World War I: Trench Warfare

Trench warfare became a infamous part of World War 1. With the rapid advances in war the trenches were used to defend the armies that lay within the trenches. While trenches were necessary for World War 1, the conditions and the progress made by trenches caused this war tactic to be hardly used again. Across the board, trench warfare was defiantly not a turning point because of the conditions, the state of the war (it was a stale mate) and it was hardly used again.

Trench warfare was unavoidable and completely mandatory for the survival of armies in World War 1. Rapidly, in the early 20th century, advances in many aspects of war occurred. Jennifer Llewellyn (2014, p.1) states that “Soldiers once equipped with bayonets and barely accurate

10% of causalities of World War 1 were caused by the severe conditions, which was more than necessary. The letter, which originated in the trenches, from Private H.F.Leppard (Spartacus Education, 2014) to his mother declared that “While in the trenches the water was over their knees most of the time.” This demonstrates how terrible the conditions truely were. This letter may be bias because the conditions could have been understated to his mother for her mental protection however, it is still a primary source from the time in the trenches. Similarly, a photo taken in the communication trench shows how the murky water was well above ankle height. Trenches being flooded for long periods of time lead to many soldiers having Trench Foot, a disease that may cause amputation, or trench fever which was fatal, as written in the Australia War Memorial (2018, p.1). However not just the flooded trenches that were appalling. The food supply was limited and sometimes so scarce that soldiers had to brew watery soup from grass and weeds. The conditions were distorting, tragic and a disaster because mainly of this trenches were hardly used after World War

The conditions and the advancement rate of trenches caused tactics to be quite ineffective. G.J.Meyer (Gizmodo, 2018, p.1) writes that the war ended up being quite a stalemate due to the fact of the trenches. Trenches took 450 men to build 250m in 6hours. That’s a lot of men for little distance in six hours. Rudolf Binding (Spartacus Education, 2014) wrote in his letter “When one hauled out on to dry land and dies in the air, then he will know something about it.” This exhibits that if armies try to advance they will be shot and killed, meaning that any of hopes of advancing on the other is minimal. This source may be bias since he was a German, however since it is a letter to someone not article it isn’t so bias since he isn’t under an influence. A photo (Gizmodo, 2018) from the Western Front in the British territory displays that soldiers were well covered and safe. However, it looks too safe and because their is only one solider on guard and the rest are asleep and the trenches look quite dry indicting that this photo may be bias and unreliable. The trenches were been helpful for the success of the allies in World War 1. However, this tactic was hardly used again because of the slow advance and conquer of