No man's land
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No man's land is waste or unowned land or an uninhabited or desolate area that may be under dispute between parties who leave it unoccupied out of fear or uncertainty. The term was originally used to define a contested territory or a dumping ground for refuse between fiefdoms. It is commonly associated with World War I to describe the area of land between two enemy trench systems, not controlled by either side. The term is also used metaphorically, to refer to an ambiguous, anomalous, or indefinite area, regarding an application, situation, or jurisdiction. It has sometimes been used to name a specific place.
An aerial photograph showing opposing trenches and no man's land between Loos and Hulluch during World War I
A stretch of no man's land at Flanders Fields, Belgium, 1919
Dead Canadian soldiers lying in no man's land on the Somme battlefield, 1918
No man's land in Jerusalem, between Israel and Jordan, circa 1964
Trench warfare
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Trench warfare is a type of land warfare using occupied lines largely comprising military trenches, in which combatants are well-protected from the enemy's small arms fire and are substantially sheltered from artillery. It became archetypically associated with World War I (1914–1918), when the Race to the Sea rapidly expanded trench use on the Western Front starting in September 1914.
British (upper) and German (lower) frontline trenches, 1916
German soldiers of the 11th Reserve Hussar Regiment fighting from a trench, on the Western Front, 1916
Plan of Ruapekapeka Pā, an elaborate and heavily fortified Ngāpuhi innovation, which James Belich has argued laid the groundwork for or essentially invented modern trench warfare.
Trenches at the Siege of Vicksburg 1863