The First World War was one of the costliest conflicts in history, much
of it fought over a narrow and bloody swathe of France and Flanders. At
the outbreak of war, it was anticipated that conventional battle would
bring a quick resolution, but four years later, strategy, tactics and
the material of war had changed almost beyond recognition. For most of
that time, the two sides had been locked in the stalemate of trench
warfare, a battle conducted along a Western Front of over 400 miles, in
which almost 3 million men were killed.
In this anniversary edition, World War I trench expert Stephen Bull
provides a complete picture of trench warfare on the Western Front, from
the construction of the trenches and their different types.