Artillery being shelled
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What did the crew of the guns do when they were shelled? Did they have trenches to take cover or did they withdraw leaving their guns behind or did they stay with the guns hoping for the best?
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I suppose it depended on the situation they were in. I believe many of them fought to the last man. Maybe they could take cover in their machine gun emplacements depending on the danger from the enemy, or if in the trenches try to take cover. You may find these articles and images interesting on the following links (1) and (2)
(1) An image of a machine gun emplacement Link: http://cdn.loc.gov/service/pnp/pga/03800/03882r.jpg
Machine guns article regarding the men in the trenches. Machine guns inflicted appalling casualties on both war fronts in World War One. Men who went over-the-top in trenches stood little chance when the enemy opened up with their machine guns. Machine guns were one of the main killers in the war and accounted for many thousands of deaths. Crude machine guns had first been used in the American Civil War (1861 to 1865). However, tactics from this war to 1914 had not changed to fit in with this new weapon. Machine guns could shoot hundreds of rounds of ammunition a minute and the standard military tactic of World War One was the infantry charge. Casualties were huge. Many soldiers barely got out of their trench before they were cut down.
(2) Image of British Vickers machine gun crew at the Somme. Link: http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/world-war-one/the-western-front-in-world-war-one/machine-guns/ This British Vickers machine gun is being fired by a team of two who are wearing early gas masks in case of a gas attack. To ensure that the machine gun’s barrel did not overheat, the weapon was cooled using a large water cooling jacket. An ammunition belt fed it bullets. This machine gun could shoot 450 rounds a minute. As well as the Vickers machine gun, the British used the Hotchkiss and the Lewis gun. At the start of the war, senior British army officers were less than sure about the effectiveness of the machine gun. Therefore most battalions were only issued with two. This was a lot less than the Germans who were much more sure as to the effectiveness of the machine gun. The Germans placed their machine guns slightly in front of their lines to ensure than the machine gun crews were given a full view of the battlefield. At the Battle of the Somme, their efficiency lead to the deaths of thousands of British troops within minutes of the battle starting.
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by
cyngast
moderator
As far as I know, they built dugouts or dug trenches for protection.
If you Google "dugouts for artillery crews ww1" and go to the Images, there are photos labeled as artillery crews outside their dugouts, although I find that the labels for Google images are not always correct. In this case, at least some of the photos look like they probably are artillery dugouts because they are isolated and not in a trench.
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by
ral104
moderator, scientist
As Cynthia says, they would have constructed dugouts if they were in semi-permanent positions, although if they were moving around a lot they would have had to make do with slit trenches, which as the name implies are narrow trenches which would have provided some protection against shrapnel bursts, although not much against HE. However, there would have been many times when they stayed at their guns.
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