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 trench line at Skärbäk  (The Historic Archive of the Royal Danish Airforce)

 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 if mounted correctly.
 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, following 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 machineguns.
 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 used 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
 metres.  The soldier wore the special helmet with at spike upon it. Later Germany used the characteristic edged helmet. 

.

The modern helmet