Editing Battle of the Somme (section)

=== German defences on the Somme ===
[[File:Schwaben Redoubt aerial photograph 10-05-1916 IWM HU 91107.jpg|thumb|upright|British aerial photograph of German trenches north of Thiepval, 10 May 1916, with the German forward lines to the lower left. The [[Battlement|crenellated]] appearance of the trenches is due to the presence of [[Traverse (trench warfare)|traverses]].]]
After the Autumn Battles ({{lang|de|Herbstschlacht}}) of 1915, a third defensive position another {{convert|3000|yd|mi+km}} back from the {{lang|de|Stützpunktlinie}} (Support line) begun in February 1916 and was almost complete on the Somme front when the battle began. German artillery was organised in a series of {{lang|de|Sperrfeuerstreifen}} (barrage sectors); each officer was expected to know the batteries covering his section of the front line and the batteries ready to engage fleeting targets. A telephone system was built, with lines buried {{convert|6|ft|m}} deep for {{convert|5|mi|km|abbr=on}} behind the front line, to connect the front line to the artillery. The Somme defences had two inherent weaknesses that the rebuilding had not remedied. The front trenches were on a forward slope, lined by white chalk from the subsoil and easily seen by ground observers. The defences were crowded towards the front trench with a regiment having two battalions near the front-trench system and the reserve battalion divided between the {{lang|de|Stützpunktlinie}} and the second position, all within {{convert|2000|yd|m}} of no man's land and most troops within {{convert|1000|yd|m}} of the front line, accommodated in the new deep dugouts. The concentration of troops at the front line on a forward slope guaranteed that it would face the bulk of an artillery bombardment, directed by ground observers on clearly marked lines.{{sfn|Wynne|1976|pp=100–103}}