Trench raiding
Trench raiding was a feature of trench warfare which developed during World War I. It was the practice of making small scale night-time surprise attacks on enemy positions.
Trench raiding had multiple purposes. Typically, the intention would be one or more of the following:
Weapons[edit]
Despite the fact that World War I was the first conflict to be fought by mechanized means, trench raiding was very similar to medieval warfare insofar as it was fought face-to-face with crude weaponry. Trench raiders were lightly equipped for stealthy, unimpeded movement. Typically, raiding parties were armed with deadly homemade trench raiding clubs, machetes, bayonets, entrenching tools, trench knives, hammers, hatchets, pickaxe handles and brass knuckles.[1] The choice of weaponry was deliberate: the raiders' intention was to kill or capture people quietly, without drawing attention to their activities. Clearly, this would have been impossible if they had routinely used firearms during raids. Trench raiders were also armed with more modern weapons such as pistols, shotguns, submachine guns, and hand grenades, though these were only intended to be used in an emergency i.e. if the enemy discovered their activities and raised the alarm.