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The Australian Army has reintroduced trench system training using lessons learnt during the Ukraine–Russia war.
Soldiers from 1st Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment recently conducted a trench assault exercise using new trench warfare doctrine during Exercise Brolga Sprint, held at the Townsville Field Training Area from 4 to 13 June.
During the training, engineers breached wire obstacles surrounding an enemy trench system under covering fire from M1A2 Abrams main battle tanks. Infantry was then tasked with clearing trench entrances and moving into the interior tight trench confides.
Warrant Officer Class 1 Brandon Carey from Land Combat College said the exercise was a practical challenge for the viability of tactics he developed over the past 12 months.
“Usually you can dig up a pam (instructions) that is pretty similar to what we are doing now. Some of the fundamentals of war don’t change, but this was the one thing I couldn’t find anything on,” WO1 Carey said.
“Apart from very broad-brush trench warfare references, there was only some lessons learnt from World War I and II, which have some similarities in terminology.”
WO1 Carey took lessons from the battlefields of Ukraine, doctrine from European allies and experiences of soldiers returning from Operation Kudu and adapted them for Australian Army tactics.
“There’s elements of our urban doctrine that I am leaning on – trench and urban share some similarities – but they are a very different type of warfare,” he said.
“Urban allows a transition of roles quite fluidly, whereas trench relies on people to adopt the same positions throughout the assault, due to specialist equipment and responsibilities.”
The trench system was constructed by 3 Combat Engineer Regiment (3CER) plant operators before Brolga Sprint and shored up with revetment from combat engineers attached to Combat Team Bravo.
Corporal Oscar Dodd of 3CER said the engineers’ job was not only in breaching the trench wire obstacles but to provide mobility and survivability to infantry clearing the trenches.
“When assaulting a trench, engineers either deal with explosive devices or simply conduct a mark and bypass to maintain the speed and tempo of the attack so the infantry can move forward,” CPL Dodd said.
“Getting to know the infantry we’re attached to was really good and working as engineers in a dismounted environment posed a lot of challenges for us, but it was good to find ways to overcome this.”
Trench warfare provides unique challenges, including the natural restricted confines of a trench, 360-degree threat nature, indirect fire, grenades and uncrewed aerial systems, explosive devices and obstacles.
Brolga Sprint progressed from blank-fire runs into non-lethal training ammunition and culminated in a live-fire exercise, with the assault conducted by 1RAR supported by 3CER, 4 Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery and 2 Cavalry Regiment.
“As a section commander, it’s a lot more about controlling the assault rather than conducting the drills,” said Lance Corporal Luke Franettovich of 1RAR.
“Due to the threat of grenades, you need to be spread out a lot more so the communication is a lot harder because the switchbacks can interfere with the soldier’s personal radio.
“A lot of the trust is put in your front-four soldiers. They are the ones who make most of the calls, so you have to trust your diggers know what they’re doing.”
