Appearing on the pages of the NY Times in 1916 was this letter in which a well-campaigned Canadian trench fighter gives some tips to an American National Guardsman:
"Wire cutters are very good for reconnaissance at night and scouts, but wire cutters never cleared entanglements for a charge. If a government cannot furnish high explosives to clear the way, (an army should wait until they do) it is a thousand-to-one-shot that even six charmed lives out of a regiment will reach the enemy's line."