The War in the Trenches

Read our amazing selection of images and articles of the First World War in the trenches, from birds and beasts at the fighting front to military entrenchments at Christmas. Plus, download a selection of extra wartime articles from our archive for free.

The rifle, machine gun and heavy artillery created a type of battlefield that has become popularly synonymous with the First World War.

ARCHIVE ARTICLES

 WILDLIFE IN THE TRENCHES

 BIRDS & BEASTS AT THE FIGHTING FRONT

 MILITARY ENTRENCHMENTS

 THE SECOND CHRISTMAS OF THE WAR 


'A muddy Christmas but no firing': one of several photographs that appeared in a sober but positive assessment of the war, published on Christmas Day, 1915.

Two views of unidentified battlefields published in the magazine. The top image is a view through a sniper's loophole, overlooking German trenches. It appears in a 1915 article that offers a bizarre combination of reportage on warfare and wildlife. The position was reached at considerable hazard, through a farmyard full of dead and rotting animals. Between periods of action, there are lyrical descriptions of birds. A golden oriole nest, for example, is spotted in the trees to the left. The bottom landscape by 'an erstwhile subaltern', was published as part of a letter in February 1916, with helpful annotations, such as 'Boche trenches', showing the enemy positions. 

'Knife Rests' by Edward Handley-Read, a painting by moonlight of wire protecting a British trench, from a 1916 exhibition review.

'French infantry hunting out Huns from ruins on the Somme', published in 1916.

A French and British band improvise in a rest area in 1917. Note the biscuit tin drum.


RETURN TO THE WWI HOMEPAGE

THE WORLD AT WAR

WOMEN & THE WAR

THE WAR AT SEA

CHILDREN & THE WAR

ADVERTISING & THE WAR

THE WAR IN THE AIR

HORSES & THE WAR

THE WOUNDED & PRISONERS

WAR MEMORIALS

OFFICIAL WAR ARTIST: SIR MUIRHEAD BONE

Agnes Stamp