The First World War started in 1914

First Battle of the Marne was fought in September 1914

Italy entered the war on the side of the Allies in 1915. (our side)
In 1916, the siege of Verdun left 600,000 dead; Battle of the
Somme failed to break German lines
The German Navy began unrestricted submarine warfare; USA
entered the war on the Allied side in 1917.
March 1918, Treaty of Brest-Litovsk ends war on Eastern Front;
Russian revolution undermined Allied war effort.
May 1918, German Spring Offensive halted
November 1918, Armistice signed and ends the war

Life in the Trenches was hard going for the soldiers. They were always a target; either
from the Germans, rats or from their own commander. This was because; 1) They were
at war and the Germans were the enemy. 2) The rats were hungry and lived with the
soldiers so they ate belongings as well as dead and alive soldiers. 3) If a soldier was to
retreat back to the trench they would be shot for desertion, so either way soldiers would
end up dead or wounded.

Soldiers would not usually stay in the front lines for a long time unless there was a raging
battle that meant that men would be needed, men would have to stay put and fight
however there would only be 2,000 of the 15,000 men in a division who stayed in the
front line. In a typical month, a soldier would only have to spend at least 4 days in the
front line.

New units would always arrive at the trenches at dusk, the soldiers being relieved would
quickly explain where to find the dug-outs, stores, telephones and toilets. The officers
would then inspect the log books and find out the state of the barbed wire, work in
progress and enemy attacks. If a previous unit was lost then there was the chance that
parts of the trench system had been blown to bits and there would be no such thing as
a store or telephone, however parts of the front line was very quiet, so a whole unit
could go a month without any soldiers being injured or killed.

There was more to a soldiers life in the trenches than just explosions and attacking.

A soldier would have to wake up everyday half and hour before dawn, where the
raiding parties and night patrols would have been back in the trenches then. A register
would be called and an orderly officer would check guns and ammunition boxes, the
trenches and the stores. Everyone would eat breakfast, except the sentries who ate
later. After breakfast there would be an officers inspection and the platoon sergeant
gave out duties for the day.

Night in the trenches was a time of silence and fear but also a time of enormous activity.
This was due to the fact that there were men stationed in No-Mans-Land who would
listen to the enemies activity, and could then pass on the information back to the frontline trenches so that the soldiers would be prepared. However, it was all good and well
passing back information but there was always the chance that a German patrol might
stumble upon the listening post or a sniper shoots one of the listeners.

Approximately 1,600,000 women joined the workforce between 1914 and 1918 in
Government departments, public transport, the post office, as clerks in business, as land
workers and in factories, especially in the dangerous munitions factories, which were
employing 950,000 women by Armistice Day compared to 700,000 women being
employed in munition factories in Germany.
Women would work cheaper than the men as they would be paid half the amount of
salary that a man did.