British front line at Bois Grenier, near Armentieres. August 1915

Photograph, World War One, Western Front (1914-1918), 1915.

Belts of wire protected the front-line trenches. These were placed far enough from the trenches to prevent the enemy from approaching to within grenade-throwing distance. Sometimes barbed-wire entanglements were designed to channel attacking infantry into machine-gun and artillery fields of fire. Armies therefore tried to destroy the wire with artillery prior to any offensive, often with mixed results.

Soldiers on all sides hated the wire and dreaded getting caught in it. A classic British song, entitled 'Hanging on the Old Barbed Wire', summed up this fear:

If you want to find the old battalion, I know where they are,I know where they are, I know where they are.If you want to find the old battalion, I know where they are.They're hanging on the old barbed wire.I've seen 'em, I've seen 'em, hanging on the old barbed wire.I've seen 'em, I've seen 'em, hanging on the old barbed wire.

One of 193 British and Allied official photographs taken on the Western Front.