The defense line was never activated and the prepared positions were never finished.
 The trenches were supposed to be finished by the troops who should use them. Only the first line
 was finished. 2-4 lines were only marked in the terrain.

Air photo of the first and second trenchline at Skärbäk  (Flyvevåbnets historiske arkiv)

 The trace of the trenches.

 The position is constructed with a minimum of 2 lines. The distance between them was 200-400 meters.
 The trenches were supposed to be connected between the lines every 200 meters. The first line of the
 trenches is normally on front sides of the hills. Normally the second line would be
 situated here too, but some are situated on the back of a hill.

German trench,                the western front

Danish trench, Tune

Danish trench, Tune

 The barbed wire:
 
 In front of the first line of the trenches, there have been double fences. Belts of barbed wire fences in
 a width of 7-9 meters with 7-9 meters between the belts.
 In front of the second line there was only one belt at a width of 7-9 meters.
 From the second belt there was 20-50 meters to the edge of the trench.
 The Belts could be zigzag shaped at a total width of 2-300 meters.

 Four different kinds of wire have been found in the position. The most common is occupied  Russian
 wire.
 It was 4x4 mm wire with hooks of a length of 30 mm. There was just 20 mm between the hooks.
 In front of the Russian Wire normal wire from the farms have been used. Even wire without hooks has
 been used and is rather effective.
 The wire was mounted on sticks of either timber or iron. 

 The combination of barbed wire and flanking fire from machineguns caused an enormous amount of
 lives during WW1, so a great deal of flanking machineguns has been prepared.

Barbed wire at the western front

- and one of its victims

 The planned defense line is interesting from a historic point of view, because it was made without any
 haste and without shelling from the enemy. And last but least, it was build on the background of drills
 and reconosence through 10 years
 Finally the defense line with two years of modern war experience. This is important, because the
 history at the time showed, that just 20 years old constructions were useless.
 Over the entire defense line the construction was up to date.

 We could learn something about the positions that were not finished by looking at the Tune Position
 outside Copenhagen.
 It was constructed in the same period and followed the same war-experience.

Blown room at Vedböl north of the Skovby battery.

 A number of bunkers in front of the lines were constructed. They were primarily meant for machine-
 guns.
 The machinegun got at break through in WW1. It is supposed to have
 caused up to 5 mills of dead soldiers on both sides.
 Germany useed the Maxim machinegun, while Denmark among others used the Gatling gun.

Maxim 1908

Maxim 1910

Machinegun position with 4 stands at Arrild

 
 German infantry was armed with the famous Mauser M/98, one of the best military rifles of the time. It
 was effective up to 2000 meters.
 The soldier wore the special helmet with at spike upon it. Later Germany used the characteristic edged
 helmet. 

.

The modern helmet