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[RobD]

BAR, are you certain that, in WW1, "The enemy knows exactly who they oppose in the line of battle.". My grandfather told me he went out on nocturnal trench raids to snatch soldiers from the German lines specificaly to find out who they were facing. If they could not bring back a prisoner they had to bring back insignia. If all this was known, how was it known? And why was he doing all that raiding?

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[Thunderbox]

BAR, are you certain that, in WW1, "The enemy knows exactly who they oppose in the line of battle.". My grandfather told me he went out on nocturnal trench raids to snatch soldiers from the German lines specificaly to find out who they were facing. If they could not bring back a prisoner they had to bring back insignia. If all this was known, how was it known? And why was he doing all that raiding?

Prisoners were usually snatched in order to interrogate them about enemy intentions, or even just to assess their morale and physical condition. Line units on both sides nearly always knew exactly who they were facing, and that information was part of the sitrep given to relieving units coming up from rest. Your Grandfather might be describing one of the occasions when they did need to identify units - when one side or the other was reinforcing or switching units just ahead of a major operation. Later in the war, the allies resorted to elaborate deceptions to conceal "signature" troop movements - such as the concentration of the Canadian and Australian divisions before the battle of Amiens in 1918.