The scene infuriated her husband, Joe DiMaggio, who felt it was exhibitionist, and the couple divorced Although the town detective talked to everyone who lived on the path between the two houses, no one admitted to having seen Benoit. Soon afterward, the Nikita Khrushchev becomes the first Soviet head of state to visit the United States. Khrushchev came to power in the Soviet Union The Federal garrison inside Harpers Ferry was vulnerable to a Confederate attack Live TV.
This Day In History. History Vault. READ MORE: Life in the Trenches of World War I While war in the trenches during World War I is described in horrific, apocalyptic terms—the mud, the stench of rotting bodies, the enormous rats—the reality was that the trench system protected the soldiers to a large extent from the worst effects of modern firepower, used for the first time during that conflict.
Art, Literature, and Film History. World War II. World War I. The mud not only made it difficult to get from one place to another; it also had other, more dire consequences. Many times, soldiers became trapped in the thick, deep mud; unable to extricate themselves, they often drowned. The pervading precipitation created other difficulties. Trench walls collapsed, rifles jammed, and soldiers fell victim to the much-dreaded "trench foot.
In extreme cases, gangrene would develop and a soldier's toes, or even his entire foot, would have to be amputated. Unfortunately, heavy rains were not sufficient to wash away the filth and foul odor of human waste and decaying corpses. Not only did these unsanitary conditions contribute to the spread of disease, they also attracted an enemy despised by both sides—the lowly rat.
Multitudes of rats shared the trenches with soldiers and, even more horrifying, they fed upon the remains of the dead.
Soldiers shot them out of disgust and frustration, but the rats continued to multiply and thrived for the duration of the war. Other vermin that plagued the troops included head and body lice, mites and scabies, and massive swarms of flies. As terrible as the sights and smells were for the men to endure, the deafening noises that surrounded them during heavy shelling were terrifying. Amid a heavy barrage, dozens of shells per minute might land in the trench, causing ear-splitting and deadly explosions.
Few men could remain calm under such circumstances; many suffered emotional breakdowns. Patrols and raids took place at night, under cover of darkness. For patrols, small groups of men crawled out of the trenches and inched their way into No Man's Land. Moving forward on elbows and knees toward the German trenches and cutting their way through the dense barbed wire on their way.
Once the men reached the other side, their goal was to get close enough to gather information by eavesdropping or to detect activity in advance of an attack. Raiding parties were much larger than patrols, encompassing about 30 soldiers. They, too, made their way to the German trenches, but their role was more confrontational.
Members of the raiding parties armed themselves with rifles, knives, and hand grenades. Smaller teams took on portions of the enemy trench, tossing in grenades, and killing any survivors with a rifle or bayonet.
They also examined the bodies of dead German soldiers, searching for documents and evidence of name and rank. Snipers, in addition to firing from the trenches, also operated from No Man's Land. They crept out at dawn, heavily camouflaged, to find cover before daylight.
Adopting a trick from the Germans, British snipers hid inside "O. These dummy trees, constructed by army engineers, protected the snipers, allowing them to fire at unsuspecting enemy soldiers.
Despite these strategies, the nature of trench warfare made it almost impossible for either army to overtake the other. Attacking infantry was slowed down by the barbed wire and bombed-out terrain of No Man's Land, making the element of surprise unlikely. Later in the war, the Allies did succeed in breaking through German lines using the newly-invented tank. In April , the Germans unleashed an especially sinister new weapon at Ypres in northwestern Belgium: poison gas.
Hundreds of French soldiers, overcome by deadly chlorine gas, fell to the ground, choking, convulsing, and gasping for air. Victims died a slow, horrible death as their lungs filled with fluid.
The floors of the trenches were either mud and muck or, for the lucky Soldiers, made of wooden planks called "duckboards. The trenches were, of course, for defense. Sections of trench line had machine gun emplacements set to cover any advances by the enemy, while other areas had specially camouflaged positions for snipers to hide in, taking aim at any Soldier who might stick his head up at the wrong time.
Mortar pits, aid stations, and simple firing positions for riflemen dotted the front line, ready for the next fight. Connecting all of these positions to the command and control elements in the rear was another set of trenches in which Soldiers could move back and forth from the front lines in relative safety.
Even behind the front, all movement outside the trench was dangerous due to the great range of enemy artillery. Riflemen and machine gun crews faced the enemy trenches over a desolation known as "No-Man's Land. In addition, batteries of artillery were registered specifically to pound No-Man's Land with massive barrages of shells should any attack be launched. Finally, the machine gun positions were ready to mow down any troops who made it past the artillery and barbed wire.
The awful result of many failed attempts on this trifecta of murderous defense was the constant stench of dead and rotting enemy corpses floating into the trenches from the No-Man's Land. The trench fortifications in Western Europe were by far the most visible geographical feature of the war. They were built in the first place because of the weapons systems developed before and during the war. The advent of machine guns, used in the tactical manner of the day, precipitated their primary position as a defensive weapon.
Their extreme rate of fire and general mechanical reliability made them the primary force to be dealt with during any engagement, and were nearly impossible to attack against in an open field of battle. Artillery, the king of battle since the invention of gunpowder, also reached new levels of effectiveness.
British soldiers standing in water in a trench. American soldiers in a trench near Douamont, France, circa November German soldiers in trench, leaning against the walls with shovels and pick axes.
German aerial photograph of the trench lines at Fey-en-Haye, France.
0コメント