894 Ch. 22 • The Great War
Paul Nash’s We Are Making a New World, a tormented painting
evoking the pockmarked landscape around Ypres in Flanders.
and a man is shot dead in the trench next to you. You look calmly at him for
a moment, and then go on eating your bread. Why not? There is nothing to
be done. In the end you talk of your own death with as little excitement as
you would of a luncheon engagement.” Hundreds of thousands of soldiers
suffered shell shock, psychologically devastated by the battle raging around
them.
On the western front, as both sides believed that a breakthrough was possi
ble, massive attacks were preceded by an intensive bombardment of enemy
positions. Such bombardments, lasting hours and even days, clearly indicated
where the next attack could be expected, allowing the enemy to bring up suf
ficient reserves to prevent a breakthrough. Both sides adopted the use of
“creeping barrages,” which moved just ahead of the attacking army to soften
resistance. The shelling mangled the terrain, leaving huge craters, thereby
creating unanticipated obstacles to the attacking troops. The attackers then
faced the most effective weapon of trench warfare, the machine gun—a
defensive weapon that mowed down line after line of advancing soldiers car
rying rifles, bayonets, and pistols that they often never had a chance to use.
Piles of the dead filled shell craters left by the first barrages. If attacking
Allied troops managed to reach, take, and hold the first line of trenches,
they confronted fresh reinforcements as well as an even more solid second
line of defense. The defensive lines could bend, but then snap back against
attacking forces that soon outran their cover. Joffre’s second offensive in
Champagne in 1915 illustrated this situation well. The French offensive
ran right into the second line of defense, took enormous casualties, and