The perfect trench

In the last 200 years, no war sucked more than the First World One. Other wars had the same mud and dust and rain, the same rotted bodies, the same fear and carnage brought by artillery. Infantry weapons of other wars produced larger body wounds -- .70-caliber smoothbore flintlocks or .58-caliber Springfield and Enfield cap and ball, vs. .303-caliber or 8-millimeter center-fire metallic cartridges.

Until the second year of the World War, no other conflict had produced the number of artillery pieces, and none had both sides armed with machine guns. No soldiers had ever spent as much time in such mind-breaking circumstances.

More soldiers and many more civilians died in World War II, but the first of anything is more memorable.

At Ypres in Spring 1917, “There was mud waist-deep around support and front-line trenches. As we tried to cope I remembered the ideal trench we had seen somewhere near the base. It was dug to a depth of 10 feet with a row of sandbags neatly dovetailed on the top of the trench. A real show piece, and as dry as a bone that had been well licked by a dog.

“It was said that King George V, accompanied by high-raking army officers, had inspected this show trench, and had been most impressed. When I saw it, so was I. …

“What a joke it all seemed when one became acquainted with reality – holes in the ground surrounded by evil smelling muddy water which filled up the huge craters around Ypres. According to men I talked to who had, by the grace of God, survived a year or more in the Ypres Salient, there had never been any ideal trenches. ‘Brass-Hats’ very rarely went anywhere near the front line in the Salient. … Machine Gunner No. 66518 118, quoted in Machine Gunner 1914-1918, Personal Experiences of The Machine Gun Corps, compiled and edited by C.E. Crutchley, Pen and Sword Military, Barnsley, South Yorkshire.