Wiring party

Though hazardous and stressful duty, work was done at night to repair, improve, and rebuild their own wire defences, 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 cross no man's land.

[1] The outbreak of World War I led to a revolution in modern warfare, and the use of barbed wire on the battlefield was one of the many technologies relied upon to hamper the enemy's attack.

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[3] 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'.

Under the cover of darkness, often one-third of units stealthily climbed out of the trenches to perform maintenance on their wires, as well as investigating the status of the enemy's.

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.

[7] Due to the extreme dangers inherent with no man's land, specialized tools and methods were implemented to make the process quieter and more effective.

Enemy sentries were trained to listen and look for these nighttime raiders, and any suspicious sounds or movements could give away the men's position and consequently bring a concentration of heavy fire that way.