The resulting trench system on the Western Front covered 25,000 miles (enough to encircle the world) but also stretched non-stop from Belgium to Switzerland. Each trench was approximately 10 feet deep. The soldiers lived their lives in these trenches. They slept, ate, fought, and even entertained themselves in these narrow holes in the ground. Halfway up the trench were ledges called “fire steps” where the soldiers could shoot from. In many of the trenches the soldiers would look over the top with a periscope; they would sleep in holes dug into the sides of the trench called dugouts. Front line trenches were separated by an area called no-man’s land which could vary in width from a few hundred yards to a mile. Each side protected their trenches with masses of barbed wire. Behind the trenches were the heavy guns o

'The moment you set off you felt that dreadful suction. It was forever pulling you down, and you could hear the sound of your feet coming out in a kind of sucking 'plop' that seemed much louder at night when you were on your own. In a way, it was worse when the mud didn't suck you down; when it yielded under your feet you knew that it was a body you were treading on. It was terrifying. You'd tread on one on the stomach, perhaps, and it would grunt all the air out of its body. It made your hair stand on end. The smell could make you vomit. And you could always tell whether it was a dead Jerry or a dead Tommy. The Germans smelt different in death.'

"Going along whistling I saw a group of men bending over a man lying in the bottom of a trench. He was making a snoring noise mixed with animal groans. At my feet lay his cap splashed with his brains. One can joke with a wounded man, one can disregard a dead man, but no one can joke over a man who takes three hours to die after the top of his head has been taken off by a bullet fired at twenty yards range…if we go back home we will be broken, worn out, rootless, without hope. Men will not understand us"

And even if a soldier were to survive his time in the trenches the suffering didn’t end once they reached home. Officers and soldiers alike all had a common hatred of civilians "They hated the smiling women in the streets. They loathed the old men…They desired that profiteers should die by poison gas. They prayed God to get the Germans to send Zeppelins to England – to make people know what war meant" (Philip Gibbs). Such feelings are not surprising when it

Some topics in this essay:
Gas Germans, Belgium Switzerland, Tommy Germans, Machine Gun, Enfield Rifle, Western Front, Front March, Zeppelins England, Philip Gibbs, Trench Warfare, machine gun, no-man’s land, rounds minute, fire shells,