what does 'bite and hold' mean?

what does 'bite and hold' mean? i terms of world war 1 trench warfare?

It's basically a tactic where you seize a small bit of territory (bite) and then 'hold' onto it. You then use this bit of territory to reach out and 'bite' another and so on. You can think of it a bit like rock climbing in that you have to move up one limb at a time (i.e. capture one patch of land at a time)

This website has quite a bit of useful information:
http://www.westernfrontassociation.com/great-war-on-land/75-other-war-theatres/329-phil-west-front.html

The most relevant section is probably the following:

The 'Bite and Hold' concept gradually emerged in late 1915 from the staff of General Sir Henry Rawlinson commander of the Fourth Army of the BEF in France. In principle it was similar to the later German 'infiltration' tactic but much more limited in scope. It used a concentrated barrage of artillery - several hundreds of pound of shells per yard of front - to wreck the German trenches and fortifications. This was followed up by a rapid advance by the infantry, under an umbrella of shellfire (see 'Creeping Barrage' below), to seize a small sector of the defences (the 'Bite') and hold it. Under the shelter of further precision shelling, the British reserves could then be brought up to repel the inevitable German counter attack. In this way, progressive chunks of the German defences could be eroded away leading to an eventual 'Breakthrough'. After several disastrous attempts at this tactic, to some extent comprised by Haig's insistence of a more extensive attack (e.g. The First Battle of the Somme), limited success in 'Bite and Hold' was achieved at Vimy Ridge, Arras and Messines in 1917. This was ultimately followed by more general success in the famous final '100 Day Offensive', in mid-1918, where sequential 'Bite and Hold' attacks proved to be highly effective. The concept of the 'Creeping Barrage' was for the infantry to advance towards the enemy closely behind an artillery barrage that moved forward at a precisely pre-determined rate (e.g. 50 yards/metres per minute). Thus the enemy could not leave their shelters until the advancing troops were almost literally upon them. The idea is generally attributed to the British, namely General Sir Henry Rawlinson of the BEF's Fourth Army. Fourth Army first tried the 'creeping barrage' concept on Day 1 (1st July 1916) of the First Battle of the Somme, with only limited success, due to then usual lack of co-ordination and communication. Thereafter, it was to become the standard British artillery/infantry procedure in all the subsequent offensives; with generally increasing success whenever it was properly planned and executed. It was also adopted by all the other belligerent nations.

Hope this helped :smile: