Joshua Levine

So, well, let's define what a trench is in the first place, because it's not necessarily straightforward.

A trench, clearly...

is digging in in order to defend yourself from whatever the enemy is throwing at you, whether it's coming at you, whether it's firing at you, and has been around for thousands of years.

It's a really basic, fundamental idea.

And over the years, it became more elaborate.

You did have trench systems, but they were only ever intended to be temporary, you know, in the American Civil War, in the Boer War, the years leading up to the First World War.

But at the time of the First World War,

None of this, none of what happened was in any way anticipated.

It was going to be a mobile war.

At the beginning, it was a mobile war, but you had the Germans held up as they were advancing at the Marne.

And then you had them building a series of trenches and the British in response built trenches.

And I've got this extraordinary account that I found in the National Archive from an observer.

So someone flying alongside a pilot because the airplanes at this point were doing reconnaissance.

looking down and on the Aisne, on the 13th of September, so, you know, really soon into the war, seeing the Germans building trenches.

That's really the kickoff point for the First World War as we know it.

So then the British would build or the Allies would build trenches and that began the race to the sea.

And what that meant was basically trying to outflank, trying to outflank, trying to outflank.

But every time an outflanking move was made, another trench was built.

So trench, trench, trench, trench, trench, all the way to the North Sea on one side and the frontier with Switzerland on the other side.

So what, over 400 miles you're talking about.