History Of Trench Warfare

Wars have been fought for thousands of years with different fighting styles and varying tactics. Fighting styles have been evolving since the dawn of time, as men have been learning how to defend themselves better and how to produce superior weapons. The weapons that were used in battle have become more deadly at an increasing rate. In World War I alone, more than 16 million people died, which made it one of the highest ranking wars in death total a war ever. Trench warfare was used extensively in World War I. This war was the beginning of technologically advanced killing machines. Trench warfare helped to contribute to the loss of life to since the men actually lived on the battlefields. With advancing weapons that were used in this war, there

The soldiers who were rotated to be in the trenches were miserable. They would be in holes about twelve feet deep and a few hundred miles long with hundreds of men crammed in with them. There would be sickness and decay all around them, the trenches were infested with rats who ate everything including the amputated limbs of lost comrades. “ ...The Western Front did witness two terrible years of immobility and useless carnage” These men lived through the torture of witnessing war first hand, they watched as their fellow comrades were blown to bits by mortar shells. While living in these awful conditions they had an easy opportunity to get the infection “trench foot,” in which the feet of the soldiers would be infected and usually amputated. Also many of the trenches stretched up toward Russia, which caused soldiers to get frostbite rather easily, and have to have fingers or toes amputated as well. Surrounding these trenches was barbed wire which would be about five feet high, so no men could get over it easily. There was a covering to aid in protection against the shells that would fly overhead. There were concrete walls that would to try and stop the grenades from destroying the small shelters that these men had to stay in, and when the firing had stopped the men needed to repair the walls with whatever they had to try and stay safe. This

Poison gas or mustard gas was one of the most deadly forms of weapons ever used, this was the beginning of chemical warfare. Mustard gas would be tossed into trenches like a smoke bomb and effect the people in the vicinity. Everyone around the canister would be affected and begin gasping for air and begin forming welts on their skin. If the mustard gas was inhaled in large quantities, one could begin forming welts on their lungs and die from lack of good oxygen intake. “...extended exposure to the vapor could cause severe choking and under some exceptional circumstances even prove lethal.” Many soldiers became blind because of its effects and also were permanently left with lasting injuries like respiratory problems. Once it got into a soldier’s respiratory tract, it could cause hoarse throat, shortness of breath, abdominal pain, fever and vomiting, and this was if you lived long enough to withstand these effects and be transported back to the infirmary. With this gas becoming the newest weapon that the armies were using, gas masks became a necessity to try and keep on fighting through the pain, the gas masks helped because then the mustard gas could not make it to the respiratory tract and cause internal damage. However, the gas masks did not help protect from the physical pain of the itchy skin which turned into the blisters. The gas was soon transferred into grenades so that the impact