Before I can say very much about trench warfare I have to have a look at the trenches themselves.  Below is an aerial photograph, showing how trenches were laid out.  Notice how the trench aren’t straight, but zigzagged.  This was so an enemy capturing the front line trench, couldn’t fire along it for very far and to make it more difficult for the second line of trenches to be taken.

As you can see a system of trenches was quite complicated, but a trench itself was very primitive. 

Here is a diagram of a front line trench from a side on view.

Notice the duckboards, this was so soldiers didn’t drown in the mud at the bottom of their trench.  Mud was often the least of a soldier’s worries and I will now look at the awful conditions in front line trenches.  Before leaving the subject of trench layouts, I have to say that the layout of trenches costs many attackers’ lives, but was safer for a careful defender.  Nonetheless collapsing walls took a few lives.

Conditions in the trenches – What soldiers lived in

In the winter of 1914/1915, the British generals believed a war of movement would return in the spring and consequently they didn’t want their soldiers to become too comfortable.  This was why the British soldiers didn’t get beds, while many Germans did, however most of the other problems facing British and French soldiers were due to diabolical weather and frequent shelling.   Mud wasn’t restricted to no-mans-land, trenches were often full of mud and water as seen below.

These terrible conditions caused the condition known as trench foot, when a foot started to rot, turned black and eventually it had to be amputated.  Typhus and a disease named “trench fever” (a high fever for five or so days), killed some soldiers.  Many soldiers went weeks without a good wash and this caused skin diseases and meant most front line soldiers caught lice.

Life in a front line trench was very monotonous and after a soldier had completed his chores, he faced long periods of boredom.  Unfortunately, it was very hard to sleep during this spare time and so many soldiers turned to other activities.  Writing a letter home or playing chess were popular pastimes.  Another occupation was de-lousing, as shown below,

One soldier said, “A lighted candle applied where they were thickest made them pop like Chinese crackers.  After a session of this, my face would be covered with small blood spots from extra big fellows who had popped too vigorously.”