By the end of 1914, the war on the Western Front had reached stalemate and the trench lines extended from the Belgian coast to the Swiss frontier.

By September 1915, the length of the British front line stretched some 70 miles with soldiers in the front or reserve line trenches for about eight days at a time, before being relieved.

In a typical frontline sector there were three trenches; the fire trench, the support trench and the reserve trench, all joined by communication trenches.

These varied in depth, but they were usually about four or five feet deep, or in areas with a high water table a wall of sandbags would be built to allow the defenders to stand upright, fire trenches were provided with a fire step, so the occupants could return fire during an attack.

Duckboards would line the bottom of the trench to prevent men from sinking into the mud and dugouts were cut into the walls, giving shelter from the elements and shrapnel, although in the British Army these were often reserved for the officers and senior NCOs.

The men were then expected to sleep wherever they could and in wet weather they lived under groundsheets or in tents at the bottom of the trench on the duckboards.

At the front, soldiers were in constant danger from artillery shells, mortar bombs and bullets and as the war progressed they also faced aerial attack.

Some sectors of the front saw little activity throughout the war, making life comparatively easy. Other sectors were in a perpetual state of violent activity.

However, quiet sectors still amassed daily casualties through enemy snipers, artillery fire and disease. The harsh conditions, where trenches were often wet and muddy and the constant company of lice and rats which fed on unburied bodies, often carried disease.

Many troops suffered from trench foot, and trench fever as well as contracting frostbite in the winter months and heat exhaustion in the summer.