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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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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.

More like this

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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Trench Warfare During World War I

WWI became one of the fundamental events in the history of humanity and its further evolution. It resulted in the millions of victims, radical changes in the world order, collapse and emergence of new states, and stimulated the evolution of science. Thus, the emergence and fast development of new arms became one of the most critical aspects of WWI, influencing its nature and results (Hardy 34). The revolution in firepower, the emergence of machine guns and the new type of artillery were not followed by the corresponding changes in troops’ mobility. It provided an advantage to the defending side and resulted in the emergence of trench warfare, which changed the nature of military manoeuvres and WWI.

The given conduct of operations became the major distinctive feature of this military conflict. Trench warfare was characterized by the broad use of occupied lines consisting of trenches guaranteeing better protection to troops (Bull 43). Because of the fast-evolving firearms, it was critical to create shelters from the artillery and machine guns; otherwise, soldiers could be easily killed. For this reason, the nature of battlers altered to adapt to new conditions. Troops stood against each other, occupying well-protected positions, with the extreme complexity and risks of any offensive operation.

In such a way, the revolution in firearms and their power resulted in new methods to resist them, known as the trench war. It became one of the most significant features of WWI. It guaranteed better protection, but, at the same time, this factor critically prolonged the conflict (Brose 111). The inability to attack well-protected lines suffering from the artillery strikes impacted the strategy and shifted priorities towards new methods, such as the invention of tanks, broader use of aviation, and chemical weapon.

Works Cited

Brose, Eric. A History of the Great War: World War One and the International Crisis of the Early Twentieth Century . Oxford University Press, 2009.

Bull, Stephen. Trench: A History of Trench Warfare on the Western Front . Osprey Publishing, 2014.

Hardy, Douglas. WWI Trench Systems (Wargames Terrain and Buildings). Pen and Sword Military, 2021.

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• Military History

Trench Warfare

World War I was a war of trenches.

After the early war of movement in the late summer of 1914, artillery and machine guns forced the armies on the Western Front to dig trenches to protect themselves. Fighting ground to a stalemate. Over the next four years, both sides would launch attacks against the enemy’s trench lines, attacks that resulted in horrific casualties.

Inside a trench, all that is visible is just a few feet on either side, ending at the trench walls in front and back, with a patch of leaden sky visible above. Trenches in WWI were constructed with sandbags, wooden planks, woven sticks, tangled barbed wire or even just stinking mud.

Despite the use of wooden plank ‘duckboards’ and sandbags to keep out the water, soldiers on the front lines lived mired in mud. “The mud in Belgium varies in consistency from water to about the thickness of dough ready for the oven,” one British infantry soldier wrote. The constant damp often led to a condition known as ‘trenchfoot,’ which if left untreated, could require amputation to stave off severe infection or even death.

Trenches became trash dumps of the detritus of war: broken ammunition boxes, empty cartridges, torn uniforms, shattered helmets, soiled bandages, shrapnel balls, bone fragments. Trenches were also places of despair, becoming long graves when they collapsed from the weight of the war.

‘No-man’s land,’ was an ancient term that gained terrible new meaning during WWI. The constant bombardment of modern artillery and rapid firing of machine guns created a nightmarish wasteland between the enemies’ lines, littered with tree stumps and snarls of barbed wire. In battle, soldiers had to charge out of the trenches and across no-man’s land into a hail of bullets and shrapnel and poison gas. They were easy targets and casualties were enormously high. By the end of 1914, after just five months of fighting, the number of dead and wounded exceeded four million men.

The trench systems on the Western Front were roughly 475 miles long, stretching from the English Channel to the Swiss Alps, although not in a continuous line. Though trenches offered some protection, they were still incredibly dangerous, as soldiers easily became trapped or killed because of direct hits from artillery fire.

Learn more about WWI trenches

How archaeology is unravelling the secrets of WWI trench warfare

Lasers and aerial photography are helping uncover the hidden stories of the great war..

World War I was the planet’s first global industrialised conflict, and the use of new technologies like planes, armoured tanks, machine guns, grenades, and poison gas resulted in unprecedented devastation. Between 1914 and 1918, more than eight million military personnel died and more than six million civilians were killed . But the statistics that really astonish archaeologist Birger Stichelbaut are the ones that show how deeply the landscape was transformed in parts of Europe: A 37-mile stretch along one 420-mile front line in Belgium, for instance, was shot through with more than 3,000 miles of trenches.

"Those are huge numbers," Stichelbaut says.

Stichelbaut, of Ghent University in Belgium, is among a small group of archaeologists investigating those physical marks that remain from the Great War more than a century later. While the conflict was documented in thousands of first-hand written accounts, photographs, and film reels—and subject to countless post-war assessments—archaeology still adds another dimension to our understanding of one the most violent conflicts in modern history.

"All the people who actually witnessed the First World War have all passed away," says Stichelbaut. "The landscape today remains the last witness."

Bird's-eye view of war

Some of the worst fighting in World War I occurred along the Western Front in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium, where Allied troops and German forces launched deadly attacks from their respective trenches. The region became a moonscape during the four grinding years of battle, but post-war reconstruction occurred rapidly. Many traces of the war were left intact, and are often buried less than a foot below today's surface.

To understand how this warscape developed, and what sites remain, Stichelbaut and other researchers use aerial archaeology . World War I saw aerial photography as a new tool for surveillance on enemy positions, and now thousands of these historical images comprise the oldest aerial records for the region. Stitched together, they offer a bird's-eye view—more accurate than contemporary maps made on the ground—of how trenches and other military installations were constructed and changed over time.

Discover the origin of why we memorialise World War I the way we do.

To complement the historical images, archaeologists rely on modern aerial imaging. Cropmarks captured in photographs during periods of drought can provide stunning maps of buried century-old trench networks, where water pools under today's farmland. In the last ten years, archaeologists have also been employing LiDAR , a technique that uses lasers to "see" through surface vegetation.

LiDAR surveys reveal just how much of the landscape in Western Europe is still marked by zig-zag trenches, shelling craters, and other remnants that may not be obvious on the ground. For example, LiDAR images from a stretch of the Western Front between Kemmel and Wervik in Flanders reveal that 14 percent of the land—more than expected—is still visibly scarred by the war, according to Traces of War , a book Stichelbaut compiled to accompany an exhibit last year at the Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres.

In using historical and modern aerial images, "you suddenly get a different perspective, you're seeing the totality [of the war], you're seeing patterns and you're seeing sites that even if you would be standing on the site today, you wouldn't see that it's a trench," Stichelbaut says.

Trench waders and teddy bears

Aerial images can guide excavations, and when archaeologists actually dig, they learn about forgotten aspects of soldiers' everyday experience.

"There were not many photographs taken in the trenches," Stichelbaut says. "So what archaeology really does is give you a snapshot of what life in the trenches was really like."

The archaeology of World War I sites has especially helped scholars understand how soldiers improvised their trench construction to cope with harsh conditions.

"You can read as many First World War manuals of how to dig a trench as you like, but always if you look into the archaeology, you will see the reality of trench warfare on the ground," Stichelbaut adds.

The region's waterlogged soil helps preserve organic materials like wood and textiles—a boon for today’s archaeologists. But more than 100 years ago, soldiers were in a constant battle against that water and mud. Many trenches were mistakenly dug below the water table. As the seasons changed and rain fell, life could become miserable for soldiers, even when they weren't under fire. Trench foot , caused by cold, wet, dirty conditions, led to 75,000 British casualties.

A British soldier who spent time in the network of tunnels known as "Hades Dugout" below the town of Wieltje, near Ypres, wrote that after a descent down more than 30 slippery steps, one would reach the bottom of the shelter and "stand in a black and slimy river, slowly moving onwards and disappearing in the darkness, revealed by some weary-looking electric lights."

"Is it the Styx, you ask? Anyway, it stinks," the soldier wrote in an account featured in Traces of War .

Archaeologists at Wieltje found more rubber trench waders than standard soldiers’ boots. Excavations of other trench networks in Belgium show that soldiers were using straw, rubble, roof tiles, and doors in an effort to keep their feet from sinking into the morass.

These subtle details help create a fuller picture of the soldiers' experience. For Stichelbaut, some of the most moving discoveries are trench art : Engravings, bullets cut and hammered into crucifixes, and other objects that show how troops were spending their anxious downtime.

A discovery that sticks with archaeologist Simon Verdegem is a German backpack with a teddy bear inside, found near the Belgian village of Langemark during the construction of a gas pipeline.

"You find a lot of artifacts that tell the personal stories of soldiers that would otherwise never be brought to light, that bring humanity to the soldiers," the archaeologist says.

Verdegem specialises in World War I for the Belgian commercial archaeology firm Ruben Willaert. He recently got a chance to peer inside a massive trench system at Wijtschate, a town along the Messines Ridge outside of Ypres, during a recent archaeology project called Dig Hill 80 .

The excavation, which took place in 2018 and is still being documented, revealed buried trenches and the remains of farm houses abandoned during the war. Verdegem says he was surprised that most of the archaeological remains discovered at Wijtschate dated to a little-known battle that took place in 1914, rather than a major battle that occurred in 1917 when Allied troops launched a surprise attack on Wijtschate to retake a German stronghold.

The Dig Hill 80 crew also uncovered the remains of more than 130 soldiers of various nationalities at Wijtschate. World War I archaeology may be most different from the archaeology of previous periods in that living families are still impacted by the discoveries made in the trenches.

"There are entire generations in several countries that are still wondering what happened to their ancestors during the war," says Verdegem. "Now and then we're able to give them an answer, so that's a special thing."

Unfortunately, those answers are still mostly difficult to come by. Verdegem estimates that he's personally excavated the remains of about 200 soldiers. Of those, only three have been identified.

• Archaeology
• First World War
• Photography

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WW1 Trenches: The Heart Of Battle! How Did They Work?

WW1 trenches is a fascinating topic to dive into.

WW1 Trenches: The Central Nervous System of Battle

Trench warfare characterized much of the fighting during World War One, particularly along the Western Front. Trench systems were complicated with many interlinking lines of WW1 trenches.

Front Line Trench Cross Section

“World War 1 Trenches Were A Labyrinth of Rats, Disease, Decaying Flesh, and the Omnipresent Threat of Death” For the full “History Unplugged” podcast, click here !

Artillery Line

The artillery line was where the big field guns were located. They were used to fire shells at the enemy. The noise from a barrage of guns was deafening.

WW1 Trenches: Communication Trench

The communication trenches were used to move between the front and rear trenches. They were also used to transport injured men to the field hospitals.

Support Trenches

The support WW1 trenches provided a second line of defense in case the front line trench was taken by the enemy. They also contained first aid stations and kitchens to ensure men in the front line had medical treatment and hot food.

WW1 Trenches: Bunker

The underground bunkers were used to store food, weapons and artillery. They were also used as command centres and had a telephone link to report information and receive instructions. The underground bunkers also offered the men protection from fire and the elements.

WW1 Trenches were not built in straight lines. This was so that if the enemy managed to get into the front line trench they would not have a straight firing line along the trench. WW1 trenches were therefore built with alternating straight and angled lines. The traverse was the name given to the angled parts of the trench.

Machine Gun Nest

The machine gun nest was where the machine guns were located. They were manned by two or three soldiers who fired on any advancing enemy.

Front Line Trench

The front line trenches were generally about 8 feet deep and between 4 and 6 feet wide. Soldiers would spend around a week in the front line trench then would spend a week in the rear trenches or a rest camp. Life at the front line was not pleasant; soldiers were liable to be hit by enemy fire or sometimes by their own artillery. The soldier in the picture is standing on a fire-step – built to enable men to see out of the trench and also to climb out to venture into no-man’s land.

Barbed Wire

Barbed wire was used extensively in the trench warfare of world war one. It was laid, several rows deep, by both sides to protect the front line trench. Wire breaks were placed at intervals to allow men access to no man’s land. However attackers had to locate the wire breaks and many men lost their lives through becoming entangled in the wire and shot.

WW1 Trenches: Listening Post

Listening posts were used to monitor enemy activity. They were usually approximately 30 metres in front of the front line trench. The man in this picture is using a stethoscope to listen to the enemy.

No Man’s Land

No Man’s Land was the name given to the area between the two lines of WW1 trenches. It was the land that both sides were fighting to gain control of.

Sandbags were used to protect the soldiers from enemy rifle fire. They were, however, less effective in the event of shell fire. Sandbags were also sometimes placed in the bottom of the trench to soak up water.

The parapet was the name given to the front wall of the trench – that is, the wall nearest to the enemy. It would often be strengthened with wood and then covered with sandbags. The sandbags protected the heads of the men standing on the fire step from rifle fire.

WW1 Trenches: Bolt Hole/Dug Out

The bolt hole or dug out was built into the sides of the trench. The earth was shored up with wood and the roof often lined with corrugated iron. The men used the bolt hole for protection, eating and sleeping.

Duck Board/Sump

To prevent the WW1 trenches from becoming waterlogged, a narrow drainage channel known as a sump would be built at the bottom of the trench. This would then be covered with wooden trench boards known as duck boards.

Soldiers who spent prolonged periods of time standing in waterlogged trenches were liable to suffer from frostbite and/or trench foot. To prevent trench foot, soldiers were instructed to change their socks frequently, wear waterproof footwear and to cover their feet with whale oil.

The parados was the name given to the back wall of the trench – that is, the wall farthest away from the enemy. It would often be strengthened with wood and then covered with sandbags.

Trench Block

A trench block was a wood and wire structure that was made to block the trenches and prevent the enemy from advancing through a trench system .

WW1 Trenches: Machine Gun

The machine gun was the most widely used weapon in world war one. The guns were very heavy and had to be supported on a tripod. They also required three or four men to operate them. The men in this picture are also wearing gas masks for protection against gas attacks.

This article is part of our extensive collection of articles on the Great War. Click here to see our comprehensive article on World War 1. 

Additional Resources About World War One

World war 1: a comprehensive overview of the great war, world war one – assassination of franz ferdinand, what was the purpose of the gallipoli campaign, world war one – the treaty of versailles, cite this article.

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History of Trench Warfare in World War I

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Why Trench Warfare in WWI?

Construction and design of trenches, trench lines, daily routine in the trenches, misery in the mud, night patrols and raids, poison gas attacks, shell shock, the legacy of trench warfare.

• B.A., English Literature, University of Houston

During trench warfare, opposing armies conduct battle, at a relatively close range, from a series of ditches dug into the ground. Trench warfare becomes necessary when two armies face a stalemate , with neither side able to advance and overtake the other. Although trench warfare has been employed since ancient times, it was used on an unprecedented scale on the Western Front during World War I .

In the early weeks of the First World War (late in the summer of 1914), both German and French commanders anticipated a war that would involve a large amount of troop movement, as each side sought to gain or defend territory. The Germans initially swept through parts of Belgium and northeastern France, gaining territory along the way.

During the First Battle of the Marne in September 1914, the Germans were pushed back by Allied forces. They subsequently "dug in" to avoid losing any more ground. Unable to break through this line of defense, the Allies also began to dig protective trenches.

By October 1914, neither army could advance its position, mainly because war was being waged in a very different way than it had been during the 19th century. Forward-moving strategies such as head-on infantry attacks were no longer effective or feasible against modern weaponry such as machine guns and heavy artillery. This inability to move forward created the stalemate.

What began as a temporary strategy evolved into one of the main features of the war at the Western Front for the next four years.

Early trenches were little more than foxholes or ditches, intended to provide a measure of protection during short battles. As the stalemate continued, however, it became obvious that a more elaborate system was needed.

The first major trench lines were completed in November 1914. By the end of that year, they stretched 475 miles, starting at the North Sea, running through Belgium and northern France, and ending in the Swiss frontier.

Although the specific construction of a trench was determined by the local terrain, most were built according to the same basic design. The front wall of the trench, known as the parapet, was about 10 feet high. Lined with sandbags from top to bottom, the parapet also featured 2 to 3 feet of sandbags stacked above ground level. These provided protection, but also obscured a soldier's view.

A ledge, known as the fire-step, was built into the lower part of the ditch and allowed a soldier to step up and see over the top (usually through a peephole between sandbags) when he was ready to fire his weapon. Periscopes and mirrors were also used to see above the sandbags.

The rear wall of the trench, known as the parados, was lined with sandbags as well, protecting against a rear assault. Because constant shelling and frequent rainfall could cause the trench walls to collapse, the walls were reinforced with sandbags, logs, and branches.

Trenches were dug in a zigzag pattern so that if an enemy entered the trench, he could not fire straight down the line. A typical trench system included a line of three or four trenches: the front line (also called the outpost or the fire line), the support trench, and the reserve trench, all built parallel to one another and anywhere from 100 to 400 yards apart.

The main trench lines were connected by communicating trenches, allowing for the movement of messages, supplies, and soldiers and were lined with barbed wire. The space between the enemy lines was known as "No Man's Land." The space varied but averaged about 250 yards.

Some trenches contained dugouts below the level of the trench floor, often as deep as 20 or 30 feet. Most of these underground rooms were little more than crude cellars, but some, especially those farther back from the front, offered more conveniences, such as beds, furniture, and stoves.

The German dugouts were generally more sophisticated; one such dugout captured in the Somme Valley in 1916 was found to have toilets, electricity, ventilation, and even wallpaper.

Routines varied among the different regions, nationalities, and individual platoons, but the groups shared many similarities.

Soldiers were regularly rotated through a basic sequence: fighting in the front line, followed by a period in the reserve or support line, then later, a brief rest period. (Those in reserve might be called upon to help the front line if needed.) Once the cycle was completed, it would begin anew. Among the men in the front line, sentry duty was assigned in rotations of two to three hours.

Each morning and evening, just before dawn and dusk, the troops participated in a " stand-to ," during which men (on both sides) climbed up on the fire-step with rifle and bayonet at the ready. The stand-to served as preparation for a possible attack from the enemy at a time of day—dawn or dusk—when most of these attacks were likeliest to occur.

Following the stand-to, officers conducted an inspection of the men and their equipment. Breakfast was then served, at which time both sides (almost universally along the front) adopted a brief truce.

Most offensive maneuvers (aside from artillery shelling and sniping) were carried out in the dark when soldiers were able to climb out of the trenches clandestinely to conduct surveillance and carry out raids.

The relative quiet of the daylight hours allowed men to discharge their assigned duties during the day.

Maintaining the trenches required constant work: repair of shell-damaged walls, removal of standing water, the creation of new latrines, and the movement of supplies, among other vital jobs. Those spared from performing daily maintenance duties included specialists, such as stretcher-bearers, snipers, and machine-gunners.

During brief rest periods, soldiers were free to nap, read, or write letters home, before being assigned to another task.

Life in the trenches was nightmarish, aside from the usual rigors of combat. Forces of nature posed as great a threat as the opposing army.

Heavy rainfall flooded trenches and created impassable, muddy conditions. The mud not only made it difficult to get from one place to another; it also had other, more dire consequences. Many times, soldiers became trapped in the thick, deep mud; unable to extricate themselves, they often drowned.

The pervading precipitation created other difficulties. Trench walls collapsed, rifles jammed, and soldiers fell victim to the much-dreaded "trench foot." Similar to frostbite, trench foot developed as a result of men being forced to stand in water for several hours, even days, without a chance to remove wet boots and socks. In extreme cases, gangrene would develop and a soldier's toes, or even his entire foot, would have to be amputated.

Unfortunately, heavy rains were not sufficient to wash away the filth and foul odor of human waste and decaying corpses. Not only did these unsanitary conditions contribute to the spread of disease, they also attracted an enemy despised by both sides—the lowly rat. Multitudes of rats shared the trenches with soldiers and, even more horrifying, they fed upon the remains of the dead. Soldiers shot them out of disgust and frustration, but the rats continued to multiply and thrived for the duration of the war.

Other vermin that plagued the troops included head and body lice, mites and scabies, and massive swarms of flies.

As terrible as the sights and smells were for the men to endure, the deafening noises that surrounded them during heavy shelling were terrifying. Amid a heavy barrage, dozens of shells per minute might land in the trench, causing ear-splitting (and deadly) explosions. Few men could remain calm under such circumstances; many suffered emotional breakdowns.

Patrols and raids took place at night, under cover of darkness. For patrols, small groups of men crawled out of the trenches and inched their way into No Man's Land. Moving forward on elbows and knees toward the German trenches, they cut their way through the dense barbed wire.

Once the men reached the other side, their goal was to get close enough to gather information by eavesdropping or to detect activity in advance of an attack.

Raiding parties were much larger than patrols, encompassing about 30 soldiers. They, too, made their way to the German trenches, but their role was more confrontational.

Members of the raiding parties armed themselves with rifles, knives, and hand grenades. Smaller teams took on portions of the enemy trench, tossing in grenades, and killing any survivors with a rifle or bayonet. They also examined the bodies of dead German soldiers, searching for documents and evidence of name and rank.

Snipers, in addition to firing from the trenches, also operated from No Man's Land. They crept out at dawn, heavily camouflaged, to find cover before daylight. Adopting a trick from the Germans, British snipers hid inside "O.P." trees (observation posts). These dummy trees, constructed by army engineers, protected the snipers, allowing them to fire at unsuspecting enemy soldiers.

Despite these strategies, the nature of trench warfare made it almost impossible for either army to overtake the other. Attacking infantry was slowed down by the barbed wire and bombed-out terrain of No Man's Land, making the element of surprise unlikely. Later in the war, the Allies did succeed in breaking through German lines using the newly-invented tank.

In April 1915 , the Germans unleashed an especially sinister new weapon at Ypres in northwestern Belgium: poison gas. Hundreds of French soldiers, overcome by deadly chlorine gas, fell to the ground, choking, convulsing, and gasping for air. Victims died a slow, horrible death as their lungs filled with fluid.

The Allies began producing gas masks to protect their men from the deadly vapor, while at the same time adding poison gas to their arsenal of weapons.

By 1917, the box respirator became standard issue, but that did not keep either side from the continued use of chlorine gas and the equally-deadly mustard gas. The latter caused an even more prolonged death, taking up to five weeks to kill its victims.

Yet poison gas, as devastating as its effects were, did not prove to be a decisive factor in the war because of its unpredictable nature (it relied upon wind conditions) and the development of effective gas masks .

Given the overwhelming conditions imposed by trench warfare, it is not surprising that hundreds of thousands of men fell victim to " shell shock ."

Early in the war, the term referred to what was believed to be the result of an actual physical injury to the nervous system, brought about by exposure to constant shelling. Symptoms ranged from physical abnormalities (tics and tremors, impaired vision and hearing, and paralysis) to emotional manifestations (panic, anxiety, insomnia, and a near-catatonic state.)

When shell shock was later determined to be a psychological response to emotional trauma, men received little sympathy and were often accused of cowardice. Some shell-shocked soldiers who had fled their posts were even labeled deserters and were summarily shot by a firing squad.

By the end of the war, however, as cases of shell shock soared and came to include officers as well as enlisted men, the British military built several military hospitals devoted to caring for these men.

Due in part to the Allies' use of tanks in the last year of the war , the stalemate was finally broken. By the time the armistice was signed on November 11, 1918, an estimated 8.5 million men (on all fronts) had lost their lives in the so-called "war to end all wars." Yet many survivors who returned home would never be the same, whether their wounds were physical or emotional.

By the end of World War I , trench warfare had become the very symbol of futility; thus, it has been a tactic intentionally avoided by modern-day military strategists in favor of movement, surveillance, and airpower.

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World War One Trenches

Students will use Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, Henri Barbusse’s Under Fire, and letters written home by American soldiers to compare the experiences of different participants in World War I.  Remarque describes life in the trenches from a German perspective, the losing side; Barbusse’s book approaches the same time and place from the French viewpoint, the winning side.  The letters, as primary source material, will provide an experience from the outlook of the American soldiers, coming fresh to the fighting, not as weary and worn as their European counterparts.  This lesson plan can be done as a group or individual project, and certainly can serve as a cross-curricular activity with the Language Arts department.  It makes use of primary sources, literary sources, and provides the students with the opportunity to analyze and synthesize information.

Students can often use literature contemporary to an era to determine facts about a specific time or event.  World War I lends itself readily to this exercise since a great deal of classic literature came out of the war. 

Through this activity, students will learn to analyze primary source materials such as letters and diary entries, and literature contemporary to the period.  It exercises reading, analyzing, and writing skills, and allows the students to visualize the war experiences of the soldiers of World War I.

• Read and analyze literature contemporary to World War I.
• Find specific examples in their readings to support a comparison/contrast chart of the three perspectives
• Write a 3-5 paragraph essay explaining what they discovered through their analysis and what they think constituted or created the differences in viewpoints.

SHOW ME STANDARDS

2. Continuity and change in the history of Missouri, the United States and the world

6. Relationships of the individual and groups to institutions and cultural traditions

7. The use of tools of social science inquiry (such as surveys, statistics, maps, documents)

KANSAS STANDARDS (High School-US History)

Benchmark 1: The student uses a working knowledge and understanding of individuals, groups, ideas, developments, and turning points in the era of the emergence of the modern United States (1890-1930).

6. (A) analyzes the reasons for and impact of the United States’ entrance into World War I.

7. (A) analyzes how the home front was influenced by United States involvement in World War I (e.g., Food Administration, Espionage Act, Red Scare, influenza, Creel Committee).

Benchmark 5: The student engages in historical thinking skills.

1. (A) analyzes a theme in United States history to explain patterns of continuity and change over time.

2. (A) develops historical questions on a specific topic in United States history and analyzes the evidence in primary source documents to speculate on the answers.

3. (A) uses primary and secondary sources about an event in U.S. history to develop a credible interpretation of the event, evaluating on its meaning (e.g., uses provided primary and secondary sources to interpret a historical-based conclusion).

• Books and films selected by the teacher in reference to World War I. 
• Henri Barbusse, Under Fire
• Erich Maria Remarque, All Quiet on the Western Front
• Letters from website:  American Letters and Diary Entries

http://www.theworldwar.org/s/110/display.aspx?sid=110&gid=1&pgid=892&sparam=letters&scontid=0  

During the unit on World War I, the teacher will provide the Remarque and Barbusse books to the students to read as homework.  Both books are relatively short, and should be easy for the students to read.  It would be advisable to divide the class in half, with each group reading one of the two books.  As an alternative, the teacher may provide certain chapters for students to read, for example, in Remarque, Chapters 4, 5, 6, and 10 are very useful.  Give the students about a week to read their book.  The night before this exercise takes place, provide the students with copies of the letters from the Liberty Memorial Website to read.  Have students bring all materials to class on the day of the lesson.

The teacher will place the students into small groups, making sure that each group has representatives who have read both books.  Each student will fill in their own chart (see attached) comparing each documents descriptions of life in the trenches and hospitals of World War I.  At the end of class, have each group share their findings with the class, allowing students to make additional notes on their charts

For homework, have each student, individually,  write a three to five paragraph essay detailing their findings and providing their own explanation as to the reason for differences in perspective between the three sources.

SCORING RUBRIC FOR Life in the Trenches

A 5 paper presents a well-developed story and demonstrates good control of the elements of effective writing.  A typical paper in this category

• clearly identifies important features of the analysis and develops them in a generally thoughtful way.
• develops ideas clearly, organizes them logically, and connects them with appropriate transitions
• sensibly supports the main points of the analysis
• demonstrates control of the language, demonstrating ability to use the conventions of standard written English but may have occasional flaws.

A 4 paper presents a competent analysis and demonstrates adequate control of the elements of writing. A typical paper in this category

• identifies and analyzes important features of the analysis
• develops and organizes ideas satisfactorily but may not connect them with transitions
• supports the main points of the analysis
• demonstrates sufficient control of language to convey ideas with reasonable clarity generally follows the conventions of standard written English but may have some flaws. 

A 3 paper demonstrates some competence in analytical writing skills and in its control of the elements of writing but is plainly flawed. A typical paper in this category exhibits one or more of the following characteristics:

• does not identify or analyze most if the important features of the discussion, although some analysis is present
• devotes most of its time to analyzing irrelevant issues
• is limited in the logical development and organization of ideas
• offers support of little relevance and value for points of the analysis
• does not convey meaning clearly, or contains occasional major errors or frequent minor errors in grammar, usage, and mechanics

A 2 paper demonstrates serious weaknesses in analytical writing skills. A typical paper in this category exhibits one or more of the following characteristics:

• does not present a critique based on logical analysis, but may instead present the writer’s own views on the subject
• does not develop ideas or is disorganized
• provides little, if any, relevant or reasonable support
• has serious and frequent problems in the use of language and in sentence structure, containing numerous errors in grammar, usage, and mechanics that interfere with meaning.

A 1 paper demonstrates fundamental deficiencies in analytical writing skills. A typical paper in this category exhibits more than one of the following characteristics:

• provides little evidence of the ability to understand and analyze
• provides little evidence of the ability to develop an organized response
• has severe and persistent errors in language and sentence structure, containing a pervasive pattern or errors in grammar, usage, and mechanics that results in incoherence

0----Off-topic

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World War I

By: History.com Editors

Updated: August 11, 2023 | Original: October 29, 2009

World War I, also known as the Great War, started in 1914 after the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. His murder catapulted into a war across Europe that lasted until 1918. During the four-year conflict, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and the Ottoman Empire (the Central Powers) fought against Great Britain, France, Russia, Italy, Romania, Canada, Japan and the United States (the Allied Powers). Thanks to new military technologies and the horrors of trench warfare, World War I saw unprecedented levels of carnage and destruction. By the time the war was over and the Allied Powers had won, more than 16 million people—soldiers and civilians alike—were dead.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand

Tensions had been brewing throughout Europe—especially in the troubled Balkan region of southeast Europe—for years before World War I actually broke out.

A number of alliances involving European powers, the Ottoman Empire , Russia and other parties had existed for years, but political instability in the Balkans (particularly Bosnia, Serbia and Herzegovina) threatened to destroy these agreements.

The spark that ignited World War I was struck in Sarajevo, Bosnia, where Archduke Franz Ferdinand —heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire—was shot to death along with his wife, Sophie, by the Serbian nationalist Gavrilo Princip on June 28, 1914. Princip and other nationalists were struggling to end Austro-Hungarian rule over Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The assassination of Franz Ferdinand set off a rapidly escalating chain of events: Austria-Hungary , like many countries around the world, blamed the Serbian government for the attack and hoped to use the incident as justification for settling the question of Serbian nationalism once and for all.

Kaiser Wilhelm II

Because mighty Russia supported Serbia, Austria-Hungary waited to declare war until its leaders received assurance from German leader Kaiser Wilhelm II that Germany would support their cause. Austro-Hungarian leaders feared that a Russian intervention would involve Russia’s ally, France, and possibly Great Britain as well.

On July 5, Kaiser Wilhelm secretly pledged his support, giving Austria-Hungary a so-called carte blanche, or “blank check” assurance of Germany’s backing in the case of war. The Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary then sent an ultimatum to Serbia, with such harsh terms as to make it almost impossible to accept.

World War I Begins

Convinced that Austria-Hungary was readying for war, the Serbian government ordered the Serbian army to mobilize and appealed to Russia for assistance. On July 28, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, and the tenuous peace between Europe’s great powers quickly collapsed.

Within a week, Russia, Belgium, France, Great Britain and Serbia had lined up against Austria-Hungary and Germany, and World War I had begun.

The Western Front

According to an aggressive military strategy known as the Schlieffen Plan (named for its mastermind, German Field Marshal Alfred von Schlieffen ), Germany began fighting World War I on two fronts, invading France through neutral Belgium in the west and confronting Russia in the east.

On August 4, 1914, German troops crossed the border into Belgium. In the first battle of World War I, the Germans assaulted the heavily fortified city of Liege , using the most powerful weapons in their arsenal—enormous siege cannons—to capture the city by August 15. The Germans left death and destruction in their wake as they advanced through Belgium toward France, shooting civilians and executing a Belgian priest they had accused of inciting civilian resistance. 

First Battle of the Marne

In the First Battle of the Marne , fought from September 6-9, 1914, French and British forces confronted the invading German army, which had by then penetrated deep into northeastern France, within 30 miles of Paris. The Allied troops checked the German advance and mounted a successful counterattack, driving the Germans back to the north of the Aisne River.

The defeat meant the end of German plans for a quick victory in France. Both sides dug into trenches , and the Western Front was the setting for a hellish war of attrition that would last more than three years.

Particularly long and costly battles in this campaign were fought at Verdun (February-December 1916) and the Battle of the Somme (July-November 1916). German and French troops suffered close to a million casualties in the Battle of Verdun alone.

HISTORY Vault: World War I Documentaries

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World War I Books and Art

The bloodshed on the battlefields of the Western Front, and the difficulties its soldiers had for years after the fighting had ended, inspired such works of art as “ All Quiet on the Western Front ” by Erich Maria Remarque and “ In Flanders Fields ” by Canadian doctor Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae . In the latter poem, McCrae writes from the perspective of the fallen soldiers:

Published in 1915, the poem inspired the use of the poppy as a symbol of remembrance.

Visual artists like Otto Dix of Germany and British painters Wyndham Lewis, Paul Nash and David Bomberg used their firsthand experience as soldiers in World War I to create their art, capturing the anguish of trench warfare and exploring the themes of technology, violence and landscapes decimated by war.

The Eastern Front

On the Eastern Front of World War I, Russian forces invaded the German-held regions of East Prussia and Poland but were stopped short by German and Austrian forces at the Battle of Tannenberg in late August 1914.

Despite that victory, Russia’s assault forced Germany to move two corps from the Western Front to the Eastern, contributing to the German loss in the Battle of the Marne.

Combined with the fierce Allied resistance in France, the ability of Russia’s huge war machine to mobilize relatively quickly in the east ensured a longer, more grueling conflict instead of the quick victory Germany had hoped to win under the Schlieffen Plan .

Russian Revolution

From 1914 to 1916, Russia’s army mounted several offensives on World War I’s Eastern Front but was unable to break through German lines.

Defeat on the battlefield, combined with economic instability and the scarcity of food and other essentials, led to mounting discontent among the bulk of Russia’s population, especially the poverty-stricken workers and peasants. This increased hostility was directed toward the imperial regime of Czar Nicholas II and his unpopular German-born wife, Alexandra.

Russia’s simmering instability exploded in the Russian Revolution of 1917, spearheaded by Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks , which ended czarist rule and brought a halt to Russian participation in World War I.

Russia reached an armistice with the Central Powers in early December 1917, freeing German troops to face the remaining Allies on the Western Front.

America Enters World War I

At the outbreak of fighting in 1914, the United States remained on the sidelines of World War I, adopting the policy of neutrality favored by President Woodrow Wilson while continuing to engage in commerce and shipping with European countries on both sides of the conflict.

Neutrality, however, it was increasingly difficult to maintain in the face of Germany’s unchecked submarine aggression against neutral ships, including those carrying passengers. In 1915, Germany declared the waters surrounding the British Isles to be a war zone, and German U-boats sunk several commercial and passenger vessels, including some U.S. ships.

Widespread protest over the sinking by U-boat of the British ocean liner Lusitania —traveling from New York to Liverpool, England with hundreds of American passengers onboard—in May 1915 helped turn the tide of American public opinion against Germany. In February 1917, Congress passed a $250 million arms appropriations bill intended to make the United States ready for war.

Germany sunk four more U.S. merchant ships the following month, and on April 2 Woodrow Wilson appeared before Congress and called for a declaration of war against Germany.

Gallipoli Campaign

With World War I having effectively settled into a stalemate in Europe, the Allies attempted to score a victory against the Ottoman Empire, which entered the conflict on the side of the Central Powers in late 1914.

After a failed attack on the Dardanelles (the strait linking the Sea of Marmara with the Aegean Sea), Allied forces led by Britain launched a large-scale land invasion of the Gallipoli Peninsula in April 1915. The invasion also proved a dismal failure, and in January 1916 Allied forces staged a full retreat from the shores of the peninsula after suffering 250,000 casualties.

Did you know? The young Winston Churchill, then first lord of the British Admiralty, resigned his command after the failed Gallipoli campaign in 1916, accepting a commission with an infantry battalion in France.

British-led forces also combated the Ottoman Turks in Egypt and Mesopotamia , while in northern Italy, Austrian and Italian troops faced off in a series of 12 battles along the Isonzo River, located at the border between the two nations.

Battle of the Isonzo

The First Battle of the Isonzo took place in the late spring of 1915, soon after Italy’s entrance into the war on the Allied side. In the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo, also known as the Battle of Caporetto (October 1917), German reinforcements helped Austria-Hungary win a decisive victory.

After Caporetto, Italy’s allies jumped in to offer increased assistance. British and French—and later, American—troops arrived in the region, and the Allies began to take back the Italian Front.

World War I at Sea

In the years before World War I, the superiority of Britain’s Royal Navy was unchallenged by any other nation’s fleet, but the Imperial German Navy had made substantial strides in closing the gap between the two naval powers. Germany’s strength on the high seas was also aided by its lethal fleet of U-boat submarines.

After the Battle of Dogger Bank in January 1915, in which the British mounted a surprise attack on German ships in the North Sea, the German navy chose not to confront Britain’s mighty Royal Navy in a major battle for more than a year, preferring to rest the bulk of its naval strategy on its U-boats.

The biggest naval engagement of World War I, the Battle of Jutland (May 1916) left British naval superiority on the North Sea intact, and Germany would make no further attempts to break an Allied naval blockade for the remainder of the war.

World War I Planes

World War I was the first major conflict to harness the power of planes. Though not as impactful as the British Royal Navy or Germany’s U-boats, the use of planes in World War I presaged their later, pivotal role in military conflicts around the globe.

At the dawn of World War I, aviation was a relatively new field; the Wright brothers took their first sustained flight just eleven years before, in 1903. Aircraft were initially used primarily for reconnaissance missions. During the First Battle of the Marne, information passed from pilots allowed the allies to exploit weak spots in the German lines, helping the Allies to push Germany out of France.

The first machine guns were successfully mounted on planes in June of 1912 in the United States, but were imperfect; if timed incorrectly, a bullet could easily destroy the propeller of the plane it came from. The Morane-Saulnier L, a French plane, provided a solution: The propeller was armored with deflector wedges that prevented bullets from hitting it. The Morane-Saulnier Type L was used by the French, the British Royal Flying Corps (part of the Army), the British Royal Navy Air Service and the Imperial Russian Air Service. The British Bristol Type 22 was another popular model used for both reconnaissance work and as a fighter plane.

Dutch inventor Anthony Fokker improved upon the French deflector system in 1915. His “interrupter” synchronized the firing of the guns with the plane’s propeller to avoid collisions. Though his most popular plane during WWI was the single-seat Fokker Eindecker, Fokker created over 40 kinds of airplanes for the Germans.

The Allies debuted the Handley-Page HP O/400, the first two-engine bomber, in 1915. As aerial technology progressed, long-range heavy bombers like Germany’s Gotha G.V. (first introduced in 1917) were used to strike cities like London. Their speed and maneuverability proved to be far deadlier than Germany’s earlier Zeppelin raids.

By the war’s end, the Allies were producing five times more aircraft than the Germans. On April 1, 1918, the British created the Royal Air Force, or RAF, the first air force to be a separate military branch independent from the navy or army. 

Second Battle of the Marne

With Germany able to build up its strength on the Western Front after the armistice with Russia, Allied troops struggled to hold off another German offensive until promised reinforcements from the United States were able to arrive.

On July 15, 1918, German troops launched what would become the last German offensive of the war, attacking French forces (joined by 85,000 American troops as well as some of the British Expeditionary Force) in the Second Battle of the Marne . The Allies successfully pushed back the German offensive and launched their own counteroffensive just three days later.

After suffering massive casualties, Germany was forced to call off a planned offensive further north, in the Flanders region stretching between France and Belgium, which was envisioned as Germany’s best hope of victory.

The Second Battle of the Marne turned the tide of war decisively towards the Allies, who were able to regain much of France and Belgium in the months that followed.

The Harlem Hellfighters and Other All-Black Regiments

By the time World War I began, there were four all-Black regiments in the U.S. military: the 24th and 25th Infantry and the 9th and 10th Cavalry. All four regiments comprised of celebrated soldiers who fought in the Spanish-American War and American-Indian Wars , and served in the American territories. But they were not deployed for overseas combat in World War I. 

Blacks serving alongside white soldiers on the front lines in Europe was inconceivable to the U.S. military. Instead, the first African American troops sent overseas served in segregated labor battalions, restricted to menial roles in the Army and Navy, and shutout of the Marines, entirely. Their duties mostly included unloading ships, transporting materials from train depots, bases and ports, digging trenches, cooking and maintenance, removing barbed wire and inoperable equipment, and burying soldiers.

Facing criticism from the Black community and civil rights organizations for its quotas and treatment of African American soldiers in the war effort, the military formed two Black combat units in 1917, the 92nd and 93rd Divisions . Trained separately and inadequately in the United States, the divisions fared differently in the war. The 92nd faced criticism for their performance in the Meuse-Argonne campaign in September 1918. The 93rd Division, however, had more success. 

With dwindling armies, France asked America for reinforcements, and General John Pershing , commander of the American Expeditionary Forces, sent regiments in the 93 Division to over, since France had experience fighting alongside Black soldiers from their Senegalese French Colonial army. The 93 Division’s 369 regiment, nicknamed the Harlem Hellfighters , fought so gallantly, with a total of 191 days on the front lines, longer than any AEF regiment, that France awarded them the Croix de Guerre for their heroism. More than 350,000 African American soldiers would serve in World War I in various capacities.

Toward Armistice

By the fall of 1918, the Central Powers were unraveling on all fronts.

Despite the Turkish victory at Gallipoli, later defeats by invading forces and an Arab revolt that destroyed the Ottoman economy and devastated its land, and the Turks signed a treaty with the Allies in late October 1918.

Austria-Hungary, dissolving from within due to growing nationalist movements among its diverse population, reached an armistice on November 4. Facing dwindling resources on the battlefield, discontent on the homefront and the surrender of its allies, Germany was finally forced to seek an armistice on November 11, 1918, ending World War I.

Treaty of Versailles

At the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, Allied leaders stated their desire to build a post-war world that would safeguard itself against future conflicts of such a devastating scale.

Some hopeful participants had even begun calling World War I “the War to End All Wars.” But the Treaty of Versailles , signed on June 28, 1919, would not achieve that lofty goal.

Saddled with war guilt, heavy reparations and denied entrance into the League of Nations , Germany felt tricked into signing the treaty, having believed any peace would be a “peace without victory,” as put forward by President Wilson in his famous Fourteen Points speech of January 1918.

As the years passed, hatred of the Versailles treaty and its authors settled into a smoldering resentment in Germany that would, two decades later, be counted among the causes of World War II .

World War I Casualties

World War I took the lives of more than 9 million soldiers; 21 million more were wounded. Civilian casualties numbered close to 10 million. The two nations most affected were Germany and France, each of which sent some 80 percent of their male populations between the ages of 15 and 49 into battle.

The political disruption surrounding World War I also contributed to the fall of four venerable imperial dynasties: Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia and Turkey.

Legacy of World War I

World War I brought about massive social upheaval, as millions of women entered the workforce to replace men who went to war and those who never came back. The first global war also helped to spread one of the world’s deadliest global pandemics, the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918, which killed an estimated 20 to 50 million people.

World War I has also been referred to as “the first modern war.” Many of the technologies now associated with military conflict—machine guns, tanks , aerial combat and radio communications—were introduced on a massive scale during World War I.

The severe effects that chemical weapons such as mustard gas and phosgene had on soldiers and civilians during World War I galvanized public and military attitudes against their continued use. The Geneva Convention agreements, signed in 1925, restricted the use of chemical and biological agents in warfare and remain in effect today.

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