The veins of Europe had opened from north to south in 1914. After the outbreak of World War I, both Allied forces and German troops built a sophisticated and unprecedented network of trenches which extended from the coasts of the North Sea to the border with Switzerland. At that time, it was possible to cross the continent from end to end without setting foot on the surface once. One hundred years after the first large-scale modern war, what remains of all that?
Bit. But there are still some vestiges that are worth visiting if you want to experience first-hand what the heavy, hellish existence of the soldiers on the Western Front was like. One of the best preserved trenches in Europe is located in Belgium, near the city of Ypres. There, among the still spectral forests of northern Flanders, The trenches on Hill 60 remain almost in their original condition.one of the many strategic fortified points built by British troops throughout their four years of fighting against German troops. A historical vestige.
The place is known as Sanctuary Woodthe Sanctuary Forest. Religious reminiscence may make sense today, given that a memorial dedicated to those who fell during the First World War is located here. Between 1914 and 1918, however, Hill 60 was one of the most mundane and earthly, bloody and brutal, places history has known. Ypresdue to its relevant strategic position, was the scene of some of the worst battles of the war. And from these trenches, fierce disputes were fought to gain just a handful of kilometers of front.
After the end of the war, farmers in the area recovered the lost land, returning to farming and putting aside the horrible memory of the battle. Not everything, of course: large areas of Belgium and France were constricted inside “the red zone”areas so contaminated by shrapnel and explosives that they were unusable for human life for centuries. Despite this, most of the trenches were dismantled or buried due to renewed farming and livestock activity.
Sanctuary Wood It was maintained, however, over the years, and today serves as a living museum of the Great War.
They had bunkers to protect soldiers from artillery attacks. (Image: Amanda Slater)
Barbed wire was the first line of defense of any trench. (Image: Amanda Slater)
Sinuous and complex, the trenches were small, almost underground cities. (Image: Amanda Slater)
Mud was another enemy that the soldiers had to deal with almost constantly. In the Belgian plains, low and frequently flooded by rain, mud was everywhere. (Image: Amanda Slater)
The trenches could be over two meters high. (Image: Amanda Slater)
A conflict that would mark the world as we know it today, and that changed war forever. In Flandersin the north of Belgium, in places like these trenches, the war mutated. From variable fronts we moved to stable fronts, where soldiers lived for months waiting for news from the front. The trenches were unapproachable, but his life was far from peaceful. They were subjected to constant artillery sieges, which undermined morale and were mentally unsettling.
One of the most reliable accounts of the time was written by Erich María Remarque, a German author who fought on the front during much of the war. All quiet on the front tells the daily life of soldiers in the trenchoften misunderstood. The soldiers rotated in the different trench lines: they spent a couple of weeks or three on the front line, returned to the rear, where they rested and recovered, and little by little they regained guard or front positions. Its role was cyclical.
Meanwhile, they lived in these trenches. They were unhealthy places and subject to constant pressure from artillery, which forced soldiers to crowd into bunkers where rats, canned goods and mud piled up. The constant rains and the destruction of the territory resulting from the loads of artillery They left a muddy, lunatic landscape of demolished trees and small towns reduced to ruins and ashes.
The trenches were authentic underground cities. The ones shown in the photos are worse than those the Germans enjoyed. While the British were dirty and poorly built, the German ones were much more comfortable and healthy. The Allied command never thought that the war would last so long, so they never worried about setting them up correctly to accommodate their soldiers. The Germans, however, quickly understood that the front would be static and that the trenches would be key.
In Sanctuary Wood, trenches were sandwiched between trees. (Image: Jeremy)
Craters are still visible on part of the former western front. (Image: Colorgrind)
Another crater caused by heavy German artillery. (Image: Colorgrind)
Trenches were often built with poor quality materials.
More images of craters.
Sanctuary Wood, in the middle of the war.
A proof of the immobility of the front: in the battle of the sommeBritish offensive carried out during 1917 on the German northern front, near Ypres and in the heart of Flanders, More than 600,000 allied soldiers died. A gigantic figure for a meager, ridiculous loot: after the operations, the Germans had only retreated nine kilometers. The trenches shown here were easily defendable, and offensives resulted in soldiers running unprotected against large-caliber machine guns that wreaked havoc on enemy lines. Ypres perhaps witnessed the worst fighting.
Sanctuary Wood is a perfect example of this. Furthermore, it magnificently illustrates the poor living conditions of the soldiers. An ideal look at the First World War one hundred years after it took place.
Image | Image: Jeremy
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