‘When the sluices were opened at Nieuport...barbed wire brought disaster to the Hun’, 1915 circa...

‘When the sluices were opened at Nieuport...barbed wire brought disaster to the Hun’, 1915 circa. Photograph, World War One, Western Front (1914-1918), 1915 circa. 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 one hundred and one stereoscopic photographs entitled ‘The Great War’ including the official series.