What did it mean to go over the top in trench warfare?
What did it mean to go over the top in trench warfare?
Today we use the expression ‘over the top’ to mean something that is extreme, outrageous or inappropriate. Most soldiers in the Great War must have felt the same way about orders to go ‘over the top’. For them it meant leaving the safety of their trenches and attacking the enemy.
What is a famous quote from ww1?
“This is a war to end all wars.” President Woodrow Wilson made the saying famous, but he was not the first one who used it. The British futurist writer and social commentator H.G. Wells invented the phrase.
What was going over the top like in ww1?
Men ordered to attack – or ‘go over the top’ – had to climb out of their trenches, carrying their weapons and heavy equipment, and move through the enemy’s ‘field of fire’ over complex networks of barbed wire, keeping low to the ground for safety.
How did soldiers describe the trenches?
On the Western Front, the war was fought by soldiers in trenches. Trenches were long, narrow ditches dug into the ground where soldiers lived. They were very muddy, uncomfortable and the toilets overflowed. In the middle was no man’s land, which soldiers crossed to attack the other side.
Where does the phrase over the top come from?
The phrase over the top has an interesting origin. The expression originated during World War I to describe the action of emerging from the trenches to charge across an open area to attack the enemy. The invention of the phrase is attributed to British soldiers.
What was life like in WWI trenches?
Trench life involved long periods of boredom mixed with brief periods of terror. The threat of death kept soldiers constantly on edge, while poor living conditions and a lack of sleep wore away at their health and stamina.
Was ww1 all trench warfare?
Trenches—long, deep ditches dug as protective defenses—are most often associated with World War I, and the results of trench warfare in that conflict were hellish indeed. Trenches were common throughout the Western Front. But they became a fundamental part of strategy with the influx of modern weapons of war.
What does over the top mean in trench warfare?
Trench Warfare. “Over the top” was an expression soldiers used in WWI when referring to attacking soldiers rising out of their own trenches to assault the enemy. In order to attack the enemy, soldiers had to climb over the parapet of their trenches and cross “no mans land.”. To learn about “no man’s land” click on the link below.
What does over the top mean in WW1?
“Over the top” was an expression soldiers used in WWI when referring to attacking soldiers rising out of their own trenches to assault the enemy. In order to attack the enemy, soldiers had to climb over the parapet of their trenches and cross “no mans land.”
What was it like to take over a French trench in France?
Taking the French trenches first, we found when we took over the French trenches in the Kemmel area they were very much deeper than ours, but not kept in the cleanliness and order one would expect to find from taking over from a similar, what shall we say, infantryman to another infantryman – they weren’t in a similar condition to ours.
Who compared trenches in WW1?
Harold Oxley, of the Middlesex Regiment, compared British, French and German trenches.
