Life In The Trenches Of The Western Front

Life In The Trenches Of The Western Front

When World War 1 broke out in 1914, a lot of people joined up for the

Army to fight for their country and to fight against the Germans,

Italians and the Austria- Hungarians (mostly the Germans). There are

many reasons why people joined up for the Army. For the people who did

join up for the army they expected the war to last for a couple of

months and that it would be over by Christmas. But if any of them had

known that the war was going to last for 4 years till 1918, the people

who joined up for the army probably wouldn’t of joined the army.

The British and French united together to battle the Germans on the

North-West of France.

In September 1914, after the battle of Marne, German soldiers where

forced to retreat to the river Aisne (West of France). German

commander, General Erich von Falkenhayn, ordered his men to dig

trenches that it could hold onto the parts of Belgium and France that

they still had and it also could provide the Germans with a defence

from French and British soldiers. A couple of months later the

trenches had spread from the North Sea to Switzerland, (channel

tunnel-North Switzerland) with a distance of 475 miles of trenches.

This was the creation of the Trench system.

The Trench system consisted of 3 rows of trenches the 1st row in the

Trench system was the ‘front line’, the second was called the ‘support

trenches’, and the third row in the trenches was called the ‘reserve

trenches’.

Then in January-March 1915 the year opened with a Naval disaster and

on the Western front, trench conflict watched as huge armies where

unable to go no more than a few hundred yards without major casualties

In a letter from second lieutenant Preston White to his parents he

reminded them that the 27th of January was ‘Bill the II’s birthday’.

The British artillery on White’s sector in the western front fired 21