference material may help to shed a little light. From Infantry Training 1914 ...

 

...and Manual of Field Engineering 1911 (1914 reprint). Whilst Stage 1, Stage 2 etc were the rule in my day, they're not mentioned here. The pre-war detail is interesting, one wonders how often infantry dug positions to these designs in practice. Plate 16 had me wondering if it was a later insertion, but it's dated 10/14 (bottom right).

 

Cheers,

Richard

That’s true, I wasn’t suggesting that a mechanical digger was used, so the use of hand held digging implements seemed to me self evident.  It wasn’t necessarily an ‘entrenching tool’ (of the type issued with personal equipment) per se, things like general service (GS) shovels and picks were far more common than the use of an entrenching tool, which was more commonly for impromptu digging in extremis, often whilst under fire.  Whenever possible the GS tools were used and commonly provided as part of an inventory of trench stores**.  All of these qualify as tools used for entrenching.  It’s the hole itself that is the entrenchment, not the tool used for making it.  In wet loam and with a sense of desperation one can use one’s hands to scrape a hole, it is still an entrenchment.

**also on infantry company equipment tables (ET) and the battalion’s organic pioneer section ET.

Edited 18 December , 2023 by FROGSMILE