– Given that marching across no-man’s land was virtually a death sentence, why did nations with parallel trenches not just start digging trenches forward towards each other, to avoid going over the top?

Question

For instance, given kilometres of trench networks which ran close to each other, sometimes only hundreds of meters apart, why did soldiers from each side not just begin digging new trenches towards the enemy from places across the length of their existing trench, so that they could eventually break through without sacrificing thousands of lives running across open killing fields?

In: 3

Answer 1

Since no one’s mentioned it, I feel like a perpendicular trench (once noticed by the enemy) would offer a lot less protection. As long as they can aim horizontally, the distance and angle etc wouldn’t matter much. If the trench is full of soldiers it seems like it would be like shooting fish in a barrel. With a parallel trench they’d really have to dial things in to get a direct hit down into the trench.