Aviator’s view of a textbook British trench system on the Somme, May–June 1916

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The aircraft is an Albatross C1 observation plane. The picture (from left to right) shows a double belt of wire covering the two lines of trenches that form ‘the front line’, behind which there are communication trenches protected by wire and redoubts facing outwards. Behind these again is another belt of wire and then the two trench lines of the ‘second’ (or ‘support’) line of defences.

A) ‘Russian sap’ – a buried trench allowing troops to emerge in the heart of no man’s land.

B) Deep belt of wire. Note that narrow passages through the wire would be built into the system, to allow parties of troops to access no man’s land for raids or major attacks.

C) Listening post or machine-gun position set slightly ahead of the main trenches.

D) Site of a dugout just behind the main trenches.

E) Redoubt dug into communication trench for flank defence in case of an enemy break-in

F) Underground medical aid post

G) Telephone cable head. A tactical command post cannot be far away!

© 2006 Osprey Publishing Ltd, Fortifications of the Western Front 1914–18 (Fortress 24)