Manuel Coelho Baptista de Lima Military History Branch
This German trench armor – sappenpanzer – from the period of World War I, is anachronistically a paradigmatic example of the use of an old technology in a substantially different technical and tactical context, given that the large-scale use of automatic machine guns completely changed the face of warfare in Europe at that time, transforming a war of movement into a war of entrenched positions. The so-called heavy machine guns, mounted in fixed positions at numerous points along the long lines of the trenches, played a fundamental role in the containment of infantry assaults. Armour such as this was then adopted to protect the shooter. It consists of a steel breastplate from which several steel plates, which are suspended to protect the abdomen and genitals.