Trench Warfare in WW1

World War 1 is perhaps best known for being a war fought in trenches, ditches dug out of the ground to give troops protection from enemy artillery and machine-gun fire. The trenches spread from the East to the West. By the end of 1914, trenches stretched all along the 475 miles front between the Swiss border and the Channel coast. In some places, enemy trenches were less than thirty yards apart. Although trenches spread for many miles, their …

…five million tons of artillery shells against the enemy. In the first two weeks of a battle, the British with other allies managed to shoot 4,283,550 shells at the German defences. The trenches never protected soldiers from shell shock. Soldiers who exposed themselves to continuous amount of shellfire produced a number of symptoms. These symptoms included tiredness, irritability, and lack of concentration, headaches, and eventually mental breakdowns. About 80,000 men of the British suffered from shell shock.