Thanks for this great answer. On a tangent, but since you seem to be knowledgeable of these things: how did attacking troops deal with the barbed wire, and esp

Thanks for this great answer. On a tangent, but since you seem to be knowledgeable of these things: how did attacking troops deal with the barbed wire, and especially with their own barbed wire? Was there a way to take down their barbed wire prior to an assault? If so, could you guess the time of an enemy assault by monitoring the status of their barbed wire? Or could you even mount a preemptive attack when they took down their barbed wire?