Trench

Trenches began to be dug on a large scale on the Aisne in September 1914, and within weeks they ran the length of the Western Front. A typical system had several parallel lines, front, support and reserve, a few hundred metres apart and linked by communication trenches. Trenches were dug in zigzags or broken up by traverses so that a shell burst or fire along the trench would not strike the whole garrison. Belts of barbed wire lay in front of the first line, and the men sheltered in dugouts, on the German side often deep and made of concrete.

Life in the trenches meant mud, water, rats, lice, disease and constant shelling. Over time defence moved into depth: from the winter of 1916–17 the Germans held a zone of strongpoints in which the front line was only lightly manned and the main strength was kept further back for counter-attacks.