Pl. 80
Plate 80 of 87 · Class IX, Kit & field equipment
Barbed wire
Steel fencing wire with sharp points at intervals. All combatants used it extensively in the war as a wire obstacle placed in front of trenches to prevent movement and direct charges, which led armies to rely more on machine guns and grenades. The screw picket allowed wire to be erected quietly at night in no man's land.
Mentioned in
- Chapter IV Deadlock §1 Why the Trenches? Firepower and the Shell Crisis§4 Gallipoli: The Campaign That Failed
- Chapter IX In the Trenches §1 Anatomy of a Trench System§3 No Man's Land: Patrols, Raids and Wiring Parties§10 Other Fronts, Other Trenches
- Chapter X The Machinery of War §4 Tanks: From Landships to Whippets
- Chapter XII The Home Fronts §7 Enemy Aliens, Internment and Refugees