Does Trench Warfare Still Exist?
The phrase “trench warfare” immediately conjures images of the mud and slaughter of the Western Front during World War I. Millions died in fruitless offensives that saw men “go over the top” into withering machine gun fire. Ultimately, inventions such as tanks and airplanes allowed troops to move through or over No Man’s Land, and new technologies and doctrines would usher in the mobile warfare that characterized World War II in Europe. The German blitzkrieg flew over and drove around the Maginot Line, perhaps the most formidable static defensive barrier ever constructed, and that would seem to have spelled the end of trench warfare. For this reason, and because trench warfare is so closely associated with primitive black-and-white footage of men struggling to cross the pockmarked battlefields of Belgium and France, it is commonly assumed that this military strategy is a relic of a bygone age, as likely to reappear as catapults or cavalry charges. In fact, trench warfare remains argu...
