Conditions in the trenches

April 1915: have a guess first

Second Battle of Ypres. The Germans use chlorine gas. British and French troops have no gas masks.

Chlorine gas drifts over the British and French trenches. What do you think happened to the troops?

What you need to know

• Trenches were long, narrow ditches that soldiers dug to protect themselves from enemy attacks.
• The Western Front was a 400-mile strip of land through France and Belgium, home to some of the war's largest battles.
• No quick German victory made it clear the war wouldn't end soon, so soldiers dug trenches from the English Channel to Switzerland.
• A stalemate is when further progress by either side seems impossible, so it often seems neither side is going to win.
• Have a goYour friend Sam says: "A stalemate is when one side is racing ahead and about to win." Is Sam right?

  No. In a stalemate, further progress by either side seems impossible.

  A stalemate is a deadlock where it often seems neither side is going to win, not one side surging ahead.

• That stalemate made it a war of attrition: each side tries to wear the other down by inflicting maximum casualties.
• Have a goOdd one out: "wearing the other side down", "inflicting maximum casualties", "a quick, decisive victory". Which doesn't belong in a war of attrition?

  A quick, decisive victory.

  Attrition is a grinding contest, and it came about because the quick victory had already failed.

• German trenches on slightly higher ground tended to be drier; British and French trenches on lower ground quickly filled with rainwater and mud.
• Have a goYou're a soldier choosing where to dig in. Going by what you've just read, would you pick slightly higher ground or lower ground, and why?

  Slightly higher ground, where German trenches tended to be drier.

  Lower ground meant British and French trenches quickly filled with rainwater and mud, though drier German trenches were a tendency, not a rule for every trench.

• Soldiers faced huge rats, often-stale food and muddy water to live, sleep and walk through.
• In April 1915, at the Second Battle of Ypres, the Germans used chlorine gas, which attacks lung tissue if breathed in.
• In July 1916 Haig put a plan into action at the Somme: larger guns firing continuously to weaken the Germans.
• It failed: the German defences weren't broken down, British and French troops were gunned down in tens of thousands, and four months brought only six miles.

The big picture

When the Germans failed to defeat the French quickly, soldiers dug trenches along the 400-mile Western Front and the war became a stalemate and a war of attrition. Conditions were awful, chlorine gas hit unprepared troops in April 1915, and the 1916 Somme plan to break the stalemate gained only six miles in four months.

⚠ Watch out

Writing that every trench was flooded, or that German trenches were never wet. Trenches on slightly higher ground tended to be drier, and British and French trenches on lower ground quickly filled with rainwater and mud. It is a tendency, so say "tended to".

Memory hook

Dig in, get stuck, wear down. No quick win meant trenches, trenches meant stalemate, stalemate meant attrition, and even the Somme's big plan gained just six miles.

Check yourself

Cover the screen and explain in three sentences how the failure of a quick German victory led to a war of attrition fought from trenches. Then say where the Somme fits into the story.