JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post in the History of Lines series
I've just found an interesting example of a photo reconnaissance display of trenches with an interpretation of installations and trench names. It is interesting in and of itself, of course, but I was drawn to it because of the zig-zagged lines of the trenches explained with criss-crossed straight lines. The trenches went off at hard angles rather than long straight lines for several reasons, all for defensive purposes: first, they could offer places to use for fire cover if the trench was overrun by enemy forces, and secondly as a dispersal agent for the effects of bomb blasts within a trench.
The photo "An Example of an Annotated Photograph with Local Names of Trenches Inserted. An example of an annotated photograph with local names of trenches inserted also information collected from all sources" is a silver gelatin print from the George Eastman Museum. The first image below is a detail from the overall image, used here just to show the accumulation of lines. The full image follows, showing dugouts, latrines, cables, ammo dumps, linked bomb craters, and gaps in the barbed wire enabling patrols to come and go without becoming hopelessly tangled in the sharp steel.
Source of image: Art Blart https://artblart.com/tag/photographs-and-transition/
And the full image:
Notes:
Two good reference tools on names and naming practices of trenches:
Peter Chasseaud, Topography of Armageddon: A British Trench Map Atlas of the Western Front 1914-1918
_____. Rats Alley: Trench Names of the Western Front, 1914-1918. Gazetteer of British trench names, as well as an appreciation of the naming practices and names of German and French trenches.
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