1/144 Great War Battlefield base

Kits-World - 1/144 Great War Battlefield. 225mm(W) x 225mm(H) 9inches(W) x 9inches(H)

The war witnessed an unprecedented horror never before seen and bought war on an industrial scale to mankind. The trench system came into effect as early as September 1914, when the Allied and Central Powers Commands began to realise that war would not be the short-term battle they had initially envisioned. As the war drew on, the trench system expanded, eventually stretching from the North Sea in Belgium, through France and on to the Swiss border.

The typical trench system consisted of three lines. Firstly, a front line trench which was anything from fifty or so yards to a mile from those of the enemy. This was defended by coils and lines of barbed wire stretching many miles. Next came a support trench for the frontline trance, and finally, the reserve trench. A notable feature of the trenches were the meandering bends, corners and zigzags. The purpose of this was to dissipate blast from direct shell hits against the trench. As the war drew on, the trench systems became extremely intricate, with firing trenches to defend against enemy assaults or advances, so called 'saps', small branch trenches that stretched out into no-man's-land to enable observation posts and other means of forward attack, and also communications trenches. The trenches on both sides literally became home to thousands of soldiers. The thick clay ground at least afforded the means to construct dugouts, deep enough to allow the unfortunate men serving there some shelter at least from the horrific conditions they were forced to endure. Famous names such as Flanders, Passchendaele, The Somme, Verdun and Ypres among others have been forever burned into history.

On the Western Front and by 1916, both the Allied and German forces had fought each other to a stalemate. The daily constant bombardment from one side against the other churned the landscape into something resembling an alien world. The hight water table in the Flanders area coupled with seasonal rainfall soon turned the ground into a sea of thick, oozing mud. Hundreds of thousands of shell holes became pools of death for the unwary, with men stumbling into water filled shell holes and unable to escape suffering a slow death by drowning or being killed in the next barrage. In addition to this both sides employed gas. The most feared being Sulphur Mustard, or as it is more commonly known, Mustard Gas, although technically consisting of droplets, it is not a gas. Attacking the respiratory system and exposed skin, this had a tendency to 'lay' in shell holes, and any unfortunate soldier who happened to fall into one, invariably suffered a slow agonising death.

This base depicts a typical area of battle, based on photographs of the area around Chateau Wood near Hooge in the Ypres salient during October 1917. A smoke-covered landscape, pock-marked with hundreds of water filled shell holes and featureless apart from trunks of trees stripped of their branches by shell blast. Endless lines of coils of barbed wire stretch across the battlefield and duckboards allow men transition from one area to another.

Suggested subjects: Suitable aircraft of all types operating over the Western Front during the middle to latter half of the Great War. Shown are two Bristol F.2b Fighters of the Royal Flying Corps.

This base can also be utilised for 1/72nd scale
GPS- 50°51'24.77' N 2°54'28.37' E (General location)