can someone please tell me either how to make a trench or where to buy one.[must accept us dollars]

Which type of trench, board or log lined? How big and what shape??? My web site is currently down but I have a trench set that works great. pm me if you want some pics.

Gary

it doesnt matter what type of trench any type will do i dont realy care what shpe either.love your quote

If you can do basic groundwork then you can build a trench at least as good as any product you can buy. If you can make a dirt road you can make a trench. Just go vertical

The best first step is to find some photos. If you google WW1 trenches you'll find lots of good ideas. You didn't say what era you are interested in, but that's the easiest way to get tons of photos and even pages out of manuals.

The biggest problem I see on diorama trenches is the trenches are too wide and not deep enough. A fighting trench (that's one right at the front line, facing the enemy, from which weapons are fired) is usually deep enough that the troops can walk upright without exposing their heads. There may be a fire step on the side facing the enemy. It should be about wide enough for two men to pass by each other. There will be dugouts on either side if the unit has time to build them. Machineguns should face so as to bring flanking fire down on any attack & should be dug in with overhead cover (logs, sandbags, whatever's available).

A communications trench links the forward trenches to rear areas and to alternate fighting trenches. Those are typically narrower and have no fire steps, but are still deep.

No need to be too neat about all this. Trenches are made by expanding and improving natural folds in the ground, shellholes, or bunkers, so it can be pretty messy. Trenches should also take a turn every few yards - long straight trenches invite fire down their length, which can kill a lot of guys.

The sides can be reinforced with stakes, woven brush, or whatever else is handy. The trench system gets more elaborate as the unit remains in position longer. So static fronts such as at Anzio, cassino, Leningrad etc. saw the development of very elaborate systems. But most fronts in WW2 were too mobile for really major trench systems.

Don't forget all the junk such as shell holes, telephone wire, discarded containers for food & ammo, rats, mud, etc

thanks i think i will try what ypu suggested.

Here is one of my trench styles, let me know what you think...










Gary

Thanks for sharing the photos. It is hard to tell without a figure to judge scale, but my sense is that those trenches are too wide and not deep enough.

Can a figure completely shelter from direct fire while walking upright in that trench? If not it is too shallow.

If yes, then fire steps are needed on the side facing the enemy. Just think about if you were manning that trench, how would you fire a weapon while remaining as covered as possible? Maybe add some sandbags or logs to the enemy side of the trench, with loopholes for firing weapons. And on the back side a pile of earth is a good thing too; it offers a little more protection from shell bursts, and you never know when you are going to have to defend from the 'wrong' direction. For example, if a neighboring unit gets overrun, you may find yourself firing into what was your own rear.

That's also a fairly long straight run of trench. Trenches take a sharp turn every so often so that an entire squad or platoon doesn't get killed by one shell burst or one enemy soldier with an automatic weapon firing down the length of the trench.

if the soldiers had time and materials to do all the wood reinforcing seen in that trench they would probably put up some overhead cover too. In fact they'd do that first If you ask yourself how that trench got there, it would have been built by gradually linking up bunkers and foxholes that would have been built first, before there were any trenches. So the duckboards are nice but if it were me I'd much rather use that timber for overhead cover on my crew-served weapons positions.

Here's a good example photo: http://z.about.com/d/history1900s/1/0/M/3/wwi15.gif
Note how narrow and deep that trench is, and how it zigzags. That may be an accident of how it got built, but it accomplishes the purpose of protecting the men.

Here's another classic photo: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/Cheshire_Regiment_trench_Somme_1916.jpg

Here you can get a sense of depth and you can see firesteps on both sides, so these guys are ready to fire in either direction. Note also the variety of materials used, probably the trench had to be repaired after hits & so forth. Note the 'bridge' allowing men to cross over the trench withouthaving to climb down and back up. Finally you can see that this trench appears to take a 90-degree turn a few years away from this view.

Here's one from the US civil war: http://www.old-picture.com/civil-war/pictures/Warfare-Trench.jpg
it is a bit wider than usual in later wars, but they had much less to fear from artillery. Again though notice how deep it is.

This one looks like a very long communications trench since there seems to be no way to fight from it: http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/07/magazine_faces_of_battle/img/3.jpg
it should zigzag more often.....

Here's another communications trench: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/files/images/stories/artillery/artillery-007.jpg

Here's one that has been just about caved in by shellfire, showing why a good trench is so important (warning - very graphic) http://www.reenactor.net/forums/tp-images/Image/ww1_images/trench-death.jpg

And this site has a terrific collection of photos, well worth scrolling through. Notice the depth, the turns, the various materials used....http://www.forumeerstewereldoorlog.nl/viewtopic.php?t=15263

Hope this is helpful.

I completely agree, this dio is unfinished I had intended to add sandbags at the top for cover, it's a short trench not as tall as a man but not too shy of it. I had intended it to look like a section between top cover areas but had not researched many trenches upon starting this one. I was just using it as an example of the type of trench boards I had. thanks for the photo links they are very helpful and I will use them when I pick back up on this project.
Thanks again.
Gary