Wire entaglements, together with machine guns, were responsible for many casualties in the trench warfare of World War I. True entanglements have rarely been seen after the end of that war, largely due to the infrequent use of trench warfare. A machine gun is a fully-automatic firearm that is capable of firing bullets in rapid succession. ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... Trench warfare is a form of war in which both opposing armies have static lines of fortifications dug into the ground, facing each other. ... World War I was primarily a European conflict with many facets: immense human sacrifice, stalemate trench warfare, and the use of new, devastating weapons - tanks, aircraft, machineguns, and poison gas. ...
The entanglement could in some places be scores of metres thick and several metres deep, with the entire space filled with a random, tangled mass of barbed wire.
Entanglements were often not created deliberately, but by pushing together the mess of wire formed when conventional barbed wire fences had been damaged by artilleryshells.
Wire entaglements, together with machine guns, were responsible for many casualties in the trench warfare of World War I.
Depending on the requirements and available resources, wire obstacles may range from a simple barbed wire fence in front of a defensive position, to elaborate patterns of fences, concertinas, "dragon's teeth" and minefields hundreds of metres thick.
One example is the "low wireentanglement", which consists of irregularly placed stakes that have been driven into the ground with only some 15 cm (six inches) showing; the barbed wire is then wrapped and tightened on to these.
The "knife rest" or "Spanish rider" is a modern wire obstacle functionally similar to the cheval de frise, and sometimes called that.
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