Inspired by this photo in another subReddit where it looks like they're carrying greatcoats or similar to throw over the wire.
I presume they sent out cutting parties beforehand, and carried wirecutters, but there's still got to be a time when you have a lot of guys forced to go over or through a big mess of pointy metal. Did they carry blankets, sacrifice a few guys to jump on it and run over them, slowly cut it away while being shelled and shot, blindly struggle through it, or head for the gaps which were presumably well covered by fire?
Could artillery help much or not? I've heard conflicting stories here.
Getting through something like this just looks like an absolute nightmare, I'm wondering how techniques and tactics evolved over the war and how good they got at dealing with this sort of obstacle.
Like many aspects of the First World War, cutting wire was an arms race. At the start of the war wire was strung on to wooden posts and knife rests. Under bombardment, shrapnel shells would smash up the wood and blow the wire out of the way: during the British offensive at Neuve Chapelle in March 1915, the wire was cleared away along most of the front. By mid-1915 and the Battle of Aubers Ridge, however, wire was now strung on to sturdy iron pickets screwed into the ground, which had enough flexibility to them that wire struck by a piece of shrapnel would just spring back into position. Consequently the attack at Aubers Ridge was a complete failure, and the British terminated the battle after just a single day. It wouldn't be until 1917 that enough high explosive shells had been manufactured, along with No. 106 "graze" fuse that artillery would be able to properly deal with wire again.
Sources:
Gordon Corrigan, Mud, Blood and Poppycock
Wire cutters were carried, as well as boards and ladders to cross over. For the most part, artillery was simply used to blast the wire to pieces, either shrapnel or high explosive shells. By 1917, the British had the No. 106 instantaneous fuse, which could detonate HE shells upon immediate contact with the barbed wire. Tanks could also crush and rip up the wire, and use was also made of Bangalore Torpedoes.
