The following report on German trenches in North Africa is taken from Tactical and Technical Trends, No. 19, February 25, 1943. [DISCLAIMER: The following text is taken from the U.S. War Department publication Tactical and Technical Trends. As with all wartime intelligence information, data may be incomplete or inaccurate. No attempt has been made to update or correct the text. Any views or opinions expressed do not necessarily represent those of the website.]

CONCEALMENT OF GERMAN TRENCHES In one of the campaigns in the Middle East (Cyrenaica), reliable reports show that the German tactics put great emphasis on the development of a defensive system best designed to assure ground concealment. It was found that German trenches were narrow, with no parados, and the spoil for the parapet was well spread out and never more than 9 inches high. The effect was to make the trenches inconspicuous, and it is stated that on one occasion an officer walked to within 30 yards of an enemy post without seeing it. There were no sandbags and few wire obstacles, and there was a general lack of construction materials. This absence of materials, though it may have been enforced by circumstances, proved entirely effective and made defenses very difficult to locate. Revetting was usually dry-stone walling, but very few posts had overhead cover, protection from the air being obtained rather by the narrowness of the trenches than by concealment. In one area a number of tank turrets were used as pillboxes in fixed defenses and were very effective, providing good protection and being easy to conceal.

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