<P> In World War I , no man 's land often ranged from several hundred yards to in some cases less than 10 yards . Heavily defended by machine guns , mortars , artillery and riflemen on both sides , it was often riddled with barbed wire and rudimentary improvised land mines , as well as corpses and wounded soldiers who were not able to make it across the sea of bullets , explosions and flames . The area was usually devastated by the warfare and riddled with craters from artillery and mortar shells , and sometimes contaminated by chemical weapons . It was open to fire from the opposing trenches and hard going generally slowed down any attempted advance . However , not only were soldiers forced to cross no man 's land when advancing , and as the case might be when retreating , but after an attack the stretcher bearers would need to go out into it to bring in the wounded . No man 's land remained a regular feature of the battlefield until near the end of World War I , when mechanised weapons ( i.e. tanks ) made entrenched lines less of an obstacle . </P>
<P> In World War I , no man 's land often ranged from several hundred yards to in some cases less than 10 yards . Heavily defended by machine guns , mortars , artillery and riflemen on both sides , it was often riddled with barbed wire and rudimentary improvised land mines , as well as corpses and wounded soldiers who were not able to make it across the sea of bullets , explosions and flames . The area was usually devastated by the warfare and riddled with craters from artillery and mortar shells , and sometimes contaminated by chemical weapons . It was open to fire from the opposing trenches and hard going generally slowed down any attempted advance . However , not only were soldiers forced to cross no man 's land when advancing , and as the case might be when retreating , but after an attack the stretcher bearers would need to go out into it to bring in the wounded . No man 's land remained a regular feature of the battlefield until near the end of World War I , when mechanised weapons ( i.e. tanks ) made entrenched lines less of an obstacle . </P>
weapon that developed to help troops cross no mans land
weapon that developed to help troops cross no mans land
mechanised weapons
mechanised weapons