How were army formations deployed in the First World War in trenches?
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Accepted answer
This obviously changed from year to year, and from country to country.
- For much of recent history, many military formations were triangular. Three combat companies plus supports to a battalion, three combat battalions plus support to a brigade, three combat brigades plus support to a division. That was the case during much of the Cold War, for instance. The US briefly played with two battalions as part of the Armored Brigade Combat Team.
In a triangular battalion during non-trench warfare, two companies could be "up" on the frontline. On the offensive, both move forward, the first to make contact fixes the enemy, the other forward company flanks and attacks, the third company is far enough to the rear to exploit openings with fresh troops. Or so the theory goes. The US Cold War division had 9 combat battalions, plus one battalion-sized cavalry squadron. - During WWI, the US went for square divisions. That means a division of two brigades of two regiments each with three battalions each, for a total of 12 (infantry) battalions to the division. The idea was to have one regiment in each brigade in the trenches and the other regiment in the rear. The divisional artillery brigade had two 105mm regiments, one per infantry brigade, and one 155mm regiment.
- Later on the Germans came up with a doctrine where the forward trenches were thinly held by a few machine gun teams and riflemen, and the main defensive force used counterattacks to retake a lost position. That exploited the fact that attackers became disorganized and outran their artillery and logistical support.
That was the theory. It didn't always happen as planned.
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