World War I: Trench Warfare

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World War I is considered to be the deadliest war of all time, amassing to over 15 million deaths. The First World War was comprised of more than 30 nations, including the United States, Serbia, Austria-Hungary, Germany, Russia, France, and Great Britain, the major powers of the world at that time. The war was said to have started around June of 1914, when Archduke of Austria-Hungary, Franz Ferdinand, and his wife were assassinated. This was done by a Serbian nationalist in Sarajevo the 28th of June. Once this happened, Austria-Hungary declared war against Serbia and began to mobilize troops. This caused a domino effect and many other nations began to join in on the war. This was going to be a war of 20th century weapons and technology with…show more content…
Trench warfare is when soldiers dig trenches to fight in while avoiding enemy fire. These trenches were usually dug as quickly as possible to avoid casualties while digging them. Most trenches were roughly two meters deep and one meter wide. In the front of these trenches, there were sandbags or parapets of earth to step upon to fire at enemies or observe the battlefield. As defenses were set into the first trench, more were dug behind it for more room to fall back if need be. These trenches were connected to each other by zigzagged communication trenches. There are many advantages and disadvantages to trench warfare. The trenches in which the soldiers fought in protected them from enemy fire from machine guns and rifles. There were also lines of barbed wire across the fields in front of the trenches to prevent enemies from advancing easily. Some downfalls of trench warfare were that the conditions in the trenches were not very healthy. Sickness had spread fast through the trenches and more people had died from infections in wounds and sicknesses than from being shot or blown up. There was also the fact that the Germans had begun to use chemical

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