The idea of trenches first started in the battle of the Marne in September 1914. The Schlieffen plan had just failed and the Germans were forced to retreat back to Germany.

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The idea of trenches first started in the battle of the Marne in September 1914. The Schlieffen

plan had just failed and the Germans were forced to retreat back to Germany. The German

commander, General Erich Von Falkenhayn, was unhappy with this and decided that his troops

should keep the parts in Belgium and France that they had gained at all costs. He ordered the

Germans to build trenches to provide them protection from the advancing French and British

troops. The British and French troops found it impossible to break through and to protect

themselves built trenches to counter act the German's.

After few months these trenches had spread from the North Sea to the Swiss Frontier. The

Germans started digging first so they were able to chose more tactfully where their trenches

would be. They were able to position themselves on higher land giving them a tactful advantage

but they were also able too avoid the major problem of waterlogged trenches.

When trenches would become waterlogged, it would make the bottom of the trenches always

wet and temperature inside the temperature would decrease rapidly. Being in permanent wet

would cause the soldiers to get trench foot, which is a rotting of the foot and it would have to be

amputated. In order to avoid getting the disease the soldiers would have to put oil on the feet

but many people didn't do I tso they could out of fighting.

"There was a danger of getting trench foot, and the had to rub a sort or whale oil on their feet to

prevcent it. Lots os the blighters avoided doing that if they knew that if they got trench feet they

would be sent down the line."

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Sergeant J. Haddock, quoted in N. Jones, 'The War walk', 1983

This is an example of how desperate people were to get out of fighting, but it was clear that

when given the choice of losing their legs or their lives many would choose legs.

This is what the trenches looked like from overhead:

The trenches were made up of different sections, the front line trench was usually seven feet

deep and six feet wide as it was so deep there was a fire step so the soldiers could see over the

top of the ...

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