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Rpsh Posted 12 years ago
Vocabulary

head over the top

After the British bombardment was lifted, they instructed lines of British soldiers to head over the top, and cross no man's land at walking pace. The soldiers were mown down by German machine gun fire.

Could you tell me what is an action of heading over the top? Is it, on earth, a motion of jumping out of the trench, or crawling out of the trench?
  

Top answer

rpsh Could you tell me what is an action of heading over the top? Is it, on earth, a motion of jumping out of the trench, or crawling out of the trench? It means getting out of the trench by any mode you wish.

— Mister Micawber

  • rpsh Could you tell me what is an action of heading over the top?
  • Is it, on earth, a motion of jumping out of the trench, or crawling out of the trench?
  • It means getting out of the trench by any mode you wish.
  • Since it says 'walking pace', I suppose they just climbed out of the trenches.
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6 Answers
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rpshCould you tell me what is an action of heading over the top? Is it, on earth, a motion of jumping out of the trench, or crawling out of the trench?
It means getting out of the trench by any mode you wish. Since it says 'walking pace', I suppose they just climbed out of the trenches.
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Got it, thank you!
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rpshCould you tell me what is an action of heading over the top?
Probably it is obvious from the context and previous reply, but heading (or going) "over the top" specifically means climbing out of the trench and heading towards the enemy lines, as part of an offensive. It goes without saying that this was very dangerous.
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The common idiom from the First World War is go over the top.

Clive
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I find that 'go over the top' is a military terminology. Thank you for your information.
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Yeah! You are right. I find the definition in the dictionary. Thank you!
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