Spotlight On - Trench Warfare

By early 1915, armies on the Western Front (which later became known a "terrain of death") had dug miles of trenches in order to protect themselves from enemy fire. Known as trench warfare, in this type of fighting, soldiers fought each other in trenches. The spaces between the trenches were known as "No-Man's Land," and most of the soldiers died here. However, if one stayed in the trench, safety was not guaranteed. Life in trenches was extremely unsanitary. One soldier wrote, "The men slept in mud, washed in mud, ate in mud and dreamed in mud." Trenches also harbored rats and there was no fresh food. The air in the trenches eventually became unbreathable because of the artillery fire and living in the trenches became known as "a living hell."