As if mud, gas, and intense and relentless shelling weren’t bad enough, the use of barbed wire, with each prong one-half to three-quarters of an inch in length, made advancing through enemy lines almost impossible without the most intense bombardment in advance of an attack. Since both sides utilized barbed wire, the zone between the two trench systems was particularly dangerous and hard to cross, creating the area that become known as “No Man’s Land.” 

 

Barbed wire was also used as an offensive weapon, with one side purposely driving enemy troops into an area surrounded by wire so that they could not escape. Some estimates suggest that as much as one million miles of barbed wire were laid between 1914 and 1918, and its use became and remains a symbol of the inhumanity of modern warfare.