trench warfare

- around 25,000 miles of trenches along Western Front

- three lines: front trench is attack trench, second trench is support trench, and third trench is reserves

- German trenches had permanent element – kitchens, furniture, electricity, water

- French/British kept offensive plan so did not make their trenches fancy

- Included artillery, machine guns, barbed wire, exploding bullets, liquid fire, and poison gas

Mass killing

- Battle of Verdun (Spring/Summer, 1916)

- 700,000 on both sides

- Battle of the Somme (Summer/Fall, 1916)

- 600,000 French/British casualties

- 500,000 German casualties

- 57,240 casualties – 20,000 dead – the first day

- A few miles of movement only

- Trench warfare inspires new genre of literature – poetry, All Quiet on the Western Front (Remarque) and Storm of Steel (Jünger)