The German equivalent was Niemandsland, while the French used the English term le no man's land.
Around 1885 or 1886 the term "No Man's Land" became widely applied to the Public Land Strip. True to the plain language of the old West, the nickname referred simply to the fact that no man could legally own land in the Strip.
Contexts. Forbidden territory. An uncultivated, uninhabited, and inhospitable region. A barren region with no remaining resources.
'No-man's land,' was an ancient term that gained terrible new meaning during WWI. The constant bombardment of modern artillery and rapid firing of machine guns created a nightmarish wasteland between the enemies' lines, littered with tree stumps and snarls of barbed wire.
"No Man's Land" was a popular term during the First World War to describe the area between opposing armies and trench lines. How it came to exist and how far it might extend was influenced by a variety of military and topographic factors.
The land between the two enemy trench lines was called “No Man's Land” and was covered with barbed wire. The enemy trenches were generally around 50 to 250 yards apart.
The area between opposing trench lines (known as "no man's land") was fully exposed to artillery fire from both sides. Attacks, even if successful, often sustained severe casualties.
Most commonly associated with the First World War the phrase "no man's land" actually dates back until at least the 14th century. Its meaning was clear to all sides: no man's land represented the area of ground between opposing armies - in this case, between trenches.
In the Oxford English Dictionary, Nomanneslond, ca. 1350, comes from the Middle English, and was “a piece of ground outside the north wall of London, formerly used as a place of execution.” The phrase took on a military connotation as early as 1864, but it became an especially prevalent term during the First World War.
Of the estimated total casualties suffered by the regiment of at least 56,000, nearly 17,000 were fatal. We see from this study that the experience and training reduced fatalities during an attack from 65 in 1916 to 11 in 1918.
Actually, it's been used since sometime in the 14th century. According to www.etymonline.com/word/no-man's-land, the old English word was “nonemanneslond, and signified an unowned waste ground outside the north wall of London, site for executions.
A century after the First World War, No Man's Land continues to conjure an image of the turbulent wasteland of the Western Front - a landscape of metal, bodies and mud. But No Man's Lands have a near 1000-year history and continue to appear in our modern world.
Two classic examples of No Man's Land are the demilitarised zone between North and South Korea, and the UN buffer zone that stands between the Greek and Turkish-controlled territories in Cyprus - both born of conflicts that were never entirely resolved.
Nomans Land (Wampanoag: Cappoaquit; also mapped "No Man's Land," "No Mans Land," or "No Man's island"), is an uninhabited island 612 acres (248 ha) in size, located in the town of Chilmark, Dukes County, Massachusetts. It is situated about 3 miles (4.8 km) off the southwest corner of the island of Martha's Vineyard.
No Man's Land is the term used by soldiers to describe the ground between the two opposing trenches. Its width along the Western Front could vary a great deal. The average distance in most sectors was about 250 yards (230 metres).
The Navy transferred ownership of the island to the Service in 1998. therefore, establishing the refuge. Due to the potential safety risks associated with unexploded ordnance and the value of this island as a relatively natural island habitat, the refuge is closed to all public uses.
The loss of life was greater than in any previous war in history, in part because militaries were using new technologies, including tanks, airplanes, submarines, machine guns, modern artillery, flamethrowers, and poison gas.
Bodies left in No Man's Land were a fairly constant source of misery for the living, of course. In winter they froze, and in summer they bloated, turned black, and became infested with rats and maggots.
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 had to enter it to bring in the wounded.
At the front was the fire trench, the first line of defence and the jumping off point for attack. Behind was the support trench, a second line of defence, and behind that the reserve trench, from which troops could be sent forward in an emergency. The three lines were connected by communication trenches.
The first, or front, line of trenches was known as the outpost line and was thinly held by scattered machine gunners distributed behind dense entanglements of barbed wire. The main line of resistance was a parallel series of two, three, or four lines of trenches containing the bulk of the defending troops.
Other times the dugouts were just makeshift holes in the side of the trench. They allowed World War I soldiers the opportunity to hide from enemy shelling and artillery fire. As stated above, soldiers used dugouts as a place for rest.
The term was first used during the American Civil War when it was applied to the brass buttons on uniforms and thence to infantrymen. At a period not exactly ascertained, the word was said to have been derived from the doughlike appearance of a uniform soiled by moistened pipe clay.
The side of the trench facing the enemy was called the parapet and had a fire step.