Post by forty8r on Nov 15, 2008 9:44:02 GMT -8
Strange but true source Sniping in the Great War by Martin Pegler
Pg 53 qoted from another sorce Hesketh-Prichard,Sniping in France
From a British soldier:
"The German trenches presented quite a different apperance from ours-ours being beaten down until they made as clear a line as a breakwater. The German trenches were deeper, with much more wire in front, and from our point of view looked like the course of a gigantic mole which had flung up uneven heaps of earth. Here and ther a hug piece of corrugated iron would be flung upon the parapet. here and there lay great piles of sandbags, black, red, green, striped. It was said the Germans used the pink ones to look around because they approximated to flesh color......they made the outline of their parapet as irregular as possible, with corrugated iron, colored sandbags, dummy (sniper) plates, biscuit tins, barbed wire and so forth among which they conceled the sniper loopholes. Our own parpers were absolutely level so that the slightest movement behind them was bound to be instantly detected. I think their trenches good and easier to take cover in when one is firing from them. Their tops are more serrated, and with different coloured sandbags"
Not to sound like a heretic but maybe just plan sandbags for the Germans should be "verboten" or at least used in conjunction with colored bags.
Pg 53 qoted from another sorce Hesketh-Prichard,Sniping in France
From a British soldier:
"The German trenches presented quite a different apperance from ours-ours being beaten down until they made as clear a line as a breakwater. The German trenches were deeper, with much more wire in front, and from our point of view looked like the course of a gigantic mole which had flung up uneven heaps of earth. Here and ther a hug piece of corrugated iron would be flung upon the parapet. here and there lay great piles of sandbags, black, red, green, striped. It was said the Germans used the pink ones to look around because they approximated to flesh color......they made the outline of their parapet as irregular as possible, with corrugated iron, colored sandbags, dummy (sniper) plates, biscuit tins, barbed wire and so forth among which they conceled the sniper loopholes. Our own parpers were absolutely level so that the slightest movement behind them was bound to be instantly detected. I think their trenches good and easier to take cover in when one is firing from them. Their tops are more serrated, and with different coloured sandbags"
Not to sound like a heretic but maybe just plan sandbags for the Germans should be "verboten" or at least used in conjunction with colored bags.
