World War 2 Footage

A support trench was used to get supplies to the front - for example, ammunition and food. A reserve trench was used to put fresh soldiers to the front.

By the way, World War One was the worst possible war I know of. The conditions were miserable on every side for everyone, death was common, disease was everywhere.

Soldiers were expendable, and so they needed trenches to quickly replace the ones who died. And I bet the soldiers wished a lot more medicine and food came through the support trenches than ammunition…

In the ideal picture of trench warfare, you had three parallel trenches facing the enemy:

First was the front-line trench. The soldiers here were constantly on the alert for enemy patrols and attacks. It was also the jumping-off point for attacks on the enemy.

Second was the support trench. As the name suggests, this held the back-up forces that could help repel an enemy attack or move quickly to the front to support a friendly attack.

Last was the reserve trench. This was even farther back, and was used to give soldiers a break from being on the front lines, but still keep them close enough to the front that they could quickly go into combat.

Behind them, you’d have the larger artillery pieces, supply depots, and so forth.

Running between these main trenches would be communications trenches that would let you move soldiers and supplies from trench to trench without exposing them to the enemy.

Last of all, we have the concept of no-man’s-land, which was the area between the opposing front-line trenches–a nasty place often full of landmines and barbed wire.

Here’s a good page with a graphic:

Trench warfare was incredibly awful–filthy, exhausting, and death was always an immediate possibility.