Thousands Of Miles Of Trench Systems Were Built

Thousands of miles of trench system were built is the next fact about the trenches warfare in WWI. The trench system began as a temporary measure, but it would become the norm on the Western Front for the next four years, as neither side would be able to decisively penetrate the other's defensive lines. On the Western Front, hundreds of kilometers of trenches were built. Single lines were not like trenches. Multiple layers of trenches, supply trenches, dug outs, forward casualty stations, and so on were used in trench systems.

The Western Front trench system, which was in place from the winter of 1914 to the spring of 1918, finally stretched from Belgium's North Sea coast southward across France, with a bulge outwards to confine the hotly disputed Ypres salient. The system eventually reached its southernmost point in Alsace, near the Swiss border, passing via such French towns as Soissons, Reims, Verdun, St. Mihiel, and Nancy.

There were three types of trenches: firing trenches, which were lined on the enemy's side by steps where defending soldiers could stand to fire machine guns and throw grenades; communication trenches; and "saps," shallower positions that extended into no-man's-land and provided spots for observation posts, grenade-throwing, and machine gun-firing.