Fort Benning Historic Trail Site

Fort Benning Historic Trail

Historical Site 46. WWI Trenches

The Fort Benning trench system was built in 1920 to train Infantry officers in the tactics of trench warfare. Today there are six U.S. military installations with a WWI trench system. This is the third largest of the six. It is also one of Fort Benning’s few remaining original training features of any type.

The trench system was designed by COL Alfred C. Arnold, a recipient of two Distinguished Service Crosses in WWI. Drawing from his combat experience, he conformed the trenches mostly to the ridgelines and high ground, as prescribed in WWI era doctrine. The wooded landscape was originally rolling terrain with cultivated farmland and relatively few trees – an ideal simulation of rural Europe at that time. The trench system consists of front trenches with “firestep”, support trenches, and connecting trenches. They have a combined length of 16,800’. Additionally, about 4000’ have been eroded beyond recognition and are known of only by historic aerial images. When new, the trenches were at a depth of about five feet below ground level, but the top front was lined with sandbags about 2’ high. The front trenches had a “fire step” about 2’ high to allow Soldiers to fire over the top. A quarter inch thick metal mesh held by L-beam stakes support the side of the fire step.

A typical training scenario would involve a student officer planning and executing an attack with 29th Infantry demonstration troops. Surviving student notes and hand drawn sketches provide examples of how they used the trenches in training. The student leader divides his company of into smaller elements which work in sync, perform a variety of tasks: uses multiple approach paths across “no man’s land”; breaches barbed wire protecting the enemy trench; attacks specific points; provides covering fire; captures enemy soldiers; and blocks the trench from receiving reinforcements.

Fort Benning phased out WWI style trench training in the late 1920s and lessened use of the trenches over the next decade. As they fell out of use, trees and erosion rounded their once-sharp crenulated edges and they became impossible to recognize from the ground. They remained forgotten and mostly undisturbed until Fort Benning archaeologists accidentally discovered them by observing LiDAR images in late 2017.

Archaeologists determined the interior shape of the trenches by digging sample areas and comparing differences in soil color and density. The original trench walls were naturally compacted clay, which was denser than the loose dirt that later filled the trench by erosion. They also found expanded metal mesh only along the firestep. The rigidity of this clay was known to provide strong trench walls and was a factor in selecting this area in 1918 for establishing Camp Benning.