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Trench Warfare

Trench warfare came about because powerful new weapons, like machine guns and accurate rifles, meaning that neither side could advance. Both sides built trenches. The trenches extended about four hundred miles and were about six and a half feet deep, including the sandbags placed around the tops. From the trenches, enemies launched attacks against each other but neither side could win a clear-cut victory. In the trenches, soldiers could not bathe or change clothes for days or weeks at a time. Human waste and unburied corpses attracted flies and rats. The soldiers became infested with lice and caught diseases and illnesses like trench foot. The bottoms of the trenches were often full of mud.