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Aspects of Trench Warfare Essay

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Aspects of Trench Warfare

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Trenches were built in an attempt to continue the war as both sides had reached a stalemate. There was a rush for the sea and then they found nothing else could happen so they dug in. The resulting trench system on the Western Front not only covered the equivalent of 25,000 miles (enough to encircle the world) but also stretched non-stop from Belgium to Switzerland. To explain the main features of trench warfare we must look at all the points the trench design, the modern technology etc.

Trenches were designed in a specific way. They were built in a zigzag fashion to accommodate for bombs destroying them. If a bomb did hit them then only a corner of the …show more content…

The lice and the rats ate away at the bodies. This was bad as it caused disease from unhealthy living conditions for the soldiers. Conditions during attacks were even worse. Men were killed as they were trying to go over the top. The noise of the artillery fire was deafening and could even be heard in London. This caused many men to have shell shock. The Germans in 2nd battle of Ypres first used the gas. Many men died from gas attacks, the gas would fill their lungs with fluid until they slowly drowned in the fluid. Over the top attacks were even worse soldiers would fix bayonets and wait for the whistle from officers, aware that minutes later they stood a good chance of being killed. At the whistle, they would climb over the trenches and advance into no-man's land facing a hail of machine gun fire and shells. Almost all attacks were awful failures, with mass slaughter being the result. Some were killed outright; others would take days to die from their horrific injuries, lying alone in the mud.

Technology was a main part of trench warfare. Heavy artillery gave many men shell shock. It was generally used for creeping barrages when it would fire just in front of the men creeping forwards to try and get into the enemy trenches. For four years the British had been using artillery and firing 170 million shells in that time. For years, German scientists were developing the biggest

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