'When the sluices were opened at Nieuport...barbed wire brought disaster to the Hun', 1915 (c)

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

Thick belts of barbed wire were placed in front of the front-line trenches on the Western Front. They were placed far enough from the trenches to prevent the enemy from approaching close enough to throw grenades in. Sometimes barbed-wire entanglements were designed to channel attacking infantry into machine-gun and artillery fields of fire.

From a collection of 101 stereoscopic photographs entitled 'The Great War'.