Life in the Trenches

Harold R. Peat, Private Peat (Toronto: George J. McLeod Limited, 1917). ©Chinook Multimedia Inc

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Much of the First World War was fought in close quarters. The armies of the Triple Entente and Triple Alliance alternately defended and attacked the trench systems that housed the soldiers. The area separating the trenches was a brutal killing ground.

The First World War trench systems were at the forefront of the war effort. Provisioning and arming the soldiers and providing some measure of medical assistance required elaborate planning and enormous manpower.

Canadian soldiers lived and died together in the Allied trenches. The enemy trenches were just a quick sprint away, but attacking those trenches invited almost certain maiming or death.