hi , all as some of you know, i am just about to commence my normandy axis ww2 dio, and i am going to have some trenches in it with figures of 1 35, how deep do the trenches have to be ???

matt

They should be at least 6 scale feet deep, with a firing step that allows the soldier to fire over the parapet. If you use a completed figure as your measuring tool, you should be close. It doesn't have to be "accurate", as long as it looks right.

k thnx mdlr mike, this helps alot

cheers

The finished concrete styles were about 1-1/2 meters deep, and about 1 to two meters wide, with larger areas near intersecting corners. Typically they were a few meters of straight length, then a sharp angled turn followed by more straight sections. Stairs often led out behind to ground level for faster entry and escape. The angles ensured that if the trench was breached, that a "stop corner" would allow the incumbants a chance to hold the penetration, and to ensure that a single fella with a BAR couldn't just mow down 100 yards of soldiers who are neatly lined up for a continued blast of gunfire .

Interesting sidenote.... This straight - turn - straight practice goes back to the Roman times... the Romans and others even added "pits and gutters" to ensure that flaming oil poured into the trench would not flow the length of any large section.... pretty neat idea, eh?.

thnx kf magee, but i want dirt trenches, but the tip about concrete trenches is also very very interesting but a little hard to understand

anyway thnx alot

matt

Matt - on dirt trenches, it really depended on how long the digger had to set up! In a hurry, a simple mound of dirt would do... but if they had time, they would dig as deep as they could, with a floor that sloped to the front or back. This not only allowed water to run off without turning the floor area into a swamp, but also allowed incoming grenades to roll to the front of the trench and then fall into the "gutter" to minimize the blast... not great protection, but better than full exposure to flying shrapnel. These were also often found in the concrete lines. I will try to post some drawings soon to show a cross-view of this concept. In regards to the previous post about the turns in the trenches, just thing of a long continuous string of the letter "Z"...

kf magee thnx for help, i understand completely now, however i do want to set a goal, " have you seen band of brother' if so, i want to make a dio of one of the german artiallry guns, with the trenches just like in that episode when easy company takes out the artiallry
if you havnt seen it well i guess nothing can be done. anyway all help is appreciated

oh yeah do you know what artiallry guns the germans used in normandy in that episode

matt