Raiding parties like this one from the 42nd “Rainbow” Division carries canvas sacks of grenades as they leave the safety of their own trench on the way to the German trenches.

Raiding Parties during WWI. Many people who read about World War I, the Great War, are aware of trench warfare and the many stories of how the massive battles were fought, generally frontal assaults charging against defensive machine guns and devastating artillery bombardments. However, few folks realize there was a much more personal and deadly type of fighting on the Western Front: the raiding party.