![Picture](/uploads/5/4/1/0/54107185/1433941907.png)
World War One can perhaps best be described as a war of attrition on an international scale, with two armies trying to slowly wear down the resources and resolve of the other. The common conception of a World War One battlefield is one of two armies residing in adjacent ditches mounting futile attacks against each other, and while this does show the futility of trench warfare, it fails to describe the planning and strategy that went into it. Most allied defensive lines were based on a three trench strategy, with the front trench holding the offensive and defensive force. The second trench with backup troops, and the third would act as a reserve trench where soldiers could rest, and officers could plan. Thinner communication trenches would connect the three. Soldier’s accounts suggest that most German trenches were structured with a frontal line for sentries, a second line for the main force, and a third reinforcement line. One thing that both trench systems have in common is that they often had a zigzagging pattern in order to slow and confuse any enemy who might manage to make it to the trench.
Read more at the following wedsites:
http://io9.com/trench-warfare-in-world-war-i-was-a-smarter-strategy-th-1637657733
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/battle_belleau_wood.htm
http://io9.com/trench-warfare-in-world-war-i-was-a-smarter-strategy-th-1637657733
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/battle_belleau_wood.htm