descriptive essay about life in the trenches

Life in the trenches during WWI: your essential guide

Peter Hart answers questions about the experiences of the men who served in some of the harshest conditions of World War I

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What exactly is a trench?

Trenches are defensive structures that have been used in conflicts right up to the present day, but they are perhaps most commonly associated with combat during World War I.

In its simplest form, the classic British trench used during the 1914–18 war was about six feet deep and three-and-a-half feet wide. It had a fire step, which was about 18 x 18 inches, where soldiers could stand and shoot at the enemy. In front of the trench there was a parapet, which was about three feet tall and six feet deep, to protect soldiers from bullets. Behind the trench, there was a similar structure called a parados. Trenches could also have an A-frame, with wood and chicken wire riveting to prevent collapse. However, it’s important to note that trenches varied in design and structure depending on the location and circumstances. Some were just ditches, while others were concreted. But their main purpose was to provide a safe place for soldiers to defend themselves against the enemy.

How far did trenches stretch during WW1?

The trenches stretched from the North Sea all the way down to Switzerland, covering a distance of about 475 miles. However, this was just the front line; there were also communication trenches, support lines, and lines that stretched back from the front line.

So, that’s an approximate distance of 1,500 miles.

But that’s not all. There were many other trenches – sometimes multiple systems of trenches – stretching many thousands of miles. It’s quite a remarkable feat when you think about it, but also important to remember that it was the soldiers who had to dig them, which was a very difficult task.

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How was trench warfare on the Eastern Front different to that on the Western Front?

The two were similar in many ways, but there were some key differences. To start with, the Eastern Front covered a much larger area, with the Austro-Hungarian, German, and Russian armies fighting each other for three or four years. The trenches of the Eastern Front stretched from the Baltic to the Black Sea and covered a distance ranging from 800 miles to 1,500 miles.

The fighting on the Eastern Front, however, was just as brutal and the casualties were actually often higher there than on the Western Front. The trenches themselves were similar, but their sophistication depended on the terrain on which they were built. For instance, breastworks [hastily constructed fortifications built to breast height] were often located in marshy areas.

• Read more about how trench warfare was fought in WW1

Another thing to note is that the Eastern Front was much colder during winter than the Western Front. Siberian winds would rush across the area, making life even more difficult for soldiers. Overall, it’s important that we remember the Eastern Front and not just focus on the Western Front; life there was just as bad.

Who was stationed in the trenches?

Everyone who was in the army – other than women – and in a fighting unit was stationed in the trenches at some point. The British had a system where battalions were rotated constantly, so soldiers would spend a maximum of two or three days on the front line before going back to the support or reserve lines, and then on to rest. This preserved morale and gave soldiers something to look forward to.

The Germans and French did not have such an organised system, so soldiers often spent longer on the front line. And of course, behind the fighting battalions were other essential groups such as Britain’s Army Service Corps, who provided food and supplies, artillery, and people working in the camps and railways.

What role did empire troops play on the front line?

The role of the empire troops during World War I was a crucial one. The Indian Army, which included soldiers from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, made the biggest contribution in terms of numbers. Many Indian soldiers served on the Western Front, with two corps – some 30,000– 50,000 men – arriving in October 1914, just in time to aid the British Army. They proved to be good fighting men and really saved the day. Their contribution was immense, and many of the soldiers were later sent away to serve in Palestine and Mesopotamia, where they formed the backbone of the force. Both of those campaigns were ultimately successful.

• Read more | David Olusoga shines a light on forgotten clashes of WWI in distant lands, and on the extensive contributions of Africans and Asians

Aside from the Indian Army, soldiers from other countries in the empire also made significant contributions. The Australians and New Zealanders, commonly known as the Anzacs, were regarded as elite formations by themselves and others. Although they took some time to learn the ropes, by 1917 and 1918 the Anzacs had become a formidable group of fighting men and were actually reserved by Field Marshal Haig as an elite force. The Canadian troops were also brilliant.

So, all together, the empire troops – along with soldiers from many other countries that I haven’t mentioned – made incredibly important contributions on the Western Front.

How much time did soldiers in the trenches spend in actual combat?

When it comes to the amount of time soldiers spent in actual combat during World War I, there is an interesting perspective provided by the historian Gordon Corrigan, who pointed out that the British Army spent more time playing football than it did going over the top. Of course, this is because a football match takes an hour and a half, whereas going over the top doesn’t take very long at all.

• Read more | The Somme: was it really a monstrous failure?

However, Corrigan’s point is a serious one – on average, soldiers would only attack or be attacked a couple of times during their entire trench experience. Again, this varied depending on how long a soldier was stationed in the trenches, but even during a two or three-day stay it was unlikely that a soldier would engage in actual combat. Instead, most losses were incurred through shellfire or sniping.

When soldiers were attacked, it was an incredibly tense and horrible ordeal. RC Sherriff’s play (and later film) Journey’s End depicts the lead-up to a big German attack in 1918, and it conveys just how awful it was for soldiers who faced this kind of threat. They knew it was coming, and they knew that the Germans would cut them off with shellfire. It was a nightmare experience that left a lasting impact on those who survived it.

How did soldiers on the front spend their free time?

Most of the free time that soldiers had was at night, or in between their sergeant coming around and giving them orders. One thing that many soldiers did during in their downtime was drink tea. It became a bit of a fixation, actually; soldiers of the British Army still drink lots of hot, sweet tea to this day.

Crucially, soldiers would also write letters home and read letters from loved ones. This was incredibly important to them, because in those days they never knew if they would hear from their families again, and some soldiers were wonderful authors. They would sit around and talk about what they wished they were eating, like steak and kidney pie, and imagine fantastic meals. They talked about anything and everything to keep their minds off the war.

Another thing soldiers did in their free time was sleep, because they were so tired. Even though they might only be on the front line for two or three days, it was a tiring and stressful experience.

What sort of food did the soldiers eat, and how did they cook it?

British soldiers were provided with a diet that contained roughly 4,000 calories a day. This was meant to ensure they had enough energy to perform their duties despite the physical and mental demands of the war. However, the food was often tinned and canned, which meant it lacked variety and freshness. They also had dog biscuits, which were highly nutritious but not very tasty, as well as salted bacon, which they could fry and then use the lard for other dishes.

In addition, there was Maconochie, which was a meat and vegetable stew that was quite unpopular among soldiers due to its unpleasant taste, especially if it wasn’t warmed through properly. Finally, they had pork and beans – mainly beans, with very little pork – but this was still considered tasty by some soldiers. The soldiers used portable stoves known as Tommy cookers to prepare their meals, but it wasn’t the same as cooking – it just warmed the food up a bit.

What would you say is the biggest myth about life in the trenches?

There is a common perception that the British generals during World War I were incompetent and spent their time in châteaux far away from the front lines. However, this is simply not true. Yes, generals were often stationed in châteaux, but they served as communication centres from which they could effectively command their troops. It’s important to remember that four lieutenant generals (each commanding of a corp of around 60,000 men), 12 major generals (each commanding a division of 12,000 to 18,000 men), and 81 brigadier generals, (each commanding 3,000 to 4,000 men) were killed during the conflict, with a further 146 wounded or taken as prisoner of war. So many of those in charge lost their lives as well.

Another myth is that the British generals were old and incompetent buffoons. However, many of them were actually only in their forties or fifties, with some even younger, and had already proven themselves in previous conflicts like the Second Boer War (1899–1902). They had a lifetime of experience behind them, so it’s unfair to dismiss them as inept. Life in the trenches was a brutal and deadly experience for all involved, including the officers who led their troops into battle.

Interview by Emily Briffett

This article was first published in the July 2023 issue of BBC History Revealed

Peter Hart is the former oral historian at the Imperial War Museum, London

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Life in the Trenches of World War I

By: Brian Dunleavy

Updated: May 10, 2024 | Original: April 23, 2018

When Union Army General William Tecumseh Sherman famously said “War is hell,” he was referring to war in general, but he could have been describing trench warfare, a military tactic that’s been traced to the Civil War . Trenches—long, deep ditches dug as protective defenses—are most often associated with World War I , and the results of trench warfare in that conflict were hellish indeed.

Trenches were common throughout the Western Front.

Trench warfare in World War I was employed primarily on the Western Front, an area of northern France and Belgium that saw combat between German troops and Allied forces from France, Great Britain and, later, the United States.

Although trenches were hardly new to combat: Prior to the advent of firearms and artillery, they were used as defenses against attack, such as moats surrounding castles. But they became a fundamental part of the strategy with the influx of modern weapons of war.

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Long, narrow trenches dug into the ground at the front, usually by the infantry soldiers who would occupy them for weeks at a time, were designed to protect World War I troops from machine-gun fire and artillery attacks from the air.

As the “Great War” also saw the wide use of chemical warfare and poison gas, the trenches were thought to offer some degree of protection against exposure. (While significant exposure to militarized chemicals such as mustard gas would result in almost certain death, many of the gases used in World War I were still relatively weak.)

Thus, trenches may have afforded some protection by allowing soldiers more time to take other defensive steps, such as putting on gas masks.

Trench warfare caused enormous numbers of casualties.

At least initially in World War I, forces mounted attacks from the trenches, with bayonets fixed to their rifles, by climbing over the top edge into what was known as “no man’s land,” the area between opposing forces, usually in a single, straight line and under a barrage of gunfire.

Not surprisingly, this approach was rarely effective and often led to mass casualties.

Later in the war, forces began mounting attacks from the trenches at night, usually with the support of covering artillery fire. The Germans soon became known for effectively mounting nighttime incursions behind enemy lines, by sending highly trained soldiers to attack the trenches of opposing forces at what they perceived as weak points.

If successful, these soldiers would breach enemy lines and circle around to attack their opponents from the rear, while their comrades would mount a traditional offensive at the front.

The brutality of trench warfare is perhaps best typified by the 1916 Battle of the Somme in France. British troops suffered 60,000 casualties on the first day of fighting alone.

Disease and ‘shell shock’ were rampant in the trenches.

With soldiers fighting in close proximity in the trenches, usually in unsanitary conditions, infectious diseases such as dysentery, cholera and typhoid fever were common and spread rapidly.

Constant exposure to wetness caused trench foot, a painful condition in which dead tissue spread across one or both feet, sometimes requiring amputation. Trench mouth, a type of gum infection, was also problematic and is thought to be associated with the stress of nonstop bombardment.

As they were often effectively trapped in the trenches for long periods of time, under nearly constant bombardment, many soldiers suffered from “ shell shock ,” the debilitating mental illness known today as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

It’s likely all of these factors, which stemmed from the widespread use of trench warfare, made World War I the deadliest conflict in global history to that point. It’s believed that as many as one in 10 of all fighting forces in the conflict were killed.

It was also the first conflict in world history to have more deaths caused by combat, rather than from disease spread during the fighting.

Trench warfare was also employed in World War II and in the Korean War to some degree, but it has not been used regularly during conflicts in the ensuing decades.

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Life in the trenches

In early 1916, life in the trenches was considered more comfortable by many Australian troops. For those who had served on Gallipoli, the conditions on the Western Front seemed very different. Billets were within 2 kilometres of the front. There were army canteens selling groceries, tobacco and clothing, and the men could buy champagne and beer from the closest estaminet.

This would all change with the arrival of winter, the most severe experienced in northern France in 36 years. Thoroughly churned up by the bombardment of the first battle of the Somme, the ground became so waterlogged it turned into a quagmire that was almost impassable. The rains that fell throughout October and November were followed by almost continuous frost and snow, which aggravated the unpleasant living conditions nearer the front.

Accession Number: EZ0032

Australian and Scottish soldiers being served coffee at an estaminet in June 1916. This one was located within 750 metres of the trenches, but in the comparatively quiet Armentières sector. EZ0032

Accession Number: E00572

Charles Bean knee deep in mud in a trench near Gueudecourt, France, winter 1916–17. E00572

Accession Number: E00576

Soldiers make their way through the muddy Somme landscape. E00576

Accession Number: ART94463.014

Soldier carrying a duckboard through mud. ART94463.014

“My damp rat hole”

In mid-October 1916 Private David Harford of the 51st Battalion described his trench as a “dark mildewed hole in the earth … I look around me at my damp rat hole the sides and roof of which are lined with sandbags … the lower bags are green with mildew and the upper ones up near the sun and air are sprouting grass … one simply notes these things, fear of death having left one.”

Buried alive  

"The brim of the hat kept the earth out of my nose but the weight gradually forced it further down my head, the head band gradually travelling down my nose and taking the skin with it … I soon found the end would not come for want of fresh air – I could breathe. Then the realisation came of what was gradually but surely ending things. The soft earth … slowly settling down and compressing … It was as though an iron band were tightening round my chest and preventing any movement."     Lieutenant Ronald McInnis, 53rd Battalion, 20 October 1916

In October 1916 Lieutenant Ronald McInnis wrote in his diary of being buried alive during a bombardment. He was about to take a rest when a salvo of shells landed nearby. As he looked to see where they had landed, the wall of the trench collapsed on him. At first, McInnis struggled against the soft earth, which threatened to crush him as it settled. Fortunately, members of his unit realised what had happened and dug him out.

Accession Number: EZ0080

Photograph taken at night looking towards Pozières showing shell-fire, flares, and machine-gun tracer fire during a bombardment. The pinpoints are bursts of shrapnel. EZ0080

Last updated: 17 October 2019

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'He who had a corpse to stand on was lucky'

Trials of trench life: mud.

This part of the line was the worst - I refer particularly to the mud and water. All the land had been very churned up by shell explosions, and for many days the weather had been wet. It was not possible to dig for more than about a foot without coming to water.

Mud is a bad description: the soil was more like a thick slime. When walking one sank several inches in and, owing to the suction, it was difficult to withdraw the feet. The consequence was that men who were standing still or sitting down got embedded in the slime and were unable to extricate themselves. As the trenches were so shallow, they had to stay where they were all day.

Most of the night was spent digging men out of the mud. The only way was to put duck boards on each side of him and work at one leg: poking and pulling until the suction was relieved. Then a strong pull by three or four men would get one leg out, and work would be begin on the other.

Back to battalion headquarters was about 800 yards; at night it would take a runner [an orderly taking messages] about two hours to get there. One would hear men who had missed their way and got stuck in the mud calling out for help that often could not be sent to them. It would be useless for only one or two men to go, and practically all the troops were in the front line and, of course, had to stay there. All the time the Boche dropped shells promiscuously about the place. He who had a corpse to stand or sit on was lucky.

The house flies were a perfect plague. They covered everything. In the company headquarters dug-out, they were massed on the ceiling like a swarm of bees. These flies made it very difficult to eat as they covered the food one was going to put into one's mouth. They were filthy, fat, dirty flies that used to swarm round the dead - I had a great loathing for them. When a man was asleep, they would settle all round his mouth and over his face.

Both extracts from A Very Unimportant Officer by Captain Alexander Stewart, edited by Cameron Stewart (Hodder & Stoughton, 2008).

One afternoon, towards Christmas, a harder frost settled upon the vacant battlefield. By midnight trees, bunkers, paths, sentries' balaclavas and greatcoat shoulders became stiff. From some of the new draft came suppressed whimpering sounds. Only those old soldiers who had scrounged sandbags and straw from the farm lay still and sleeping. Lying with unprotected boots outside the open end of a bunker, one endured pain in one's feet until the final agony - when one got up and hobbled outside, seeing bright stars above the treetops. The thing to do was to make a fire, and boil some water in a mess-tin for some Nestle's café-au-lait. There were many shell-fractured oak-branches lying about. One passed painful hours of sleeplessness in blowing and fanning weak embers amid a hiss of bubbling branch-ends.

From The Christmas Truce, a report by Henry Williamson (1915).

One got used to many things, but I never overcame my horror of the rats. They abounded in some parts, great loathsome beasts gorged with flesh. I shall never forget a dug-out at the back of the line near Anzin. It was at the foot of rising ground, at the top of which was a French war cemetery.

About the same time every night the dug-out was invaded by swarms of rats. They gnawed holes in our haversacks and devoured our iron rations. We hung haversacks and rations to the roof, but they went just the same. Once we drenched the place with creosote. It almost suffocated us, but did not keep the rats away. They pattered down the steps at the usual time, paused a moment and sneezed, and then got to work on our belongings. A battalion of Jerrys would have terrified me less than the rats did sometimes.

Lack of sleep

Sleeping at the post was a court-martial affair, with death or a long term of imprisonment the penalty. But, try as I would not to fall asleep, I often woke from a delectable dream with a start. Once I was caught. I had been watching a spot in no man's land where we suspected a sniper was operating. Suddenly I became aware of a voice saying: "The man's asleep", and knew it referred to me.

Out of the tail of my eye, I saw a staff officer talking to the corporal. To my inexpressible relief, the corporal answered with one of the most ingenious lies I ever heard. "He can't be, sir," he said. "He lent me this pencil only a second before you came." The officer was disinclined to accept this as proof of my wakefulness, as I was then manifestly quite alert, he presently went his way.

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Life in the trenches letter home

English Coursework        

Trench Letter Home – Coursework

Dear Mother and Father,

    As I write this I sit in my dugout by candle light, perfectly fine. My life has changed forever. I cannot believe that only a month ago I was sitting back home with my caring family, life seemed so simple. I can remember rocking on my chair, I was so eager to sign up. But the grim reality of war strikes hard and fast. Looking on at your fellow companions launch into the nightmare of war and torment only to fall down beside you a second later is an anguish we all have to cope with. Death is as common as birds here. I just wish a bullet would hit me so I could travel back home and be with you both again but I have a duty to perform and a country to serve. If dyeing for my country is what she requires then so be it.

     Life in the trenches gets longer and longer as time moves on. Free time is as rare as meals these days and I cannot help thinking the officers are eating well while we starve. Meals are a perfection we took for granted before: stale biscuits, gruel and bread is a treat here. At least I will never take another meal for granted again so have no fear of me complaining about your meals when I get back home (I guarantee I will). Trench life seemed fun, an experience no man could live without. How noble were the people signing up. I just wish it was true. Rats are now a major problem in the trenches, they come in their millions. War is a luxury to rats, free and fresh meals all day long but in the trenches they haunt us, especially at night. They crawl over us when we sleep and it is not a pleasant experience when they scamper over your mouth. It was only a week ago a rat was chewing on a dead soldier which got one of my friends so annoyed that he shot it, only slipping to hit an officer in the foot. The “mobile” war has turned into stalemate, the Germans didn’t plan on moving so their trenches are top of the range and I heard they even have brick rooms. Our lives are being wasted over yards of land; the German trench is only 100 yards away. At least the conditions are giving us relief. It’s slowly getting drier as we move into spring – less chance of trench foot with no muddy, wet and miserable trenches.

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    The weapons we have required are so advanced that our tactics aren’t developing quickly enough. When I joined up we were walking across no mans land, rifles at hand, getting mowed down by machine gun fire. The worst fear in every soldier’s life at war is gas. It can strike at any time without warning (I always have my gas mask so close so there is no need to worry about me).  Two weeks ago the Germans used chlorine gas on the front line, those unfortunate enough to be there were in constant agony for 5 days before they finally perished. Since then all of us have strict rules to obey that we keep our gas masks on us at all times. We wouldn’t let the Germans get away with that so we sent back mustard gas a week later when the conditions were right. Best type – death by rotting slowly, vomiting. Hand to hand combat is rare fortunately for us, it only ever occurs when we are right into the German trench or they are in ours. Half of us are also deaf with all the shells exploding around us regularly. One man was unlucky enough to be so close to one shell exploding that he lost one arm and leg; we fear he may never recover properly.

    “Right lads time to go over the top, come on get a move on!” That’s what a new recruit dreads the most. As soon as you emerge from your trench the bullets whizz around you like there’s no tomorrow, it doesn’t help that we wear kilograms of weight piled on our backs. Leaping into rifle pits can leave you drowning in mud but it is a risk that saves our lives. They just don’t seem to listen when I suggest we leave our packs behind and return to fetch them when we have cleared the German trench. Some recruits wail they are underage and beg to go home but the officer’s reply is always “You can’t back out now; I’ll sort something out if you make it.” I even know a 12 year-old who signed up, we can’t believe he’s made it this far.  When we do launch into war the hellish reality of the “enjoyable” war strikes again as we fight against the murderous fire of the Germans. We have heard of battalions that have been wiped out completely when an attack on them propped up at night, it was an utter disaster. In our battalion we all take turns to keep watch at night, if anyone is going to sneak up on someone it’s going to be us. Sometimes I even wonder how I’ve made it this far, to think back on the countless occasions that it was possible for me to perish under German fire or be killed by a shell that struck to close. God must be on our side.

    Not everything in the trench is disheartening and hard to live with. Regularly we sing songs which cheer us up immensely. Before going over the top we might sing songs of hope and optimism, this encourages us to the extent that we are literally charging in to the shock of the German forces. The war gives birth to poets who write beautiful poems give us a few moments of freedom and happiness in which we switch off and enter a land of peace. There is also an artist in our battalion who creates masterpieces; drawing anything from no mans land to his abstract version of the war. I made this poem for you:

When I'm killed, don't think of me Buried there in Cambrin Wood, Nor as in Zion think of me With the Intolerable Good. And there's one thing that I know well, I'm damned if I'll be damned to Hell!

So when I'm killed, don't wait for me, Walking the dim corridor; In Heaven or Hell, don't wait for me, Or you must wait for evermore. You'll find me buried, living-dead In these verses that you've read.

So when I'm killed, don't mourn for me, Shot, poor lad, so bold and young, Killed and gone - don't mourn for me. On your lips my life is hung: O friends and lovers, you can save Your playfellow from the grave.

    The amount of causalities here is straining the medical services in the trench, they really didn’t expect there to be so many causalities. Support medics are arriving all the time though so gradually it’s easing. Half of us have received battle wounds, I had a piece of shrapnel fly into my arm but it’s nothing serious and it’s all healed now. (At least I’ll have a scar to show for my efforts). When we go over the top many soldiers go missing, it took us three days to find one of my companions, unfortunately dead. At least it meant we could report it, send a letter home to their parents and reward them with a name marked upon a gravestone for all eternity. Many of my friends like me pray for a wound to go back to England. It’s a shame the shrapnel wasn’t enough; the only people I have known to go home are people with limbs blown off. Each time one man dies is another relative having to bear the emotional pain of never seeing their son or husband again.

    The BEF army (British Expeditionary Force) once caught up with our battalion. It was great knowing that we had professional help behind us since we only had a few weeks of training whereas they have years of experience and training. However they were called up to support a battalion to the east. Only half of them remain since they are always at the frontline in the main action breaking holes through the German lines. Most of us here are volunteers or pressurized into joining because of the propaganda which probably litters the streets of London now. “It will be over by Christmas”, I, like most of us here are starting to feel that this catch line is a lie. It’s been over a month now since the war started and the progress we have made is shameful, I just hope I can be with you both again soon, before Christmas.

    Upon that note I must stop writing and I hope to hear from you soon. Your letters fill me with joy, I just with I could express my emotions, writing it down on paper isn’t enough. Please don’t feel afraid for me for I promise I shall see you again. Best wishes to you and if I don’t make it I’ll be watching you from heaven, I will always be with you in life or death.

With all my love, your son.

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• Subject English

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Life in the trenches

Useful contextual fact sheet for World War One poetry. The resource includes authentic photos and information about life in the trenches. There is a choice of a creative written response at the end of the resource. 

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Remembrance Day - Life in the trenches creative writing lesson.

Subject: English

Age range: 11-14

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Last updated

5 November 2021

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• A lesson which looks at life in the trenches for soldiers during WW1.
• Students are given information about trench life including a diary entry and a poem.
• Students will write a description based on trench life from the perspective of a soldier during WW1.
• Differentiated using aim/challenge/super challenge.

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Essay: Trenches in World War I

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One hundred years ago the world shared one thing in common, experiencing the world’s first war. Many factors that go into the war or had an influence on it had their own specific role. Trench warfare was a common type of fighting where both troops would build their own trenches in order to protect themselves from their enemy on other side separated by no man’s land. Trenches were a key part of the battleground during World War I and became the home and final location for millions of soldiers. Trenches were necessary for American troops survival in World War I because they were an effective form of protection and defense, and were built to prevent injuries and/or deaths. Trenches were known as a form of survival for the soldiers in World War I because it was a successful system of fighting that allowed soldiers to defend themselves and attack the enemy without getting hurt. ‘The main type of fighting used during World War I was trench warfare’ (McCrackin, ‘Trench Warfare During World War I’). Trenches were used not only to defend a soldier’s own position in the war but also to make a step forward into the enemy’s trench. Trench warfare slowed down an enemy’s advance and made it harder for them to attack our troops. Looking back it may seem like trenches were one of the worst places and situations a soldier could reside in because of the living conditions, but it is important to look beyond those facts. Living in the trenches for as long as the soldiers lived proved to be unsanitary, for example many of the soldiers had to live with rodents like rats, lice, and frogs that literally ate and killed them alive. And the weather conditions didn’t help the situation either. Heavy rainfall in the trenches caused a infection called ‘Trench Foot’ that could lead to a soldier’s foot to be amputated. The extreme cold conditions also lead to many deaths in the trenches. However, the trenches proved to secure the soldiers from the enemy. ‘They were holes dug by soldiers to protect themselves from the enemy. With modern weapons, even a shallow hole could sufficiently protect soldiers from the enemy’ (Cheng, ‘Front-Line: Trenches’). These ditches became an essential part of the war that let soldiers These men could only rely on the earth as a form of safety from the outside. Leaving the trench, even if it just meant looking outside, could cost a soldier their life. Trenches were designed in order to protect soldiers from outside threat known as no man’s land. ‘Often those who went ‘over the top’ and into no-man’s land could not be brought back to safety if they were injured’ (McCrackin, ‘Trench Warfare During World War I’). In these trenches soldiers could walk from one position to another without the fear of being killed unlike the on the outside where there was no guarantee of surviving or death. During the war advancements toward trenches were made that helped improve the working conditions like adding extra support lines to the trenches. The three most common trench lines included in these trenches were called the front-line, the support line, and the reserve line. These additional trench lines provided more support to the front position when needed. Each one had a specific duty where soldiers would spend from roughly four days in and rotate afterwards. ‘To some extent this is accurate, at least until about 1916, although the trench-systems were far more sophisticated constructions with not only communication-trenches but often entire additional defense-lines towards the rear, to act as a stop should the front-line system be overrun’ (Haythornthwaite, 76). The extra lines made it more difficult for the enemy to break the lines of their trenches and further advance in attacking our soldiers and also provided an escape when one line could have been taken over by the enemy. Trenches were built in a unique design, often referred to a zigzag pattern. The reasoning behind the zigzag pattern was to reduce the effects of the attacks made by the enemy and to prevent the whole trench from being ruined. ‘Zigzag patterns were created to minimize damage. Only a small area would be damaged if it was attacked by enemy forces or hit by a shell’ (Wilde, ‘World War One: The Trenches’). Trenches were dug six or seven deep below ground to shield troops and allow the troops to fire their weapons. The deeper the trench the more coverage soldiers had from air raids, bombs, and enemy troops and the trench could hold more soldiers and supplies. ‘All trench systems consisted of several parallel lines of fortifications. A forward trench line was adjacent to ‘no man’s land, the unoccupied ground separating the two sides and had the greatest vulnerability to enemy attack’ (Heyman, 43). Other attributes to the trenches included barbed wire, boardwalks, alarm bells, and sand bags that prevented the sides from collapsing. Certain spaces were also included as well in the trenches for first aid posts, communication equipment, and headquarter posts. These posts offered immediate medical treatment when the soldiers were injured. ‘On the Western Front, more than 92% of the wounded men who were evacuated to British medical units survived’ (Snow, ‘How the Trenches Kept Men Safe’). Constructing the trenches was difficult and took a lot of hard work but an important key to survival and had to be built carefully. Infantry such as trenches were a necessity and an effective part of keeping our soldiers alive during World War I. In a time where mechanical warfare was just arising, trenches were the best form of warfare that applied a strategic way of fighting. ‘Trench warfare took its toll on many, but the ones who survived would have to say it was the part of any war that worked, and gained success’ (‘Trench Warfare,’ n.d.). The outcome of World War I may have been far different if trench warfare wasn’t practiced and applied the way it was.

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