The
Bangalore Torpedo was invented in 1912.
But not really effective against the amount of wire in No Mans Land, and slow to deploy
The line tossing charges keeps the crew farther back
and in a vehicle
Latest Engineer vehicle being reloaded
The M58 linear demolition charge started out as a way to clear anti tank mines very quickly. Deployed in the mid '80s in a towed trailer, with nearly a one ton charge of C4 in a 350 feet of line pulled by a rocket.
No reason this couldn't have been done on a smaller scale, line tossing rockets date back to the 19thC, and using aluminized ammonium nitrate in place of the plastic explosive C4.
During WWII, the British almost got there with their Conger line tossing system.
But this used a Bren carrier without an engine(so was towed), an 5" surplus 'Z Battery' rocket to loft an empty hose, that would then be pumped full of slightly geletinized nitroglycerin, similar as used in the infamous 'Sticky Bomb' and then detonated.
Crews didn't have a lot of faith being around that much nitroglycerin for some reason, and only used a few times after D-Day