The springboard for trench warfare, like the Industrial Revolution, was technology. With new inventions such as machine guns and tanks and bombs and gases, new safety precautions had to be taken by the unfortunate soldiers; they dug pits in the ground to provide somewhat of a barrier between the shellfire raining down. With this, the only way a soldier could get shot by the fatal bullets was to poke his head out, or if the enemy could change the angle of the bullet. However, because no one wanted to poke his head out, no progress was made. . . at all. If a soldier were forced to try to make it to the other side, his only protection out of the trenches was the shell holes that were left behind, and those were not enough. "No live man's land" may be a better term for the area between the trenches. Many people, however, probably would have welcomed such a quick end to their miserable lives because living inside the trenches was nothing short of terribly horrible, and every other negatively connotated adjective. Disease and rats the size of dogs ravaged the men. There were food shortages because no one could get out of the trenches to get to provisions; officers had to threaten to shoot men to get them to go into the line of fire.
No average man could possibly return from these disgusting places unchanged. And so few did. The government was forced to put out drafts to force any able man to go and fight the enemy. Many critics have said whole generations of men were lost to WWI, in the trenches. Families were forced to leave their homes to escape the war that was to come, and had already arrived. For example, in All Quiet on the Western Front, there was a village that the German soldiers visited while getting away from the trenches before more of the enemy arrived, at which time leaving the trench would be suicidal. There was an incredible amount of non-fatal casualties, also. Men would come home with one leg, one arm, less than ten fingers, chunks missing, etc. And of course, their souls would never be whole again, either, after being scared to death every waking and sleeping moment and watching their comrades die. Families would be affected by this, as well, because Daddy was never the same. Somehow, though, the next generation started a whole other war, almost as bad as this one. Of course, in the next war, there were not any trenches, which is government's doing, as well as technology (airplanes). The governments of Germany (especially) and France and all the other countries were baffled by so many men's deaths, but could not take action against it during the War, because they had gotten too far already. So, the Great War could not have only affected soldiers, but also affected the civilians and governments.
No average man could possibly return from these disgusting places unchanged. And so few did. The government was forced to put out drafts to force any able man to go and fight the enemy. Many critics have said whole generations of men were lost to WWI, in the trenches. Families were forced to leave their homes to escape the war that was to come, and had already arrived. For example, in All Quiet on the Western Front, there was a village that the German soldiers visited while getting away from the trenches before more of the enemy arrived, at which time leaving the trench would be suicidal. There was an incredible amount of non-fatal casualties, also. Men would come home with one leg, one arm, less than ten fingers, chunks missing, etc. And of course, their souls would never be whole again, either, after being scared to death every waking and sleeping moment and watching their comrades die. Families would be affected by this, as well, because Daddy was never the same. Somehow, though, the next generation started a whole other war, almost as bad as this one. Of course, in the next war, there were not any trenches, which is government's doing, as well as technology (airplanes). The governments of Germany (especially) and France and all the other countries were baffled by so many men's deaths, but could not take action against it during the War, because they had gotten too far already. So, the Great War could not have only affected soldiers, but also affected the civilians and governments.
