Canadian Corps. infantrymen clean up and prepare food in a trench that shows signs of heavy fighting. Saskatchewan Military MuseumFrench soldiers wearing gas masks in a trench, 1917. gas mask technology varied widely during the war, eventually developing into an effective defense, limiting the value of gas attacks in later years. Bibliotheque Nationale de FranceFrench troops throw rocks at advancing German troops from their hillside trench in the Vosges, 1916. BuzzfeedGas-masked men of the British Machine Gun Corps with a Vickers machine gun during the first Battle of the Somme. BuzzfeedGerman troops wearing gas masks and throwing hand grenades, 23 April 1916. BuzzfeedIn this 1915 file photo, a Turkish soldier takes aim at British troops, while another watches carefully, from a trench in Gallipoli, Turkey. Archive photo, The Associated PressMen of the 3rd Batallion, Royal Fusiliers manning a trench in Salonika. International War MuseumOfficers of 12th Royal Irish Rifles wading through mud in a trench at Essigny, France. International War MuseumOfficers of the Royal Engineers in a communication trench. International War MuseumShrapnel bursts over a reserve trench in Canadian lines during the Battle of the Somme. BuzzfeedSoldiers in trenches during write letters home. Life in the trenches was summed up by the phrase which later became well-known- Months of boredom punctuated by moments of extreme terror. The AtlanticThe wounded are dressed in a trench during the Courcelette operation of the Battle of the Somme, France, on 15 September 1916. BuzzfeedInfantry from the 2nd Battalion, Auckland Regiment, New Zealand Division in the Switch Line near Flers, taken some time in September 1916, after the Battle of Flers-Courcelette. Archive photo, The Imperial War MuseumIn this 1916 photo, German troops man a machine gun post from a trench at the Vistula River in Russia during the First World War. Archive photo, The Associated PressA ration party of the Royal Irish Rifles in a communication trench during the Battle of the Somme. The date is believed to be 1 July 1916, the first day on the Somme, and the unit is possibly the 1st Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles (25th Brigade, 8th Division). The Imperial War MuseumRussian trenches in the forests of Sarikamish. Archive photo, The Imperial War MuseumCaptain Leslie Morshead in a trench at Lone Pine after the battle, looking at Australian and Ottoman dead on the parapet. Archive photo, Australia War MemorialGuy Drummond with his comrades in the trenches at Passchendaele in 1914. Archive photo, McCord MuseumDraining Trenches. 22nd Infantry Battalion (French Canadian). July 1916. Dept. of National Defence, Library, and Archives CanadaJean de Bloch was a Polish financier and pacifist during the First World War era who wrote that trench warfare and weapons development had skewed military conflict in favor of the defensive side, and that it would cause conflicts to drag on and cost more in lives and financial losses. Fox Photos, Getty ImagesFrench artillery officers relay instructions to adjust cannon fire in a trench on the front line, at an unknown location in France. TelegraphA French soldier aiming an anti-aircraft machine gun from a trench at Perthes les Hurlus, eastern France. TelegraphFrench officers inspecting trenches on the Argonne front, eastern France May 1916. TelegraphAustralian ambulance workers near Bernafay, transporting men suffering from trench foot to hospital. Australian War MemorialStretcher bearers in the mud, Passchendaele, August 1917. WikipediaAerial view: the location and timing of this view are unknown but it shows something of the scale of trench systems which were used by both the Allies and the Germans. There is very little evidence of shell damage, suggesting that these are newly entrenched areas – which could either by the start of the war or more likely towards the very end when the movement had resumed. They could also be training trenches, although their scale makes that unlikely. On the left of the picture, the trenches have a regular pattern but angular sections jutting out. This was intended to allow for sniper fire to protect against an incursion from no man’s land. Across the top of the picture is a lengthy communications trench, which zig-zags to make sniper fire more difficult, and also to make it more difficult for artillery fire to rake it. It connects to other what are more likely to be front line trenches, which are in two rows running from top to bottom of the picture. DailymailDamage: This photograph shows how the countryside was covered in shell craters from the aerial bombardment campaign carried out by both sides. The picture is one of the few which has information on it, dated 24 June 1917 top right corner. The date is shortly after the Battle of Messines had been launched. it is not known if this is in that area, but the scale of damage suggests a heavy bombardment. The remains of the roads which covered the area can still be seen. Dailymail
