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Trip wire

The following is the description for a soldier's drawing sold on eBay, July 20, 2013 by seller urfaust who provided the translation from the original German.

'Original German WW1 signed hand drawn pencil sketch on blank field postcard. It was sent Oct 11 1915. The upper part shows tripwire and barbed wire and the lower part a caltrop. The artist writes some explanation on the reverse side. A short translated part of the writing on the reverse side:

"Tripwire: Between barbed wire and trench there are simple wires on a low level hidden in the grass ... storming French who passed the barbed wire ... trips ... for enhancement there are several caltrops around. These things are very cruel. You can throw them in any way but always on sharp top will be upside. They cut right through heavy boots and make soldiers unable to fight. Also storming soldiers may trip at the tripwire and fall with hands right on the caltrop. These barriers are in front of our trenches and then we come. The biggest and most persistent barriers ..."'

Trip wire is a fortification.