Schemes OF Wiring Party

Wiring parties, or commonly called wiring sappers, cutters, were used during World War I on the Western Front as an offensive countermeasure against the enemy’s barbed wire obstacles. Though a hazardous and stressful duty, workers worked at night to repair, improve, and rebuild their own wire defenses, while also sabotaging and cutting the enemy's. In battles all across the Western Front, cutting parties were successful in creating breaches in the wire lines, offering their comrades a better chance to make it across no man's land.



The outbreak of World War I sparked a revolution in modern warfare, and the use of barbed wire on the battlefield was one of the many technologies relied on to hamper the enemy's attack. Originally used by American cattle ranchers since the 1870s, barbed wire was adapted on the Western Front to serve a more gruesome purpose than containing livestock. Transformed into a weapon of war, it was shaped to create deadly obstacles in the path of assaulting enemy troops. Meant to trap, maim, and make easy targets of the opponent, they ranged from a single strand of wire arranged to trip men in the dark, to a 150-metre-long construction 30 ft wide (9.1 m) and 5 or 6 ft (1.5 or 1.8 m) tall By spring of 1915, barbed wire entanglements were an unavoidable element in trench warfare, and posed a serious threat to all men going over the top.



The integration of barbed wire as an instrument of war required the formation of tactical teams, or wiring parties. Barbed wire defenses needed to be maintained often, as shrapnel from the day's battle often cut the wire, or the enemy had sabotaged it during the battle or the night before. Still, the workers did not just deal with the actual wire; they also had to clear the entanglements of any bodies or body parts. Under the cover of darkness, often one-third of most units stealthily climbed out of the trenches to perform maintenance on their wires, as well as investigation of the status of the enemy's. They were charged with the task of repairing damaged wire and reconstructing the line if necessary. In addition, these working parties attempted to cut and destroy the enemy’s wire in the hopes of preventing their troops from being stopped in the middle of no man's land during the next attack. From as early as 9 pm and as late as 3 am, they were like "animals, working during the night and sleeping by day". As the war progressed, it seemed to become 'regular routine', but often one of the most deadly and difficult duties to perform.



Due to the extreme dangers inherent with no man's land, specialized tools and methods were implemented to make the process quieter and more efficient. Pickets, or metal posts, were originally used to hold up the wire and were hammered in by a muffled mallet. However, this still produced noise, rendering the sappers targets for the enemies. Therefore, screw-pickets or 'cork-screws' were produced. These looped steel posts had a drill-like end, allowing it to be twisted into the ground noiselessly and the wire then wrapped around it.



Erecting wire was time consuming and meticulous; sappers had to first repair wire by hand, then construct new defenses if needed. Destroying wire, on the other hand, could done either by going through, over, or under the wire, and could be done by hand or by using wire-cutting shells and mortars. The object of the wiring parties was to slow down the enemy’s attack, while speeding up their own. For this reason, workers attempted to make it impossible for the enemy to get to their trench, while sabotaging the enemy’s wire for their own benefit. In addition, though the distance between trenches varied between 7 and 500 yards, workers tried to erect barbed wire defenses as far away from their trench as possible, to prevent the enemy from getting too close to the trench, or possibly lobbing in grenades.